AttitudeCastle

Will also have to scout around when I'm back down after the Holiday season. Have to say though, my last two shopping excursions in Glasgow to local stores have not been great. One particular shop in my experience was rather sour, which is a shame as I was minutes away from purchasing some pedals, but didn't have the best staff interaction (some general rudeness), so left, and just went home.

Neither of my parents are musicians, my brother dabbled in Guitar for a bit, still plays but not doing much with it. Both parents (Mum more than Dad but Dad came around) have always been supportive. In Primary school my brother tried Euphonium, but never gelled with it, I used to steal it, and got a knack for it, switch to Trombone, and here I am 12+ years later still playing! Did piano for a bit to support that but teacher moved, and I never got another. Re-learning now. Parents paid for lessons, and Mum (bless her she's wonderful) drove me to all my gigs no matter how scummy or how far away when I picked up bass at 14/15. My great grand parents apparently were musical, and my grandmother was, but never heard her touch an instrument in my life time. Now I'm at University studying Music! (Composing being my main thing) Still supported by the family though the very valid "What do graduates with your degree usually do?" is cropping up now I'm over half way, hah! Got 7 years of lessons on Trombone, am rather rusty now I focus on Composing sadly, so brushing up, but did my Grade 8, and all which made the parents (and me!) very happy. Though never learnt much theory, and such till University, and to be honest the Scottish Music qualifications in school are pretty pants. Growing up with so much support was/is absolutely wonderful. A little jealous at times feeling "years behind" those with musical parents, who can play 75 instruments, sing, have great musical ears/pitch etc but hey, variations make things fun!

I've played Trombone for many years, lovely instrument, and you can always shock people with how loud they are!

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1471299744' post='3112029'] It was!!! Don't tell me you were there!! [/quote] Not this year, unfortunately, tied up down in Glasgow. I don't drink, but usually make it along. Banchory is (more or less) my home town, played the Beer fest every year till now, due too a myriad of reasons, and to avoid sounding like I'm mud slinging won't go into. I'm 3 miles from Banchory as I type this, as I drove up today How'd you enjoy our slice of the world?

Wasn't the Banchory beer festival was it?

[quote name='opticfibre' timestamp='1470310199' post='3104961'] Hi Guys! Its looks like the most popular question here is How do we do it? The answer is simpler than you might think, and may cause a lot more questions from you. We use IM to send the analogue optical signal Intensity Modulation not AM or FM or PWM or... [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intensity_modulation"]https://en.wikipedia...sity_modulation[/url] when the voltage signal goes up, our light goes up, when the voltage signal goes down our light goes down. Our wavelength is 660nm but i don't think that's important, the reason we use 660nm is because the bespoke optical fiber we use is most sensitive in that range. Hope this helps [/quote] Hello, and welcome to the forum! Always wonderful seeing companies pop in here, there a few floating around, and we all really appreciate it! Hope we haven't all sounded too scathing, but that's just what we're all like We're a dour bunch, but we're fun, honest! Won't launch into some questions here, but I'm excited to try our the product if possible some day soon enough.

[quote name='4stringslow' timestamp='1470046596' post='3102840'] Agreed. The voodoo is probably the biggest issue Edit: as for the tone issues (ie frequency response), this chap is not at all convinced: [media]http://youtu.be/YljQyirf1RM[/media] [/quote] David jumped into the comments of that video too. Not too impressed by his response; however it's human nature to be protective over one's product design, and I agree YouTube clips are far from the [i]best [/i]way to compare sounds, the chap should test them before making a judgement, though no explanation, or constructive conversation was had... [Note: When I open one link to this video the comments chain where Mr Holmes has posted is there, and in another they are not, despite being the same URL? Maybe just a weird thing on my end] [quote name='gelfin' timestamp='1470082144' post='3103201'] They also had a go at kickstarter. [url="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1536327222/lightleadtm-world-1st-analogue-optical-audio-cable"]https://www.kickstar...cal-audio-cable[/url] [/quote] I'm only vaguely keeping up with the physics of the product (in theory, anyway as things have been explained here) and once more BassChat wonderfully surprises me with all of your knowledge! In the Kickstarter video, the explanation of change in sound from the normal copper cable (no indication of price point, but the DI test they do has a regular/high end/light lead comparison) and the Light lead, now from the explanation I believe I'm right in say it's then no different to a buffer (a people have pointed out already). So unless I'm missing something, I don't really see the point, but I'd love to actually try one, and A/B vs a buffered set up. In the Pro tools expert interview they talk about a band having radio interference from a long cable, again pardon my possible ignorance, but would that possible be a shielding issue of the cable used, as they also said the guitarist switched cables, and went on his way. And I would also agree with as has been said on this thread, that for many they use wireless, especially for bigger venues, though that is no different to anyone trying to sell long cables regardless. Would be curious as to battery life, and prices of the bundle, and of the cable (in the "Snake oil" video comments section David states £25 for the cable part) and the ends. Don't really have an opinion either way, beyond the science behind it seems very interesting, and it seem like a cool product, that as of yet I can't quite understand what it may be needed for! Hopefully David drops in here, and can give us a full explanation of the Light Lead!

Man will be watching these. Love these pedals, and James Brown has designed some killer amps!

Maybe not so "marmite" but I'm not a fan of sansamp-y things. Have recorded with more than one engineer in the past who would only do bass direct through a sansamp. Not a fan of the baked in Ampeg sound. Used plenty of Ampeg gear I've liked, but just not so much for me, especially hit hard. Not my thing! Love the ODB-3 though, I have one, but would actually like a couple more. Feels kind of OD on roids ish, if you try the Boss OD3 on bass you'll see the similarity. The active EQ relationship to the opamps is the thing with the boss pedals. Some of may favourite tones are ODB 3 though! The Metal Zone is (IMHO) a great design/template, just the parts produce a not so good result, that said I still like the thing as I'm strange... (I did start a wanted for "cheap and nasty" so yeah...)

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1464418538' post='3059286'] I will investigate! [/quote] The Manual suggests it's possible; however I've just checked this quickly so please give it a read (around page 34) as I may have missed something as i'm on my phone, but it's there for reference. I didn't see the AX8 part in the OP as I'm a daft one, any my experience is with the Axe Gen 1, and the Ultra. http://www.fractalaudio.com/downloads/manuals/AX8/AX8-Owners-Manual.pdf The only limitations would be processing power for wackier sounds. Very common for people to run a split output with these things, L/R one side with Cab sim, one without for FOH/Monitor cab or similar. For most bass stuff simple splits like Clean + dirty on separate channels, or paths with it's own EQ, then recombined etc it should chew through no bother. On guitar I like split signals with 2 maybe 3 amps at once + reverb/delay (though I use pedals for all that), as I'm one of [i]those[/i] people (we're the worst. But we're not sorry ) for low gain plus high game type thing. Sorry to clog the thread, haha!

Having used/recorded/psuedo-gigged all three: Have to say, I understand why so many use the Axe-fx for all patch change stuff, and the Kemper as an amp. (Warning: I'm not great at explaining things...) To[i] me[/i] the Kemper is the best amp in a box. For taking a rig you already own or a tone you have from whatever set up, and sucking/condensing it into the digital world. It's the one that to me, makes the most sense sonically, when plugging guitar/bass/pedals into it like I would whatever amp I have profiled. The Axe is awesome, not so much my thing, I really like the editor, effects are stellar, as are the amp models, it just doesn't feel the same to me though I know plenty who don't experience that, I think it's much more a tweaking thing. I love options, and I love tweaking, but as I really just try to rebuild a set up plus pedals I already use, that's likely why it's less my thing. Ability to route/split paths in the editor too means you can experiment with many less bass friendly things, but still get really good tones for bass with plenty of grunt, and weight. For total anything is possible ground up sounds, probably a better choice, also great for insane noises where 30 pedals all go on/off change settings. Plenty of acts using both of the above together, or one or tother live/in the studio so there isn't much in it beyond what you'd use it for IMHO, Helix, not used very much BUT was hugely impressed, and it's got some great backing on here so far. Amp-ness feels much much better than POD stuff as I'd wager Yamaha's VCM tech, and similar from the THR's has found it's way in, with new tech from the Line 6 guys combined. That said I did like the POD, and plenty of tones, just to an extent had a missing "something". I do like solid state, and digital, on guitar, and bass feel wise. I get stared at a lot saying that, hah! I think it's a really monster bit of kit, would love more time with it though. Fret put plenty of info in the Helix thread which I'm, sure you've seen, but I was super impressed, plus the fact you can run vocals through it too. I don't personally own any, (no need for what I do) though if I was going to, I'd aim for Helix probably, but it'd be close with the Kemper. If I owned a couple more guitar amps, I'd probably go for the Kemper, for my different sounds. If I wanted an everything solution for live, and studio use, I'd probably get an Axe. (Or hope on the lottery, and get all three...) though I will say, last time I was in studio we profiled all the guitar players amps, so they could stay home, and we recorded everything from the Kemper to save time/for ease of re-amping (not my choice but so few people will notice the difference. I'm just super pedantic) YMMV, but hope any of the above was useful!

It's not too hard, you just need to take it easy, break it down, practise the parts (string jumps in that one got me for ages), and take it slow! To quote the incredible Guthrie Govan, (or paraphrase) Practise at a speed you're comfortable at, and getting things right, and the speed will come, and be there when you need it. Playing fast is 100% about precision, it's a by product, if you can play with precision, you can play fast, it'll come naturally

[quote name='isteen' timestamp='1462722675' post='3045186'] For some reason Thomann no longer sell Joyo pedals. Behringer and Harley Benton (plastic cases) but no Joyo [/quote] There are loads of Joyo pedals sold by Thomann with the HB badge on them: https://www.amazon.co.uk/JOYO-JF-13-Vintage-Amplifier-Effect/dp/B006QUGBVK/ref=sr_1_5?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1462753184&sr=1-5&keywords=Joyo http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ac_truetone.htm Same pedal. Speaking of Joyo, they actually have some really good staff there now, and they are very receptive to feedback from their testers, who are pushing to have higher quality (yet still low priced) gear, as well as generally starting to work on more original designs. They have a lot of central europe based, as well as UK based guys, doing some cool work, and I've contacted them with questions before, and had great response/comms too. I own one, Joyo pedal (as I'm a distortion addict who will 7/10 times buy it if it's less than £30.) but would be happy to try more, (same with Tonecity!) Behringer do make some really good kit. I know a multitude of bands running the X32 now, and their software teams are pretty solid IME. (Though obvioulsy we're talking pedals!) The boss SYB clone they make many in the live bass dance/dubstep world prefer it to the boss, for example, and I have a Behringer single DI that's a back up that's served me well for years. As for pedals, the cheap plastic stuff is pretty much just that. Generally just inferior quality clones of (mostly Boss) pedals, some sound pretty close, some very, but almost all (again just my experience) with more noise/hiss etc.

The toneprint editor allows you to change the character of the octaves, (can be different for each I believe) AND add grit/OD to the octaves. Will be interested to play with it!