Al Krow

Just now, bassbora said:

Crap I have just ordered one.  I had some vouchers that made it look affordable hence pulling the trigger straight away

No worries, enjoy! 

23 minutes ago, bassbora said:

You guys have convinced me I will order one 

Drop me a line if you want to get a used one - I have a mint one I was going to list in the new year! 

1 hour ago, ricksterphil said:

We recorded 6 tracks at a studio, cost around £400 and then hired a room above a pub for £50 (The Queen of Bradgate in Leicester if you know it). Our guitarists brother filmed it while we mimed and then edited to this showreel. I guess a professional filming and editing would charge around £400 so we saved that cost. Proves you can get something done for less than a grand. We've had at least 10 gigs from it so a great investment.

 

https://youtu.be/5aGfwosPMwk?si=WZ4oI5QiMWHiqLFN

In terms of approach - we've gone for the same i.e. recorded the audio first and then mimed while filming. It's not everyone's preference, but means you can get the audio tight off-line and without the pressure of a film shoot. The key with the miming is that your singer(s) need to be very on it, because that seems to be most easy to pick up if it's out. I guess followed by the drummer not being in time! 

Some decent live footage, doesn't have to be too professional, can be very helpful for getting your first booking at a new pub venue. 

If you want to be getting function gigs then a showreel is pretty much all that someone who has never come across the band has to go on, so having something that is decent quality both visually and sound-wise will make a difference - there's a lot of competition for function work!

Doesn't have to be long, 2 - 3 mins is fine. Check out some of the bands on e.g. Alive Network and you'll get a feel for the quality of the showreel clips function bands are posting.

We're just in the process of redoing our 2023 band reel to reflect the current 2025 band line up. We've managed to develop quite a lot of the skill set to get it done in house, which massively reduced the costs, and have decent camera and recording equipment so our main cost has been venue hire. Otherwise you can quite quickly end up spending £1k+ on a reel when you've taken account of venue hire, videographer and someone to do the sound mixing and editing. The flip side is that a function band can recover that outlay in a couple of events or even a single booking.

There's a couple of ways reels are typically done:

- Live take in a studio

- Get the audio recorded separately and mime to audio for the video

They both have different plusses and minuses.

PS - yup actually super easy to assign expression pedal to control parameters. For example: assign expression pedal --> tremolo rate with min = 0 and max = 80, and at the same time assign one of the display knobs to show tremolo rate (to give you both a real time check on actual rate and ability to dial it back in on the knob should you choose to).

Just adds a fun / useful dimension for live use to what appears to be a very cool mid-range multifx.

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

My GP-50 arrived today. It does sound exactly the same as the GP-5, but sooooo much easier to use. No need to use the App at all, except for one thing. The so called onboard drum machine is nothing more than 10 different patterns of high hat. So basically a metronome. You still need the app to get any proper drum patterns. I dont intend to use this feature, but I find it very misleading (it is mentioned in the manual, but easy to miss until you get one and try and get some drum patterns going). 

 

Still, that aside, it's a keeper. I wont even need to use the Chocolate Plus now. 

Nice one Dave, looks even more compact than in the ads!

I've been pondering a standalone multifx to take to forthcoming travel-light gigs for several months. The Valeton, Zoom B2-4 (no PC/android editor) were on my radar and I also came close to getting a little Ampero Mini. I was about to make do and mend with my old B1-4 when I got offered a Boss GX10 from my fav BC Boss-angel, and, given I'd already had very good experience with the GT1000 Core and was up to speed on the UI, kinda made sense to go for the GX10 in my case.

Hope you get on well with the Valeton mate, although you, bass pedals & accessories and "keeper" should never really be allowed to appear in the same sentence? 😂

Be sad to see the passing of this iconic brand!

Wonder if it might get snapped up by a rival or even Thomann?

More generally, my initial thoughts on the GX10 having had it for a week or so now are:

- form factor is good and it's got a reassuring weight to it reflecting its rugged build;

- really like the touchscreen colour interface, which is a nice step up from the GT1000 Core, plus little touches such as a USB-C instead of the older USB-2 connection for PC;

- the editing software is easy to get to grips with (I guess helped by familiarity with the Core's similar software) and I've quickly figured out a standard clean preamp patch with a div / mix insert, ready to put in whatever fx I fancy e.g. Touchwah up / down or Tremolo / Clean etc. It has a drag and drop approach which feels a little more intuitive to me than Core's 'standard configuration patch layout.

Although it's not got the processing power of the GT1000 Core, it shares a considerable number (maybe substantially all?) of the fx patches / effects with its more powerful sibling, and with the same parameter options, so I suspect it will be more than capable for most of my needs as a gigging bassist - perhaps add synth and an octave up.

Whilst the greater power of the Core in terms of nuances of bass tone would likely be something you might pick up on a studio recording it's unlikely to get noticed by anyone in a live band mix. So I may finally have found the spiritual successor to my trusty Zoom B1-4, which sufficed as a standalone gigging board for a couple of years pre-Covid when I was needing to travel light to certain gigs.

The key thing I need to see if I can figure out next is how to assign the expression pedal to control parameters, other than being solely a volume pedal, but from @SumOne's earlier posts this shouldn't hopefully be too tricky and will open up some useful additional flexiblity for live use.

Finally...who knew that a Slicer fx could be so much fun?! It's got 20 preset slicer patterns and I've taken a shine to #13. Looking forward to seeing my bandmates reaction when that gets unleased on them at the start of 'Freed from desire' on Sat night!

On 01/12/2025 at 18:56, Jackopie1 said:

Is the touch-wah effect any good? is it the same as their touch wah pedal? Cheers.

Having managed to source a GX10 for a very decent used price from my longstanding BC "Boss Multi supplier", I thought I'd give the Touch Wah a spin given your query!

It's pretty good! Particularly liking it on BPF setting and the fact that I can switch from up to down sweep with the press of a button having set up a divider on the main signal chain path, which is very easy to do. I personally prefer it the up sweep over the down sweep. I'd be perfectly happy to use the filter patch with my band. I can't comment on how it compares to their Touch Wah pedal though, as I've never had one. Hope that helps!

On 14/12/2025 at 14:39, Muzz said:

 

Yeah, it's all relative, but 3.67kgs isnt lightweight for me any more, I'm looking down around the 3kg mark these days...it's a shame...

On 14/12/2025 at 19:27, Chadu25 said:

Ooh I see. Might wanna check Sandberg or the Sire V6 and P6 then. As far as I know they are the lightest even on 4s. 

And don't forget Ibanez as a relatively lightweight option!

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Oh interesting - I have a U4, but I have been using the cheap £20 wireless because it is stereo and having got used to stereo it is hard to go back to mono. I hadn't seen those, I was trying to find something that was stereo that was somewhere between the £20 and £300 range!

Yes, that's a key point to note re. the U4s that they are mono transmitters. Our lovely, and very capable, little desk has 6 monitor outputs, not quite enough for us to go down the stereo route which would require 4 x 2 = 8 monitor outs for our 4 piece set up. Has going stereo really improved your gigging experience, Woody? If so, maybe something for me to consider for my crew down the line at some point!

43 minutes ago, javi_bassist said:

I am using and abusing (for 6 months, at least 3 gigs a week) the Xvive U45. The rest of my band has the U4s and we are all happy with them. I have to say that I have mine attached to my pedalboard because I have a Rolls PM351 before it to level my bass myself (I had horrible experiences with soundguys). Except for ona project that we make our own mix using an app, for the rest I use the Xvive.

Is the U45 a decent step up from the U4 for you? I note that it's a 5.8 GHz, whereas the U4 is on the more crowded 2.4 GHz.

"The Xvive U45 is a significant upgrade to the U4, mainly moving to the less crowded 5.8 GHz band for better interference resistance, adding USB-C charging, an auto-scan feature to find clear channels, and minor physical improvements like stiffer knobs for durability, making it a highly recommended buy for new users despite a small price increase. While the U4 is a good budget system, the U45 offers more reliability, especially in crowded venues, through its improved tech and dedicated channel scanning."  

Hmmm...does sound good! Not come across too many wireless IEM transmitters in the 5.8 GHz space (although the cheaper Swiff WX520 our drummer is using is also 5.8 GHz).

1 hour ago, TimR said:

I've scrolled quite a few pages. Is the Lekato wifi what a lot of people are using to power their IEMs?  

3 of us have been using Xvive U4s for a while, which seems to be a decent mid-price range. 

Drummer has recently got a Swiff WX520 from Ali Express (they're currently just under £75) which he's really liking.

2 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

Yeah, it’s just for IEM, as i agree with you, it just add’s a bit of air to the sound, especially nice in stereo. 

Thank God for digital desks eh?! i wouldn't have a hope of doing this with my old analogue desk!

Just as an aside:

This level of flexibility combined with the better pre-amps on our A&H CQ18T (vs my old Soundcraft MTK12) and the ability to give everyone a tailored feed that we're already benefitting from, seems to me to make a quality digital desk the single most important factor in getting a band to successfully adopt and accept IEMs in place of backline? With quality in ear headphones running in a very close second - one of our singers tried got a set of KZ ZARs from Ali Express for £30 recently. She's over the moon with how good they are!

8 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

We dont ever put reverb on bass for FOH.

Thanks for clarifying that.

16 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

This is what i do for my IEM mix. We use one reverb for FOH, and a separate one for IEM mixes. I have a bit on the bass and a bit more on the vocals. 
While we can just have the reverb to FOH or IME, or both, i prefer to keep the two separate. I prefer a shorter reverb in the IEM mix. 

Interesting, as a lot of the received wisdom is not to have much, if any, reverb on bass for FoH? 

1 hour ago, spyder said:

I always put a small amount of reverb through the iem feeds. It adds an extra dimension that really helps the bass sit in the mix.

Are you managing to put the reverb just through the IEM feeds and not FoH?

Using reverb to enhance the IEM experience

My understanding is that reverb isn't particularly widely used by your average pop / rock set bassists like me, but the IEM interaction is an interesting one! Apparently a very subtle hall (or hall-like) reverb in IEMs can make the bass tone subjectively nicer and the gigging experience more pleasurable for the bassist, even though it does not improve articulation in a technical sense. This is a monitoring and human-factors issue, not a tonal-engineering one. 

IEMs lack:
- acoustic coupling with the room
- cabinet air movement
- spatial cues from reflections

So, a small amount of ambience:
- Restores a sense of physical space
- Reduces the “dry DI in your skull” effect
- Makes sustained notes feel more musical
- Lowers perceived fatigue over a long set

Not something I've given much thought to before! Dunno if this chimes with other IEM users' experience?

On 13/12/2025 at 19:36, itu said:

Where were compressors, EQs, and reverbs? A hint of reverb to OD/dist/fuzz sounds even better. 

 

Several compressors, most popular are tce HyperGravity, and Daring Audio's Phat Beam for fretless 

5 band parametric Ibanez EQ to tame rooms, and a HPF 

Iron Ether Nimbus reverb 

Interesting you mentioned reverb. I've just been trying to figure the difference in sound between what I thought were two identical fx patches but which felt like they had a distinct flavour through my IEMs at a gig on Saturday night. I've since done a bit of digging and one has a reverb ('hall') block omitted from the other, which I'd not spotted before! Always thought that reverb was more of a thing for vox and guitar than bass, but I've clearly been missing a trick!

4 hours ago, itu said:

Where were compressors, EQs, and reverbs? A hint of reverb to OD/dist/fuzz sounds even better. 

 

Several compressors, most popular are tce HyperGravity, and Daring Audio's Phat Beam for fretless 

5 band parametric Ibanez EQ to tame rooms, and a HPF 

Iron Ether Nimbus reverb 

I'd kinda assumed Option 1 for EQs and compressors = your clean tone, and often on a preamp?

Reverb = other

4 hours ago, pantherairsoft said:

I need an option for ‘all of them’

Hah! You can tick all the options, you're not limited to one!

14 minutes ago, LawrenceH said:

Just to update that I did another reset of the desk and reinstalled the latest version of MixPad, and this time all worked without a hitch. I've set the wireless to 5Ghz in case that was the issue, but really have no clue what was stopping it working previously. Just hoping it never recurs! 

 

Anyway, a test and play around with an SM58 and some good headphones leaves me very impressed, things sound good. I will definitely (over)use that double tracker effect. Channel compressors sound very good and versatile, lack of sidechain filtering notwithstanding. I think the app layout could be more versatile but the quick channel presets are good enough starting points that it's worth persevering with, just to build up some useful presets.

 

Those who use Mixing Station, is there a way of straightforwardly transferring Mixpad-derived settings?

 

I notice there are no hardware pads on the mic inputs, has anyone found this a problem in practice with e.g. kick drum mics?

All's well than ends...

Enjoy your CQ - it's a great piece of kit! We've been using our CQ18T for almost exactly a year now and my singer reminded me last night how much more clearly she was able to hear herself at the same Xmas party gig we did a year back, after upgrading from our Soundcraft MTK 12, which I put down to the better preamps and being able to tailor individual IEM feeds for everyone.

Thought it could be interesting to get a feel for what fx pedals the BC collective are regularly using live that give us our signature sounds with our bands.

If there's a particular pedal that is the heart of your sound and you couldn't manage without do let us know.

If you have any clips of you making use of particular fx live, even better - please feel free to share!

Feel free to tick more than one fx category if you're using regularly i.e. at some point on every gig.

Bought a Boss multifx from Ben. Pedal was in excellent condition (as always), sold to me for a very fair price, and another super smooth transaction

53 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Looks good, is it the same thing with a battery and controls (and a built in drum machine)?

Looks like the GP-100 without the expression pedal and, interestingly, on sale for a tad more than the GP-100!

3 hours ago, paul_5 said:

Your concern is justified @al krow, the Meatball is the single best filter I've used in over 30 years of playing.

You've whetted my interest! Out of interest, which other filter pedals have you used?