Al Krow

Yeah - that's a fair point Dave. The CQ12T and 18T are standalone desks effectively featuring a "built in tablet". I guess the lack of wifi on the 12T is a product differentiation point - the 18T is £175 more and for that you get: 6 extra inputs, wifi, an extra 2 FX and 3 additional control dials. Worth the extra (particularly if you get lucky as I managed, and pick up a B stock 18T for only £40 extra!). If everything was available on the 12T other than the extra inputs, there would maybe be a lot fewer takers for the 18T or the 12T would need to come in at a price point much closer to the 18T? Fyi - in terms of the additional FX on the CQ18T, the 4 categories on offer: 1. "easy verb" - 3 vocals, string slap, percussion, drum room, string, brass, woodwind & piano 2. "echo verb" - with different flavours and delay times 3. fully fledged chorus 4. double tracker I'll probably stick to easy verb for the vocals, otherwise there's definitely risk of option paralysis: the desk is actually doubling up as a multi-channel multifx!

Just to clarify - it is listed on the 12T ("App Control" icon)

I've pulled this from the A&H website which seems to indicate that the App control is also available on 12T as well as the 18T. I guess the 12T will be needing a standalone Wifi to make use of the App control.

You gents seem to have much more joy getting your crews to rehearsals, haha! How often do you guys rehearse vs gig? We will hopefully manage to get a rehearsal in ahead of our NYE gig as we are doing that one with a couple of deps, but we've another 8 gigs in the diary before then, so I'll need to get up to speed beforehand and tweak at the gigs. They're all used to IEMs already - so hopefully the only difference for the drummer and guitarist is that they can have bespoke monitor feeds rather than just getting the FoH mix. Ideally they will be able to use the A&H CQ app on their phones to tweak their own personal monitor feedback to suit - is that something you are doing for those of you with the A&H CQ desks / other digital desks?

Back at my desk (excuse the pun!) and had a little bit of time to start getting up to speed on the CQ18T. I'd got a very basic idea of the controls after an hour or so, in particular the inputs and outputs, and reckon should have the same level of functionality on this as my analogue desk and be in a position to use for a gig within another couple of hours. The touch screen is really easy to use and the rotary dials can separately operate the faders (in addition to having option to do that on the touch screen) which gives a greater level of finesse for anyone who doesn't have dainty fingers. The ability to save "scenes" to suit a particular line up / vocalist and have the ability to deliver 6 tailored outputs to every band member, combined with the compact size of the unit seem to be worth the entry ticket on this piece of kit alone. And that's before doing any deep dive in terms of flexible EQ & FX for every channel plus the benefit of a built in router allowing us to tweak settings on the fly from the audience, all of which I will need to get my head around. But I'm already struggling to see how this isn't going to be a step up for our band!

Ooooh that is potentially exciting news! Will be their first new range since, well, we started this thread back in 2017!

Congratulations! Your first BB or long time user?

Great energy - nice one!

I agree that the Boss WL-20 had the cleanest tone of the wireless I've used. Downsides for me were all practical live use ones: - 2.4 GHz and consequent noticeable drop outs (key deal breaker for me); - 'rigid' form factor was not so good eg with Ibanez SR basses; - my older ones had a not great battery life of around 3 to 4 hours, if I remember correctly. The NUX trumps it on all three counts, plus the handy charge case, so whilst I would have loved to have held onto the Boss, it was a no brainer for me to switch. I generally use a cable at home which is where nuances of tone are going to be most prominent - in a live mix I wouldn't be able to notice it, as you have alluded. Besides, I'm too preoccupied trying to get the notes right!

Great topic, following! I kinda feel that lighting is often pretty low in the mindset of many covers bands I've come across, and doesn't get too much air time on BC, but can make a big difference to the live performance experience for audiences when done well. We've been using our pretty basic set up for 7 or 8 years now, and it's definitely time to think about doing something a little more professional on the lighting front. Unfortunately I suspect it's going to be down to the same guy providing the band PA and desk to get the lighting sorted and transported, with my crew 😅

The Lekato 5.8GHz is a decent piece of kit, but a few of us on this thread, who have had both, have upgraded to the Nux 5.8GHz for differening reasons (in my case I found the Nux to be noticeably quieter with a couple of my active basses). I spent a bit of time A/Bing the Lekato WS-50 (5.8GHz), Boss WL-20 (2.4 GHz) and Nux C-5RC (5.8GHz) and settled on the Nux 18 months back and have been very happy with it since. Others seem to have found the Lekato or Boss has ticked the box for them.

Agree with the sentiment Dave: a big part of why we buy a particular amp head must be tied into how its preamp sounds, and on top of that there's the on board EQ on active basses. For those of us, like me, who have gone done the FoH / PA route with no backline or are using a PA speaker (aka FRFR) as our backline, then having additional tone sculpting from a preamp pedal becomes a bigger issue. But even then, having a few choice EQ presets on a multifx can also work wonders and cover a lot of ground.

Was para EQ something you set up on your multifx's (which then obvs gives you the benefit of presets)? Or is there an additional attraction of being able to more quickly adjust the settings on the fly that makes a separate pedal attractive for this?

That does sound really odd, Pete. Any chance it could have been something as simple as one or both of the units being out of charge at the second rehearsal?

Yes, indeed it does John!

My basses (Elrick, Spector and Ibanez) are all active and the Nux works fine with all 3, Pete.

Have to disagree with you on this one, Chris. The singers I work with are often highly trained, work hard and very professional in their approach. A semi tone or tone in pitch can make a real difference to the tone and power they are able to deliver. So we start all our new song choices with what is the best key for the singer (the only exceptions being if there is a big guitar solo eg Sweet Child). And when they tell me about what works best for them, I tend to regard their opinions as being a lot more expert on the subject of vocals than mine! I guess in the same way that other musicians will give weight to what I have to say about bass (even though I've not had formal training in the way our singers have).

Good shout. I've found that pitch shifters I've tried (including multifx) tend to struggle with anything more than a couple of semis though, and introduce digital artefacts/tone warbles?

Ah that's a shame - obviously singers' vocal registers are going to be a pretty fixed, so they need the instrumentalists to be able to change key to accommodate, where possible. Forcing singers to sing in the wrong key can both sound worse and also be potentially damaging for their vocal chords? Interestingly our keys player has the easiest job of anyone changing key - the keyboard does it on a push of a button (digital keyboard), even easier than capo for guitarist or different fretboard position for us bass players, who I feel have the most work to do with key changes!

You'll be an asset to any band that you're part of, if you're doing that! The life blood of any gigging band is quite simply gigs and, as you noted, if the gigs dry up the band can easily come to an end. In my experience getting gigs often goes hand in hand with the skill set of being band leader, but it absolutely doesn't need to be and I've always really appreciated bandmates who are prepared to roll up their sleeves and put something back into the gig pot, as well as benefitting from what others are putting into it. I'd definitely mention in your ad that you have had quite a lot of success in finding gig venues for previous bands, and would be happy to be involved in supporting the band in that way if you came on board. I guess it's the same as applying for any role: if someone can set themselves apart from the pack by bringing something extra, that can only help?

Once you've got your foot in the door, though, be great if you can also put something into the gig pot as well as just taking out from it? And I suspect that sort of contribution won't go unnoticed as well as being really positive for the band you're part of?

Is the fact that you're feeling a bit stale a key reason you're leaving your band? Hope your final gig goes well!

Definitely a fan of trying to keep things fresh for both audiences, particularly where we have residencies, and equally importantly for us. One thing we did a few months back was to organise all our material (currently about 80 cover songs) into 3 full sets, which allows to us to cycle through all our material and also keep everything up to gig standard.

So in terms of tips for the OP (and, indeed, the rest of us!), what would you say were the key ingredients for your success since turning 50?

They certainly do in Moscow and the USA 😅