PatrickJ

The only DAW I've ever really used is Cubase, the free version got bundled with some hardware and I've stuck with it ever since. At some point I got elements and since then paying just £20 to upgrade to the latest version has kept me going with it. Since lock down I've been recording more, not just my own projects but also some bits and pieces for friends and family and I wondering whether to stick with Cubase and possibly upgrade to 11 and Artist edition or look to move to something else. I did play with Pro Tools first for a little while and I found it very intuitive but the limitations of First were so frustrating I gave up after a week or so. I would happily pay for the software but the monthly subscription for Pro-Tools seems excessively high. What other options are there? I see Reaper mentioned a lot on this forum and Ableton pops up in the best DAWs articles on the web. Any recommendations from the BC community? My laptop is a Windows based machine and I have little interest in moving to Mac OS or running Ubuntu. Thanks

I use Cubase Elements 10.5 on a Windows laptop. It's an HP Envy running an AMD Ryzen 5 CPU (4000 series) with 8GB RAM and a SSD. I do use a number of plugins, compressors, EQ, channel strips, VST instruments and have not had any problems. My only slight annoyance is that sometimes on audio play back of a back tracking can cut out right at the start, for about 1 second. It's intermittent and no idea why it does this as if I restart the playback it's generally fine.

Love the user name Welcome!

Yup it was shielding. The PU cavities were comlletely unsheilded, the stock pickups were sealed and shielded so it wasn't a problem but the loose covered nordy's had none. Some shielding tape cleaned up most of the noise.

Impressive figures! I can't get my buffers anywhere near those levels, with current setup 9 / 8 is the lowest I can get to. Maybe moving from the Powerlines to Ethernet will let me drop them a bit more.

For those successfully using Jamulus what settings do you have for buffer size and audio quality? And do you ever get 'green' for overall delay? I'm now running a Jamulus server in AWS. My ping time is pretty good. Consistently <20ms but my overall delay is around 60-70ms. I'm going to give Ethernet ago tomorrow rather than powerlines as I want to get sub 50ms of delay.

Acquiring one as a back up to original which is the only other scenario I can think of... That wouldn't be allowed surely...

Initial Thoughts I've only had a chance for a quick play at lunch today when the pre-amp was delivered and the main goal of that was to try and recreate the Rock Bass tone I had on the SansAmp Bass Driver DI (based around the SVT preset). For general recording and with the piezo pickup of the Portamento I've been favouring blend at 0%-25% and using the SABDDI v2 primarily for EQ - I'm pretty confident the EBS can do that just as well but I was keen to know if I could get that 'rock' tone from the EBS which is one of the Bass Driver's best features. With everything at 12 O Clock and none of the special features engaged the SansAmp and EBS sounded very similar. I need to record with the EBS and do some comparison's with some of the Police covers I've recently been working on but from a bit of A / B playing through headphones the EBS came pretty damn close (in A+B mode), at least with the fretless. The EBS is a little bigger than the SansAmp which is a perfect size for my desk so +1 to the SansAmp. I do however prefer the overall design and feel of the EBS, the notched pots and control knobs are much nicer. One thing I instantly missed from the SABDDI was the Parallel Out. I've been recording with both the DI and Parallel Out feeds into the 2 inputs on my Scarlet Solo and then processing them differently for my bass sound. I can kind of do the same thing with the MBII using the Link out but both the Link and Output outs of the MBII seem to be post Pre-Amp / EQ where as on the SABDDI it's completely clean. You can use the Pre-EQ button but that effects all outputs. The only difference between DI and Link out (other than the connection types) is the Speaker Sim does not effect Link. It's not a bid deal but it's a nice feature of the SABDDI that I can get a completely neutral tone along side the SansAmp tone that doesn't seem possible with the MBII. Last thing I checked out over lunch was the Drive channel. There are a number of comments in user reviews that complain it's a bit fizzy. After trying it at full gain I can see that it wouldn't be to a lot of peoples tastes, it's certainly not close to sounding anything like the Darkglass pedals that have been the hype in recent years. Again I think they've tried to do this more with the MB III but I didn't hate the sound from the drive channel and I am someone who doesn't generally like OD / Distortion with bass. At lower drive levels it seems very usable and I rarely use high levels of gain but even that tone I kind of dug the tone. More thoughts after I've had a chance to play with the pedal some more.

EBS MicroBass II A Aompletely GAS fueled purchase as I have a SansAmp Bass Driver DI II that I'm not unhappy with but I've been EBS curious for a while (amps, pre-amps and effects pedals) so when feeling bored and a little low this weekend I indulged in some retail therapy. The EBS is also better spec'd with a FX loop and Headphone jack, the latter being a very useful feature giving the MBII can also be powered by 9v battery. If lockdown ever ends having this in the pocket of the gig bag makes a nice little travel rig. I know the Micro Bass III has been here a little while and I'd been considering getting one for a while now but when I looked into it little more there were a few things about it that put me off based on my current requirements.. 1. I wanted 48v Phantom Power capability from my Audio Interface. The III is PSU powered only 2. Size - I wanted something that could sit on my desk and not take up too much room, the MBIII is pretty large 3. Price - I picked this up new for £169 from Andertons where as the MBIII is almost double that 4. Although generally favorable reviews for the III a number of users claimed to prefer their II 5. I figured if I decide to keep the SansAmp I can return the EBS for a refund, if I favour the EBS I could get most of my money back by selling the SansAmp so this shouldn't be an 'expensive' purchase.

I thought I was (finally) growing up and had kicked the GAS habit - however my credit card statement from the weekend disagrees..

What the actual flip was that. I guess I'm officially old - I've hit the point where I no longer 'get' music of the youth. I was doing alright up to now, enjoying Baby Shark and Pink Fluffy Unicorns with the younger ones and attempting to appreciate some merits of the so called 'grime' with the older ones. But I literally have no words for Brokencyde.

Heard these on Craig Charles' radio show this evening.

ooh super nice. I'm looking forward to the remix ft. @Cuzzie

Doesn't sound like the sort of thing any self respecting chap would get involved in, oh wait, @Cuzzie

I never even new 'voice notes' was a thing.. Anyway I'm digging this collaboration - I'd buy (well stream) an album..

An inspiration to us all! Well done sir

I've been really digging Nick Campbell's tone recently

@fleabag originnally posted this in the blown away by bass tone thread as an example of understated fretless goodness And another originally posted in that thread

Looks great, audio sounds killer too