SumOne

I'm currently going for the Helix method of pressing 'Action' and 'Page>' buttons together to access the Tuner/mute. It's not as instant as having a footswitch, but like you say - it's not something that's needed all the time so I don't think is a big deal to do (and pressing any footswitch disengages it), and it frees up a Helix footswitch and board space/wiring/power/potential added noise etc. of having a separate tuner pedal. But I suppose ideally I'd like to have backup for things like Tuner/Compressor/Preamp & DI in a live situation just in-case the Helix decides to stop working. I was thinking something like the Microbass 3, seems a lot to spend on a backup though. Anyway, back to the OP question: I'd recommend the Korg Pitchblack tuner pedals, they do the job well.

Warning! Ramble ahead! I'm thinking out loud here as was already writing this down to figure out Helix Stomp routing options out so please ignore if you don't want to see a long Helix routing chain of thought! Perhaps someone has time on their hands and is trying to figure out similar stuff or has some tips though. Current setup is Helix Stomp with this routing: Helix FX Loop L: Switchblade Pro (which means you can reverse the order of loops, or put them parallel/series, or clean blend) Loop A: C4 (with DMC controller)> Crimson Red Preamp > Brown Acid Fuzz Loop B: Octamizer Octaver > Gemini Chorus Helix FX Loop R (once I have the correct cables, it's just in Loop L after the Switchblade output at the moment) FEA Compressor (+ 2 channel footswitch is on the way to use in the Helix expression pedal input to control the preset menu button and tuner/tap tempo). That setup means footswitch control to do things like: FS1 Helix OD > FS2 Loop L to Switchblade Pro controlling loops for Chorus/Octaver before/after C4/Crimson Red/Brown Acid each with their own footswitch > FS3 Helix Reverb > Loop R with FEA comp (no FS) > Helix Amp/Cab (no FS). = 5 blocks used. The Helix and C4 do pretty good impressions of the Gemini and Octamizer (especially as they generally have other effects running after them) so it seems an alright idea to sell them, that possibly also does away for the need of the Switchblade Pro. Selling those three would raise about £300 so I'm trying to figure out how to replicate their routing. To replicate my current routing options the Helix Octaver and Chorus blocks need to be moved either side of the Loop L block and saved as different Presets. Preset 1a: FS1 Helix OD > FS2 Helix Octaver > FS3 Helix Chorus > Helix Loop L (C4 > Crimson Red > Brown Acid: No FS - always on, use individual pedals on/off) > Helix Reverb (no FS, controlled via snapshots) > Helix Loop R (FEA Comp: no FS - always on, use individual pedal on/off) > Helix Amp/Cab (no FS, always on) Preset 1b: FS1 Helix OD > Helix Loop L (C4 > Crimson Red > Brown Acid: No FS - always on, use individual pedals on/off) > FS2 Helix Octaver > FS3 FS3 Helix Chorus > Helix Reverb (no FS, controlled via snapshots) > Helix Loop R (FEA Comp: no FS - always on, use individual pedal on/off) > Helix Amp/Cab (no FS) This takes me from using 5 blocks in my current setup to 7 and I'd lose the Helix Reverb FS (but could have different Snapshots with that on/off), and I'd lose the Helix Loop L footswitch so that'd need to be always on and controlled by clicking individual pedals on/off. My conclusion is that it takes quite a bit of planning! Technically it is possible to replicate the current routing options but there are tradeoffs: The individual pedals sound a bit better and have hands-on control and more immediate re-routing control, two more Helix blocks need to be used if those pedals go and it loses some individual FS control so several Presets/snapshots are needed to do it all via FS selection which is a bit more tricky and less spontaneous and intuitive to control.....I can't decide if that is is a £300 tradeoff worth making so for the time being I'm removing the Octamizer, Gemini and Switchblade Pro from the board to see how much I miss them. If you read all that then well done! Now get out in the sun!

Is there an easy way to move around preset numbers on the Neuro Editor? The only way I seem to be able to do it is open then and save into a different number then erase the original.

Might be tricky to sound like this though:

That's exactly it, there are always some 'tone is all in the fingers - no need for effects pedals' people but generally they are playing something like motown (and often they are getting different tones via owning many Bass guitars, different strings, amps and cabs etc. which is stuff certain pedals can sort of do). You'd be hard pressed to do envelope filter sounds or big fuzzy riffs or synth sounds without effects pedals....but perhaps those sounds don't go with what you play so aren't needed. They're fun to practise with though so a cheap multi fx like zoom is probably worthwhile to test the waters.

Source Audio Multi FX would be a winner: Aftershock + Gemini + C4 + EQ + Collider + Ultrawave + interface like Helix Effects = take my money!

Here are EQ settings very similar to the One Control Crimson Red preamp pedal. If I use my FEA Opti-FET compressor after it (haven't found a Helix equivalent as a warm/vintage tone adding type compressor) and run into a cab sim is very hard to tell a difference. There is a small difference though - the Crimson Red has a little bit more harmonic stuff and warmth and evenness of tone across all strings that I can't replicate (having spent a couple of hours trying by adding mild tube distortion, reverb, compressors etc). It's annoying me as I can get very close but not enough that I'd not miss the Crimson Red if I sold it.

Yeah the Bug is excellent and I like his other stuff too. I saw him DJing and Poison Dart got about 6 reloads- some intentional but mostly as he was playing vinyl and when the bass kicked in (or perhaps also people jumping about) it kept making the needle skip!

It does remind me of a ZX Spectrum loading

It doesn't get much heavier than this, and it's one of my favourite tunes: I'm good with anything slow and heavy, it's the fast thrashy or growling/screaming stuff that I can't handle much of (unless listening live, then I get stuck in!). Or another type of heavy, Autechre are great but this pushes me beyond what I'd comfortably listen to....an uncomfortable listen is good sometimes though!

I don't think the Stomp does the best Filter or Synth sounds- which are the things the C4 does really well, so it is a good combination. Trouble with the C4 is look on the threads here or Talkbass and the majority of posts are people trying to figure them out or how to attach additional controllers - perhaps that's a good sign that it's potentially capable of so much, perhaps a bad sign that you need to spend extra time and money to usefully access all it can do.

Babylon though is a great film, and great soundtrack.

Top Rankin'!

Stomp arrived very quickly (thanks Andertons), first impressions are that it's really good. I like that you can now have 2x blocks per footswitch that you go between with the footswitch 'touch' (rather than 'click'). Having re-assigned the Tuner to a stomp footswitch that means 6x blocks to turn on/off in stomp view which is about all I need or that are available with 6-8 block limits. My only gripe is that the 'Page> (next footswitch mode)' button isn't a footswitch, or at a minimum it can't even be assigned to FS3 (but can be assigned to additional footswitches so I assume it's an easy programming thing to add) that would mean you could click FS3 as 'Page>' to scroll through menus, then use FS 1 & 2 to scroll through presets/snapshots and then control blocks on stomp mode, that would mean most of the important stuff for playing live could be done via the three footswitches. As it is though you can scroll through presets via footswitches but if you then want to go into a snapshot or into stomp mode to turn blocks on/off you need to bend down and press the 'Page>' button. I was tempted to try and physically stick something on the button to make it foot switchable but decided that a £15.99 dual footswitch plugged into the expression input is less likely to break things! One switch will work as the 'Page>' button and one to do 'tuner/tap tempo' leaving FS 1, 2, 3 free as stomp switches and to scroll through things. I think that will give plenty of control. Between this and the C4 I can get 90% of the way to re-creating the sounds of my analogue pedals, I'll be keeping a few of them though for the hands on and footswitch interaction side of things and saving block space....and for where I'm fussy about that extra 10%.

Yeah I don't blame you for waiting. Something else I've found is that the scrolling through the named presets automatically turns the C4 on which might not always be ideal (but can be turned off if holding the left button down before scrolling through in the device number Preset menu). There's probably a solution buried in youtube videos/manuals/menus somewhere but my patience and motivation is wearing thin! It's these sort of hassles that a few month ago would have me returning these pedals (I had already owned a C4 and returned it). I think (hope) it'll be worth it in the end though, the C4 does make some excellent sounds and it's worth having an additional controller to access them.

Cheers, that sounds good. I'll get a Stomp without any expectation of it replacing my whole pedalboard: Selling my Tuner, Compressor, EQ, Preamp/DI will cover costs, so as long as it does a decent job of replacing them then that's all good. They aren't pedals that need turning on/off much and are a bit more 'set and forget' so I hopefully shouldn't miss the hands-on control too much.....and it has the benefits of routing options and amp & cab sims and IRs that also don't need much switching control. I could see me using most of the blocks just for those things so think the Stomp XL might be unnecessary for me as I'll keep most of my separate effects pedals to put in FX loops which hopefully means not wanting for additional controllers.

There is a video of what the Beta version does https://www.disasterareadesigns.com/dmc-beta but that just starts at the point of it already having been updated on the pedal, further down the page is the Beta version file and I got information about updating the device from a different manual somewhere on their site (I can't see where it is now as their link to the manual on the beta page is broken) basically you need to re-name the downloaded Beta file to the same name as the one that appears on the device- then delete the old file and drag the new file onto the device. Bear in mind they say "WARNING! Use of this beta firmware is fraught with peril and may result in anguish and uncertainty. Proceed with caution." I don't disagree, other than perhaps to change the word 'may' for 'will'. I then needed to watch this video for connecting with a C4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxEGIKOU_1U Further down that Beta page has a link to the preset renamer, the help screen of that is useful- you need to set the DMC from hub to to midi for it to be read by the renamer (and then back to hub to work with the C4). ....it then took me a few more steps as I was also re-numbering/naming things on C4 Neuro to match the DMC names (and Neuro keeps freezing and crashing for me) and was also sorting out the alt controls which need the corresponding C4 CC values mapped to the DMC- there's information on how to do that in the C4 and DMC manuals, it works but I'm not sure I've got it set up in the simplest way. The C4 'skip power' thing had been checked so I'm not sure why it still occasionally doesn't recognise the DMC if they are both turned on at the same time but I'm giving up for the time being as I've found a temporary fix of just unplugging/re-plugging the DMC. It's a faff for sure, worth it eventually though!