AxelF

But it will do for all new devices from 2024. That's the point.

I've had to play this a couple of times and use a patch on my C4 with expression pedal controlling the mix - it works really well as you can fade it in and out.

I saw Parcels at Brixton Academy on Friday night - my favourite band and having seen them twice before COVID I was desperate to see them again. It was awful, so bad that we gave up and left after about 40 mins. The sound was absolutely dreadful - sounded like it was simultaneously under water and muffled with about 50 pillows. We tried every location in the venue that we could get to - behind the engineer's desk, sides, middle, back corners. It was so frustrating that we decided to cut our losses rather than steadily get more and more angry about it! I'm absolutely devastated, can't remember ever walking out on a band before, especially not one I love that much. Was their only show in England too, with one previous date in Glasgow and now back in Europe and off to Australia next. I've since read that it's a common problem with the Brixton Academy, has anyone had particularly good or bad experiences there?

Thanks again Phil (and everyone else!) for your help - it sounds like that's the way to go for us, 99% of my gigs are small to medium size pubs in central/east London with 'interesting' layouts and all with their unique challenges in terms of loading in and where to set up. We're also exclusively in ears so no need for back line. I'm just slightly nervous about parting with my traditional rig setup for the odd occasion where I'm depping for a band that needs me to bring amp/cab but as you say, if it proves to be too bassy in that situation I can hopefully HPF/eq my way round that. Really appreciate everyone's expertise and help with this!

Thanks Phil that's really useful. I think a lot of the problem is that we very rarely get time for a proper sound check and then of course have limited feedback from non-playing friends and family of how the FoH bass sound is during the gig. The testing I did at the weekend was just me without the guitars/drums so I was conscious of not aiming for a specific tone, I was more just looking for punch and impact (and other nebulous concepts..!) - it's far from a fair trial and I really need to get the whole band down with our kit somewhere, though it's like herding cats trying to round people up for a gig! In terms of levels I was actually wondering if I'm running the tops too loud and over powering the subs, especially as I've been running only one - I'll stack them and use poles for the tops at the next gig and see if that improves things, plus play around with the volume settings on both. I'm still toying with the idea of getting some better tops that could carry the whole lot at the sort of venues we play, the QSC K12.2s and the RCF 745 are the ones that I keep seeing come up with you and Acidbass having success with just the 745s. It sounds like you'd recommend the 745s over the K12s having used both? Have you ever used the 745s as a traditional bass backline at gigs where you're not in the PA? Realistically I'd have to shift my backline gear to buy the 745s, but as 99% of my gigs these days are with this band I'd much rather get that sounding great, especially if I could cover the other handful of gigs I dep for with one of the 745s as my bass rig.

Thanks Bill that's really useful - so the general rule is always tops plus sub(s) if you're relying solely on the PA for the bass sound out front? The sort of places we're playing we're realistically never going to be able to centre cluster two subs - right now I have the two Carlsbro subs under the tops so they're split but only have the volume up on one - in our situation is it viable to have a system comprised of two tops and one well placed sub? Do you have any experience with either Carlsbro subs or the Mackie tops we're using Bill, or are you able to give a steer regarding their suitability from the specs please? I'd be really interested in where you think the biggest win would be - replacing the Mackies with better tops or replacing the subs with either one or two better alternatives? Are there any particular makes/models of either you recommend please? From a budget perspective if people have had success using one or two quality tops in place of a traditional head and bass cab setup as a backline, I could look at moving on my heads/cabs to fund the PA upgrade on the basis that any other gigs I pick up where I'm not running through the PA could be covered by the new 'FRFR backline', but if the purchase of one or two new better quality subs to run with the existing Mackies is the better option that's a different story.

That sounds great thanks - do you ever run them without the subs at gigs where you're relying on the PA to carry the bass in the room? Would they cope do you think or are the subs needed?

Thanks, yes subs positioned under the tops but I only run one with any volume - the other is switched on but with the volume knob all the way down to try and avoid cancellation issues.

I know there's a couple of similar posts right now, but I didn't want to hijack anyone's thread - I'm looking for advice on upgrading our PA speakers please (I think!). I play in a 5 piece rock/indie pub covers band and managed a year or two ago to convince everyone to ditch amps and run a silent stage with IEMs and everything through the PA. Everyone's fully on board and loves it, but it's left to me to try and engineer the gigs, which as we're playing in pubs inevitably means very short sound checks (more like line checks) and I never get chance to properly eq stuff, especially the bass. I hired a rehearsal room at the weekend and set the gear up to give myself a few hours of trying different preamps and tweaking the eq to get a good bass sound, which ended up being an exercise in frustration. Rather than running out and buying new a new bass or more preamps I think I'll probably have more joy upgrading our PA speakers? We run an XR18 mixer into Carlsbro Gamma 15/600 subs and use the HP filtered out from the subs into Mackie SRM450 tops. Having trawled through all the threads I can find on here over the last couple of years I'm only running one sub with any volume to try and avoid comb filtering (probably not too much of an issue in the smallish pubs we're in, but hey) but am just unable to get a punchy, decent sounding bass tone regardless of what I'm doing with the eq and which pre I'm using. I think the Carlsbros have a crossover of either 125 or 150Hz and I'm high passing the bass at 70Hz, so I imagine most of the FoH bass response is going to be left to the tops? I think I could probably experiment with the relative volumes I'm setting the subs and tops at too if I ever get chance. Are the speakers the issue here do you think, and if I'm looking to upgrade them (they belong to the singer), are there any options which would realistically carry the full band without having to use a sub too? I'd really like it to be as compact a solution as possible if I'm going to have to start lugging/storing them too! If tops only isn't going to cut it regardless of the boxes used though then so be it. I see the RCF ART 7 series and the QSC K12.2s get a lot of mentions, with quite a few people using them as a backline option instead of a 'traditional' bass cab setup - does this mean they could potentially be used as a pair as FOH speakers and provide enough bottom end for the bass and kick without a sub? We run the bass and both guitars DI into the desk and mic the kick and snare/hats plus two overhead mics for the drums. Thankfully he plays very sensibly and usually uses rods so we can manage the volume via the PA regardless of the venue. Would something more specifically bass-focussed be a better option and would they carry the guitars/vocals well enough? I see Barefaced used to do a FRFR powered speaker though they seem to be discontinued now - anyone know why? Would they be a better option than those I've mentioned, or are there any other makes/models I should be considering? Thanks in advance for the help - this sub forum has been a goldmine in terms of getting my understanding to this point, and apologies if this feels like flogging a dead horse - most of the topics I've seen regarding these speakers are in the context of a backline 'rig replacement' though rather than something people are looking to put the whole band through.

There's a few good posts on the other site about drop pedals including this one If you're only going 3 or 4 semitones or so I think you'd struggle to notice in a mix with any of them, more than about 5 or 6 semitones you might be pushing it a bit but some sound better than others. Personally I've used The Drop before with zero issues.

Just back from Queen at the O2, really surprised myself at how emotional I felt - they played a few snatches of Freddie's vocal which really caught me off guard. I've always been very sniffy of them carrying on without Freddie and John but I have to say I was completely wrong - Adam Lambert was excellent vocally and very respectful of the legacy generally. Neil Fairclough was fantastic, both bass and vocally. Overall a really top night. Damn I hate it when my sanctimonious self is wrong...!

What's with the speakers suspended from the ceiling? Monitor speakers with no boundary effects?

I've not tried the Ricochet, but the C4 made all of my filters and my OC-2 redundant. As you say, a C4 and a switch (DMC micro is what I use) and I strongly suspect you'll be sorted.

First thing I did when joining a new pub band was persuade them to go ampless and in ears. It's the classic problem with a lot of bands - someone (usually a guitarist...) decides he can't hear himself well enough so turns his amp up - then someone else can't hear themselves over the new volume and turns themselves up, and on and on until it's deafening. Bottom line is you are doing yourself physical harm every time you play at that volume. There will be inevitable pushback and reluctance and the only way might be to do what I did which was shell out for the mixer and monitor amps, and tell them to just buy/bring some headphones. Took a lot of arguing and several rehearsals of persevering with it, but they're all very happy with the setup now - can all mix their individual mixes on the fly, and the pubs and punters are happy because you provide a consistently good sound at reasonable volumes. There's lots of ways to do it but I went with the Behringer xr18 and Behringer P2 monitor amps - the singer and both guitarists have now bought themselves wireless monitor packs and would never go back to loud stages now. No screaming feedback from the vocal monitor and no screaming ears for 48 hours after a gig (or forever which is what the inevitable outcome will be if you continue like this!) It's far easier to say than to do, but if they refuse I'd walk away - it's not worth risking your hearing for the rest of your life!

It's the Nux one, I tried the guitarists Xvibe too which had the same issue. I've tried with a headphone extension cable and moving it a couple of inches away from the control cavity is enough to stop it, so mounting it on the strap should do the trick