tayste_2000

Appreciate the insight from everyone here. Currently I have (far too much) an Audient Audio Interface, NUX Mighty Plug, NUX Mighty Plug Pro, Zoom MS60b, Zoom MS70CDR, Sonicake Boom Ave. Then stuff I don’t include in this realm, 2 Groove Tube Ditto’s, JF Capo, Summit TD-100, SFX IEM Mixer and DI, Countryman Type 10, 3 Radial Stagebugs and a few pedals for fun. My requirements are quite unique (weird), my lifestyle allow me to travel a lot and I always carry a bass with me, or am lucky enough to be visiting somewhere I have family where I’ve left a bass and some equipment for me. To clarify my obsession with weight and size is due to me mainly travelling with hand luggage and checking a bass…. and you can’t check lithium batteries into the hold. The NUX Mighty Plug was great and the Mighty Plug Pro should have been an upgrade and for the most part it is, the USB C means I can charge it with the same cable I charge everything else, it works as an audio interface with my iPad and I can bluetooth music too it from my phone, it’s also got IR loading so you can get a really nice sound out of it. All of this is great except, no octaver, no weird fx, interface doesn’t lend itself to heavily messing with fx (I tend to use it as an amp, ir and maybe compression) can only ever be used as a practice device and finally has a weird digital rattle in the high end which is audible when playing on your own. I’ll probably just suck it up and wait until a Pro 2 or 3 comes out. Then I have the Zoom’s (I have 2 so I don’t have to always carry one, one is with me and one is in the UK currently), I can transfer settings and swap fx between them. I can hack fx from the CDR on to the B and vice versa and if I need another I can pick them up for £50 ish and load the same fx and presets on quickly. It sounds pretty good, (far better than the 506 of my youth), I can get some really obscure sounds that stop me from buying really expensive pedals, it runs on usb, 9v standard and AA’s so I can leave it in the case when checking, also means I get to a jam I can just throw it down on the floor and be away. Issues with it are no usb c,, no simple master volume control to knock down a patch you’ve set too loud in your bedroom, no headphone so I have to use the NUX with it, which means I’m rarely playing with the amps in the Zoom because the NUX sounds lacklustre without one on and switching between multiple devices and interfaces isn’t conducive to creativity or simply playing. These 2 basically do everything I need (but not want). The wants then expand into Whatever I have above I also need a DI box, maybe that’s all I’ll take on a gig but it’s not all I’m carrying with me. Then I also carry a Behringer P2 on the off chance I get an IEM feed. Then this is all practice quality stuff, I still have loads of gear for when I’m in the UK and doing recording or more serious gigging. This ultimately means a lack of consistency between live, practice, jam, recording and whatever rigs. Not the end of the world but often leaves you longing for one when you only have access to the other. So really I was hoping for a crossover between these 2 devices which the P2 really looked like. The P1 was really close initially but I didn’t like I couldn’t reorder the fx chain (takes me back to multi’s from the early 00’s). So the device now that has me most tempted currently is the Kemper Player, it’s bigger than everything mentioned but smaller than everything I’m carrying. The only issue for me is power and usb. This will sound silly but all of these play into what I carry, currently I power everything from 2 usb c leads (easy to replace if needed too) so adding usb c to b is another cable, or a small adaptor (I have several for lightning, micro and mini usb I carry currently). The power supply is another, what happens if I lose it, break it, snap a pin on the adaptor due to a drunk singer a jam night. I also can’t run an IEM feed through it. Power supply is also the size of 4 NUX’s? maybe heavier. This has lead me almost full circle to the Line 6 HX Stomp (which for some reason I’ve resisted massively even though an M13 replaced a huge pedalboard for me), again bigger than the Zoom and NUX, similar power issues to the Kemper but people have powered these from usb battery packs and 9v converters. I can live with the USB B adaptor that would be required on the Kemper. The cons are then a lack of bluetooth streaming (I can get round this with a 12 south airfly I use to connect my airpods to plane entertainment systems) and using this in the fx loop return is also how I can use the HX as an IEM mixer live, but finally no xlr. I was so excited the HX One would be the Line 6 version of Zoom MS series. I’m aware how specific my plight is and also how first world it is, but we’re also in the FX section of a Bass forum so I feel it fits. Other things I’ve tried, audio interface and apps. This was my main gig rig for ages, I had a tiny line 6 sonic port, moved away from rigs and fx completely. Until a disastrous iOS update stopped the interface working. Since then much has changed, there are some really great usb c interfaces that work with my ipad (not my phone yet sadly, or not without more adaptors) and apps like Tonex are far beyond what once replaced my rig. But taking a £1500 iPad Pro that is your main work device and you make all your income on to a jam night? Or taking your phone and having it on that same stage (when it’s the thing that holds copies of your passport, all your banking info, all your flight tickets) what do you do if that gets smashed up because you wanted to play mustang sally one night in Buenos Aires. So I could get an iRig HD or similar and replace the NUX (but even that minimal equipment isn’t as quick and easy as the NUX) and there is this issue of with the NUX you can turn the device up and bluetooth down (or volume on your phone down) when using an audio interface there is one volume, so you find yourself turning up volumes and gain on amp sims to match the music volume. Again minor but all of these things get in the way of an organic creative experience. That creative experience where you turn up to a jam night with a killer synth sound that you’ve been crafting whilst jamming Taylor Swift tracks or whatever floats your boat and you’re really familiar with the equipment because you spend hours and hours with it, not just an ancillary device you tack on because you wanted a bit of octave on something. And there is my brain dump for the evening, enjoy.

I’m on 3 😈

That’s great to know, with the profiles you can download do people capture pedals as well as amps? I’ve found this on Tonex which is more fun for variation as basically just find 1 amp sound I like and stick with it. But what I realised with Tonex is I can’t load rigs from an ios device, I can’t use it as a practice tool to play along tracks etc so the pedal becomes redundant. @SumOne this is now sticking in my mind over the Mooer and Nux. Bigger than both for sure but too big? Better quality than all the unit’s we’re discussing, could potentially replace the Zoom with weirder stuff and has the IO for gigging. Overkill for practice? Certainly but the more roles it fulfils (jam pedal, audio interface, looper, multi fx, core of a live rig, etc) the more it justifies it’s cost and size.

I feel there has to be some common programming language between these platforms zoom, nux, mooer, sonicake etc They can’t all be reinventing the wheel making a digital rat every single company. Someone just needs to make a third party app where we can pick and choose our favourite apps and load them on to the device that suits our needs. …. and then if any of them can just put an xlr out on it

Cab sims isn’t so bad because you can load any third party ir.

Thanks I had read the manual a while back and remembered being unimpressed with the list, somehow was hopeful it was different when it arrived 😂

Weird isn’t it it’s perfect yet terrible at the same time. I use my nux for practice but without a single bass amp (tbh I don’t care which) the Mooer can’t replace it. Without any bass specific or random fx it also can’t replace my zoom as a back up rig or something I can just throw on the floor for a jam. Maybe a firmware update will come and solve these problems for me. Form factor, interface and io is perfect for what I want 🙄

Which is cool, but I assume none of the weird stuff like in the zoom? Synths? particle reverb? Pitch delays? What amp sim are you using since there are no bass specific amps? looper?

Any noise? I hear a high end digital almost rattle with my Mighty Plug that is really starting to annoy me. Does it have an octaver? Have to admit, looks cool

Are you able to confirm if you can connect your phone to it and play songs via bluetooth to play along with? I didn’t want to ask in the guitar forums for fear of looking lonely with no one to play with.

Yeah wasn’t sure if yours was the older 2.4 model in which case it would be a lateral move. Since you have the 5.8 it’s a downgrade. Surprisingly this is a brand new unit and they do 5.8 for some IEM packs but chose to go with 2.4 for this 🤷🏻‍♂️🙄

Just to throw it out there (and I don’t know why I’m pushing my unsolicited advice around) but if you were to ever switch to the following wireless https://www.nuxaudio.com/b8.html (which could be considered a downgrade given the great reviews I hear about the Shure but who knows) It would allow you to run the Helix in the loop of the wireless and use the xlr out, there by making an even tidier more versatile setup. Anyway….. carry on

I could happily have a 1 channel no stomp switch Capo (like Mesa did with their DI) that’s smaller and maybe even cheaper. Can also ditch the loops for all I care 😂

Well you let me know when you’ve done some captures and I’ll check them out. I’m going to look at capturing a Groove Tube Ditto and Summit TD-100 but I can’t imagine either will really have too much impact on someones signal chain. Someone has captured the Radial Stagebug so there is that.

When you get into this I recommend the following. https://www.tone.net/tonex/tonemodels/34396 https://www.tone.net/tonex/tonemodels/38296

I totally get where you’re coming from and mixed with my own experience I’d say it’s going to be a struggle but also given the gigging situations, something you’re going to want to pursue. I think we put too much emphasis on isolation with IEMs, I think the right amount of stage bleed and it starts to feel very similar to the moulded ear plugs (something I’ve also used for around 15 years now). I looked at the following along with IEMs with adjustable ports that just let sound on stage in at an attenuated level (like the ear plugs) So you end up with this sound you’re familiar with but then more because of the feed you’re blending in. Add on to this something like the backbeat (I had a G1 and sold it as I didn’t like the extra cables, weird charging and weight on my strap) but the G2 solves most of that (2 for sale on this forum right now) or the Porter & Davies (bass direct have a platform and amp for sale currently). A combination of these will trick your brain and body into feeling it better and you’ll find a far more basic sound then just works. Another option instead of the Rolls could be something like the Zoom H6 then blend ambient mics, foh feed and bass (I guess a H4 may also have enough channels but everyone seems to use the H6 🤷‍♂️) into something that sounds a bit less just direct. Regarding all the other magic boxes, my take aways are. IR’s I’ve enjoyed as they are very subtle eq’s, so they don’t smother your tone, but they do roll a lot of highs off. I play basses generally with flats and a lot of palm muting so this doesn’t bother me. However I turn an IR on and go this great. Few hours later I turn it off and my clean tone sounds so much better and clearer and yadda yadda. I definitely wouldn’t be wanting to send an IR signal to FOH. They do make cheaper amp sims sound a bit better and take the edge off drive pedals that have way to much highs when just done direct. So they were a nice addition to the NUX Mighty Plug Pro I use for home practice (Aguilar amp model and a shiftline IR). Captures and profiles I’ve played with a bunch today and I found one that I was like wow, really wow. But all that did was make me want the actual unit. It was incredible with pedal captures though, I could seriously see myself never buying another vintage inspired drive pedal. For home practice these are definitely worth a look. I’d probably look at Tonex due to the multi platform support over the new Kemper Player, but the Kemper did respark my interest in all this again.. Analog tone shaping and preamp pedals I don’t think are going to cut it for you, I’ve been on this mission for a long time myself, looking for that more amp like, magic tone that just gives me more of something 🤷‍♂️ without smothering the tone. The Jad Freer Capo was the best I found but it doesn’t sound like an amp, it sounds like a studio channel strip. So gives you more of that direct tone when you’re in the studio and think YEAH! THIS IS F’IN ACE when played back to you through huge monitors. Pedals that claim to sound like amps, they just don’t or should I say maybe they sound like amps DI’d or mic’d up recorded and played back to you but nothing compensates for that air moving. Given how many gigs I’ve done in recent years with 100w combo’s as monitors and IEMs I have no idea how I ever ran 2 Strategy 400s indoors but I’ll have fond memories and constant ringing in my ears. To get that feel you’re going to have to experiment with more than just tone unfortunately, also maybe try a subtle bit of reverb on your bass 🤷‍♂️ could help but again, only in your ears keep FOH as clean as possible.

How is everyone else finding the IEM experience? Such as if you can’t resolve your issues will there just be a single amp on stage in form of a giant bass stack? Have you tried running your feed with bass in it and using the rolls just to fill that out further? (I’ve never had foh not include bass just because I have my own level for bass, I just ask for the full foh mix and then level my bass up in it) I’m currently using the zs10s and have previously used the Xive. How do you feel about your bass tone out front? I can’t say I’ve ever really listened to mine. Next purchase will be moulded IEMs because I’ve committed to this life and even if I only ever use them for home practice it’ll be an improvement.

Have you tried the Backbeat or Porter & Davies stuff? IEM wise what headphones are you using? Is the whole band on IEMs? For a long time I just used a custom sfx unit that had bass in and line in and a volume for each of them. I’d take a passive line out from the foh speakers for my line in (so what you assume is a nice full mix as it’s foh) and then run my bass in and have that louder. This is likely what you’re doing with the Rolls but maybe overthinking the feed in. This particular unit would then allow me to pass the line in on to anyone else with iems. It also had a DI so it was a 1 stop solution. In this setup I felt a little like I was missing some polish, not necessarily eq, or compression or overdrive but just a less raw bass into di tone. (I say not necessarily because I’ve added all these things and each and everything felt overwhelming to the tone I wanted) I think because I practice so much into an ipad or using the Nux mighty plug what I actually miss is some ad/da conversion in my signal chain, so I’ve recently added a Sennheiser wireless that I plan on using as my tuner and di and then something like a Zoom H6 to give me a more complex IEM mix whilst still being really portable and quick to setup. I don’t want to be an donkey (but I am, so I will be) but I wonder if the issue is not the lack of a rig but the level at which you approach the WHOLE IEM setup. I have friends running custom moulded IEMs with their own mix in a stereo feed into £800+ wireless units and never hear any complaints, but every guitarist with a £13 set of headphones running off a spare feed powered by something cheap from behringer will tell me how it doesn’t sound/feel like their rig. Again not to knock your efforts, because I’m very much in this space (been looking at big tube rigs all weekend) but my experiences got better when the whole band switched to IEMs (because then the guitarist used an Iridium and not just a whatever feed out of the back of his amp) and when I was able to control my own position (volume) in my own mix. With all the above said, I’ve just spent 3 hours messing with Tonex on the iPad, if the model of the Noble is accurate I’m just going to buy one and never wonder about anything else 😂

Can I enquire as to how you’re comparing the amps you like to the models, profiles and IRs you don’t? Is the big amp you like Di’d? Mic’ed off stage and pumped in to your iems? Or is it amp in the room vs headphones in your ears and the issue is less you dislike the profiles but dislike iem bass tone/feel. Or is it backline rig vs foh tone? I’m always wrestling with this myself I’ve been pretty exclusive IEMs for around 5 years (occasional amp as a monitor for the band) but came from a very big rig background. Eventually I’ve gone down to just a clean di as I didn’t need multiple amp tones and just want to travel as light as possible. Even this becomes marginal gains having compared a Stagebug to an acme di and coming away thinking a di is di 🤷🏻‍♂️ (says the man with 3 tube Di’s and 6 other none tube options) But there is so much great gear available that I’m always on the hunt for some sort of magic tone box. I often consider the kemper, or tonex to model my (a) rig but then I don’t have a rig, I don’t have an inherent tonal preference, I have an eq preference and can dial in “me” on anything put in front including what’s piped back to my IEMs. None of these solutions will ever feel like when I was running 2 Mesa Strategy 400s into 12 10inch speakers 😈 and if they don’t feel like that, does the fact it sounds the same really matter? I never even thought about the DI tone from that rig because that much air moving was just glorious. Genuinely interested in the various approaches you’ve taken in this area (hopefully to save myself a lot of money)

Interested to know how it works out, I love the idea of a “Tone Brain” that is tiny and I can append what I need as and when. I use the Mighty Plug Pro for home practice and nothing will ever be more convenient but there are some noise issues. Both work as audio interfaces and are good enough to record with. Then I use a Zoom MS60b for jams because I can power it from 2aa’s and throw it on the floor and go. Prime P2 would be the same vibe but smaller and more flexibility. I see on the newer one you can re-order fx which I don’t think you can do on the P1. Both have IRs which is very cool and then the only other issue I see is none have an octaver. Just constantly searching for the smallest best sounding multi functional thing I can

As would mine too then