Al Krow

Still 100% in agreement Pete, and the examples you gave were exactly the ones I had in mind. This is all very disconcerting...can't we get back to arguing about the value of compression or something similar please? 😂

Better to slap extra costs on as he's doing now and get $400k+ per day in extra tax revenues for Candians I would have thought? Surprised he's not running for the top job this fella. He kmows exactly how to face down a bully!

^^ 100% agree, Pete There are far too many heart-breaking stories from our kids' generations to back that up.

If you try dumb-o-nomics the financial markets will vote with their wallets. Just ask Liz. The US stock markets have been nosediving since the start of this year as they start factoring a possible Trump recession. The worst performing stock on the Nasdaq in 2025? Tesla

Nice post about Japan - very interesting, thanks Phil. I'm not so sure it's going to be plain sailing at all for the US: tariffs are very likely to be inflationary and make the average US worker poorer in the short and medium term. And in the long run...well we're all dead anyway (Keynes). Steel is a good example. Tariffs up will play well with the 200,000 US steel workers, for sure. But the for the millions who work in US manufacturing, when one of their key raw materials goes up in price and either the US consumer picks up the tab or they can no longer compete with overseas goods (more tariffs?), how is that going to help? Either way it's inflationary and a key election pledge Trump made was to deal with the cost of living. He's currently doing the opposite. And, for the first time, starting to get flak from who would have believed it... the likes of Fox News, over his tariff grandstanding.

You know that US tariffs are going to be applied to imports, and paid by US consumers? Well...your Ontario premier Doug Ford, leader of Canada’s most populous province, said that starting on Monday, the province will charge 25% more for electricity shipped to 1.5 million Americans in response to Mr Trump’s tariff plan. Ontario provides electricity to Minnesota, New York and Michigan. Only shame is that two of those are Democrat leaning states. i.e. he is applying tariffs to exports and charging US consumers more for their electricity! With the money going to Canadian coffers and not the US treasury. Oh that's not going to be popular with US voters who are going to blame...well who else but Trump, for this mess! Michigan was a swing state to Trump in 2024. Oh and he's ordered all US liquor off Ontario's store shelves. Spectacularly cool Mr Ford!!

@Chienmortbb Filling Out the Sound of a BGD Trio - Gigs - Basschat Here you go - maybe a few useful pointers in this thread for you. Tbf it had dropped to page 9 so was pretty buried!

Last point maybe a bit harsh? My sense is that the vast majority of Americans, deep down, are good people at heart and share so many cherished values with us. The sad truth is that is probably also true of very many Russians.

Me neither in terms of being a Labour man (well not for a long while anyway!) but I've always tried to give credit where it's due to anyone who's earned it, and it seems that our PM is playing a blinder right now! If he (i) manages to secure a tariff free position with the USA and (ii) gets a credible UK/France/Ukraine peace plan on the table as alternative to the ridiculous Trump/Putin carve up of Ukraine (lest anyone forgets what happened post the Bug River carve up of Poland in 1939) he will have earned his place as a statesman this parliament.

But it wasn't due to a lack of the previous government's spending on the NHS, was it? That went up quite a bit, unlike most public expenditure. I'm hoping the current lot under our current excellent Health Sec. will be able to set the foundations for a better, more efficient NHS. The departure of Ms Pritchard last week was a necesary first step.

NHS will be safe, as confirmed by our Health Secretary this morning. Frankly no political party can risk damaging it and hope to survive. Food: the chlorinated chicken issue, right? As long as it's properly labelled shouldn't it be up to us, as adults, to decide whether we want cheaper US chicken or continue to pay more the non-chlorinated variety? Given that the US is the most litigious nation on earth if there was a whiff of harm arising from their food, there would have been plenty of claimants! And no one seems to worry to much about "adulterated" US food when they go on hols to the US?

If the US ends up with tariffs on EU goods (and vice versa) which is starting to look likely. But Starmer secures a trade deal with Trump that avoids a tariff war between the UK and US, and given that we have an excellent trade agreement in place with the EU and with the Trans Pacific nations, then go figure: the UK suddenly becomes a great place to set up shop! Labour's growth agenda could be about to get a massive shot in the arm. Watch this space.

@MrDinsdale Newbie Q: if I put a pedal in the send / return loop of the Core am I correct that it can be set to run in parallel and won't be impacted by any of the fx in the Core? I'm thinking that would be the ideal set up for little drum pedal for home use.

Do you have examples of successful left wing governments in any modern economy, broadly the same size as ours, that would be your template? The trouble with wealth taxes is that the wealthy are also the ones who can most easily leave for somewhere they feel is more welcoming. The recent non-dom changes are already causing the UK to lose a bigger proportion of its wealthy than pretty much anywhere else on the planet and they're heading to Italy, Dubai etc. Now many may say "good riddance", but there are a host of jobs and investment that will be lost when they go. It's not great economics. I'm not sure that's how it works in the real world though? Large companies can move their headquarters and report profits in countries where tax rates are low. Why do you think so many US multinationals are HQ'd in Ireland with its corporation tax rate of 12.5% despite having a US stock market listing and making very little actual (as opposed to reported) sales and profits in Ireland itself? The argument that Trump's tariffs are bad can equally apply to many forms of taxes. Income taxes generally work well because the people paying are also the ones benefitting from the services being provided by the state. They have become the most popular and effective form of taxation around the world. Well done William Pitt the Younger!

If your website generates a single paid gig per annum then my guess is it will likely more than cover its running costs for a year. We've just this past week secured a 40th birthday party booking via ours. It is just one channel of getting bookings for us, but once it's been properly set up, it shouldn't take too much maintenance. I know some of BCers's bands get a very significant portion of their bookings via their website, far more than my crew do.

@Quatschmacher you mentioned "neural net" refinements would be happening to some of the patches, and which will also lead to further improvements to tracking. What's the story there and what sort of timeframe?

Colour me interested! Speaking of colour...will there be any other colour options available down the line?

Well seems that Trump has just scored a massive win with his tariffs? Apple Corp. that most iconic of US companies makes most of its phones not in the USA but...China. Turns out that China's biggest trade surplus with the US, by some margin, is in electronic goods. Apple have just announced a $500 BILLION investment programme into the US "as it scrambles to beat Trump's China tariffs". A lot of Americans are obviously going to be crediting their president with that.

Love the fact that you still have a trusty Zoom B3 alongside an HX Stomp! Out of interest what sort of fx do you find yourself using the Zoom in preference over the Stomp for?

Just came across this post on Talkbass - really nice plug for the FI Mk4: "I’m either crazy or stupid, but I absolutely love bass synth pedals! Like a guitarist with OD and distortion pedals, I’m nuts for the synth. I have a C4 (which was actually my very first pedal) an FI v.4, 2 Enzos, a DigiTech Bass Synth Wah, a Boss SY-300, and now an Enzo X. I’m selling one of my original Enzos to a friend. I got the SY-300 for a crazy price last year, but I’m not crazy about it and plan to sell soon. If you want my advice (feel free to disregard), hang on to that FI if you have the ability. It’s a fantastic pedal that you don’t have to worry about settings during gigs. The real UI is done in a DAW, but there’s enough you can do with the factory patches using the basic pedal UI to keep things fresh and interesting. There are certain sounds on the FI that I’ve never been able to replicate using other synths. For me, the FI is all about having fun. It’s not about creating patches from scratch. The Enzo X is a different beast. It’s better for deep editing and experimentation. It’s about creating patches. The UI is part of the pedal itself, as I’m sure you know. I didn’t have the money to get it, ended up using credit, as I’d been waiting for it since I tried an LVX!"

Can they add PWM just via a software update? I think a couple of folk have mentioned that omission too, including the Music Radar article, which was otherwise raving about the pedal! PWM useful mostly for string pad type sounds, or does it have wider use?

That's great thanks Peter! They seem to have included quite a bit of stuff since the original Enzo, a lot of it not specifically synth though. Have they improved the synth aspects too? The Arm chipset sounds like it's a premier piece of kit, though, and likely to give it DSP capability significantly ahead of any of the competition. Look forward to your further thoughts as/when you get a chance to get your hands on one.

Well, that's Music Radar's view of it!

@Quatschmacher other than polyphonic capability, do you have an initial sense of the overall capability of this unit vs the FI Mk4? Is it a step up and, if so, how significantly? Be very interested to get your thoughts as our resident synth expert!