TwoTimesBass

Just to round this out and say thanks for all the input, I went better-the-devil-you-know and bought another Snark. Although I was tempted by the TC stuff, but as @Hellzero pointed out not in stock most places. Oh, and found a can of pink spray paint which will hopefully mean it's less likely to end up on someone else's instrument without being noticing 😂

Indeed! Nobody said you had to declare a profit at the end of the year... 😀

For me this (and I make no judgement on how anyone conducts their business) is a strong definition of professional, do you declare you earnings and pay tax on them? It makes it easy to defend your position to anyone who questions whether you should be doing a gig at the moment. I do PAYE in one role, invoice and self assessment for freelance work, but have only ever done cash for gigs, so not a professional? But is the onus not on the promoter/venue to justify the booking, it's them that will be fined or lose their license? Contract clauses aside, I can't see a band being charged for not 'being completely professional' tempting as it would be to call the cops on some 😫

It's a serious hobby...

Hi all, Not wanting to start a 'best amp/strings/pickup' type thread, but is there a clip-on tuner out there I should be looking at buying instead of another Snark, specifically for DBass? Mine was 'borrowed' by someone at my last jam session before lockdown, and I'm not sure it will be there when we get together again 😞 I like the Snark in general, but the battery type is a PITA and getting harder to find and increasingly expensive, any good rechargeable ones? Any that come with a length of anchor chain to attach to the endpin? 😁

I though so... I was sad enough to count the number of holes on the top row of the the grill and compare it to a stock pic ☺️

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Used-Markbass-Mini-CMD-121P-Amplifier-great-tone-and-volume-from-a-portable-amp/193583320845?hash=item2d12770f0d:g:Fh4AAOSw75pfFEMy This is a CMD151 no? Gap between the controls and the corners looks way too big for a CMD121P?

Would sound better with some Spiros though...

Apologies @Bluewine I was being facetious, from the picture it looked like you had whole load of random speakers behind your head! Hope this is the first of a series of gigs for you and the band, lots of us in the UK can't wait to get back to it.

Congratulations @Bluewine , hope for us all! That's quite a monitoring setup you've got installed, i'd recommend IEM's though... 😂

Great news @Muppet glad it's working for you. To be honest i'd stick with this going forward. Unless your soundcard is miles away from the pedalboard, the balanced DI out isn't really an advantage, and by not using the XLR you've broken the ground-loop. Good work team!

Hardly... But sound engineering is the day job and this comes up ALL the time 😫

This is a common problem with laptops and other kit that has a non-earthed power supply as part of the audio chain. Some laptops are better than others for PSU design. What cable are you using between the DI output and the soundcard? XLR-XLR? Each bit of kit in your pedalboard chain that has a PSU (and the laptop) offers a potential route to ground for the audio signal, and multiple grounds create ground-loops and hence buzz/hum. This is why unplugging the laptop cures the problem, it breaks the chain. You could try running from a line out rather than a DI (ie. connect the soundcard to where you'd normally connect to your amp using a regular cable), ground lift the XLR (either with a ground lift adaptor or with an XLR with pin 1 disconnected), or bypass each item on the pedalboard to find the likely culprit. It's not an issue with 'dirty' power as such, more about bad grounding.

Turn it all off, it's evil! Have a look here https://qlab.app/docs/v4/general/preparing-your-mac/ for a simple list to streamline your Mac for audio. These guys specialize in audio playback software and i've used this list on all our playback systems with great success

Ableton should tell you the likely latency in your setup if you check in the Live/Preferences/Audio menu. (I'm running Live 9 on Mac so may be different for you). What numbers are you seeing in there and what is the buffer size set to?

+1 for itu's suggestion, keeping the preamp close to the transducers is good practice, and good advice in the rest of the post too. If your piezos don't come with a spec sheet, then I guess given the amount you have coming, just experiment to your liking. The benefit of the piezos is that they are pretty robust electrically and mechanically... I look forward to seeing/hearing what you come up with 😀

Depends on the spec of the actual piezo units you want to use. For an example of multiple piezo pickup systems have a look at https://kksound.com/products/doublebigtwin.php

😀 6 Ohms... I like it! Always thought of myself as a low-impedance kind of guy 😂

Hi Tone Deaf, I'm not an expert but i can give you a few pointers for further research. Sort of. Piezos do produce a much larger open-circuit voltage than for example, a dynamic mic. The key element you need to consider is impedance. Piezos generally have a very high impedance relative to typical input sources, which is why a preamp is used between a high output impedance pickup and lower amp/mixer input impedance. You can wire 'mics' together in series or parallel, but again you need to consider the impedance this presents to the input of the next bit of kit down the line. You'll either be raising (if in series) or lowering (if in parallel) impedance each time you add another mic. Most line inputs such as you'd find on a headphone amp are around 600 Ohms, so no, you won't get low enough to make that work. The complex phase interactions between multiple piezos on the same instrument are also worth bearing in mind. Yes, subject to everything above. IMHO Bluetooth should be avoided for anything musical, the latency is just too great to be useful... Hope this sets you off on the right track!

"It practically plays itself" Well how come it plays better when someone else is playing it...?! 😫

Good set of monitor speakers and checking/treating the acoustics of your room would be my next move before getting too far into equipment

I wonder where showing live sports on a big screen sits with these guidelines? Can't imagine a local derby where everyone stays in their seats and doesn't raise their voice...

No gigs booked for me either, and some promising collaborations we were getting together are now on hold. That said I don't rely on gigs for a living, and my heart goes out to those that do and have lost bookings. Been jamming once a week with some friends on a driveway, keeping appropriate distance, and I have to say it's done wonders for me in these times. Ok the music isn't always the best, but it's brought a smile to those playing and people walking past on the street will stop and listen for a couple of mins, sometimes offering unexpected applause! Made new musical contacts too, a lot of players walking past and desperate to play any music at the moment coming to join in. Not the same as a gig, but great for my musical/mental wellbeing

Looking at the shape, more like a merkin... ☺️

If you're outputting at line level from a pedal and not traveling a great distance, an unbalanced jack to XLR cable would be a worth a try?