Osiris

My interest was based more on your ad nauseam repetition that the synths on the Stomp are noticeably inferior to those of dedicated synth pedals such as the Future Impact, without actually offering anything in support of that claim, rather than any serious interest in bass synths themselves. I thought I'd been fairly unambiguous on that point in my previous posts? Or was I being too subtle?? Didn't the link to the The best (insert whatever here) thread give you a hint??? My background is in science which is an area where anyone making a claim needs to provide evidence to back it up, otherwise they are ignored. Unsubstantiated claims do not last long in scientific circles. And quite rightly so. Unfortunately this is a trait that I carry into my everyday life too, if you can't support the claim you're making don't expect me to take any notice of it. It's also a handy way to filter out some of the copious amounts of bovine excrement that life throws my way. Not that I'm implying anything personal here 🐄 💩 But as I'd (also) said in an earlier post, just playing with the synth models in the Stomp and mindlessly tweaking parameters, the functions of which I don't understand, was yielding results that to my untrained ear were comparable to some of the synth clips that I've heard online - though these are not exclusively Future Impact clips. The clips posted by Quatshisname do indeed sound great, and may well be "better" (presumably measured by whatever metrics you are use to determine betterness?) than the various models currently in the Stomp, but until I see of hear a direct head to head comparison between the two any claims of superiority shall remain, in my eyes, an untested hypothesis. Conjecture. Speculation. As for my compression settings...

Thanks, @Quatschmacher for stepping up when others couldn't or wouldn't! COUGH* @Al Krow *COUGH.

The pub circuit we play, roughly Northants, Bucks to Leicestershire-ish, pays between £250 to £350. There's the odd venue that will pay below that (which we avoid!) and only 1 or 2 WMC's that will pay more. But £250 is standard in most places that we play.

Both bought used, I prefer to buy new so you don't have to chisel the various solidified secretions of the previous owner off before feeling comfortable but these we at prices that I couldn't refuse. Both punch well above their weight too. The reverse P is great as is the fact that the bridge pickup is closer to the neck than the standard positioning means that it's useful too, I find the standard positioning of bridge pickups gives a sound that's too thin and nasal for my tastes. I assume that much of this collection was bought used too?

A bit of upper mid boost to add some presence to the inherently dark short scale tone, pulled back the lows and treble a touch, and a healthy dose of compression. Strings are La Bella S500L's.

Here's a gratuitous shot of my cheap practice set up, a £30 amp with a £50 bass. For creative home use on a budget only.

So you keep saying. And while that may very well be true I'm yet to see or hear anything that supports that claim, so until then I'll remain firmly on the fence. So I'll repeat my request for some audio or video samples to help me make my own opinions as I much prefer my own to those of others I'm kinda selfish like that. As I have said to you (several) times before, I use different compression settings for different basses and what works for me is unlikely to work for you, so this is a pretty pointless request. You're currently playing active 5's and I'm currently playing short scale passive 4's. Your basses almost certainly have a greater dynamic range than mine and will require different settings to accommodate that. Each compression patch I have set up has different parameters to help flatter the sound of that particular bass, for example the settings for my Mustang are not so flattering for my Corvette and vice versa. But generally speaking I find a fast attack and slower release times with a modest ratio works, then adjust each of the threshold to suit the bass.

4. Helix Stomp vs Future Impact (Synth) 1-0 to Stomp

But I've not been banging on about how good the compressors are like you have over the filters and synths! And we all know that talking to you about compression is like clapping with one hand 👐🖐️ 😀 So you keep saying. But what you don't say is how or why, or provide any evidence (sound samples, videos etc) to support that claim. You know me well enough to know that I don't take anything at face value. We're back to Hitchens Razor; That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. Or is it time to revive what was the best thread ever on any internet forum, despite its original ephemeral life span;

Just a bit! Agreed, I've seen you ( @Al Krow not Krispn!) state several times that the filters and synths in the Stomp are not as good as the real thing. Now I'm happy to admit I know absolutely nothing about filters and synths, they're not really something that interest me that much, but playing around with the various models in the Stomp I'm getting what to my ears sounds just as good (whatever that means to you) as some of the clips that I've heard from folks on here. But as I said, it's not something that I know anything about so I'm sure folks with way more knowledge and experience than me will be able to tell me what I'm missing.

Yes, sound clips and knowing what settings you are using on the Stomp - and the stand alone pedal - would be invaluable as well as helpful for other Basschatters wishing to make similar comparisons.

That's fair enough. I'm not playing metal these days, and when I have in the past it's been old school Black Sabbath using a Precision, but for that type stuff you want the bass sitting underneath everything else. And for that you need the big fat low mids, but unfortunately those juicy low mids seem to be nowhere to be found whenever I go near anything DarkGlass. But, of course, we're effectively talking about different genres of music. Horses for courses.

Indeed I did only try the DG amp for 20-30 minutes or so. However, if you go back and read my original review where I compared it against some of its peers, you'll see that I actually championed the clean channel. I've been playing for more than 30 years and I have a good idea of what I want form an amp and how to get it. With the DG amp I was able to get the clean sound that I go for in a matter seconds, the pre-amp is great and has a versatile and intuitive EQ. I liked it a lot. However, as I said then and am saying again now, I couldn't get a drive sound that I was happy with, then or now. And if I can't get what I want after 20 minutes or more fiddling then whatever I'm using at that time clearly isn't right for me. Imagine trying to problem solve your sound in 20 seconds on the gig if you can't get what you want in 20 minutes without any other distractions!?!? That's why I ended up with the Genzler Magellan, there was much less control (and indeed gain) on the drive channel but it had exactly the sound I want; smooth and silky, mid rich low gain drive - the very antithesis of what DG drive sounds like whenever I use it. But maybe that's all in my podgy fingers? Drive is a very personal thing but I find that even on low gain settings the B7K sound obliterates my low mids and replaces them with shrill high mids and treble. Trying to EQ them back in just doesn't sound good to me ears. But this is just my opinion and my experience, everyone else has their own. If it works for you, that's great. But it doesn't work for me. I like it when I hear it, but it just sounds utter 💩 when I try it. The word on the street is that you prefer comfortable white slacks to daft jumpers

The Helix family, including the baby Stomp, allow you to run parallel signal paths and to use variable crossovers for splitting your signal however you want. There's a ton of drive options including some bass specific ones* and you also have the option to use guitar amps as drives too if you want to. The quality of the modelling is virtually indistinguishable from the real thing to my ear too. * There's even a B7K model, which I find totally authentic if only because I can't get a usable drive sound out of it no matter what I try, but that is exactly the same experience I had with the Dark Glass amp. Loved the clean channel but the drive section isn't for me, but then again I'm not trying to sound like Noddy whatshisname with the daft jumpers

So is this. And it's less that twenty quid.

The black one looks great, IMO. Looks like they've kept the traditional Mustang bridge too in place of the cut down version used on the American Performer Mustang.

A, Mine are Lynx cables but there's plenty of options at different price points. B, why would you want to??? Try it and let us know how you get on.

Err, I'm not sure I understand what you're asking?

It is indeed, both outputs are balanced so as @mr zed says all you need is a TRS to XLR cable, or just run a regular unbalanced cable if it's only a short run to the desk. As far as I understand it, if you have any pedals in the Stomp fx loop you can place them anywhere within the Stomp signal chain, although it's not something that I have personally done. But before you do this it's worth having a look to see what models the Stomp currently has as there are models of both the Ampeg Scrambler and the EHX Big Muff so it might be that you can do away with both of these and just use the Stomp as a stand alone unit.

Seconded.

There's also the Jackson Minion bass which is another 28 and half inch ish scale length, I've had a play on one and it seems a very capable little bass and it has that classic Jackson styling which takes those of us of a certain age back to the 80's with our long hair, skin tight jeans with Peace Sells But Who's Buying blaring out of the cassette deck* *Well it did for me anyway!

Another vote for the Ibanez Mikro, they're 28 and half inch ish scale length, light, very well made with the super skinny neck that Ibanez use on their SR series of basses which are perfect for young hands. They sound great too. They're simply great basses, and not just for the money, they're great basses full stop. I picked up a used one a few months ago for £50 and it's a brilliant little bass, I'd have no qualms gigging it as it is without having to mod it in any way - and until recently I was gigging a couple of Sandbergs before moving over exclusively to playing short scales!