RhythmJunky

Thanks everyone. It just seems that keyboard players aren't as talkative as bass players. Who'd have thought ?

Another option might be to get somebody to change the input transformer for you to a 240v. I've only ever done it on a solid state amp, which was pretty simple, but it might be a bit more complex on a valve amp with the heaters etc. BTW the power reading on the back of the amp is possibly the consumption rather than the output, which is typically about 1/2 the consumption (roughly). Finally, you might be able to run it off a big yellow transformer like the ones builder's use. These are fairly cheap and powerful, but don't leave it plugged i when you're not using it or your electricity bill will rocket 😉

I've been on that as well thanks, I was just hoping that there may be an entire forum rather than just a section on another forum. The Piano World forum is probably the closest, but its all a bit serious and classically biased.

Thanks Skinnyman. I've enjoyed trawling through gearspace over the years and agree with what you say about the Newtonian nature of the reviews etc. Sound on Sound can be pretty good as well. I just wish that there was a keyboard equivalent of Basschat which is far more active in terms of the quantity and range of topics discussed, helpful and pretty friendly. Maybe that's just indicative of bass players as a whole 😆.

The title says it all really. Does anybody know of any decent keyboard forums anywhere ? I know Piano World and find it's a bit, well you know, b0ring, and Keyboard Korner which doesn't seem too active. Are there any that are even half as good as here ?

Something like the Zoom B1 Four would be ideal. It's a small, cheap multi effects floor unit with line in and headphone out. It has various drum patterns and some fairly usable effects. I bought a used one locally recently for £30, just because I couldn't not buy it really at that price. It will run off batteries or a dedicated power supply or even a USB power supply. https://www.thomann.de/ie/zoom_b1four_bass_multi_effect.htm As for which headphones, that's probably one of the more contentious topics on here... Everyone has an opinion, and nobody is trying to give you bad advice. There's just so much choice. For my tuppence worth I'd recommend Beyer Dynamic DT880 Pros, or you could try models by AKG (such as the K701 or K702) or any Sennheiser or various other brands. If you're trying to either exclude external noise or eliminate the sound of your playing from annoying others then buy closed back headphones rather than open back. My DT880s (which are open) don't leak much sound but I have some other open back headphones where you may just as well have your head between two speakers. Avoid bluetooth.

Am I the only person who so wanted that paragraph to end slightly differently? ....the following day it was perfectly fine, but later decided to go solo and was offered a contract with CBS......?

I got a Kay Precision copy for Xmas when I was about 18 from my parents, bought from a music shop in Oldham. It was natural ash, with a black pickguard. I loved it. I gave it away about 10 years ago to a local teacher who I knew and who used to give free lessons to kids who couldn't afford to pay. I asked her to give it to one of her students who she felt needed and deserved it.

I reconed a pair of 80's hifi speakers (Heybrook HB1's) last year and was delighted with the results. I'd never done it before and found it fairly easy, just a bit fiddly. They're now in daily use again as monitors for my digital piano.

I've just returned to playing bass after a brief (15year) pause. I stopped as I couldn't find a local band to play with. Anyway, one resource that I used to use back then was Adam Nitti's Bass Dojo which was one of the first online teaching resources, back in the days when the Internet was still young (who remember dial up modems hahaha). I've recently been looking around for something to refresh myself and have been considering the usual SBL and Bassbuzz courses, but couldn't really find anything that suited me, so am delighted that I just found out that Adam has archived the entire Bass Dojo classes. Even better, you can access them if you sponsor him on Patreon and the basic access level (garage) is only a fiver a month. I have no connection with Adam other than as a pupil the last time.

So whats it like ? I presume Santa has lifted the ban by now !

BTW, I felt that I should mention that I learnt a long time ago that referring to the UK as "the mainland" tends to rather annoy the Irish.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/work-to-restore-éire-sign-from-second-world-war-begins-at-howth-head-1.4529107 In fact they keep finding the signs.

Great. Glad you got it sorted. 😀

Marvin, can you perhaps send on some photos of how the interface is connected to the computer and the guitar to the interface. A screenshot of the system set up (what audio input you have selected etc) would be helpful too.

I use the dac principally as I had it lying about. It does give slightly better sound quality and as a bonus let me tidy up the cables a bit. Your problem is strange. The only times I've had something similar was when the audio was set to the computer and not the interface and once when I forgot to turn on phantom power to the mic 😳. It looks like something isn't switched on in the s/w somewhere, but as you've tried that then look at the h/w. I'd work back through a process of elimination. Just the laptop, then laptop with the interface and finally with the mixer as well. You can use the Skype test call facility to check what's being heard at the other end. BTW you won't be able to use the laptop mic when the interface is connected, but you probably knew that anyway.

Just read your problem. I think that you need to select the interface as the input in Skype, otherwise its trying to use the computer audio.

That's very similar to what I use for piano lessons. Mic in line 1. I use a really cheap condenser mic using phantom power off the mixer. Piano in 2 & 3. I use a seperate DAC from a USB on the computer to feed audio into 4 &5, but could have just used the audio out. Final input on that mixer (it's only 6 channel despite what Behringer called it), is my bass via the preamp in an old basspod, however you can use the Tape In inputs to cheat another couple of inputs ( I have a hardware drum machine connected on mine). Output from the mixer goes thro' the audio interface back into the computer. I use a Behringer UCA202, which was pretty much the cheapest that I could find and works perfectly. I've never noticed any latency. BTW I bought a 1008 USB mixer recently with idea of replacing this, but it didn't work as it won't do talkback, meaning you can either talk or listen, but not both at the same time. Useless for what I wanted, so it went back. If you have any questions please ask. I've probably had the same problem at some time.

Hi, I'm in my late 50's and have played bass on and off for years. I'm just back after not playing for around 15 years when I stopped due to not really knowing what to do next. I'd taken lessons for years and got told by my teacher that I was "better than most people out there, and just need to get out there and find a band". Trouble was at the time that I had a very demanding job and all the bands I spoke to were looking for complete commitment. Some were talking about midweek gigs that were a 2 to 3 hr drive away and I couldn't contemplate getting home at 2 am to be up for work the next day before 6. In the meantime I've been playing piano for about the last 5 years, covering the same genres of rock, blues and jazz. I have lessons every two weeks which focus on musicianship rather than learning songs. My plan is to understand the keyboard enough to play from leadsheets and be able to solo confidently and proficiently. My overall musical objectives would be to try and find a local band with a more manageable schedule and probably with the purpose of getting better rather than earning money gigging but would like to get into a relaxed schedule of local gigs. As I face into retirement I want to spend more and more time involved in music as I've spent my entire working life engaged in high tech engineering and management, which is all very logical & left brain. However I don't have any plans to take early retirement and could see me continuing to work, at least part time, past retirement, more to keep engaged than for any financial reasons. I do harbour a deep and long held desire to learn to play a EUB 😆, but would also like a 5 string fretless electric bass as well. So little time ....

I'd never heard of the Mooer until now. I agree about the effects in the px3b as they're not all the best, but I only really use a few presets. I've never had a problem with volume on it though but I normally use lowish impedance (32 ohm) headphones. For most of its life I used it with Grado 80's, which have now sadly departed this world.

After I wrote this, I found a PX4D which is a later model than mine, for sale locally and cheap. I put in an offer which has been accepted, so at least I now have a back up to my px3b. 😆

I never understood why Korg killed off the Pandora. Perfect little headphone practice amp, with effects, cab modelling, drum loops and a line in. All this 20 years ago. I still have mine but it's suffered because I stupidly left some batteries in it which leaked. If I can't get it to work properly then that Nux looks good.

Hi everyone, I thought that I'd just drop in and say hello. New member here, but been playing on and off most of my life, but don't confuse that with being any good. I'm just back playing for a month or so after a brief ten year pause. I'm also trying to learn keyboards and have been playing for around 4 years and have piano lessons every other week. I have the same interests on piano as bass. I should really be practicing now, as my next lesson is tomorrow morning but I've managed to find something else to distract me. Oh look a butterfly.... Anyway I've played a wide variety of stuff, but mostly rock, funk, blues and jazz based. I did a lot of RHCP stuff but have never gigged as last time I was looking I could only find bands that wanted to gig 3 or 4 times a week and my job was too demanding to let me away midweek ( and still is really). As for gear, I'm lucky enough to have a couple of nice basses. A 5 string Michael Tobias Designs (MTD) Kingston Heir and a four string that was hand made by Karl Hoyt (a small one man operation up around Cape Cod). I also have an Ashdown MAG200 with a mini 4x8 cab, but am playing mostly through a bass pod into a mixer at the moment. I hope that I can tag along as I try to get back on form.

Hi folks, first post, so be gentle 😆, but I have about 30 years as an engineer and manager in the semiconductor industry. I've also played bass on and off for longer than this. I also play keyboards. There's a few problems going on here. Firstly the s/c industry was growing at about 5% per year for the last few years, and then, bang, all of a sudden last year demand was +20%. There were pandemic related issues as well and some fabs (mostly in Asia) shut down for a while, so that capacity was lost. The car companies believed that demand had tanked long term and so cancelled future orders. This capacity was then assigned to other things. Don't blame me though, where I work never missed a minute and has been posting record results every month since the start of this. There were also some capacity issues due to fires and a few more fabs have been running on reduced capacity. Finally, the investment needed (and time required) for a state of the art chip factory is eye watering. You're talking over $5 billion and at least 3 or 4 years to build, start up, and qualify a new factory, so it's not a case of just buying a few more machines and putting them in an extension out the back. Over the past 30 years the cost of staying in the game has risen exponentially as the technology gets more and more complex (read "smaller"). For the latest chips, there's one manufacturing machine alone that costs around $175 million (and that's not a typo) and guess what ? You needs dozens of them. If you're interested google ASML or "extreme UV lithography". Most of the smaller companies have exited the market and manufacturing has become concentrated in certain geographical areas (yup, mostly Asia). Making high end semiconductors is, without any doubt, the most advanced manufacturing process in the world. Hope this is of interest.