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#337022 02/17/16 12:18 PM
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After a l o n g break (due to my wife's illness) we are hoping to get back out there and gig... we have a BOSE L1 - 2 vocals, keyboard, and backing tracks going into the Tone Match...looking for an update to my ancient tiny iPod to play our WAV files... also, do I need some sort of DI box to get a better quality sound? And, my Roland FP-4 piano is sending a stereo signal into the mono Tone Match, making for a very thin, cheesy piano sound thru the PA... any thoughts/advice on these would be much appreciated...

pooch #337035 02/17/16 12:56 PM
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Not sure if you are set on using .wav files as I use a Bose LII right from a Lenovo Notebook and sound is exceptional.

I think the thin sound from the keyboard is because the ToneMatch does not send a stereo sound. But I am sure ones who know a lot more than me on this subject will jump in soon.

Best to you and the wife re: getting back on the circuit.

Later,

pooch #337049 02/17/16 03:04 PM
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I know you already have the Bose so this is for anybody else interested.

The CPS Spacestation V.3 is killer for this. It's smaller and half the price of the Bose yet is very powerful. I've had one for about 18 months.

http://www.centerpointstereo.com/about.php

Check out all the videos with small groups going through it and there's one of me testing out my Hammond with it. That vid isn't me doing a demo for him, it was me test driving it for the first time to decide if I wanted one or not.

Bob


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pooch #337180 02/18/16 02:12 PM
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I use a Radial StageBugTM SB-5 Laptop DI which would work fine from your ipod. http://www.amazon.com/Radial-StageBugTM-SB-5-Laptop-DI/dp/B00BSY3FP4 Others have suggested that it is much better to run something via USB from a computer. Horses for courses.

Jazzmammal, nice playing! Having just carried a PA and a load of assorted junk to my car, I'm very impressed with the CPS Spacestation V.3! The sound is amazing and so compact. I'm amazed a whole band can play through it and it seems loud enough for small gigs? It looks ideal for BIAB, with guitar and vocals. I've noticed that some of the new stuff coming out now is blue tooth enabled / USB integrated. Also, they are starting to integrate re-chargeable batteries in the systems for outdoor work etc. All good.


Last edited by lambada; 02/18/16 02:18 PM.

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pooch #337209 02/18/16 09:00 PM
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I'll tell you the rest of the story. There is an epic thread on Keyboard Corner. It's so huge people are referring to stuff that was posted a year ago as Season 4, episode 3. Anyway Aspen got on the forum and mentioned he was doing the Amp show by the Van Nuys Airport. This was strictly a guitar show. That's about 30 miles from me so I checked it out.

He had a band consisting of two guitars, bass and keys with three vocals all going into a mixer going into the SS. No drums or tracks.

The room was roughly the size of a lot of hotel lounges I used to play. Room for maybe 40-60 or so. The volume was pretty loud, so loud they could have been asked to turn down by some restaurant managers I know.

The point of this amp is how it throws a pseudo stereo image all over the room no matter where you're standing. I tested this by walking up to the side of the stage where there was just room to go to the back wall behind the stage and then I walked all along the side wall to the rear corner in the back of the room.

The sound was exactly the same, everybody including the vocals could be heard clearly at the same volume in the whole room. Very impressive. There were no other amps including monitors, just the SS. It was a few weeks later that I drove to his studio and tested it out by doing that vid.

The only thing I noticed with my Hammond was when I played left hand bass. The Hammond has a pedal bass button and pedals on a real Hammond go very low with a growl. The SS could not handle that but the standard bass was ok. For heavier bass you would need a small sub and the SS has a full range sub out plug for that.

Bob


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pooch #337243 02/19/16 05:49 AM
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hey Bob, You sound great! And you're a very young-looking old guy!

For the benefit of anybody who may not want to navigate the menus, here's a direct link to Bob's segment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTQA0XE5yuc

pooch #337246 02/19/16 06:12 AM
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Originally Posted By: pooch
After a l o n g break (due to my wife's illness) we are hoping to get back out there and gig... we have a BOSE L1 - 2 vocals, keyboard, and backing tracks going into the Tone Match...looking for an update to my ancient tiny iPod to play our WAV files... also, do I need some sort of DI box to get a better quality sound? And, my Roland FP-4 piano is sending a stereo signal into the mono Tone Match, making for a very thin, cheesy piano sound thru the PA... any thoughts/advice on these would be much appreciated...


You are experiencing the classic problem when you take a stereo piano sound and "sum to mono" through a single PA. Cheesy is a good way to describe the effect and happens because some of the L and R frequencies interfere with each other before they leave the speaker and reach your ears. You only get the problem with stereo piano sound because most other instruments are basically mono to start with. If you use the single piano L/Mono out connection you get the same cheesy sound because the sum to mono happens inside the piano.

I was also disappointed when I bought a single Bose Compact and eventually ended up buying a second one! I can now keep L and R separate and also pan L fully L and R fully R in my mixer before the two Bose. The sound I hear from the Bose is now no different from listening with phones.

The SpaceStation is an interesting option which in theory maintains L and R separation with a single unit. The two methods should solve the basic problem i.e. no loss in quality because there is no summing to mono before the sound leaves the speakers. I would need convincing that the Spacesation has an additional benefit of maintaining stereo separation all round the room. I suspect the good sound is more a result of the no summing to mono rather than a magical room stereo separation.

Having said the above I wonder how much an audience will hear the same sound that is so annoying to the performer. We are so used to the great pianos we hear through our phones that the cheesy sound from a single speaker is very distracting. In my case I think it actually effects my playing so for that reason alone it's worth fixing.

Regards
Tony

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I've owned an SSV3 for a little over a year now and still marvel at the sound. For me it's more of a 3D sound. When you hear an acoustic piano you don't hear stereo, you hear 3D sound. When my wife first heard the SSV3 she said it sounded like there was a real piano in the room. Ray


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jazzmammal #337288 02/19/16 12:38 PM
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Very interesting, and just maybe the best comparison of stereo vs mono for live gigs I have ever seen.

Thanks for the link.

Later,

Tony Wright #337326 02/19/16 09:56 PM
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Originally Posted By: Tony Wright
I would need convincing that the Spacesation has an additional benefit of maintaining stereo separation all round the room. I suspect the good sound is more a result of the no summing to mono rather than a magical room stereo separation.


A lot of guys on the KC thread thought that too until they heard it. And it's understandable because it sounds too good to be true. You may not know who Aspen Pittman is. He's the guy who owned Groove Tubes and then sold the company to Fender. At the amp show he was very well known by all the long haired, maggot infested rock star wannabe guitar gods there. Just kidding, a couple of my friends were there too and they didn't have any maggots...

Aspen is a first class electronic sound engineer and has written a couple of well respected books on the subject. His explanation of how CPS works makes my eyes glaze over and I won't attempt to explain it here. All I can say is it's sonic voodoo. Is it the absolute best thing anybody has ever heard? Of course not. It costs $750 while some guys over there are using 5K Turbosound powered speaker systems set up in stereo with another 2K in preamps and mixers just to get that elusive perfect piano sound. There are some big name pros on that forum but down here where the rest of us plebes live the SS V.3 is the best stage amp I've ever used.

Bob


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pooch #337333 02/20/16 02:22 AM
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OK, so is this SS V.3 THAT great that I should consider selling my never-used-on-a-gig BOSE L1 ? And I could use my Mackie DFX-6?

pooch #337337 02/20/16 03:46 AM
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Bob, how much does it weigh?

Pat Marr #337416 02/20/16 09:51 AM
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raymb1 #337455 02/20/16 01:37 PM
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I'm way behind on live use or even what's available - I don't gig and I won't/don't (by choice) get out to see or HEAR what there is but I think I might just have to get one of these CPS's.

Bob - Thanks for posting

(even if not gigging - a home stereo feeding it for parties in the back yard or in multiple, but semi-open connected rooms would be great!)


Larry


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raymb1 #337463 02/20/16 03:28 PM
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Quote:
How much does it weigh?
Originally Posted By: raymb1


42 pounds. A Fender Twin Reverb amp weighs about 64 lbs.

One advantage of the Bose for an aging musician (ie. me) is that none of the pieces weighs more than 25 lbs.

But 42 lbs is pretty manageable, especially for the lower price and great sound quality! And especially for keyboards, where the true stereo signal makes such a difference in sound.

pooch #337489 02/20/16 10:24 PM
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Originally Posted By: pooch
OK, so is this SS V.3 THAT great that I should consider selling my never-used-on-a-gig BOSE L1 ? And I could use my Mackie DFX-6?


I wouldn't say that, the Bose is a good system and you already own it. I did a big band rehearsal a couple years ago and the vocalist showed up with his L1. He set it up behind the band and he sounded great. Excellent projection and this was set up behind 12 horns and keys, bass, drums and guitar. It was loud. Oth, at the gig I used my SS for piano and some organ and it also sounded great with all that sound too. But, without a direct comparison who knows which sounds better?

Aspen posted that he's made arrangements with some music stores to rent the SS so folks can try it out. Contact him through his website and ask about that.

Bob


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pooch #338897 03/03/16 02:15 PM
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Well, a rather ironic end to the Spacestation V3 saga. Apparently Centerpoint refuse to allow Sweetwater to ship them abroad. What a sorry state of affairs, but I guess they have their reasons. The shipping was almost half the price (lol). Centerpoint also don't respond to emails (just saying).

Sweetwater, I have to say, is a great company as far as customer support. The US is cheaper than Hong Kong after shipping (we pay no tax), although the shipping is by courier, so it's a bit expensive. The spacestation V3 would have cost $250 US to ship...


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Danny C. #338938 03/04/16 01:59 AM
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Are you using a Tone Match? Is there a 'difference' between a laptop and an iPod as far as quality thru the PA? I got a Radial SB-5, and I cannot hear an improvement...

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