Sonicake Pocket Master just arrived - nano size effects processor for £50

[lemmywinks]

Been after something for quiet portable practice and song learning for a while with some very specific requirements, it had to be tiny, have bluetooth audio streaming from my phone, rechargeable, have a built in tuner and be able to drive headphones. Didn't need anything else, also had to be cheap because I don't like spending money. The Ashdown Tone Pocket seemed to fit the bill (regular and BT versions currently on sale) but I was a sick in my mouth at the prospect of buying a device that uses Micro USB in 2025.

 

So anyway I bought this:

https://www.sonicake.com/products/pocket-master

 

First off it is truly tiny - just 104mm x 85mm x 29mm so about the size of a cigarette packet. All plastic but feels well built for home use, screen is nice and the buttons feel decent. Can get going straight away by powering the unit on and either using the jog wheel or buttons to cycle through the pre built patches. Tapping the jog wheel cycles through BT on/off, volume and patch selection. You can exit menus by tapping both buttons, all pretty intuitive.

 

I couldn't get this to pair with my phone straight away but after pairing it using the SonicLink app (which enables you to manage the patches via your phone if you so wish) I could add it as "Pocket Master Audio" from the regular bluetooth menu allowing me to play backing tracks over my phone. Bass sounds good through it, enough volume and clarity for headphone practice which is all I really bought it for, most of the presets and amp/cab sims are for guitar but it does have some dedicated bass effects, the eq and comp pretty good. As usual there's loads of over the top presets (50 factory, 50 user) but the standard "Basic Bass" patch is good for me. You can add your own IRs in (up to 5) via the Sonicake software.

 

Can also use it as an audio interface and it has a basic drum machine, unlikely I'll ever use these but they're there.

 

All in all it more than does what I bought it for and came in at £50, really convenient as you just plug your bass and headphones in and away you go which is what appeals to me the most as it's great for short sessions. The one downside is that there's no dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack so you have to use a 1/4" adapter.

 

Here's my rubbish picture to prove I'm not shilling for some random company, as you can see it's about the length of a Neutrik jack plug. Crazy stuff.

 

Edited January 22 by lemmywinks

[madshadows]

Been watching some YouTube vids of this little unit, seems really useful and I want one for home practice  

 

 

John 😎  

[lemmywinks]

6 minutes ago, madshadows said:

Been watching some YouTube vids of this little unit, seems really useful and I want one for home practice  

 

 

John 😎  

 

 

It nails the convenient home practice angle, just plug your bass and headphones in and that's it. I'll try this on it later tonight:

https://shift-line.com/irpackbass

[lemmywinks]

Been having an issue with the app on my current phone, it will connect to the Pocket Master but no effects or patches show and you can't do anything. Got it working on my old phone and managed to get those free cab IRs linked above loaded which was pretty straightforward - just click on any patch, select the IR slot, click the cab selection window in the lower section, press "User IR" and click the 3 dots. Can get all 5 slots loaded from there.

 

Will see how they sound later, this was all I needed the app for but hopefully they update it sooner rather than later.

[lemmywinks]

Sonicake have just updated the PC software, Android app and firmware for this, the app still doesn't work on my main phone but you can now manage effects and IRs from your computer which is probably more useful for me as my tablet runs Windows 11. They've also added a couple of bass effects (Voks and VT, assume Vox and SVT amps) as well as a bass drive.

Edited January 23 by lemmywinks

[lemmywinks]

New bass specific amp models and drive are very good, rather unsurprisingly the best choice if you're using this with bass so I'd recommend updating the firmware straight away if you get one of these.

 

The free bass IRs from shiftline are quite poor though, sound heavily compressed and lacking any real mids or highs, like a rubbish sound engineer's idea of what a bass should sound like. I'd just find one of the factory guitar ones you like.

[Mcgiver69]

According to the release notes it is now compatible with NAM captures, if that is the case then this automatically becomes one of the best little players around and opens a massive world of possibilities.

Edited January 24 by Mcgiver69

[lemmywinks]

28 minutes ago, Mcgiver69 said:

According to the release notes it is now compatible with NAM captures, if that is the case then this automatically becomes one of the best little players around and opens a massive world of possibilities.

 

Yeah I saw that, will have a dig over the weekend. Any recommendations for where to get them?

 

Found these:

https://tonehunt.org/search-results?search=bass

[Mcgiver69]

17 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

Yeah I saw that, will have a dig over the weekend. Any recommendations for where to get them?

 

Found these:

https://tonehunt.org/search-results?search=bass

That's the place to get them, you'll find a good amount of bass amp captures there plus a good amount of IRs.

[lemmywinks]

Tried a few of the NAM clones, a bit disappointing. The Markbass and Avalon pre clones were a bit limp and very quiet, the Darkglass was good though. Couldn't tweak them to the point where I was happy so went back to the stock SVT model, will have another mess around when I get the chance. To get these working there's a tab on the amp bay you can switch between BASIC and CLONE, took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure this out.

 

The cab IRs from that Tonehunt site are very good however, currently got the Hartke 4x10XL one on my main preset, does do a good impression the real deal.

Edited January 26 by lemmywinks

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 22/01/2025 at 19:00, lemmywinks said:

Been after something for quiet portable practice and song learning for a while with some very specific requirements, it had to be tiny, have bluetooth audio streaming from my phone, rechargeable, have a built in tuner and be able to drive headphones. Didn't need anything else, also had to be cheap because I don't like spending money. The Ashdown Tone Pocket seemed to fit the bill (regular and BT versions currently on sale) but I was a sick in my mouth at the prospect of buying a device that uses Micro USB in 2025.

 

So anyway I bought this:

https://www.sonicake.com/products/pocket-master

 

First off it is truly tiny - just 104mm x 85mm x 29mm so about the size of a cigarette packet. All plastic but feels well built for home use, screen is nice and the buttons feel decent. Can get going straight away by powering the unit on and either using the jog wheel or buttons to cycle through the pre built patches. Tapping the jog wheel cycles through BT on/off, volume and patch selection. You can exit menus by tapping both buttons, all pretty intuitive.

 

I couldn't get this to pair with my phone straight away but after pairing it using the SonicLink app (which enables you to manage the patches via your phone if you so wish) I could add it as "Pocket Master Audio" from the regular bluetooth menu allowing me to play backing tracks over my phone. Bass sounds good through it, enough volume and clarity for headphone practice which is all I really bought it for, most of the presets and amp/cab sims are for guitar but it does have some dedicated bass effects, the eq and comp pretty good. As usual there's loads of over the top presets (50 factory, 50 user) but the standard "Basic Bass" patch is good for me. You can add your own IRs in (up to 5) via the Sonicake software.

 

Can also use it as an audio interface and it has a basic drum machine, unlikely I'll ever use these but they're there.

 

All in all it more than does what I bought it for and came in at £50, really convenient as you just plug your bass and headphones in and away you go which is what appeals to me the most as it's great for short sessions. The one downside is that there's no dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack so you have to use a 1/4" adapter.

 

Here's my rubbish picture to prove I'm not shilling for some random company, as you can see it's about the length of a Neutrik jack plug. Crazy stuff.

 

I would be tempted to get one and attaching it directly to the body of my bass.

 

My main bass has the pickup wired directly to the output jack socket, so I could just remove the pots/knobs and install this instead on top of it, for real time hand control of effects.

[lemmywinks]

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I would be tempted to get one and attaching it directly to the body of my bass.

 

My main bass has the pickup wired directly to the output jack socket, so I could just remove the pots/knobs and install this instead on top of it, for real time hand control of effects.

 

 

They actually come with a removable belt clip so you could attach it to a strap I think.

[Baloney Balderdash]

4 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

 

They actually come with a removable belt clip so you could attach it to a strap I think.

Nice feature, though that would kind of defeat my idea about having effects and effect parameters adjustable as easily as you would onboard bass controls. 

 

Edited January 26 by Baloney Balderdash

[lemmywinks]

3 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Nice feature, though that would kind of defeat my idea about having effects and effect parameters adjustable as easily as you would onboard bass controls. 

 

 

 

I wish we could see this sort of tech integrated into a bass tbh.

[lemmywinks]

Been trying some more of the full rig NAM clones, really like the Eden Traveller + Techsound one which with some minor eq adjustments and volume boosts is probably my new go to. Can also get some nice sounds out of the Orange Dual Terror and Markbass cab clone with some more extreme eq'ing, whoever made that clone really likes mid clank!

[Lifer]

I’ve had one of these for about a week and it really is incredible.  I didn’t know you could stream audio from the phone!  I can get rid of the AmPlug!

 

I’ve been using it as an interface into Logic for a very portable demo recording rig (I have a focusrite interface but that doesn’t fit in my gig bag unlike the pocketmaster)

 

I had trouble with the input monitoring on the pocketmaster but that was easily solved by using the output on my MacBook instead.

 

I’ve only just started messing around with the captures and so far the Dual Terror one is the only one that I like.  I’ve recorded some guitars with a Rockverb capture and that sounds huge.

[lemmywinks]

1 hour ago, Lifer said:

I’ve had one of these for about a week and it really is incredible.  I didn’t know you could stream audio from the phone!  I can get rid of the AmPlug!

 

I’ve been using it as an interface into Logic for a very portable demo recording rig (I have a focusrite interface but that doesn’t fit in my gig bag unlike the pocketmaster)

 

I had trouble with the input monitoring on the pocketmaster but that was easily solved by using the output on my MacBook instead.

 

I’ve only just started messing around with the captures and so far the Dual Terror one is the only one that I like.  I’ve recorded some guitars with a Rockverb capture and that sounds huge.

 

 

I don't know if BT audio works when connected as a BLE device using the Sonic Link app as it doesn't work properly with my phone, just connecting a PC/phone directly to it as Sonic Audio works fine though.

[lemmywinks]

This case just arrived, the Pocket Master is very snug in there. Fits perfectly upside down but is ok the right way up too. I removed the bit of elastic.

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006075771241.html

Edited January 31 by lemmywinks