Appreciate the insight from everyone here.
Currently I have (far too much) an Audient Audio Interface, NUX Mighty Plug, NUX Mighty Plug Pro, Zoom MS60b, Zoom MS70CDR, Sonicake Boom Ave.
Then stuff I don’t include in this realm, 2 Groove Tube Ditto’s, JF Capo, Summit TD-100, SFX IEM Mixer and DI, Countryman Type 10, 3 Radial Stagebugs and a few pedals for fun.
My requirements are quite unique (weird), my lifestyle allow me to travel a lot and I always carry a bass with me, or am lucky enough to be visiting somewhere I have family where I’ve left a bass and some equipment for me.
To clarify my obsession with weight and size is due to me mainly travelling with hand luggage and checking a bass…. and you can’t check lithium batteries into the hold.
The NUX Mighty Plug was great and the Mighty Plug Pro should have been an upgrade and for the most part it is, the USB C means I can charge it with the same cable I charge everything else, it works as an audio interface with my iPad and I can bluetooth music too it from my phone, it’s also got IR loading so you can get a really nice sound out of it.
All of this is great except, no octaver, no weird fx, interface doesn’t lend itself to heavily messing with fx (I tend to use it as an amp, ir and maybe compression) can only ever be used as a practice device and finally has a weird digital rattle in the high end which is audible when playing on your own. I’ll probably just suck it up and wait until a Pro 2 or 3 comes out.
Then I have the Zoom’s (I have 2 so I don’t have to always carry one, one is with me and one is in the UK currently), I can transfer settings and swap fx between them. I can hack fx from the CDR on to the B and vice versa and if I need another I can pick them up for £50 ish and load the same fx and presets on quickly. It sounds pretty good, (far better than the 506 of my youth), I can get some really obscure sounds that stop me from buying really expensive pedals, it runs on usb, 9v standard and AA’s so I can leave it in the case when checking, also means I get to a jam I can just throw it down on the floor and be away.
Issues with it are no usb c,, no simple master volume control to knock down a patch you’ve set too loud in your bedroom, no headphone so I have to use the NUX with it, which means I’m rarely playing with the amps in the Zoom because the NUX sounds lacklustre without one on and switching between multiple devices and interfaces isn’t conducive to creativity or simply playing.
These 2 basically do everything I need (but not want).
The wants then expand into
Whatever I have above I also need a DI box, maybe that’s all I’ll take on a gig but it’s not all I’m carrying with me.
Then I also carry a Behringer P2 on the off chance I get an IEM feed.
Then this is all practice quality stuff, I still have loads of gear for when I’m in the UK and doing recording or more serious gigging.
This ultimately means a lack of consistency between live, practice, jam, recording and whatever rigs. Not the end of the world but often leaves you longing for one when you only have access to the other.
So really I was hoping for a crossover between these 2 devices which the P2 really looked like. The P1 was really close initially but I didn’t like I couldn’t reorder the fx chain (takes me back to multi’s from the early 00’s).
So the device now that has me most tempted currently is the Kemper Player, it’s bigger than everything mentioned but smaller than everything I’m carrying. The only issue for me is power and usb.
This will sound silly but all of these play into what I carry, currently I power everything from 2 usb c leads (easy to replace if needed too) so adding usb c to b is another cable, or a small adaptor (I have several for lightning, micro and mini usb I carry currently).
The power supply is another, what happens if I lose it, break it, snap a pin on the adaptor due to a drunk singer a jam night. I also can’t run an IEM feed through it. Power supply is also the size of 4 NUX’s? maybe heavier.
This has lead me almost full circle to the Line 6 HX Stomp (which for some reason I’ve resisted massively even though an M13 replaced a huge pedalboard for me), again bigger than the Zoom and NUX, similar power issues to the Kemper but people have powered these from usb battery packs and 9v converters. I can live with the USB B adaptor that would be required on the Kemper. The cons are then a lack of bluetooth streaming (I can get round this with a 12 south airfly I use to connect my airpods to plane entertainment systems) and using this in the fx loop return is also how I can use the HX as an IEM mixer live, but finally no xlr.
I was so excited the HX One would be the Line 6 version of Zoom MS series.
I’m aware how specific my plight is and also how first world it is, but we’re also in the FX section of a Bass forum so I feel it fits.
Other things I’ve tried, audio interface and apps. This was my main gig rig for ages, I had a tiny line 6 sonic port, moved away from rigs and fx completely. Until a disastrous iOS update stopped the interface working. Since then much has changed, there are some really great usb c interfaces that work with my ipad (not my phone yet sadly, or not without more adaptors) and apps like Tonex are far beyond what once replaced my rig. But taking a £1500 iPad Pro that is your main work device and you make all your income on to a jam night?
Or taking your phone and having it on that same stage (when it’s the thing that holds copies of your passport, all your banking info, all your flight tickets) what do you do if that gets smashed up because you wanted to play mustang sally one night in Buenos Aires.
So I could get an iRig HD or similar and replace the NUX (but even that minimal equipment isn’t as quick and easy as the NUX) and there is this issue of with the NUX you can turn the device up and bluetooth down (or volume on your phone down) when using an audio interface there is one volume, so you find yourself turning up volumes and gain on amp sims to match the music volume.
Again minor but all of these things get in the way of an organic creative experience. That creative experience where you turn up to a jam night with a killer synth sound that you’ve been crafting whilst jamming Taylor Swift tracks or whatever floats your boat and you’re really familiar with the equipment because you spend hours and hours with it, not just an ancillary device you tack on because you wanted a bit of octave on something.
And there is my brain dump for the evening, enjoy.