SumOne

All good thanks, me and my daughter went and we are now set up for 1hr a week (30mins each). It's at a music academy (although that makes it sound posher than it is, it is a bit of a shabby building next to a train station) which is quite a cool and inspiring place as you walk past rooms of people learning drums, singing, guitars etc. He was good at tailoring things, had my daughter playing a game linked to an iPad to make horses race as you play the right notes - which had her wanting to carry on with it at home. And had me improvising I IV V chords in root/third/fifth positions as he played basslines - which inspired me to do some new rehearsing routines. And he's already getting me set up to learn some songs that I can play with the Hammond sounds with the Band (Liquidator, Green Onions) rather than purely going down the Grade route. Trinity grades looked more appealing to me but this teacher does ABRSM and as it seems like he won't ridgedly stick to it for all the teaching I think we'll go with that (he can do Trinity if we want but he doesn't have the materials to copy/lend). He confirmed that I am on about Grade 3 for playing and theory. Interestingly, he recommended I don't bother spending time on theory much at this point and to not bother with theory Grade tests until Grade 5 as that's where it is necessary to progress to the next Grades, he said I'd pick up a lot of what's needded as I do the performance stuff.

The classic thing is to go: compressor > effects > preamp. ....but lots of amps have an effects loop as it is good to put certain effects (generally delays, reverbs, modulation) after the preamp. And compressors set more like limiters are usually at the end of the signal chain (e.g. can then tame overly 'peaky' effects like tape delay). So there isn't any definitive right or wrong.

Yussef Dayes ft. Chronixx 'Pon di Plaza'

Yussef Dayes ft. Tom Misch, 'Rust'

I had some success using an Akai MPC as a Live Bass effects unit, it has a Tuner, Amp sims, lots of live effects with more parameter controls than most effect pedals have, all relatively easily edited via touchscreen and assigning knobs. There wasn't noticeable latency. The main downside was it being relatively large and not being 'stompable' e.g. couldn't put it in the floor and stomp on/off effects mid-song. It could potentially sit on my amp for always on type effects but seemed a bit big/expensive/complex for that vs just using a cheap Bass multi-fx like a Zoom MS 60B so I never actually used it live for Bass effects but it seemed perfectly possible. I don't own the MPC anymore but I still like the idea of using hardware for sampling and drums stuff so am eyeing up the Roland SP 404 MK2. What is helping to convince me about it is that it seems quite a capable unit for adding live effects and basically using it as live multi-fx unit (all be it not stompable, and not bass specific). It has a big effects list including Guitar Amp sims (unfortunately no Bass Amp sim though) so I'm hoping it could be a useful multi-fx unit that sits on the Amp, sample trigger, and drum machine and sequencer....4 in 1 bargain! I've also found that some quite limited effects on my mixing desk (Mackie FX 12v3) can be usefully when assigned just to the Bass. It wouldn't be ideal for all live stuff as again it isn't stompable but does have potential to add stuff like Delay, Reverb, Chorus as long as you don't want them turned on/off mid-song. I also tried Laptop and interface hardware teamed up 'Gig Performer' software. It gives a huge potential for all the different effects you can use, latency was low, it turned into a faff to try and have Laptop and interface etc for gigs though. One big issue was how to stomp on mute and view a tuner without using the laptop - I'd need a tuner pedal, by then might as well just have a small multi fx. Any other non-standard ways you've added live effects? It seems there is a whole world of things like DJ effects units out there that can potentially do the job - and many are cheaper and more feature full than Bass specific things.

I got a Zoom CDR 70+. Instant online Amazon purchases and next day delivery is almost too good! It's alright, but I think I'll return it, I just don't like the interface much for what I need.

I have owned a stomp and some Zoom pedals before, but not used with keyboard so perhaps I should re-consider them. My issue with pretty much any multi-fx I've tried (and I have tried most of them) is they lack that immediacy/improvisation of individual pedals chained together. The Stomp for example, say I just quickly decide while playing keys that I want to turn on a Phaser and increase its rate and then after a few seconds turn on distortion and gradually increase that: Perhaps I'm doing things wrong but I would usually figure I need to have a 'Phaser + Distortion' preset to scroll through to that'd have Phaser assigned to one FS (to turn on first), 'phaser rate' assigned as something I can easily/quickly edit with the knobs, then 'Distortion' on another FS to turn on and distortion amount assigned to knobs to increase, and what if I then decide I want to add a delay for the last notes of the song and I don't have that as a FS in the preset? I dunno, but that sort of scenario never seems to have worked out for me with multi-fx in the same way as if I just had them as individual pedals, I'd end up needing a massive list of presets to scroll through to cover every eventuality, or a big long effext chain I scroll into to activate the specific ones I need, or different footswitches assingned for different eventualities. For me, multi-fx are great for pre-planned sets with presets, and 'always on' type things (amp/cab sims, compression etc), but much less so (and less fun) for live on-the-go improvisation. ..but yeah, I conceed that I should probably re-consider how I use multi-fx as they are probably the more sensible option. The Plethora X3 looks pretty decent to me as stereo effects and the sort of hands-on features of individual pedals. Annoying it doesn't have any distortions though.

Any recommendations for stereo effects pedals that work well for both Bass and Keyboard? I'm keen to gradually build a pedalboard that could work for both. That means they need to have the option of stereo in/outs for the Keyboard (it has built-in stereo effects like Leslie speaker), not be too Bass specific (e.g. Bass compressor) and be able to handle line in as well as instrument in signals. It'd be good if they had presets that could be easily changed from Keyboard to Bass. I think the Source Audio stuff would all be good. e.g. Atlas compressor, Collider delay, Gemini Chorus (which I unfortunately sold recently). Perhaps the Boss RE-2 or RE-202. Any good stereo distortion? (distortion is one thing I'm not so keen on with the Source Audio pedals, doesn't sound as good as analogue to me) Perhaps multi-fx like the Boss GT Core. My reservation with multi-fx is I enjoy the jam band improvising type approach to all apart from the 'bread and butter/always on' effects, especially with keyboard e.g. if I instantly decide I want one section to have distortion and chorus I can easily press both on with individual pedals and easily change their parameters, I can then decide to add some delay and click that pedal on - as opposed to trying to do all that with multi-fx by scrolling through effects blocks and parameter menus or presets to find one pre-planned for that exact eventuality.

Similar for me: The band needs a showreel and I'd like it if everyone could get off their notes/tablets. Although saying that, I think that particular band I take it for what it is and my ambitions are limited. It's fun but I'm not particularly inspired to do much more than turn up and play the set list (which I don't really need to rehearse anymore). My music ambitions are now mostly Piano/Organ stuff and to do formal lessons and exams. Me (possibly on bass, or keys), a drummer, and a keys player have a vague plan to put together a live band playing 90s sort of house music.

Yeah, I've gone through dozens of in ear headphones and those KZ-ZS10 are the ones that I've found best for Bass playing. I think it's mostly down to the fact they fit well.

I'm starting to realise more why Piano is sometimes seen as being a bit posh as to formally learn isn't cheap (and compared with Bass it feels like an instrument that does need formal tuition). Or at least ABRSM certainly know how to extract ££ from students! I'm already upto about grade 2 or 3 level so have been looking at the course books to do some practise before I have my first lesson in 35 years. If I were to get all of the Grade 3 books: Exam Pieces (contains nine of them, can also pay for additional ones on the syllabus) Scales and Arpeggios Specimen Sight-reading Discovering Music Theory Workbook Discovering Music Theory Answer Book Music Theory in Practice (practice exam papers) ...these are short books (e.g. 'exam pieces' is 16 pages) but they cost about £12 each new. It'd be helpful if ABRSM just put them all into one book per Grade rather than extract maximum £ from students. Probably not all are really needed, but most are - and not only are there lots of them, they've made it so buying second-hand isn't ideal. I've bought a couple on eBay and then found that: second hand workbooks have all been written on (have returned twice for replacements and they are still marked-up) so you ideally need a new one. the syllabus changes often so at least with the exam pieces you need to get the newest version. the 'Music Theory in Practice' and 'Music Theory' workbooks don't give you the answers, so you either need to assume you are right or try to look stuff up online or buy the answer books. So per-grade that is upto about £70 of course books, but that is actually a relatively small part of the overall cost as can add + £50 Theory exam + £80 Practical exam = approx £200 total.....and that's before paying for the main cost which is lessons that are approx. £30 per lesson weekly = about £1,500 per year. If it takes roughly a year per grade then it's approx £1,700 per grade all-in, for me to pass grades 3, 4, 5 one per year is perhaps £5k total over 3 years (Grade 5 is probably where I'd stop, at least with theory). Anyone that casually mentions 'I did upto grade 8 piano when I was young' (as a friend recently mentioned - and he has barely played since) potentially had parents spend >£13k on it. On the other hand, it is less elitist now as the days of needing a big house with an expensive piano are gone (I have quite a decent home piano keyboard that cost less than £300), and there are loads of free online lessons and piano books from second hand shops so it doesn't necesserily need to cost a lot to learn. However, after 35 years of playing without lessons I haven't really progressed so it does seem that Piano is an instrument that really benefits from some formal tuition and learning structure (as opposed to Bass for instance: I bet if you ask good piano players how many had years of formal tuition and passed grade exams the % would be much higher than if you ask decent Bass players on this forum the same question).

The Yamaha CK-61 is what I went for in that sort of price range second hand (I sold mine recently for £470). I had it for about 18 months and was impressed: The main downsides to consider: They keys are slightly thinner than the standard piano ones (I think it is 15.9cm per octave vs 16.4cm), doesn't sound much but I did find that noticable. Keys are semi-weighted. I thought that was fine, but if you are into weighted piano keys then it could be an issue. 61 keys might be an issue if you are into playing 88 key piano stuff. But those downsides could also be seen as positives for it being relatively small and lightweight.