Al Krow

Ah sorry, I missed that. In which case you could also treat yourself to a powered PA speaker - you'll get a lot bang for your buck. Sometimes also referred to as 'FRFR' speakers. There's a massive thread on it somewhere and plenty of BC fans of that approach.

Bugera Veyron - great amp on a budget!

Tourtech stands are another decent budget one - can handle a 50kg load and come in for around £50 a pair, although the cases are pretty flimsy and I've had to replace it after a couple of year's use.

Posted on an IEM thread in amps & cabs, but the last statement certainly also provides food for thought in the context of the discussion here, so I hope you don't mind me pulling your post across to this thread? But I wonder whether what you have said in the last statement is actually correct or fair? Surely if you have a decent IEM set up you should be able to hear each other just as well, if not better, than with stage monitoring, so can just as easily pick up the changes in dynamics from bandmates? And in terms of being in our own universe, eye contact is just as powerful and important with IEMs as without?

Ok so I'm going to put a counter view to @Dood's on a couple of points, based on my own pub/function gigging experience. I personally don't think wireless is a waste of money and you can get decent Xvive U4s for < £200, if you want the freedom to move around. But that will very much depend on your own performance style. What I would say, however, is that freedom to move goes hand in hand with having a wireless set up on bass, or a wireless mic if you're a singer. But it does make sense to start with wired to make sure that IEMs are for you. Not everyone is a fan, particularly guitarists in my experience, whereas singers often seem to really love them! I can highly recommend the KZ ZARs as in ear headphones. They're < £50 from Ali Express and folk who've A/B'd them with much very more expensive kit have often said that the top end KZ's were as good. For us the cost of getting a desk to enable a stereo mix is indeed an expensive luxury (we've other pressing priorities!). Sticking with mono has been fine for us and we get the same balance as the audience does, albeit a personal mono mix still allows you to bring up / keep in the background whatever elements from the band are going through the desk, if your desk has the ability to provide a tailored mix. Good luck!

My guess is that the power amp and clean tone will be pretty identical across all three, and what you are choosing is what flavour dirt you want to add on top? I've previously had the Microtubes mk1 and A&O mk2 heads. Both excellent clean tones and plenty of headroom, particularly when combined with my former Vanderkley or Barefaced cabs!

Great, well we have two spare aux outs on the new desk and likely to only have one sub, so this could be a neat solution!

Gents, maybe a bit of a noob question but picking up on @EBS_freak's point about aux feeds for subs...any reason we can't apply hpf/lpf on the desk to route a sub 120Hz aux output to the Sub(s) and supra 120 Hz (via the main outs) to the Tops? In which case the Alto TS 12 would be back in the game 😄

Yes indeed. This is the explanatory note from Alto.

Mike - well spotted that the TS 12 sub doesn't have a built-in crossover switch. Annoying deliberate omission on the part of Alto! May need to take that one off my sub shortlist and head back to the RCF or similar...

@mike257 et al not an obvious place to post this query, so I'll drop it in here...do you have a preferred kick drum mic? Hope everyone is having an enjoyable Christmas break!

Oh that doesn't sound good! How about considering a late Christmas pressie to yourself of an Alto TS 12 sub to complement your Alto tops? @Steve Browning is very happy with his Alto sub / top combination, which is enough of a recommendation for me, and my crew have consequently also got our eye on a TS 12, as this seems to provide a great combination of power, not excessive weight and value for money. If you're then not having to max out your tops, just wondering if you might deal with a major cause your feedback issues in one fell swoop?

Would you rather slavery remained legal then? I appreciate its illegality may cause inconvenience for some...

Sure, I agree it's not the answer in itself. But eg if drinking and driving was legal a lot more of it would happen, I suspect? If the Act means our youngsters face less online abuse and harm than they might have otherwise done, then as a parent it gets my vote.

Seems that the NSPCC are in favour of it as I suspect are a lot of children's mental health professionals: the harm that social media causes children is well documented. I applaud the steps the Aussies are taking to protect their kids - they're clearly not in the pocket of the big tech companies like many Governments are. Driving on drugs or alcohol is not exactly allowed is it? They stopped folk smoking in doors. The world didn't end. Some might argue it even got better.

Very impressive that you can play the bass line to Rhythm Stick! Definitely one of the more challenging ones to master out there and not one I've got under my belt, by any means!

Singer (one of our regular lead vox crew) arrived 15 mins before we were due to start due to public transport issues, and was obviously stressed, bless her. I'd managed to lose my IEM headphones at a rehearsal (for our NYE gig earlier in the week) but didn't spot the loss till the gig, so I made do with standing next to the PA speaker for monitoring. Dep drummer was playing with us for the first time and we'd not rehearsed with him, and the venue, one of our pub residences, was rammed with Christmas party revellers and perhaps busier than it's ever been. So what could possibly go wrong?! 😅 There were unsurprisingly a few loose ends! But we managed to get by with eye contact and put on a decent show which seemed to go down well, and overall it was a fun gig. A large receptive audience can clearly make up for a multitude of sins it seems! A little clip of the gig and venue. Happy Christmas all!

Back to KZ ZARs - still loving mine. However... I bought a set with the built-in mic in the earphone cable and found I was only getting output through one ear piece. Replacement cable ordered for £9 inc P&P and IEMs working perfectly again.

You mention that the pack allows us to dig deeper. Do you provide details of the actual patches and settings in the pack? Appreciate if the answer is "no" to protect your IP (although I guess anyone buying the patch will be able to see what the settings are from their Helix?) However if is yes, then there are probably several of us who don't own a Full Helix who might be interested in finding out what patches and settings you have used to try to recreate it on other pedals and multifx (I have a GT1000 core) and be happy to pay you an appropriate fee for just details the patches and settings in each of the 4 pathways and potentially be another income stream for you. Just a thought!

Great job!

But that's the point...yes he gets the best tax advice, but he's not breaking any laws by setting up structures that minimise Amazon's tax by doing so. On the other hand loads of us break laws every time we go over the speed limit in our cars, take drugs or don't declare all our income from gigs if, legally, we should do. If you don't like what Amazon does, then boycott tax havens who give him and other multinationals the opportunity to avoid tax in the first place (or do you agree with Bono who says it's fine for Ireland to allow multinationals to avoid tax?)

Haha, stone throwing in glass houses? I wonder how many musicians pay the tax due on all their income? At least Bezos pays what he legally owes, even if he/Amazon are aided by certain countries (eg Ireland/Luxembourg) offering very low tax regimes.

Haha, no worries order placed! I've actually been thinking about upgrading my old/very budget Creative T40s for a long while, and a recommendation from you is always a positive. I went for the bundle with the stands, but had a £25 Andertons credit from the mixer you mentioned! Re. the mixer...a mate who is also a bass player and does the sound in his band popped round last week, and at the end said that the A&H CQ desk does literally everything he would like from his (eg individual HPF per channel, feedback assistant), so you're not alone in thinking it's been a good investment! Apologies to everyone else for the thread hijack (albeit very useful, thanks Phil!)

Yeah, I think the stereo mixing is going to be the clincher here. Ah well looks like I'm in for a pair then!

Cheers Phil. Would one suffice for home studio mixing/monitoring and solo home practice purposes?