SumOne

Yeah, I've had similar - digital overdrives/distortions and compressors (and octavers and envelope filters) never quite match up to their analogue counterparts for me, digital modulation and delays are great though. To just listen to two sound clips A/B it's be very had to tell the difference with many, but actually playing them there seems to be a very slightly different feel - something a bit uncanny, perhaps too uniform/predictable without subtle quirks, perhaps a tiny delay due to processing time, sample rates not being high enough to completely fool you into thinking it's the same as analogue, or perhaps that the emulation just reacts and sounds a bit different? Or probably the most likely is my personal bias and preconceptions! I thought the Source Audio Atlas was really good - the thing that let it down for me wasn't the sound, it was the hardware (fiddly 'alt' button to access controls for a few seconds - wait a second too long and you end up adjusting the wrong thing, not great for live tweaking), so I'm certainly not against digital compressors in principle.

Joe sold me a Source Audio C4 pedal and all was good - arrived quickly, well packaged, all as described and working well. Thanks!

Little Boss board: This is probably about as far as I'm gonna go with my Boss fad. I've got the AW-3 for sale, a C4 will cover for this and an OC5 that @Al Krow kindly let me borrow. The C4 will ruin the Boss aesthetic but gets the job done in one pedal. My Amp has decent EQ/Drive/DI so I don't really need those things as a pedal, would be nice to stomp on some distortion though so perhaps an ODB-3 or a BB-1X at some point.

I've never been too fussed about Bass pedals having XRL DI (mostly as I always use Amp/CAb and ocasionally also Amp DI to PA) but aren't the supposed problems: phantom power could cause damage to the Stomp, possible ground loop - need a ground lift, and line level signals over long cable lengths can pickup interferance? I just ran into interferance problems with a line level keyboard output to a mixer so bought a passive XLR DI box which fixed it.

After a lot of pedal and multi-fx buying/selling (inluding Stomp, and Boss Core) I'd now agree with this.....although might change my mind in 6 months! If just needing a few basic things like tuner, EQ/DI, Drive, then there's a lot to be said for just having a few individual hands-on/foot-on pedals that are 'what you see is what you get' and avoiding complexity wherever possible. Or something like this:

Nice! Seeing as the Origin Effects Cali 76 (about £280) basically replicates the original 1970's Universal Audio Urei 1176 in pedal form (http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/cali76.shtml), and now Universal Audio themselves are making a 1176 in a pedal available at GAK for £178 it seems a bargain........However, that's if it works as hoped and a company isn't just trading off the good name of past glories. It isn't analogue, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but there are plenty of digital emulations about so it all depends on how good the emulation is. Unfortunately, the Universal Audio Max Compressor (which I assume uses the same software) has this negative Bass review: https://www.compressorpedalreviews.com/post/universal-audio-max-compressor-review but perhaps that is because of the preamp making Bass signals clip, the 1176 and LA2A don't have that preamp so perhaps don't have the same issue. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/universal-audio-max-dual-compressor-preamp-pedal.1603504/page-8

I'm also listening to something from 1980, Steel Pulse album 'Caught You' which has this on it:

Pretty much all my favourite songs have a bassline hook, it's one of the many advantages to liking dub music!

^^ Keep an eye out for the confusing naming of the EBS BassIQ (there are two different ones for sale, both called BassIQ, the 'blue label' one has the extra features and costs more).

If you're anything like me it is a never ending journey rather than destination! The M82 is a good start as it gives a lot of control (pay about £90 second hand) but is only 'up' sweep and bandpass, there are other envelope filter types: The EBS BassIQ blue label does up/down sweep, and bandpass/lowpass so is a good way of hearing those different things. They are both available in the effects for sale section right now. 'Good' Envelope filters are quite a personal choice though and can sound quite different with different playing styles/strings/pickups/other pedals etc. so I'd buy/sell second hand on here to try quite a few out and you don't lose much £.

Turn the 'enhance' knob right down on the LMB-3, it's a hiss enhancer!

I wasn't expecting the £13 sub zero DI to be quite so small! Cute little thing! I've only used at home so far but seems good quality and does what it's supposed to do.

Tony bought a tuner pedal: good communications & quick payment, all good! Thanks.

Cheers all. I've gone for a Boss BC-90X and am busy filling it with Boss comapct pedals. Positives: Using as a box for transporting it's really tough. I'm almost certain I could drop it down a staircase and the Boss pedals would still work. The part the pedals sit in comes off, it's low profile and has grips on the opposite side so works well as the pedalboard. Connectors for 1/4" in/out and to run a power supply (included) into to then go out to pedals. Power cables can be routed in channels underneath the foam (when I get around to it!). Low profile when all boxed up. Negatives: Not cheap (£169)....but then again, cheaper than many other options. e.g. a Rockboard 4.2 with ABS case might have been a better option, but that is £206 without a PSU. 2.1mm barrel type main power input that then goes into daisy-chain: Ideally I'd like a kettle lead input as the 2.1mm barrel power input seems a bit delicate in-case tripped on/pulled/stomped on etc. also isolated outputs would be better in-case of noise from daisy-chaining (that's not a problem with my current pedals though). I'm tempted to take out the in/out power and 1/4" section in the top left and fit my isolated PSU but isn't really needed with these pedals - main benefit woul be making the connection to mains power more sturdy. Doesn't seem the best use of space e.g. if the handle was on the outside like a flight case you'd fit perhaps two more Boss size pedals there and the box wouldn't really take up much more space, and perhaps the 1/4" ins/outs aren't needed as can just go in/out of the first and last pedals. Cutting the foam and squeezing pedals to grip in is fine if you use pedals of the same size (e.g. all Boss compact) as it grips them in place okay and can move them about easily, it won't be good if adding different sized pedals though. Could just do-away with the foam and use velcro though. Overall, pretty good. I'm not blown away by it though.

'Big Boss Board' is taking shape: BCB-90X Pedalboard: Tough and decent quality. I'd prefer if it had isolated power but the daisy-chain for this grouping is fine. LS-2: Being used as a A/B between two Basses, clean blend being another good use. For other uses I'd like it if there was the option to reverse the order of loops (switching between A>B, or B>A would seem a simple thing to implement and would open up a lot of sounds) . Otherwise though, all good - it's a classic for a reason. A keeper. TU-3: Accurate, bright, with a few nice extra features (2x 1/4" outputs, extra power output, battery). One gripe is the '#' isn't very obvious. A keeper. AW-3: Good features (expression pedal control, tap tempo, up, down, vowels), some interesting sounds - including some non-wah guitar like sounds if using two of the same vowels together, it could do with a volume and clean blend though. I get the impression it's more suited for guitar and an expression pedal. BF-3: I didn't think I was a Flanger fan but I really like this pedal. It is sort of a Chorus, Tremolo, Flanger and cocked wah pedal in one: On low settings it can sound very close to a chorus, but it has extra things like tap tempo, gate (tremolo), can set the frequency of the effect via 'manual' dial (with 'depth', 'rate', 'resonance' on zero this can be used to give just a mid-focussed cocked wah sound), and setting things high goes all the way up to full-on whooshing flanger. My only gripe is that the 'Mode' dial has four settings but all are in the range within a quarter turn of the dial (10pm - 1pm, each at a 1hr clock face interval), not a big deal but that makes it a bit tricky visually to tell if you are on one or the one next to it - if the dial was a 180 degree turn (e.g. 'Manual at 6pm, Gate at 8pm, 'Standard' at 10pm, 'Ultra' at noon) then it would be more obvious what mode it is set to. CEB-3: Nice chorus, perhaps a bit subtle for some, but I like it to add a shimmery sheen, the 'low pass' is great. I am going to sell it though as the BF-3 on low settings gets close enough. LMB-3: Clean sounding compressor/Limiter, good but you need to look out as some settings can make it sound bad (need to leave the enhance down, and don't put the threshold and ratio too high unless you want clipping). I'd be happy to keep it but I'll compare with a BC-1X at some point. All are pretty good, perhaps I'm too picky but all feel like some small low/no cost changes would make them great for me: LS-2 would have a reverse loop option, TU-3 would get a bigger '#' displayed, AW-3 added clean blend, BF-3 make the 'mode' dial 180 degrees, LMB-3 can lose the 'enhance' and replace with a something more useful like attack/release control or clean blend. Boss know much better about making and selling pedals than me though! It's a shame there's no easily available Boss Compact Para EQ and/or variable HPF, they are things I might need to be a traitor on. Next on the Boss shopping list is a BB-1X.

£30 for the stereo one is a great deal, but £13 for mono is even better. I'll go for two of the mono ones and save myself the princely sum of £4. I guess the drawback is it's perhaps a bit more clutter/less neat than having one box - but it means that if I decide to go Mono for Keys then I can use just one smaller box, and I'd have the second one spare or to use with Bass without 1/4" cables having to meet in one DI place if that doesn't work for stage placement.

Thanks, I'll give it some experimenting - perhaps mono is going to be better live. A bit more background: We are a 7 piece band that does some Reggae/Dub stuff, the 3x horns and lead guitar use wireless. I usually play Bass for the band but have just started playing Keys for a few dubby songs that really need piano/rhodes chord chops and echo type effects (one of the horn players steps in for Bass for those songs). In practice sessions using 2x un-balanced 1/4" cables from keys to the mixing desk there has been interferance (possibly due to all the wireless users) so some sort of balanced signal is probably needed. A lot of the dubby keys FX that I set up at home are strereo - they sound better in stereo at home and in practice sessions but I get what you're saying, that stereo might not be so good for an audience member in a live setting stood near one speaker, so perhaps mono (or limited stereo) will be better. Perhaps a related thing: Reggae soundsystems tend to be in mono, and some club soundsystems are mono or with limited stereo. I don't have a Bass DI as have always been using an Amp/Cab for pub gigs without going through the band PA (as it is a bit weak for Bass), or festival things I've still used the Amp/Cab for stage and ran the DI from the Amp to PA. So a DI that I could also use for Bass if the situation required would be handy. Perhaps a stereo DI is going to be most useful for me as it gives the options of: a) mono Keys, b) stereo Keys, c) Bass, d) Bass and mono Keys.

I am occasionally using things like ping pong echo so stereo is needed. That subzero DI looks like a winner.

I'm getting interference on the long unbalanced 2x mono cables (1/4") between my keyboard and the mixer so need a DI. Is there any benefit to getting a stereo DI (£197 for Radial Stereo DI) vs 2x mono ones (£82 for Radial stage bug)? As far as I can tell, the stereo unit is basically just 2x mono together. 2x mono saves £33, and means I could use just one for Bass if needed. Downside being a bit more cluttered than just one stereo unit. Are there other benefits to stereo units?