Al Krow

Speaking about hearing everything, just wondering if I've been missing a trick on the ambient microphone side of things? I've spotted that some of the KZ range now come with a microphone on the cables (pic below) but I'm assuming that these only work when the switch is pressed. So not capable of being an "always on" feature, but still potentially useful for having a conversation with a band/audience member without needing to take your earbuds out? Don't know if anyone else has gone down this route or spotted something similar / better?

Love Runaway Baby (but is it really a funk number?) - it's a super fun bass riff! But hardly any of the punters we play it to seem to be familiar with it! Uptown Funk on the other hand, absolutely!

Looks like these are now in stock with Bax. Just ordered mine - should arrive mid next week.

Just come across these bad boys: 9 V Rechargeable Battery, 13500mWh 9 V High Capacity Lithium Batteries, I think that equates to 1,500 mAh, which is a little more than my current 9V batteries which are 1,300 mAh but not hugely so. Anyone come across a higher capacity rechargeable 9V?

This^^ particularly the point about compact footprint. Personally I don't think any of the multifxs do everything well e.g. filter & synth? Certainly not the ones I've come across, anyway. So I've gone with the approach of having a multifx at the heart of my pedalboard supplemented by a few dedicated pedals that just do stuff I would regularly want to use in a live setting, "better". A Zoom B1-4 has been perfectly adequate for a long time, but now that my crew are starting to regularly do function gigs it's probably time for me to bite the bullet and replace the B1-4 with something more capable / less noisy. That had always been the plan when I got a GT1000 Core first time around, before I moved it on to one of our band's guitarists who had just joined at the start of the year, and who has since been super happy with it.

Lots of very good points there BRX. Just occurred to me, though, that maybe one of the reasons you're so happy with your full Helix vs the struggle that a lot of Stomp users have is that the compact Stomp and HXFX units have literally half the DSP of the full Helix and Helix LT (one vs two core processors). So stuff that sounds really good on the full/LT might struggle on the budget / more compact models? Whereas the the GT 1000 and GT 1000 Core share the same more powerful chipset. Just a hunch? But you would have thought that halving the available processing power is going to have some impact?

Chips that aren't a decade old is my starting point. That is ancient tech by most people's standards in the IT world. More dsp = better sound quality as a general starting point There's maybe a reason so many struggle with Helix to get a good sound straight "out of the box" particularly as the Helix software is unrivalled? Seems to be an easier journey with more recent kit with greater dsp such as the GT1000 / Core - it's been very obvious when working our regular 4 guitarists the Core users were up and running with a sound they liked very quickly, the Helix boys are still struggling to find a sound they like, or just about getting there.

I may have to make another foray into giving the GT1000 Core a go, after mine got filched by our guitarist and given that there's still no sign of an upgrade to the ancient Helix range in sight...guess I'll know who to tap up for a mint condition used one then 😁

Time to get a £50 used Zoom B1-4? 😂

What would you say are the key limitations in functionality apart from fewer channels and outputs?

@Phil Starr @Chienmortbb gents, any takers?! 😊

What's the weight of your subs, Bill? Feels like there's a gap in the market / interesting commercial opportunity for a high quality relatively lightweight sub, certainly over here in the UK? In the same way that Alex Claber made a big name with his Barefaced cabs. Bass Direct in Warwick could be an ideal UK distributor if this sounds interesting, as they regularly import from the USA.

Thanks Bill. So I think you're saying lower cost and lack of need of wider dispersion makes the 15" the obvious choice over 2 x 10" for a sub? Would you expect the size / weight of the two set ups to differ for same power output, other things being equal?

Sure, and I agree with all of that, Bill. But would a 2 x 10" speaker set up ever make sense for a sub vs a 1 x 15"?

Finally someone making sense on speaker cone sizes. So they do matter and make a difference. Hallelujah.

What are you considering to be small vs hefty? And where, in particular, do 12" speakers fit into that?

Don't get rid of your synth pedal any time soon though! 😅 I'm not sure how good that review was tbh, felt like it was doing quite a few things "adequately" and not necessarily showing off its potential? If you have a set of individual pedals you were 90% happy with, that's a pretty decent outcome! Genuinely looking forward to hearing if it ends up cutting the mustard for you, or if you decide to stick to your existing board? But nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Both great options! For a pub band, I think a more budget Option 3 for the core PA could also work well: 2 x RCF 732A + Desk to suit your needs It's what we typically use for our weekly pub/function covers gigs, with no backline, and works very well for our 4 piece band. Your two options are both a step up from what we have.

I suspect the CQ12 will be a significantly better machine in terms of the quality of components (and also a lot less noisy with certain wireless IEMs)?

About to say goodbye to the last Yamaha in my herd (a lovely BB 2005) and it will be the first time since 2017 I'm without one! Just been finding that my Elrick and Spector are giving me everything I need for the 60 or so covers/function gigs my crew are currently doing annually. But it's been a fun 380 page journey while it lasted and it's great to see folk still coming across Yamaha BBs for the first time and falling in love with them.

Haha, you and me both! Just thinking for my 4 piece the smaller CQ-12T should do the trick - it's got 10 XLR inputs (5 of which are combi and also take 1/4") and 6 individually configurable mono outputs plus a headphone output. We've been managing ok with our Soundcraft analogue desk with 8 mic or jack inputs plus stereo input for e.g. Spotify playlists during breaks and 2 mono + 1 stereo (can be made into two mono) + 1 headphone output, but only the 2 mono outputs are individually configurable. It seems to me the key pros are: A&H digital - much greater ability to tailor and store EQ settings on each channel strip, including FX (global FX applies across all the channels on the Soundcraft); - individually tailored monitoring for each band member - ability to multi-track record Soundcraft analogue - ability to multi-track record - individual sliders There will be digital desks that allow you to do all of the above which don't break the bank e.g. Zoom Livetrack series - but the Zoom L8 I had proved to be relatively poorly shielded / noisy when used with our Xvive U4 IEMs

So the software update applies to the CQ range as well as the higher end CD range that @Chienmortbb mentioned in his post? That's excellent news!

Fantastic initiative Phil! The ZARs are a definite step up from the ZS10s and not a very good price if you get them from Ali Express. Put it like this, I was starting to question the benefits of IEMs in terms of gigging experience vs using backline after using the ZS10s for over a year. No longer feeling that way now I have the ZARs.

What nice confirmation of the 140Hz low mids boost being magic fairy dust, thanks John!

@ratman came along to a recent gig and felt that the bass tone in the mix was really thin. We've pinned the cause down to a combination of the desk HPF kicking in at 100Hz and a 3dB bass cut at 60 Hz which had been set like that in my desire to avoid any boominess, but was clearly overkill! I've taken off the desk HPF for the bass (and kick drum), and replaced with one cutting in at 50Hz on my Zoom multifx; got rid of the -3dB desk bass cut but added a 3dB boost at 140Hz. Voila! So much more weight to the low end now and sounding much less thin/clearer through my IEMs too! The low-mids boost at 140Hz does seem to be magic fairy dust for both FoH and IEMs - I guess I tend to forget that anything up to 200Hz is bassEQ-land and not to allow myself to be conned by the it being labelled "mids" (albeit low). Not often you get an expert bass player and sound guy rolled into one in the audience, and I suspect this very helpful bit of feedback which the silent stage approach had kept a little hidden from me is going to be a bit of a game changer - thank you Alex!