MadMaxG79
Roadie
- Messages
- 135
A little backstory: I play in a primarily covers band. A couple of years ago I started creating backing tracks for a lot of the songs we cover, so that I (and other members of the band) could practice my parts to drums, bass and vocals from the original songs. The idea was that I would just use my phone and either plug into the aux input of my modeler of choice and start playing away. And I did in the beginning - but mostly just to justify the time I spent creating all those tracks. The thing is that my modeler is not always on the floor in front of me. I have to pull it out of the closet and hook everything up before I can start playing. So it quickly became a little too much of a hassle to hook everything up and actually practice to backing tracks.
Fast forward to last week where I got my new modeler and it has bluetooth connection. At first I thought very little of this feature. As if it was something I would never really use. Well, that's until I remembered all those backing tracks I had lying ready in my Dropbox account*. Man, did I have fun playing along to those most of the weekend! And it even made building presets more engaging because I can suddenly hear how the changes I make to my sound affects the entire mix. Sure, it will sound different with my actual band mates, but at least it's a good starting point. And I can plan out all the scenes I need, what to include when and where and when I have to switch them on during the performance. It was so much fun I forgot I was actually practicing
And another thing: My current modeler has an output meter that always shows me where my output for the current preset is. And can track it easily when I add an overdrive or something like that. No more hooking up my modeler to my computer, opening up a DAW, making sure that everything is working properly and then meticulously going through every preset and scene, just to make sure everything is leveled properly...
Oh, and scribble strips. I remember when the Helix first came out and I thought: "Sure, that looks pretty. But who really needs that?". Turns out I do. I never wanna go back to no scribble strips.
What about you? What are the "convenience" factors you can't live without?
*Then I discovered the Moises app, which can extract the different instrument tracks from a music file so you have instant backing tracks. That was a both exhilarating and depressing experience to learn how easy it is and that I didn't have to spend all that time assembling all those backing tracks...
Fast forward to last week where I got my new modeler and it has bluetooth connection. At first I thought very little of this feature. As if it was something I would never really use. Well, that's until I remembered all those backing tracks I had lying ready in my Dropbox account*. Man, did I have fun playing along to those most of the weekend! And it even made building presets more engaging because I can suddenly hear how the changes I make to my sound affects the entire mix. Sure, it will sound different with my actual band mates, but at least it's a good starting point. And I can plan out all the scenes I need, what to include when and where and when I have to switch them on during the performance. It was so much fun I forgot I was actually practicing
And another thing: My current modeler has an output meter that always shows me where my output for the current preset is. And can track it easily when I add an overdrive or something like that. No more hooking up my modeler to my computer, opening up a DAW, making sure that everything is working properly and then meticulously going through every preset and scene, just to make sure everything is leveled properly...
Oh, and scribble strips. I remember when the Helix first came out and I thought: "Sure, that looks pretty. But who really needs that?". Turns out I do. I never wanna go back to no scribble strips.
What about you? What are the "convenience" factors you can't live without?
*Then I discovered the Moises app, which can extract the different instrument tracks from a music file so you have instant backing tracks. That was a both exhilarating and depressing experience to learn how easy it is and that I didn't have to spend all that time assembling all those backing tracks...
