Replace your pedalboard with a tablet or phone?

[Aric Bjorn]

It seems to work pretty well on the guys iPad in the video, fwiw. I'm curious, and also curious what you all might think too. I've only recently started building my own pedalboard in the past year, and I'm relatively new to bass guitar as well, but I've definitely been bitten by the effects bug I'm not affiliated in any way with any of these products, btw.

 

[Minimalist]

How is that going tonworknat rehearsal or live?

 

[TaySte_2000]

I did this (10) years ago. Ran an iPad with jam up pro live for 3 or so years.

There is a big thread here somewhere about it.

It was all good until an iOS update caused my line 6 interfaces to stop working.

By the time the tech moved on to where there was usb c on the iPad, my iPad was so expensive I didn’t want to have it on stage with me.

So now I’m back with stompable fx desperately trying to avoid apps wherever I can, tonex and quad cortex have come and gone. The only thing in this vein I use now is the darkglass element and the boss katana go. Both work as an interface for the iPad if I want to dabble in this stuff again.

One thing people might find useful with loopy pro is you can drag and drop loops on to it such as the Nate Smith drum picks for yurt rock.

I do this to practice all the time and loopy makes it super easy.

 

[Code Brown]

It's unwise to build your house on sand. The tablets / phones and their OS are always changing, updating, crashing, etc. I love the idea in theory, but in practice I'd rather have the simplicity and stability of a small pedalboard.

 

[Hundred proof]

 

[EvilJ]

Nope! No tooobz..

 

[Pilgrim]

There are many occasions when it's better to have separate devices which each do their job well. There is also the issue of being able to physically access and manipulate those devices while you're playing.

I think pedals are a reasonably elegant way to tune the instrument and to modify sound. The individual pedals allow a great deal of specific control, and each one is easily accessible by foot. I think that's a pretty good approach to having a set of controls. The "all-in-one" solutions may have more options, but seldom make it really easy to select between them while playing. I know they work for some, but I'll pass.

 

[lomo]

When it comes to playing my bass, nested digital menus are a complete buzzkill and deal breaker for me. I want to be able to see exactly how each effect is set at a glance, and modify it on the fly to suit the bass/amp/cab/moment......and then there's the fact that I have already found analog pedals (several with tubes) that sound exactly as I want. My wheel has already been invented.

 

[triviani]

I'm also into the no digital menus camp. But I have to say that the idea of lightweight commuting is appealing. Just bringing the iPhone and a small switcher instead of a pedalboard that weights as much as my bass? I'd consider it.

How bad would latency be? And also, where do you plug the bass?

 

[BassmanNate]

I already have a problem with actual pedals that require an app to use most of the features. What happens if the manufacturer stops supporting the app or the app just sucks?

 

[darev]

I already have a problem with actual pedals that require an app to use most of the features. What happens if the manufacturer stops supporting the app or the app just sucks?

They eventually will update it like Sonos (or anyone else writing software) and remove the features that you rely on.

"Through our years of experience we have found that analog inputs are old, noisy, and inefficient so we removed them for a more robust user experience. You're welcome."

Also, you will have to upgrade your phone to use the app going forward. $250 for a new pedal or $1200 for a new phone?

 

[coyote1]

It's unwise to build your house on sand. The tablets / phones and their OS are always changing, updating, crashing, etc. I love the idea in theory, but in practice I'd rather have the simplicity and stability of a small pedalboard.

Yeah. But…. I’m doing it with keyboards. iPad is becoming the center of my keyboard world. Reasons?
1. NUMA Player. FREE, and includes a very good Steinway grand and very good Clavinet and marimba and many other things.
2. VB3m. A Hammond/Leslie modeler for $15. Its only weakness is fast Leslie, and that’s only because that particular sound is nearly impossible to model. And even at that, it’s not bad… but every other facet of VB3m is spot-on my actual Hammond console. I’m building a new ‘organ’ using a couple inexpensive midi controllers to run it.
3. SWAM woodwinds and horns. Sax, trumpet, trombone, flute. All as realistic as currently available without having the actual horn. $15 per instrument on average.

There are many other softsynths and whatnot that are free or very inexpensive and are excellent. And since I needed a new iPad anyway, this path became a natural choice.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

I don't use a ton of different sounds, so having pedals at their settings is easy and reliable for me.

If I were a guitarist and had to cover a multitude of sounds and often within the same song, having things programmed and accessible at the push of a button would be the way to go. There are a lot of multi effects processors that can do that as a contained unit. I wouldn't trust a tablet to do it.

 

[klattman]

For practice or certain projects sure. I enjoy having options.

I have an HX and an opus and they are lots of fun.

For live or when you are on the clock? No menu diving! Give me physical knobs that do what I expect.

 

[IceBlueBoogaloo]

I came in to second everybody’s else notion but then I remembered that an electric guitarist in our church has an elegant suitcase setup with nothing but a MacBook with a whole bunch of presets and a MIDI switcher and he sounded fantastic. And then I wonder why I’m not doing it myself…

I think there’s very much something about the guitar-playing experience that’s so dependent on immediacy and tangibility compared to the modern synthesizer/keyboard. It’s not true for everyone but I have grown attached to the process of hand-picking physical gear I spent time researching and then really committing to understanding it and using it well. My Lusithand Alma is one of my favorite recent acquisitions for accomplishing some major tone goals I wanted and only came to an understanding after getting totally lost in the myriad of digital options out there.

It’s nice to work with a set of limited but high quality tools.

 

[FretRiff]

I've used some of these with synths and to be frank they can be awesome. The person putting together the video highlights the amazing Loopy Pro app (which is a looper on steroids plus has grown into something of a DAW)... but it should be pointed out that he also sells Loopy-related instructional videos on his loopymax website. That said, Loopy Pro is one of the very best pieces of music-related software for the iPad, period.

 

[basslayer]

I recently been using gig perfomer to see how much of my rig can be replaced. It's been cool; live looping is the final frontier for me moving on from my pedals entirely.

 

[Iristone]

I may have to use a computer one day, since the only Sunn Coliseum sound-alike I can find is a VST effect. It also allows me to play synths with a MIDI pedal.
The key is that you need something without Internet or phone signal. You don't want your audience to listen to your notifications, do you?

 

[FretRiff]

live looping is the final frontier for me moving on from my pedals entirely.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

An iPad M4 has the same processor as a MacBookPro where you can record a ton of simultaneous tracks with a lot of effects. But we treat it like it can at best, play Angry Birds or take notes. I’d give it a shot but the interface seems the wild card. I’d want the tablet to be powered and latency on par with a modeler. Last time I tried, the latency was horrible but I’d be willing to give it another shot.