WinterMute

Talk to Alex Clabber at Barefaced, the Big Twin goes down to 30Hz, and whilst that doesn't sound like a lot lower than 45Hz, the OP states he uses extended range basses and I know from experience that running bass through a speaker designed for general PA use (the QSC and RCFs etc.) does not give the same response as a properly tuned bass cab, not without using a sub, which is exactly why all PA designers offer a sub... This is not to say that a QSC K12.2 or an RCF 735A won't be a good replacement for a "traditional" backline, because anyone with sense will know that it is, the wedge shape and size is a good tradeoff if you're playing small venues. It will come down to personal choice, and the OP stated he's looking at backline, not FRFR. I moved my Big Twin on because I'm not playing live anymore and it was taking up a large amount of room in my small studio, but if I went out live again I'd consider the QSC K12.2, but not before I'd had a serious look at what Alex was up to...

The Barefaced Big Twin is a monster, I suggest you take a listen to the Gen 2 if you can, they've come a long way since the prototypes. Yes, the looks are a bit spartan, and they do not have a "signature" sound, but if you;re looking for a cab that'll show off your amp and bass tones, I haven't heard anything that works quite as well. I ran 5 string fretted and fretless through mine and did all the tone shaping in the pre, including wedges of distortion and filter effects, the variable tweeter (compression horn in the Gen 2) allows you to set the cab up for a room without having to mess about with your sound. Never had a better stage sound.

Well, it works, but it still leaves you with issues to deal with... The ideal is that you spend minimum time administering your computer and maximum time making music, in my experience Windows PC's and Hackingtosh's require more admin than Macs, the relative cost notwithstanding. Each to their own I guess, but I'd recommend a proper Mac unreservedly for music production.

PJB do a powered cab that connects to the line out. Any combo with an aux input will also work.

If you can afford it, a Mac Pro Cheesegrater is the way to go, I've been using Macs for music production for decades now, and they are intrinsically less hassle than PC's, but they do cost an arm and a leg. My 2012 17" MBP died at the beginning of the year, needed a new motherboard, £500 thanks very much, so I bought a second had 6 core Mac Pro pedal bin with 64Gb or RAM and 2 TB of SSD, cost north of £2k but I'm not short of power or storage now, or at any point in the future I suspect...

To be fair Si, you're also really nosey...

Barefaced all the way for me, despite having sold my Big Twin earlier this year, I think their range is brilliant. I used a lot of modelled tones onstage and the BT just ate it up, the Big Baby is a magnificent little all-rounder, very similar to the FRFR, worth a look.

Same with the Beatles, great songwriters, I mean truly great, but I can't stand their whiney nasal racket... I have changed my mind about a few bands over the years, I genuinely detested Steely Dan as a youngster, but I find them fascinating now, same is true of Country and Western.... No, wait, I still hate Country and Western.

I always thought I really should like Muse, the guitars, that bass work... Nope, although their cover of a Feeling Good isn't bad. This.

Never mind bloody albums, how about bands? The Beatles, wrote some great songs, ruined every single one of them. Coldplay, waste of carbon. Rolling stones, why? But then I loved Grace, apart from Lilac Wine, Jaco Patorius with Joni and the last Rush album Vive la difference!

Al Murray used to play in a Jewish heavy metal band called Guns n Moses. It wasn't very PC... Their set appeared to be a very loud and fast version of Hava nagila...

Proxy Music is an obvious stand-out. Blobby Williams? Deft Leppard? Lez Zeppelin? All real apparently...

Yes, sits at 800hz normally and switches to 1.4Khz when you pull the pot up, if memory serves. Yes, it's a Bart branded pre. it has the stacked HF and LF pot and a passive active push/pull on the volume.

I'm going to be seeking a finders fee for owning the pig that started all this, just saying...

I've got the Bartolini Musicman replacement in my fretless with the 3 band Bart pre-amp that has the switchable mid, and I don't think it's weak at all, it's a very useful and musical pre that voices really well on the fretless.

It has advantages over the lego, that's for sure.

Jesus, can't a man buy a plushy pig....?

Yep, very capable unit, I looked at it before I bought a second hand XT Pro, but I needed a bit more power and went with a sweaty great Crown amp into the Big Twin.

I've tried the Helix and the Pod XT Pro against the Kemper rack and the Multi-amp, what I observed was that the units designed specifically for bass were more flexible and therefore more useful than the "general" units that had some bass models in them, that said, I thought the models in the Helix were perfectly useable but needed more attention, and the Kemper was fine as long as you didn't stray too far from the original modelled sound. The MB was a cracking unit, but I didn't think it sounded any better than the Kemper or the Line6 units, it sounded different. Studio use of course.

Is your OS up to date? Focusrite Control is on a new version I think.