bnt

Curry On My Wayward Son - Kansas

This may as well be a NPD thread too, I suppose. The Onward isn't a bass pedal, and most videos on YT show people feeding it everything but bass. I've started with my Squier CV Bass VI, and today I rebuilt my "big" board to accommodate it, putting it just after a TC SpectraDrive, Tone City Matcha Cream fuzz, and the Boss MD-200 stereo out. The core of the Onward is two audio looping sections: Glitch looper, which captures up to 1 second of audio (or 2 seconds in 1/2 speed mode), the time controllable by a knob or synced to a MIDI clock. Freeze, a granular looper that does what it says - takes audio and "freezes" it, similar to a pedal like the TC Electronics Freeze or others. Both sections can be switched on or off separately. The big difference here is that the each section listens for input over a certain threshold, and replaces the current loop/freeze with that. So you can e.g. play a "frozen" chord progression without touching the pedal. How long it plays, if you stop playing, is controlled by a common Sustain knob: at max, it will loop/freeze forever. (There is a Manual switch in case you don't want this "dynamic sampling".) You can stop each section from recording by holding its footswitch for a second - then the current loop/freeze is latched and keeps playing. There's a 3-position fade switch, from slow fade in and out to no fade. There's an Error section that lets you add a controllable amount of glitchiness to the playback, with 3 switchable types of glitch. With the Octave control you can blend in an upper or lower octave, the upper being a "shimmer" effect at maximum. Lastly there's a switchable vibrato or chorus section. It takes an expression pedal too, and I've used mine to control the Error amount on the fly. On YT there are quite a few long review videos up, showcasing the pedal with more skill that I might ever be able to. It's probably got more computing power than the entire Apollo Space Program, running off a 9V pedal power supply. So why did I get it? Well, through the Mystery Box program it was about 40% off RRP, and I felt like taking a chance on something really different. After the pedal I have the t.mix MicroMix 2 feeding headphones, and optionally my iPad over USB. I have an app called Gauss Field Looper which emulates a tape loop, and tried recording in to that. I can change and reverse the loop speed, overdub at the current speed, and so on.

This guy uses the pedals in a mixer's effects loop: I don't use a mixer on my board, but the Onward's Mix control can keep the dry signal in. I could also break out the DSM&H Simplifier Bass clone again and use it as a splitter, but I think there will be times when I will want the signal fully wet, so maybe not.

A new Editor app is coming that separates the Librarian function from the main ToneX modelling app, which was the cause of a lot of confusion and settings changes. The app will have direct editing of Presets on the pedal in real time i.e. no more editing a Preset in ToneX just to have it sound different on the pedal.

I bet you all forgot about this, but I didn’t, and the Mystery Box arrived today. A keyring, a sticker, and just one pedal… but it’s the one at the top of my list: the Onward. Happy? Very. It will get its own NPD post once I get home after work and try it out with the Bass VI. 🤓 edit: might not do a NPD post, at least not yet. I did some tests with my active fretless directly in, but suspect I wasn't feeding it enough level. It could use some compression and other stuff in front, so I want it on my board, which will have to wait till the weekend, probably. But it is promising so far, and already stumbled on some fun settings that are very responsive to what I play.

Not exactly - the neck bolts are a different pattern, for example, and there are other differences. Maybe just the body?

It's weird that I learned about these basses here. Usually, there are some YouTube reviews on basses like these on channels to which I subscribe, such as BassTheWorld or Nate Navarro, but none so far. Too new, maybe?

I thought I'd bring this thread back up, since we're finally seeing some action in the mid-to-low price ranges: Gear4Music have rebranded their Coliseum basses as the G4M 972 range, in 4, 5, and 6 strings (link to 5) Andertons are stocking the HILS NEXT HNB5 in a few colours: here's the Rose Gold for £599 Yesterday, Sire showed their new M series multiscale headless basses at NAMM: so far, the only info I have is from a photo via Reddit, nothing official yet. There are 4, 5 and 6 string models too. No word on scale length, but I see they are highlighting low weight (under 8 lbs):

Everlasting Gaze - The Smashing Pumpkins

Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting - Elton John

The Main Monkey Business - Rush

I was wondering about that extra rout too. In any case, I find myself more interested in the upcoming HNB3: short scale, 4-string, single passive humbucker. But the HNB5 is interesting as an alternative to the G4M 972 / Coliseum, the only other "budget" multiscale out there - which I think is ugly and heavy. PS re the wood, they say Mahogany. I expect it's three piece at least, in this price range. It takes more effort to make multi-piece bodies look nice. I think the design inspiration is from the Dingwall NG3, which also features solid finishes and ugly pickguards.

I see Andertons are starting to sell the Indonesian HILS HNB5 headless 5-string basses for £599. I was hoping they would after I saw them stock the guitars. Very Strandberg in design. Personal impressions from the specs: Positives: multiscale, light (~3.5kg or 7 1/2 pounds). Some nice finishes e.g. I like the rose gold. Stainless steel frets. Gig bag included. Negatives: 33-35" multiscale, I'd prefer a longer low B (maybe 36"). Single coil pickups. I don't like passive pickups with onboard active EQ, would prefer all active. Could be more ergonomic in my opinion, body is chunky. PS the company also has 30" short scale headless 4-strings on the way. 2.5kg / 5 1/2 lbs quoted weight.

Old thread, but I saw bits of Dua Lipa's recent Royal Albert Hall concert, and best I can tell it's a full live band with orchestra. The bass sounded "pocket" enough for me to figure out that it's still Matty Carroll:

Mosky Silver Horse (Klone) as a low gain OD, adds a bit of mid grunt.

I go direct out of the ToneX One in to headphones some times, when I have the pedalboard on a table or something. Other times I plug it in to the dongle for my "TV Headphones", which takes a 3.5mm headphone cable and sends the out signal wirelessly. Latency is very low though not zero, and I think conpression does affect the sound slightly. It's a slightly older version of this model.

Together In Electric Dreams - Georgio Moroder & Philip Oakey

Correction: I bought the Squier CV Bass VI back in February, though it feels like longer ago. That would be my best purchase. It's not perfect e.g. it has a flaw in the wiring, and I'm still tightening the truss rod after installing heavier strings, but it has been a real help with pick playing.

I've only purchased pedals this year, so: Worst: NuX Sculpture Compressor, It was OK while it worked, if a bit mild, but has stopped working. Which might be my fault, since I connected the wrong voltage to the PSU that was powering my pedals and popped a cap in that. I'm not certain of the timing, though, and it's still responding to the switch - just no output. Best : IK Multimedia Tonex One. Despite the software being horrid, and a (fixed) problem I had with its license just vanishing from the IK Product Manager, it's worth it because using The Fridge really feels like playing through an Ampeg SVT. It does that thing that makes me sound more professional than I am.

The Colony of Slippermen - Genesis

In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson

The End is the Beginning is the End - Smashing Pumpkins

Coming Around Again - Carly Simon

I posted about this earlier: works great in general if you bypass in stomp mode and disable direct monitoring as mentioned. Then it works like a typical interface, you hear only what comes back out the computer. Some iPad apps don’t work, due to sample rates I believe.

If you select Windows Audio as in the first screenshot, can you see the ToneX as an Input Device? I'm not up on the current state of Windows audio, but if you installed the ToneX ASIO driver (in IK Product Manager under your pedal in the Hardware section), it ought to be usable. ASIO used to be the only way to get low latency, though I'm told that Windows Audio has improved in recent years.