BigRedX

I have ambivalent feelings about music shops. In the days when they were filled with wondrous and exciting (to me) musical instruments I had no money to buy them, and when I was finally in a position to have a decent amount of disposable income for musical equipment, I found I was no longer interested in what the typical music shop had to offer. I was lucky at this point in that one of my very good friends worked for pro-audio dealer and could usually manage to get me anything I was interested in to try out for a week or so at home which was far more useful than any amount of playing in a shop could tell me about a piece of gear. The last time I bought a musical instrument as a result of browsing a local shop was in 1993... The internet in the form of first eBay and more recently Reverb has pretty much killed off the second had market for interesting instruments in shops, and then along with forums like this one have opened up a far larger range of options for anyone looking a bit further than a Fender P or J or a copy of one. It's hardly surprising that typical bricks and mortar stores are in decline as simply can't compete with the scope of the whole of the internet.

Surely all that dust needs to go back with every particle back in the same place as before, or you'll change the sound of the bass when you put the neck back on?

My prejudices are all completely rational.

Yes we would. It would just be a slightly different place.

All stands have to make some assumptions about the design of your guitar or bass. It's up to the player to pick the appropriate stand for the instrument that they have. I've owned a lot of different stands and don't think any of them would have been suitable for every single guitar or bass I have owned. The one that came closest was an incredible fiddly K&M stand with two adjustable cradles for the bottom of the body, but I'd worry about using it for some very long scale bass guitars due to centre of gravity issues. That small travel stand is only good for guitars with symmetrical lower bodies. Every bass I've tried it with made the centre of gravity too high for it to be stable. Also whist it was OK for home use, I wouldn't trust it to hold up any instrument securely in a gigging environment.

I've got one of those. I wouldn't trust for any other than home use with a symmetrical shaped guitar.

DHL whist seemingly decent in mainland Europe are very poor in the UK. Have a look at any Thomann returns thread for more details of the lack of service.

Ultimate are still making stands. If you liked it why not get another one? I've owned both Ultimate and Hercules stands, and while the Hercules is probably slightly better, the Ultimate was much more compact when folded down which may be an important feature.

I think this very much emphasises the difference between us and indeed the difference between myself and most other people who are dissatisfied with modelling technology... I have no idea what a Fuzz Face (or any of the other so-called classic distortion pedals or amps) are supposed to sound like. I've never owned one, I may not even have heard one, and the pedals and amps I have owned in the past I don't own now so I can't do a direct comparison. And TBH I'm not really interested in doing so. That's not withstanding the fact that everything I have owned is unlikely to be a prime candidate for inclusion on any modelling device. AFAICS, there's nothing on the Helix that might be trying to emulate any of the pedals and amps I have owned. What does interest me is whether or not I can get a sound that is right for the composition/arrangement/production I am working on, and the Helix has not yet let me down.

Depends whether you need any of those things. There's well over 100 amp and distortion pedal models on a Helix. I'm sure there must be one that will give you the sound that you want. Remember that can run them in parallel with a separate EQ. I've never had a problem getting a distortion sound I like out my Helix. The only filters I've come across that were any good were MIDI controllable and really what I should heave been doing is playing a keyboard synth and no wasted my time trying to make a bass or a guitar sound like one.

Depends entirely on the circuitry of the pre-amp and power-amp sections. For solid state amps generally you want the gain as high as possible without introducing distortion and then adjust the master volume to give you the overall level you need. For amps with a valve pre-amp and solid state (or Class D) power amp the gain control will usually also act as a drive control. To get the right balance you really need to set it up in the band context as IME bass guitar can nearly always do with a bit more dirt in the mix than you would be comfortable with when playing solo. Have a listen to some isolated bass tracks to see what I mean. They are always more distorted than you would imagine from the overall mix. For all valve amps it's almost entirely down to taste, provided that you haven't got the settings introducing too much noise. Use your ears to get a sound you like not the numbers on the controls.

I didn't even realise that the case doubled as a stand-alone charger until I read it on here. I just thought it was a convenient way of transporting the transmitter and receiver and a handy way of charging both from a single cable.

I don't think there is any song my current band do where I don't have some chorus on the bass. However because I'm using a Helix Floor with several Snapshots for each song, I'm able to vary the type and intensity of the chorus from so subtle you can barely tell it's there to full-on jet flange depending on what is needed in different parts of the song.

Next gig for Hurtsfall is Twisted Firestarter at Rebellion in Manchester on 14th August. This is the Infest warm-up party and in previous years has been extremely popular. I played last year's event with my other band and there were still people queuing to get in after the first band had finished playing, so if you are going to this and hope to see us play I suggest that you get to the venue before the doors open.

From those two choices I'd go for the Fender simply because it's easier to tell which is the transmitter and which is the receiver.

Alternatively intrigued to know why you need any additional pedals.

Which is essentially what most bass cabs are doing, and why I have given up on them for all my Helix Patches. Most of the time I can get a sound that is more suitable for the band mix just using EQ. The only cab sim I'm currently using is a guitar one that is part of a guitar combo model.

Sounds more like a problem with insufficient RF shielding somewhere in the signal chain.

I've never had this problem. However I've always turned up with my own DI boxes already in the appropriate (for me) part of the signal chain. I think most of the time the SE is relieved that they won't need to unplug one of the few DI boxes they are already using for something else that they never question what sort of signal they will be getting from me. Also because I'm playing Bass VI and producing both "guitar" and "bass" sounds if it looks like there's a possibility of being EQ'd into mush I start by giving them a "guitar" sound and once I'm happy with that I'll switch to a "bass" patch play a couple of bars and declare that it sounds great and would they like to move on to our backing track? That seems to work. Because I've already set the EQ for the different sounds I use on the Helix getting a good "guitar" sound means that I'll automatically get the "bass" sound I want.

And another lateral thinking thought... Can the functions you want, be accessed from a computer running the editor program attached to the X32? If so you should be able to use something like an AirTurn pedal to control the editor program which in turn controls the X32. If the functions in the editor program doesn't have the necessary keyboard shortcuts you may need an additional utility to produce some. On the Mac I can recommend Keyboard Maestro I use this with an AirTurn for controlling our backing track functions. I'm sure there's something similar available for Windows. Of course Dad3353's suggestion of an external delay device that has the required functions is probably a far simpler solution.

One final bit of lateral thinking for accessing tap-tempo via MIDI. If the delay time can be synchronised to MIDI clock or MTC then it might be possible to use a device that can transmit MIDI clock or MTC, that has its own tap tempo footswitch, to use the MIDI timing information to control the delay time on the X32.

If none of the above works, if the X32 supports memory dump via MIDI, then it may be possible to activate these functions using MIDI System Exclusive messages. This will involve a deep dive into understanding Sysex messages, and even if it is possible you may struggle to find a budget footswitch capable of transmitting them.

Based on that here are the relevant sections: MIDI RX> ASSIGN Whenever assignable controls are set up for transmitting MIDI commands, reception of that same command (status or continuous) will be reflected on the respective assignable control element (button light, encoder LED collar). That means the control assignments for transmit and receive are the same per function. Unfortunately the next section says: MIDI TX > ASSIGN We restricted the user assignable MIDI commands to some generic elements, in order to keep things simple enough. You'll need to look at the relevant MIDI TX ASSIGN screens on the X32 to see if want you want to do is achievable. It may be possible to use suggestion #1 from my previous post to see if activating the relevant functions from the X32 interface produces a MIDI message on the MIDI out. However if it is possible to assign MIDI control to functions that are not in the factory default set, a lack of MIDI output may not be an indication that what you want to do is impossible. Unfortunately in the the absence of comprehensive MIDI documentation (what Dad3353 supplied whilst being somewhat useful is not a proper MIDI implementation chart) any further progress is going involve the OP doing some serious menu diving and a lot of trial and error.

That's worrying. It's a while since I last bought a new piece of MIDI enabled kit, but in the early days including a MIDI implementation chart was IIRC a mandatory requirement for any device sporting MIDI sockets and using the MIDI logo on its products, packaging and documentation. I've just had a look on the MIDI association's website and including an implementation chart is one of the requirements for both the original MIDI and MIDI2 specifications. The problem for the OP is that neither of the functions they want to access are part of the standard MIDI specifications, and therefore access to the MIDI implementation chart is almost essential to be able to work out if MIDI control of those parameters is possible and if so what messages to use. In the absence of proper documentation there are two things that the OP can try: 1. Connect the MIDI out of the X32 to a MIDI interface and computer with a MIDI sniffer application running. Then activate the relevant controls on the X32 and see what MIDI messages (if any) are detected by the sniffer application. If MIDI message are being produced then use a DAW to send them back to the X32 and see if they have the desired effect. However just because activating the function from the X32 doesn't produce any outgoing MIDI messages doesn't automatically mean that it can't receive and use them. 2. Since the functions required are not part of the standard MIDI CC set, accessing them may require mapping an unassigned CC number to the function. If this is the case there will be a way of doing this from the X32 interface or an editing program. Start by looking at any screens that allow access to MIDI functions on the X32. HTH.

Then you'll need to find the MIDI implementation chart for your mixer. It should be part of the documentation and will describe exactly which MIDI messages the mixer will respond to and if the parameters you want are available for MIDI control the method by which to access them. If you are having difficulty understanding it, post the MIDI implementation chart here and I'll be able to advise you further.