SumOne

I expect so, although I've only used an Akai MIDI Mix with an MPC to basically add volume sliders to each track and for the knobs to control a couple of parameters for each track (that's quite good for stuff like live dub mixing - fading in different tracks and turning the knobs to do stuff like increase reverb). The 'Learn' MIDI feature does all the usual things like toggle and momentary so I expect it could turn on/off tracks or groups of tracks. https://support.akaipro.com/en/support/solutions/articles/69000858922-mpc-series-how-to-send-program-changes-with-a-midi-controller

It's not easy enough to change whole projects quickly/seamlessly for live use in mid-song, that is a downside. There are workarounds. i.e. could save several Bass 'tracks' within one project, then set the drumpad to mute/solo the tracks. Time spent changing between projects is one downside of the MPC in general: Changing from one project to the next requires: 'menu > new project> 'do you want to save changes to previous preset'? (if you've changed stuff) y/n > (wait about 3 seconds) > 'select project' screen opens (you can organise it in a user list)> click project and wait about 3 seconds for new one to load. So changing project is do-able between songs, but not during a song. It's a shame as it means using it live for a DJ type tool of seamless mixes between songs needs some workarounds, perhaps this is something the new software is dealing with - I'm yet to fully get into it though.

Anyone else use their MPC as a Bass multi-fx? I've gone on about this before and but as far as I can tell it isn't something people really do - I'm not sure why though, it seems a pretty good multi-fx to me. Plug in, set the it as an 'audio' track, set input to mono, record 'arm' to monitor live... And off you go, can use as tuner, effects (most have more parameters to adjust than your average multi-fx), it has bass amps, all sorts. No noticeable latency.

I'm loving the Key 37. I think the keybed and the sounds of stage piano things like Organ, EP and Piano are better than my Yamaha CK61 which costs more (that does win on extra keys and hardware controls though), and then of course there are additional things like synth, drum machine, sampler, sequencer, effects etc. All in a size I can easily take to gigs for those occasional times it's needed and it sits conveniently on my desk next to my laptop to distract me from home working. There is a good sale on for Plugins at the moment. e.g. Keys collection is £49 reduced from £249.

Personally, I think the new MPCs are excellent precicely because they have so many options, they are marketed primarily as a 'standalone production centre', but there is nothing stopping you saving a template that is just a drum machine and only ever using it for that, or I had a template on the MPC Key 61 that I've just added to my Key 37 that is 'Live stage piano' that has Piano, Organ, and Electric Piano each loaded and set up so drum pads mute/engage them - meaning I can easily solo or combine,when I'm using that preset the drum machine, effects, sequencer etc don't get touched. I also have a setting to use it just as a Bass multi-fx. I find them fairly straightforward to use - especially if just focusing on one thing at a time. I have found that finishing off a song structure and mastering type stuff is easier to do on the Laptop though, the MPC is more of a live tool and an all-in-one for putting ideas down.

Done! I've ordered a Key 37. (Amazon 0% interest on 12x monthly installments is a dangerous thing!)

A good thing with the Live iii is the included plugins. It's a cost with the Key 37 (and One+) that I'll need to factor in. £150 each for things I'd want like Stage Piano, Jura synth, Opx4, Organ, Electric piano....(you can choose one for free). Could quickly add up. By the way, the Mini D (Mini Moog) plugin is on a good sale price right at £29 reduced from £99.

I found the issue - it was the cable from GX-10 to my amp. So no problems with GX-10 reliability. I transport it along with my amp and shoddy cables in a large DJ bag designed for records. They don't make it anymore, but it's this sort of thing: DJ bag. I find it good as a headphone amp (large headphone connector type), but usually use Spark Neo for headphone practice.

I've found it very good (and as you know - I'm fussy with these things!), not perfect - but for the price and the build quality and general sound quality I think it is hard to beat. It is the only pedal I've been using for quite a while now. I think the compressor is the same as the Core and BC-1X, and a drive sounds a lot like the BB-1X, tuner is good, lots of EQ options. If it only did those things it'd still be quite good value. I basically have it set up with the foot pedal to engage the tuner when volume is muted, 'up/down' footswitches to go through a list of three presets (clean, dub, punk), and the other footswitch is set depending on the preset (e.g. on 'clean' it is a boost, on punk it is to engage more distortion, on dub it is to add reverb). I have the dials set to change compression and EQ. That's all I need for gigs - although I do sometimes feel I'd like some extra footswitches to do stuff like engage a chorus, and an analogue envelope filter would be nice, but it is compact and basically does the job for most stuff. Edit: GX-10 is reliable, I had an issue with a cable.

I suppose it just comes down to semantics but it is the amount of 'craft' or technical knowledge/training that many 'artists' have to have that got me thinking that it is often more about learning and applying a craft than being artistic. e.g. a Ballerina, no doubt it is a highly skilled thing to do and takes years of technical training, but when it comes down to it - how much is actual artistic expression, and how much is by applying what has been taught and doing as instructed? Me playing a cover version of a song on the Bass? I think that is almost entirely down to having spent the time to learn the craft of playing, I don't think I'm really adding anything particularly artistic. And even when I make up an original bassline - I think I'm just applying knowledge of all the other basslines I've heard and played and applying some music theory and technical playing skill, but art - from the soul communicating my inner emotions?!?...I'm not so sure! It's more 'minor key = sad' 'major key = happy' 'phrygian = exotic'!

The general consensus/cliche is that musicians are artists - creative, expressing themselves, communicating emotions n'all that. But is that what you think of yourself? Seems a bit pretentious to me! Perhaps I've got no soul or artistry, but the more I play music and learn about it the more I think of it as a process, a technical skill. Is being in an orchestra and sight reading artistic? Is playing a cover version with some embellishments? Is even playing some sort of free-form Jazz? After all, even that is mostly about applying technical skill and music theory. Is making original music? Usually that seems to very heavily rely of pre-existing musical formulas. I think there are some musicians that are genuine 'artists', people that really do something original that transcends technical skill and know how, that's only a small % of musicians though.

Now I think of it, the list is probably quite long! I started the list with Boss but will need to get back to it for all the others when I get time/memory! Boss AW-3 Auto Wah Boss BB-1X Bass Driver Boss BF-3 Flanger Boss CEB-3 Bass Chorus Boss GEB-7 Bass Equaliser Boss GT-1000 Core Boss GX-10 Boss GX-100 Boss LMB-3 Limiter Enhancer Boss LS-2 Line Selector Boss OC-5 Octave Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive Boss RC-5 Loop Station Boss RE-20 Space Echo Boss RE-202 Space Echo Boss SYB-5 Bass Synthesizer Boss TU-3 Tuner

Yeah, there is that added issue with keys being a new instrument to play. Luckily I have some basic piano skills from a couple of years playing as a kid and occasional noodling about on the piano as an adult, and generally the synth basslines that I want to play are pretty basic (in fact, most of the bast synth basslines seem quite basic e.g. the ones mentioned above 'Thriller' and 'I just can't get enough'). There is also some demand in the band for offbeat chord stabs in our Reggae tunes which is partly encouraging me to get an MPC Key 37 (for those organ and piano sounds as well as synth bass). I'm a bit cautious about going too far down that route though as it means handing over Bass duties to another bandmate for those songs and I do still find bass guitar the most fun instrument to play (especially for Reggae), I wouldn't want to turn into a keyboard player!

I like playing Bass synth on a bass guitar and can certainly see the attraction to pedals like this and am tempted - but the more tempted I got the more I've look into it and am finding it difficult to look past the advantages to a small synth keyboard, something like the Korg Monologue, Novation Bass Station, Yamaha Reface CS, Behringer MS-1. I know it's an extra thing to take to a gig and probably needs a stand and the faff of wiring up to the PA etc. so there are definitely downsides, but on the other hand the upsides are they're just so much better at playing synth sounds (physically with the keys - playing chords etc and having on-hand parameter editing, and also sounds available etc), and most are a similar sort of price to the MXR (especially second hand). So I think personally, I'm going to go for the classic envelope filter + octaver + distortion + modulation pedal combinations for my synthy sounding bass guitar, and a small synth keyboard for pure synth sounds. (Then it has got me considering the MPC Keys 37 to also have drum loops and production stuff....but that's a whole different story!)

I had been considering getting the MXR Bass synth pedal, and recently thought a a small drum machine will be good to have, and my stage piano doesn't get bought along to gigs as it's too much faff/too big for the limited parts I'd use it for....so in a round-about way that has put a MPC Keys 37 right to the top of my wishlist!

New Chronixx album 'Exile' is worth a listen. One of my favourites from it:

When Italo Disco was good, it could be really good :

The rules are: 1. Say a pedal is great while you own it (knowing you might someday want to sell it) 2. Continue to say it is great while you try to sell it (say something like 'best pedal ever, but doesn't fit with my current projects') 3. Out of politeness to the new buyer don't publicly disrespect the pedal for a while. 4. Move on to hype of a shiny new thing being announced, openly criticise the old pedal. I think we're still only up to stage 3!

I might have it wrong, but I think the chorus sort of effect (a detune/doubling effect +/- 20 cents) was via the pedal. Ah yeah, my semitone maths wansn't on point! So in that case he has basically dropped down the low E to a C and that sounded okay to me, hopefully one more semitone would be okay. I guess it is the sort of thing you might feel when playing (perhaps a bit of latency) more than being an issue in how it sounds in a recording. Although come to think of it, I don't think I ever play a low B in my current 90min set, the lowest is a D a few times. So getting used to just dropping down to that is probably better than dropping all to BEAD. I'll add it to my expanding wishlist of pedals! (along with MXR Bass synth, Boss RE-2, and some sort of analogue envelope filter).

Sounds good. Could replace an Octaver, Chorus, and a hipshot drop tuner, and things like the Digitech Drop as I'd find it useful for stuff like blending in a shifted up 5th into a fuzz. It could even convert me from a 5 to a 4. He goes 2 steps down in the video but I wonder how good it'd sound switching 4 steps down (EADG to BEAD), there are a couple of songs I'd find that useful for with a 4 string and mentally that just feels like it'd keep things simpler than mucking about with different semitone settings for different songs or different parts of songs. One problem I have with pitch shifting is potential for getting confused (I was in a band with a guitarist that kept getting caught out by his pitch shifter being set to the wrong amount, or engaged/disengaged at the wrong time - it wasn't technically the fault of the pedal but I think they can easily lead to confusion if the player hasn't really mastered it).

Yeah, like I said - not all Dingwalls are that heavy....but they do all tend to be on the hefty side of things, I see a Combustion currently for sale on here is 4.7kg and that isn't unusual. An average Combustion or NG3 seems to be at least 4.2kg. I'd hope something that sort of weight doesn't have neck-dive or something is quite seriously wrong with the design. The trickly thing is making a well-balanced lightweight 5 string - like the Ibanez EHB MS average of about 3.3kg.

Doesn't stop them being more innovative than a traditional headstock. e.g. this new Dingwall hanging mechanism, quite unique looking string clamps at the headstock end and a fairly unique looking tuning mechanism. More innovative than slapping some generic hipshot tunes onto a headstock. Isn't that what Dingwall are saying - it took a long time because it is headless and needs new innovations?

Indeed, opinions are just that (including saying my opinion is nonsense!). How are Headless 'certainly not innovative' (noting that opinions are just opinions) Headless to me seems more innovative than just having a fairly standard headstock - it requires different things like new bridges/tuners/headstocks/string clamps/hanging mechanism etc. Balance is more of an issue with light basses, it's not too difficult to stop a bass having neck-dive if the body is heavy...but people don't tend to like heavy basses. I had a Combustion and it was about 4.5kg, I think that weight would be quite a downside to a lot of people - even though it balanced well (I guess it needed to be that heavy at the body partly to balance a 37" scale with a headstock and tuners at the far end). Not all Dingwalls are that heavy, but a lot are whereas something like a Ibanez EHB is about 3.3kg and well balanced. Going headless is an obvious way of being able to make the bass well balanced and light - especially on a bass with 5 strings and a long scale. Strandberg led the way with headless multiscales way back in about 2007, Ibanez released cheaper multiscale headless bass in 2020 to a mass market - they have been popular and other companies like Hils and Sire have since followed....and now Dingwall are doing the same at least about 6 years late to the party, how is that not dropping the ball on it?