SumOne

I think in terms of processing power, build quality, sounds, and price it's still very competitive. I'm not sure anyone really needs more than 3x parallel paths and 24 simultaneous effect blocks. And the sounds all seem good to me. What would be interesting (but not essential) are some more innovative sounds: Synth, Arpeggiator, sample triggering, tone capture, glitchy stuff etc. And I think all multi fx need to put more effort into the user interface, it's the main reason so many people still use individual effects pedals. e.g. if a live situation I'm using a multi fx for Compressor, Amp sim, Drive, and just one part of a song I suddenly feel (with no preset pre planning) a phaser would be good - how realistic is it to be able to do Vs individual pedals where it's just 'stomp on the phase 90'.

Yeah, I don't think Bootsy does anything as mundane as getting out of bed and getting dressed in the mornings.

The Core would be the more sensible option, not leasst as I'm always considering how useful pedals can also be with my keyboard (Core for stereo effects etc will be useful for both Keys and Bass). ...but I'm not a particularly sensible person!

I've been eyeing it up too (helps that it has just been payday!). Did you order it from Music Store or direct? I basically have no pedalboard at them moment (well, just a tuner), so if wearing my sensible hat I should probably get a couple of things like compressor and overdrive before the next gig....my amp can do each of those things and it can't make FI type noises (unless something is giong quite wrong!) so I think I might take off my sensible hat and put on this one to get a FI v4

That's very true for those that want to have pride in their artistic efforts. Unfortunately though, the goal for many isn't artistic integrity and having pride in what they've created - it's reaching the goal of making £ and presumably getting AI to fully compose music might be a way of achieving that. Perhaps this isn't true, but people are suggesting that companies like Spotify and Amazon music are using AI to create music and are promoting it on their playlists as they then don't need to pay royalties. e.g. Ask Alexa to 'play relaxing background music' and it is in their interest to play bland innofensive AI generated stuff they don't need to pay for.

Sounds like a good update, I might give a v4 another go. I had a v3 and liked it, but didn't like the octave tracking jump thing (I play a lot of octaves with synth bass), so I sold it to get a C4. A few years later I got a FI V4 but had hours of hassles trying to get it to connect to my Laptop but no luck, could've been my Laptop and the many competing drivers and midi things on it, the midi connector, or the FI, not sure - but my patience wore out so I gave up in the end and sold it (I do think this is a bit of an overlooked thing and hence a lot of the popularity of the MXR, people just want something that works easily, no faff). However, if I can do program order editing and a decent level of parameter editing directly on the pedal then I'm not too fussed about Laptop connection (just as long as I can also switch the slow/fast tracking via the pedal). Bonus for me is my Keyboard doesn't have a proper synth (just samples) so I'm keen on getting a small midi triggered synth unit (had been looking at things like the Behringer JT Mini). Is the FI v4 always monophonic - or can it do polyphonic when controlled via midi?

Fun fact: The Royal Society* motto since 1662 has been 'Nullius in verba'....meaning 'take nobody's word for it'. So I suppose not much really changes. *the world's oldest national scientific academy.

A good description of my band!

Unfortunately, I think you might be right. At least that's what it feels like to me as someone who has spent 30 years making electronic music. There is software that suggests chords progressions, song structure and drum patterns, Reason has just been bought by an AI company. Or can fully go with something like Suno. On quitting digital music, Daft Punk said 'the last thing they'd want to be now (with AI music) is Robots'. One of them went on to hand write an orchestra score for a ballet. A bit like being a digital visual artist but now AI can do it it'll kills off the need for humans doing that stuff and the market/rarity/value of digital art decreases, but AI won't replace hand painted oil portraits. Along with Daft Punk, one of my favourite electronic producers is Jamie xx, I think he does innovative stuff that's still accessible and more than most he has a signature sound, but a comment on one of his latest releases was 'sounds like AI'. If people think his stuff sounds like AI there's no hope for someone like me to not! I'm thinking there will be push-back in listening trends, AI will be great at personalising music (e.g. linked to mood/time of day, where you are in a marathon and heartbeat etc) but people will want to see real people perform live music with instruments.

I'm loving this: "Every Saint's a sinner, we all have our past. Forever is a fiction, nothing lasts."

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.