Al Krow
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Everything posted by Al Krow
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No worries, enjoy!
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Drop me a line if you want to get a used one - I have a mint one I was going to list in the new year!
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In terms of approach - we've gone for the same i.e. recorded the audio first and then mimed while filming. It's not everyone's preference, but means you can get the audio tight off-line and without the pressure of a film shoot. The key with the miming is that your singer(s) need to be very on it, because that seems to be most easy to pick up if it's out. I guess followed by the drummer not being in time!
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Some decent live footage, doesn't have to be too professional, can be very helpful for getting your first booking at a new pub venue. If you want to be getting function gigs then a showreel is pretty much all that someone who has never come across the band has to go on, so having something that is decent quality both visually and sound-wise will make a difference - there's a lot of competition for function work! Doesn't have to be long, 2 - 3 mins is fine. Check out some of the bands on e.g. Alive Network and you'll get a feel for the quality of the showreel clips function bands are posting. We're just in the process of redoing our 2023 band reel to reflect the current 2025 band line up. We've managed to develop quite a lot of the skill set to get it done in house, which massively reduced the costs, and have decent camera and recording equipment so our main cost has been venue hire. Otherwise you can quite quickly end up spending £1k+ on a reel when you've taken account of venue hire, videographer and someone to do the sound mixing and editing. The flip side is that a function band can recover that outlay in a couple of events or even a single booking. There's a couple of ways reels are typically done: - Live take in a studio - Get the audio recorded separately and mime to audio for the video They both have different plusses and minuses.
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PS - yup actually super easy to assign expression pedal to control parameters. For example: assign expression pedal --> tremolo rate with min = 0 and max = 80, and at the same time assign one of the display knobs to show tremolo rate (to give you both a real time check on actual rate and ability to dial it back in on the knob should you choose to). Just adds a fun / useful dimension for live use to what appears to be a very cool mid-range multifx.
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Nice one Dave, looks even more compact than in the ads! I've been pondering a standalone multifx to take to forthcoming travel-light gigs for several months. The Valeton, Zoom B2-4 (no PC/android editor) were on my radar and I also came close to getting a little Ampero Mini. I was about to make do and mend with my old B1-4 when I got offered a Boss GX10 from my fav BC Boss-angel, and, given I'd already had very good experience with the GT1000 Core and was up to speed on the UI, kinda made sense to go for the GX10 in my case. Hope you get on well with the Valeton mate, although you, bass pedals & accessories and "keeper" should never really be allowed to appear in the same sentence? 😂
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Be sad to see the passing of this iconic brand! Wonder if it might get snapped up by a rival or even Thomann?
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More generally, my initial thoughts on the GX10 having had it for a week or so now are: - form factor is good and it's got a reassuring weight to it reflecting its rugged build; - really like the touchscreen colour interface, which is a nice step up from the GT1000 Core, plus little touches such as a USB-C instead of the older USB-2 connection for PC; - the editing software is easy to get to grips with (I guess helped by familiarity with the Core's similar software) and I've quickly figured out a standard clean preamp patch with a div / mix insert ready to put in whatever fx I fancy e.g. Touchwah up / down or Tremolo / Clean etc. It has a drag and drop approach which feels a little more intuitive to me than Core's more 'formal' standard patch layout. Although it's not got the processing power of the GT1000 Core, it shares a considerable number (maybe substantially all?) of the fx patches / effects with its more powerful sibling with the same parameter options and I suspect it will be more than capable for most of my needs as a gigging bassist and whilst the greater power of the Core in terms of nuances of bass tone would likely be something you might pick up on a studio recording it's unlikely to get noticed by anyone in a live band mix. So I feel I may have finally found the spiritual successor to my trusty Zoom B1-4 as a standalone gigging board, which my little B1-4 sufficed as for a couple of years pre Covid, when I was needing to travel light to certain gigs. The key thing I need to see if I can figure out next is how to assign the expression pedal to control parameters, other than being solely a volume pedal, but from @SumOne's earlier posts this shouldn't hopefully be too tricky and will open up some useful additional flexiblity for live use. Finally...who knew that a Slicer fx could be so much fun?! It's got 20 preset slicer patterns and I've taken a shine to #13. Looking forward to seeing my bandmates reaction when that gets unleased on them at the start of 'Freed from desire' on Sat night!
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Having managed to source a GX10 for a very decent used price from my longstanding BC "Boss Multi supplier", I thought I'd give the Touch Wah a spin given your query! It's pretty good! Particularly liking it on BPF setting and the fact that I can switch from up to down sweep with the press of a button having set up a divider on the main signal chain path, which is very easy to do. I personally prefer it the up sweep over the down sweep. I'd be perfectly happy to use the filter patch with my band. I can't comment on how it compares to their Touch Wah pedal though, as I've never had one. Hope that helps!
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And don't forget Ibanez as a relatively lightweight option!
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Yes, that's a key point to note re. the U4s that they are mono transmitters. Our lovely, and very capable, little desk has 6 monitor outputs, not quite enough for us to go down the stereo route which would require 4 x 2 = 8 monitor outs for our 4 piece set up. Has going stereo really improved your gigging experience, Woody? If so, maybe something for me to consider for my crew down the line at some point! Is the U45 a decent step up from the U4 for you? I note that it's a 5.8 GHz, whereas the U4 is on the more crowded 2.4 GHz. "The Xvive U45 is a significant upgrade to the U4, mainly moving to the less crowded 5.8 GHz band for better interference resistance, adding USB-C charging, an auto-scan feature to find clear channels, and minor physical improvements like stiffer knobs for durability, making it a highly recommended buy for new users despite a small price increase. While the U4 is a good budget system, the U45 offers more reliability, especially in crowded venues, through its improved tech and dedicated channel scanning." Hmmm...does sound good! Not come across too many wireless IEM transmitters in the 5.8 GHz space (although the cheaper Swiff WX520 our drummer is using is also 5.8 GHz). -
3 of us have been using Xvive U4s for a while, which seems to be a decent mid-price range. Drummer has recently got a Swiff WX520 from Ali Express (they're currently just under £75) which he's really liking.
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Thank God for digital desks eh?! i wouldn't have a hope of doing this with my old analogue desk! Just as an aside: This level of flexibility combined with the better pre-amps on our A&H CQ18T (vs my old Soundcraft MTK12) and the ability to give everyone a tailored feed that we're already benefitting from, seems to me to make a quality digital desk the single most important factor in getting a band to successfully adopt and accept IEMs in place of backline? With quality in ear headphones running in a very close second - one of our singers tried got a set of KZ ZARs from Ali Express for £30 recently. She's over the moon with how good they are!
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Thanks for clarifying that.
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Interesting, as a lot of the received wisdom is not to have much, if any, reverb on bass for FoH?
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Are you managing to put the reverb just through the IEM feeds and not FoH?
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Using reverb to enhance the IEM experience My understanding is that reverb isn't particularly widely used by your average pop / rock set bassists like me, but the IEM interaction is an interesting one! Apparently a very subtle hall (or hall-like) reverb in IEMs can make the bass tone subjectively nicer and the gigging experience more pleasurable for the bassist, even though it does not improve articulation in a technical sense. This is a monitoring and human-factors issue, not a tonal-engineering one. IEMs lack: - acoustic coupling with the room - cabinet air movement - spatial cues from reflections So, a small amount of ambience: - Restores a sense of physical space - Reduces the “dry DI in your skull” effect - Makes sustained notes feel more musical - Lowers perceived fatigue over a long set Not something I've given much thought to before! Dunno if this chimes with other IEM users' experience?
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Interesting you mentioned reverb. I've just been trying to figure the difference in sound between what I thought were two identical fx patches but which felt like they had a distinct flavour through my IEMs at a gig on Saturday night. I've since done a bit of digging and one has a reverb ('hall') block omitted from the other, which I'd not spotted before! Always thought that reverb was more of a thing for vox and guitar than bass, but I've clearly been missing a trick!
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I'd kinda assumed Option 1 for EQs and compressors = your clean tone, and often on a preamp? Reverb = other
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Hah! You can tick all the options, you're not limited to one!
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All's well than ends... Enjoy your CQ - it's a great piece of kit! We've been using our CQ18T for almost exactly a year now and my singer reminded me last night how much more clearly she was able to hear herself at the same Xmas party gig we did a year back, after upgrading from our Soundcraft MTK 12, which I put down to the better preamps and being able to tailor individual IEM feeds for everyone.
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Thought it could be interesting to get a feel for what fx pedals the BC collective are regularly using live that give us our signature sounds with our bands. If there's a particular pedal that is the heart of your sound and you couldn't manage without do let us know. If you have any clips of you making use of particular fx live, even better - please feel free to share! Feel free to tick more than one fx category if you're using regularly i.e. at some point on every gig.
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Bought a Boss multifx from Ben. Pedal was in excellent condition (as always), sold to me for a very fair price, and another super smooth transaction
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Looks like the GP-100 without the expression pedal and, interestingly, on sale for a tad more than the GP-100!
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You've whetted my interest! Out of interest, which other filter pedals have you used?
