Greg Edwards69

Obviously keeping the web url in readable text is a no brainer, especially from an accessibility point of view. I just can't decide whether to steer people to the website or FB. Having a variable QR code destination doesn't fix this.

13 hours ago, Norris said:

Sounds like you need to print a QR code on your shirts. We have a laminated sheet with a QR code that takes people to our Facebook page - it's quite popular

The though has crossed my mind!

I need to do a new batch of business cards or postcards that we can hand out. But I need to decide whether to steer people to the website or fb page. 
 

Although I am a designer, and have worked in branding for many years, actual marketing isn’t one of my skills. 

Yes we do. I'm a graphic designer by day and have strong opinions on branding!

I designed and got them printed with the intention of wearing them during load-in and set up, so people know who we are. Each one has our logo/web address on the front and it says "Band" on the back with either singer, guitarist etc underneath. However, we've taken to keeping them on for some lower-profile gigs such as pubs, bars and charity events.  We'll still get changed into smarter shirts for corporate and wedding function gigs, but still keeping to the band's colour scheme (black and red) - but I must stress, we don't dress the same - we're not a cabaret band!

We also have a roller banner and logo on the bass drum skin. The singers are always telling people to "find us on Facebook" if they see people videoing us.

Yes, it might look uncool, and we may look like walking business cards, but never underestimate the power of branding and marketing. And hey, if Metallica and Iron Maiden can wear their own t-shirts, then so can anyone.

37 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Apart from the helix algorithms, that is the spark. I have a spark 40, and it really is good although not sure I would use it for gigs. But then I had a pod go and didn't rate that!

As a home practice thing it is fantastic though, it sits right by my chair in the living room for evening practice. I also have the waza air, but the spark would be the thing left if I had to get rid of one of them.

I really need a built in pitch shift effect that tracks down to low E. I don’t play 5 strings any more but I do down shift to BEAD on my helix for several songs.
 

Correct me if im wrong but I don’t believe the spark series have a pitch shift effect. 

4 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Have you thought of a Spark Go?

I have considered it, as well as teh bigger Spark mini but they lack features I’d like.

To be honest, the product I want doesn’t exist. I wish Line 6 would revisit the pocket pod with the helix algorithms - so a smaller pod go, with Bluetooth audio, rechargeable battery and phone/tablet control. Something I can use for headphone practice, or plug into a small speaker at home, or use as a backup at gigs if my Helix fails.

I ended up selling mine after 2 or 3 weeks (I bought it used). After the initial excitement of GAS wore off and I started to properly dial in a nice patch I just couldn't dial it in the way I wanted it. On paper, the bass firmware with its split paths looked ideal, but in practice, it just didn't sound good.

• The 2 paths sounded out of phase and 'smeary' for want of a better word. It didn't sound like one, unified signal, it sounded very much like two totally independent signals that didn't gel.
• There's a weird midrange hump on the upper portion of the signal that I just could not dial out regardless of which effects, amps and cab are engaged or bypassed. It was like that artificial low mid-bass boost you get on small speakers to make them sound bassier than they really are. The cab section made it even worse. The eq section is not flexible enough to dial this out. If the P1 could load cab IRs it might help. You should be able to set the high and low crossover to the same frequency, bypass all effects and get a ruler flat signal coming out, but it's nowhere near it.
• I knew the pitch shift effect wasn't great from this forum, but I thought it might be passable for headphone practice. But I really didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. Totally unusable, even for headphones.
• Something sounded amiss with streamed Bluetooth audio. I can't put my finger on what exactly, but there's something strange with the quality and eq. Nowhere near as good as other Bluetooth devices  - FWIW, my Jabra Move headphones support Bluetooth and wired connection. Streaming Bluetooth from my iPhone to the P1 with a wired headphone connection sounded much worse than audio from my iPhone straight to the same headphones via the headphone's bluetooth.

I tried downloading some presets as well to see if anyone else had success making a nice bass preset. I thought I found one, but when I examined it I realised they had simply set the crossover so high that all you got was the full range of the lower path and none of the top path.

I realise this relatively inexpensive device wasn't going to be in the same league as my Helix, but I really, really wanted it to be better. I could have possibly lived with it if it didn't have that baked-in horrible hump on the top path. As it stands I'm sticking with my little Nux Mighty Plug for the time being (although I wish that one didn't boost the bass on bluetooth audio, and the video/audio sync with youtube is dreadful). I'm considering getting a Boss Pocket GT or Hotone Ampero Mini instead, or maybe both. (I'm aware the latter doesn't have Bluetooth and needs mains power, but I might be able to live with that).

Just now, Muzz said:

As far as wear and tear goes, I'm 60 next year, but a combination of Elixirs ...

At first glance, I seriously thought you meant "Elixir of life" rather than strings

4 hours ago, BassAdder60 said:

You guys that are gigging that frequently must have very understanding “ better half’s “ !!! 
 

Im restricted to around two gigs per month and a weekly rehearsal !!! 

Funnily enough, it's the two singletons in my band who are the hardest to pin down for rehearsals and gigs. The married ones are more reliable.

3 hours ago, gorandelac said:

Hey I'm just about to get away from my trusty old Shure 215, so thinking of these... what would you suggest.

 

KZ ZS10 PRO X

KZ AS16 Pro

KZ AS10

 

 

I can only comment on the ZS10 Pro X (that I recently purchased). They're good sounding, clear with proper bass extension that doesn't muddy up the midrange. They are however ever so slightly bright in the top end. Nothing aggressive, but you might not be used to that sort of bright treble. As ever, getting a good seal is crucial, and my Comply foam tips work wonders.

Now if I could get the same tone as my ATH-M50x headphones give me in an IEM I would be very happy!

But there's a large difference between skeletons in one's closet and being an absolute monster. Whilst lapses of judgment can be overlooked, people like Gary Glitter and Ian Watkins should be strung up by their balls with guitar strings.

But that's what the thread is all about. Where is that line between ignoring misdeeds and cancelling?

2 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

I quite like the splitter idea though, we've got a couple of active DI's that would have done that.

If it's any help, this is the one we use: 

Klark Teknik DS 50 Passive Splitter at Gear4music

We tried another splitter before this one that didn't work as well - the volume was very uneven on each output, but the Klark unit is perfect.

2 hours ago, Jo.gwillim said:

How are you getting on with the xvive? We find they either interfere with wifi based mixers or we get poor reception in about half the venues? Give over to wired p2 more now

We’re getting on with it okay. It takes a while to find the optimum channel work out how to use it around other devices, but we’re getting there. For example, we recently discovered that the singers wireless mic receiver should be kept at least 3m away from other wireless devices. This is one of the reasons we now run the Xvive transmitter from the passive splitter than sits next to the bass drum in the middle of the stage away from another wireless devices. We also found out that channels 1-4 clash with the Xvive U2 guitar wireless, so 5 and 6 are the better channels to use.

We still get the odd drop out in certain environments but I guess that’s unavoidable in certain environments. We’re trying to remember to put out phones and other devices in airplane mode that might help.

3 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

Aaaarghhh. Another mini festival gig ruined by the hire company. Too much through the subs so overwhelming bass out front and impossibly poor on stage monitoring. We were promised an in ear mix only to be told they only had one lead available and that had been given to the drummer. Not prepared to give me the feed from the floor monitor. We have an electric kit so poor monitoring is a real problem.

As a band, we've recently dipped out toes into IEM. We're all generally happy with the same mix, but have a mix of wired (P2) and wireless (Xivive U4 packs. Our solution is a simple passive xlr splitter. Packing one of those for our gig could have been a useful solution to your monitoring issue.

15 hours ago, markbunney said:

Some tensions are arising in the band around commitments to upcoming gigs. A member is experiencing grief on the domestic front so is pushing to cancel some upcoming gigs, and scale down the amount of gigs we do going forward, which the rest of us are not keen to do, especially cancelling gigs which is not cool. So will have to see how the situation pans out.

I'd look into finding a dep for that member if I were you. You can keep your busy gig schedule and the band member getting grief from home can relax knowing his spot is safe. You really don't want to get the reputation of the band that cancels gigs.

Biker club in Dagenham on saturday afternoon. We were a singer down and a dep drummer (Kelly, one of my oldest friends from school with whom we formed our first band when I was 16 and he was 14 - he later turned pro for while as a session drummer).  

Pretty easy gig. Classic rock covers and I got to sing lead on a couple of songs to give Jenny a break.  But the weather was temperamental - it started raining whilst we were setting up under the marquee, and got a little chilly during our set. Unfortunately, we had to cut the second set shorts. We were asked at very late notice if we could start earlier as the band on after us had another gig in the evening ("Dennis and Dave" - Dennis being Dennis Stratton of Iron Maiden fame). We thought we were ready to go around 15mins early, but we had a problem with the desk. It took 15mins to work out it was a dodgy aux lead feeding the IEM.  Still, we started as soon as possible, with a quick wee break in the middle and carried on till 3pm with no problems and we played well.

We packed down in record time and the sun came out just as Dennis And Dave started playing, so they had a bigger audience than us. Oh well.

Yep, they’re going back for replacement. That “chink” sound in the left earpiece was definitely a sign of a problem. When playing by bass through them there’s a slight bit of distortion. Perhaps a faulty BA unit?

Just received my ZS10 Pro X within the last hour. I'm at work so I can't test them properly, but listening to a couple of familiar test tracks (inc Yello - The Race - always a good test) I can immediately hear that they are less aggressive than my non-pro ZS10's. And the low end is nice and full, with sub-bass extension without getting bloated in the low mids. There's still a V shape, but not too extreme. I'll try them out tonight with foam tips and my Helix if I get a chance. It's nice that they are much smaller than my old ones too.

I'll likely use them this weekend, but even if they sound great, I may still return them. The left earpiece make an annoying 'chink' sound everytime I touch it in my ear. It sounds fine, but I can quickly see that getting annoying, not to mention, could be a sign of a manufacturing fault that could get worse.

FWIW, I got a pair of the Moondrop Aria's (open box deal on eBay) and they went straight back as the left one was barely working. I ordered these before EBS_Freak's reply explaining the difference between audiophile reviews and musicians' needs, so I'm not sure I'll order another set. It's a shame as they fit really well, but judging the sound quality with just one earpiece working was impossible.

As such, I ordered the KZ ZS10 Pro X as an upgrade from my original non-pro ZS10s.  As I mentioned before, my original one have a harsh, aggressive treble that is extremely tiring.  Allegedly, the Pro X design fixes a few of the tuning issues. Whilst it retains the V shape, it has less aggressive treble and better bass extension. I don't mind that it's got a V-shape profile. To my mind, this could be a benefit, as it sort of replicates the fletcher munson effect. If I can tweak my Helix patches with these, it should translate better to FOH - I think my presets are possibly too bassy at the moment due to the headphones and frfr speaker I've been using - it's certainly seemed more apparent since we added a sub-woofer to our PA.

I was looking at the Sennheiser IE-100 too on Dave_Bass5's recommendation, and I was torn between them and the ZS10 Pro X.  Maybe I'll get a set of them as well at some point. It won't hurt to have a couple of pairs of IEMs

It's also easy to pull the volume knob off if you're heavy-handed with it, as one of our singers discovered when she was using mine, and dropped the plastic knob on the floor. Luckily I found it when we were packing up.

43 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

Simple case in point is to compare directly to the competition. Bass Bros website has always been easy to use and up to date. 

5 minutes ago, chris_b said:

If you specify 5 string basses on the Bass Brothers site, annoyingly, it doesn't show you all of them.

 

I found the old BD site OK to use. It was easy to get around and find the info I was looking for.

Funnily enough, I discovered the Bass Bros website for the first time this morning. I don't know if there's some throttling going on at work, but it's a painfully slow-loading website. Slow to the point of being unusable. 

12 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Anyway... as a quick example of UI annoyance, it's annoying to me (and surely to others), that I cant navigate BD site and drill down into an item by clicking on the picture. In conjunction with the text, that would offer a larger click point and cater for both sets of people who want to navigate pictorially or via text link. I know BD have probably just bought this as a COTS e-commerce product, probably based on price (or maybe even being free) so it may not even be a configurable. Again, just a musing.

That was one of the first things I noticed too. Where there is no obvious button, my instinctive behaviour is to click the product image, not the descriptive caption underneath it.

I also found the search filters a little cumbersome. Most other similar websites don't require you to click 'apply' once choosing the appropriate filter, it should automatically apply.

Maybe we should feed these small, but impactful usability issues back to them to help make the new website better.

Thanks the reply @EBS_freak. Yes, the ZS10 is still a great gateway IEM and I now better understand the benefits of multi-BA drivers for headroom in a live environment. However, as I mentioned several posts ago, I have the original non-pro versions. These are just BA drivers, not a hybrid design with a dynamic driver for better low-end. As such, I'm finding them a bit light in the low end and a bit aggressive/harsh at the high mid area.

I was considering getting the ZS10 Pro X as an upgrade, but I kept seeing the Moondrop Aria pop up on reviews. Admittedly, it didn't occur to me at the time the difference between listening to recorded music and live music from an aux bus and the headroom issue. However, I already found an open box set at a good price on ebay before reading your reply and ordered them. But I'm quite hopeful. My bass always has compression on it, I don't drive my Xvive U4 receiver too hard, I use comply foam tips for better isolation, and the Aria's are rated at a seemingly impressive 122spl @1khz.

Hey, if I don't like them, I can return/sell them/keep them as spares and get the ZS10 Pro X instead. It's not a lot of money to lose. That's the great thing about these inexpensive solutions, you can try a few before settling. And it's always handing to keep a few lying around for spares or quiet practice at home.

Indeed. As someone mentioned on a reddit thread I saw earlier (I've really gone down a budge IEM rabbit hole):

Zs10 pro was my first “audiophile” device and it was awesome at first, until i realized that “detail” does not mean “aggressive treble”

I agree with that sentiment. I wondered why my ZS10's sounded harsh in the top end when we upgraded from our cheap, crappy G4M IEM. They are!

I keep seeing the Moondrop Aria's popping up in various interweb threads, so they are definitely on my shopping list. Just need to find a good deal for them.

As posted on another thread, this might be helpful to some of you

Just found this resource, that appears to be most helpful.  He's also put a sub $100 video review together.

https://crinacle.com/rankings/iems/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks6PGwD6Cjo&ab_channel=crinacle

On the strength of that, a set of Moondrop Aria IEMS appear to be the one to get. 

Just found this resource, that appears to be most helpful.  He's also put a sub $100 video review together.

https://crinacle.com/rankings/iems/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks6PGwD6Cjo&ab_channel=crinacle

On the strength of that, a set of Moondrop Aria IEMS appear to be the one to get.