SumOne

Yeah, I figure playing an instrument live is somewhat future-proofed. People have been able to listen to recorded music for over 100 years but still want to go out and hear people perform it. Making new music, I dunno - AI will get very good at it. There will probably be a lot of hybrid stuff where music is made more cheaply/easily with AI but there is still a real 'face' to the music e.g. ask AI to make a backing track after having been given prompts about the style etc. but then a real person sings over it.

In the cold light of day now my initial hype has worn off I think for adding a small synth unit to be controlled by my keyboard I'll be better off using iPad or Laptop soft-synths at home and perhaps something like the Behringer mini and micro series if I want hardware (especially financially, as they are £40 - £80), or something like the Roland P-6 if I want sample playback via midi keyboard. And then for Bass guitar synth, I think I prefer the feel and interaction of combining individual effects (envelope filter, octaver, distortion - right up to gated fuzz, modulation, delays etc), it tends to avoid the slightly detached feel I usually get when using synth pedals with Bass. Still though, this does look good - playing samples back via Bass guitar has all sorts of potential if it tracks well etc. If the price is right I might get it.

That is very true, I suppose I did put in about 4 years of Bass practise before ever playing with a band though. But yeah - nowadays most of my Bass practice is playing with a band. It's partly that thing of it being a 'sociable' sort of instrument that works best played with others I like about bass. And I partly like Piano for the opposite reason - it can work well as a solo instrument to play alone at home. Piano seems to require a different sort of repetitive practise with formally learned technical skills being more important (like I'd mentioned earlier in the thread: the amount of gigging Bass players that did formal lessons/grades vs Piano players I expect would be markedly different). Playing one song so many times to perfect it to pass the grades and then move on is a bit tedious, but I guess it shows the challenge is at about the right level if it is difficult but achievable.

In the early days of the internet there was a battle of the bands online vote with the winner getting to perform on TV. My friend works in IT and fixed it for his band to get 1000s more votes than anyone else, they went on TV, weren't very good, and we're never heard of again! I suppose there are a some lessons there.

Nice, I hadn't seen the polyend mess, but that looks good too. And there's the Meris Enzo X (currently £539 at Andertons). No sample triggering with either of them though. The Meris and Quimera include a tuner (not sure if the Polyend does) and some more normal effects so perhaps could be used as a stand-alone multi fx pedal?....and a decent bass triggered synth, and a midi controlled keyboard synth. £500 is a lot, but if it is a decent multi fx, bass synth, midi synth, equivalent to things that are about £200 each then I could convince myself when things like the MXR Bass synth, C4, FI alone are about £250, and a lot of the relatively budget multi fx are about £250.

Looks good, I want one! This seems more innovative and interesting than any pedal announced by the big companies at NAMM. Triggering recorded samples I think being unique for a guitar/bass pitch tracking pedal? I'm also interested in using it as a synth midi controlled by a keyboard, my keyboard is piano and organ type stuff and limited synth stuff (basically samples) so plugging this in could really expand that. I know the FI can do that, but this seems to have more hands on editing and the screen. I'm guessing it'll not be cheap, something like £500?

https://musictech.com/news/gear/groove-thing-music-buttplug-namm/

You want something new and different instead of just re-releases and new paint jobs? .....we'll, this is what you get: https://musictech.com/news/gear/groove-thing-music-buttplug-namm/

I think it's a bit of a shame that the Octamizer has gone digital. You can get decent digital octave up/down (and other features like semitones) in most multi-fx, but the analogue Octamizer with the tilt EQ on the clean is I think unique. Octavers are one of the only effects that there really does seem to be a noticeable difference in tone between analogue and digital.

I suppose on the bright side - Bass playing is one of the few activities where you could have 50 year old equipment that is still perfectly fine (or even quite desirable) to use. For a lot of Bass manufacturers, a new paint job is about the limit of innovation - and even that is a re-release a lot of the time.

Sounds like the sort of ad David Brent would write after cashing in his pension to get his music on the road.

I think I'll start complaining about people complaining about people complaining about the ad. What a glorious use of free time and technology!

£279 here: https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/251215451631027--ashdown-pbm-200-200-watt-portable-bass-head Yeah the Speakon thing is a bit of an issue for me too. I have an RM 500 so have a Speakon cable (and another one as backup). If I were to get the Ant (or Elf or Gnome or BAM 200) as backup I'd need to have an additional cable as backup to work with it. Not a big deal, but it is another cost and another thing to carry. (and Speakon cables are just better)

Nice. And already seems to be available and on sale! (one of those 'sales' where it's the actual price?!) £279 https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/251215451631027--ashdown-pbm-200-200-watt-portable-bass-head Personally, I'd go: Elf (£230) for backup and ultra-portability. Ant (£279) for a small gigging amp - not as ideal for being pocket sized backup as the Elf but with a few additional useful live features like mute button, Speakon cable connector would seal the deal for me. Or I'd go Gnome v2 (£215) if I wanted to have things like aux in and USB for home use (but isn't as small as the Elf as a backup, and doesn't have the live features of the Ant like the mute).