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Old 04-24-2018, 08:26 AM
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Methos1979 Methos1979 is offline
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Default Bose S1 Pro outside demo video - finally!

Hey AGF. I'm baaaaccckkkk!

As promised, I'm back with a video demo of the Bose S1 Pro played outside in a wooded area. No acoustically reflective surfaces, just woods. I wanted to see how well the S1 performed in an outdoors area and I'm happy to say it performed well and even more that I learned some important things about it.

I need to preface the video with a couple things. I'm playing an 80 second looper clip of me playing my Martin 000-18 Custom and singing. Both are going through the Boss VE-8 Acoustic Singer pedal. So please realize that there is preamp going on here. In other words, the S1 would not likely be as loud if I was just going straight in but I don't know how many do that anyway. Seems most people are using a preamp/mixer of some sort.

As for settings, the VE-8 was dialed-in inside my home with levels and EQ set for that room. Outside I left the vocal volume the same but I did bump the guitar. The VE-8 is going straight into the S1 with a 1/4" guitar chord with both the vocal and guitar signal on it. On the S1 itself the ToneMatch switch is off, the bass backed off (cut) to 25% (more on that later) and the treble at 50% (flat). Reverb is off on the S1. Volume is up to almost 75% on the S1.

Next, although I'm in the woods, I'm a few miles away from a small airport (think Cessnas) and like clockwork with my recordings, the second I start recording you can hear an airplane taking off. I didn't bother to re-record as I figured it only adds to a real-world demonstration of how the S1 handles outside noises. In addition to the airport there is road construction nearby so I could hear that as well.

Last, I kept saying the distances were 150 yards and 75 yards. I meant feet! I did correct myself in a few places but I wanted to make that clear. Obviously, I'm recording with my cell phone so fidelity is only so good, but hey, these are supposed to be real-world demo's, not flashy, overproduced product ads, right?

Here's the things I learned: When coupled with a decent preamp of some kind the Bose can get fairly loud. For acoustic music or just streaming some Bluetooth I think it can handle most small to medium venues, outdoor venues/parties and busking gigs quite well. I had to dial the bass way back to about 25%. Anything higher and the small woofer was just overwhelmed. (This seems to be the common reservation with this unit. If you need thumping bass, it's not for you.)

But this will be important for me to remember for gigs when I start to get some woofiness in the low end. I need to remember to just dial back the bass on the S1 and that will take care of most of my issues.

Enjoy the brief demo.

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Old 04-24-2018, 09:34 AM
music2myears music2myears is offline
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That’s impressive! I never would have thought it would sound that good at a distance.
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Old 04-24-2018, 03:15 PM
homme de fer homme de fer is offline
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That's a great demonstration. I heard it being demo'd at the local store and wondered how it would sound outside, I wonder no more.

It's pretty pricey, compared to, say, a loudbox mini, but it seems to have a nice "airy" sound.
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Old 04-24-2018, 03:28 PM
89bruin 89bruin is offline
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I had high hopes for the S1 but after buying one and fighting with it for over a week, I exchanged it for a Loudbox mini Charge. With the Bose I could never get a sound I liked. For me the tonexmatch was an absolute disaster that just got worse since the unit changes eq based on orientation. I could come close to a decent sound with some heavy eq with an LR Baggs Venue but in a/b testing the S1 simply didn’t cut it. I found the S1 to be pretty treble biased and agree it’s bass challenged at volume. My Fender Acoustasonic 90 got the nod from everyone who helped me a/b the unit. The upside is the Loudbox mini has been fantastic from the get go. It roughly the same size, is less expensive and comes with the battery. I know many love the Bose ... I wanted to but it just didn’t work for me.
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Old 04-24-2018, 05:28 PM
Marty C Marty C is offline
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Thanks Methos. Sounds great. I took my S1 and TC Helicon Play Acoustic outside. My vocal didn’t sound as good as yours (maybe you have more talent) but I think you are correct the bass needed to be dialed back. However I did like my guitar sound. I also want only one cable - if possible.

Inside, the bass sounds fine set flat - where I also have the treble. I do like the fact you can EQ both guitar and vocal on the Boss unit and leave the Bose EQ flat. Otherwise my guitar sounds too thin if I dial the bass back when both are running to one channel.

Have you tried to use the EQ on the Boss VE-8 for vocal? I always feel I want to turn the mids down on the Bose, but there is no midrange EQ. I feel like this helps the clarity. I tried This by putting a mixer in between the Bose and the Play Acoustic. I think a midcut helps my voice a good bit. However there is no mid range adjustments on either my Bose S1 or the TC Helicon Play Acoustic. Was considering the Boss unit for this vocal EQ as well as the battery. However I do have power black set up for my Play Acoustic that works great and last equal to the Bose battery.

Thanks for your review. Very helpful and encouraging since outside is where I will most often use mine.
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Old 04-24-2018, 05:45 PM
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Methos1979 Methos1979 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty C View Post
Thanks Methos. Sounds great. I took my S1 and TC Helicon Play Acoustic outside. My vocal didn’t sound as good as yours (maybe you have more talent) but I think you are correct the bass needed to be dialed back. However I did like my guitar sound. I also want only one cable - if possible.

Inside, the bass sounds fine set flat - where I also have the treble. I do like the fact you can EQ both guitar and vocal on the Boss unit and leave the Bose EQ flat. Otherwise my guitar sounds too thin if I dial the bass back when both are running to one channel.

Have you tried to use the EQ on the Boss VE-8 for vocal? I always feel I want to turn the mids down on the Bose, but there is no midrange EQ. I feel like this helps the clarity. I tried This by putting a mixer in between the Bose and the Play Acoustic. I think a midcut helps my voice a good bit. However there is no mid range adjustments on either my Bose S1 or the TC Helicon Play Acoustic. Was considering the Boss unit for this vocal EQ as well as the battery. However I do have power black set up for my Play Acoustic that works great and last equal to the Bose battery.

Thanks for your review. Very helpful and encouraging since outside is where I will most often use mine.
I spent a fair amount of time dialing in both the guitar and vocal EQ on the VE-8. By that I don't mean it look a long time, but rather that I took the time to really play with the EQ settings until I got a tone that I liked for both mine and my wife's vocals. I dialed it in for me (she wasn't there) and then fine-tuned it for her since live only her vocals goes through the VE-8. If I have a mic (not always since I don't sing much) then I go into the second channel of the S1.

Unlike what some others have found, I do not find setting the EQ on the VE-8 difficult at all. Key for both the guitar and vocal is first to get the gain set high enough. Then getting the EQ dialed in is fairly easy, especially if you already know your 'general' EQ needs. I've discovered that for me at least my EQ'ing for vocals and guitar is ballpark the same across all EQ units with minor tweaks for venue/room.

Generally speaking for the VE-8 I dial the mids back some and the highs and lows up a bit for vocals. Guitar is almost always highs up a bit, lows back a bit and mids back a bunch. I have been very impressed with the vocal tone I've gotten out of both the VE-8 and S1, both together and separately.

When going straight into the S1 I generally have the ToneMatch set to mic position with the treble bumped up a bit and the bass dialed back a bit. With VE-8 into the S1 I set the ToneMatch to off and start with the EQ on the S1 flat and dial in as needed for venue. Generally speaking the only tweaking that needs to be done on the S1 is that the louder we play, the more the bass needs to be dialed back and that is mostly to counter feedback and midrange honkiness for the guitar.
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Old 04-24-2018, 06:06 PM
Marty C Marty C is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Methos1979 View Post
I spent a fair amount of time dialing in both the guitar and vocal EQ on the VE-8. By that I don't mean it look a long time, but rather that I took the time to really play with the EQ settings until I got a tone that I liked for both mine and my wife's vocals. I dialed it in for me (she wasn't there) and then fine-tuned it for her since live only her vocals goes through the VE-8. If I have a mic (not always since I don't sing much) then I go into the second channel of the S1.

Unlike what some others have found, I do not find setting the EQ on the VE-8 difficult at all. Key for both the guitar and vocal is first to get the gain set high enough. Then getting the EQ dialed in is fairly easy, especially if you already know your 'general' EQ needs. I've discovered that for me at least my EQ'ing for vocals and guitar is ballpark the same across all EQ units with minor tweaks for venue/room.

Generally speaking for the VE-8 I dial the mids back some and the highs and lows up a bit for vocals. Guitar is almost always highs up a bit, lows back a bit and mids back a bunch. I have been very impressed with the vocal tone I've gotten out of both the VE-8 and S1, both together and separately.

When going straight into the S1 I generally have the ToneMatch set to mic position with the treble bumped up a bit and the bass dialed back a bit. With VE-8 into the S1 I set the ToneMatch to off and start with the EQ on the S1 flat and dial in as needed for venue. Generally speaking the only tweaking that needs to be done on the S1 is that the louder we play, the more the bass needs to be dialed back and that is mostly to counter feedback and midrange honkiness for the guitar.
Thank you Methos. That sounds almost identical for my settings on both vocal and guitar - when using my mixer. I may have to try the Boss VE-8. Sounds like a great tool to get my EQ in a better area.

I can get a cleaner sound by backing off the mic about 2” x 3”. But I am accustomed to singing for many years in close proximity and I naturally move back close again and don’t realize it. As a result, my bass is over pronounced. A little cut in the mids will fix this for my voice every time.

I will try dialing the bass back and see where that goes before investing in the Boss unit.

I appreciate your help!
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Old 04-24-2018, 06:07 PM
gfa gfa is offline
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Thank you so much for posting this. I don't use a Bose or similar system, just appreciate the effort you put into this.
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Old 04-24-2018, 07:32 PM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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Hi Methos. Thanks for posting this. Impressive! Are you dialing back the bass knob on the EQ or just high passing it? I do thumb bass heavy fingerstyle and find that once I high pass the guitar, I can actually turn the bass EQ up a little. I also find that turning the amount of body resonance modeling down a little significantly affects the amount of low end coming out of the VE-8, AD-10 or AD-2.
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Old 04-24-2018, 07:37 PM
Durnbock Durnbock is offline
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Nice job Methos! I'm not currently playing guitar again yet. But I am wondering if two of the S1s would be good for a small karaoke setup (say at a small venue or a private party) so I don't have to haul out the full PA. Do you think pre-recorded music will pump too much low end through it to the point where it will cut out? Or if someone REALLY powered their voice into the mic? I was also looking at the HK Lucas Nano sets as well...but the battery power is really attractive to simplify setup.
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Old 04-24-2018, 08:37 PM
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Methos1979 Methos1979 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lkingston View Post
Hi Methos. Thanks for posting this. Impressive! Are you dialing back the bass knob on the EQ or just high passing it? I do thumb bass heavy fingerstyle and find that once I high pass the guitar, I can actually turn the bass EQ up a little. I also find that turning the amount of body resonance modeling down a little significantly affects the amount of low end coming out of the VE-8, AD-10 or AD-2.
The dialing back of the bass EQ is on the S1. I have not used the high pass at all on the VE-8 which I'm assuming is down inside the programming. As for the body resonance feature on the VE-8, I have not been that impressed with it. And while I use it a tiny bit, I find I liked (and therefore miss!) the TC Electronic BodyRez effect much more. Before buying the VE-8 I auditioned and did a direct A/B of the Boss AD-2 and the BodyRez and for me the BodyRez won hands down. I was hopeful for the AD-2 as I love the notch feature.

It's funny but I wish I could take the tank-like build and awesome EQ setup of the PARA, add the BodyRez from the TCE, the notch from the Boss AD-2, and put in an all-in-one pedal like the VE-8 along with all the effects from the Mooer Ocean Machine with the built-in looper (but with two button operation) and also a built-in volume/expression pedal. But make it no bigger than the VE-8. Oh, and it needs to run on a single triple-A battery for 12 hours while providing 48v phantom power... Too much?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Durnbock View Post
Nice job Methos! I'm not currently playing guitar again yet. But I am wondering if two of the S1s would be good for a small karaoke setup (say at a small venue or a private party) so I don't have to haul out the full PA. Do you think pre-recorded music will pump too much low end through it to the point where it will cut out? Or if someone REALLY powered their voice into the mic? I was also looking at the HK Lucas Nano sets as well...but the battery power is really attractive to simplify setup.
Two S1s would likely work well as long as you didn't need that thumping low end. I will say (and should have demonstrated in my video) that I have been extremely impressed with the Bluetooth playback of music from my cell phone. Considering there is no EQ for that channel, I've been blown away by how loud it gets and how clear it sounds. I remember seeing a video post on YouTube in my research where a guy is actually using two S1s for exactly that - playing dances and (I think) karaoke and he seemed to be thrilled with it. It would certainly be a very light and easy setup vs a full PA. But again, depends on just how much volume/power you need.
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Old 04-24-2018, 08:42 PM
Durnbock Durnbock is offline
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Thanks Methos. Yeah, I wouldn't need club sort of bass, just a nice full sound. I used to use a Fender Passport PD-250--nice little system, had a marine battery adapter so perfect for outdoors. But whenever the singing got a little too strong or a little too much bass you could hear the music drop out quite a bit. Of course, speaker technology is much more advanced now. I'll have to see if any Guitar Centers in the Twin Cities have any S1s in stock to go take a listen.
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Old 04-24-2018, 08:50 PM
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Methos1979 Methos1979 is offline
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Originally Posted by Durnbock View Post
Thanks Methos. Yeah, I wouldn't need club sort of bass, just a nice full sound. I used to use a Fender Passport PD-250--nice little system, had a marine battery adapter so perfect for outdoors. But whenever the singing got a little too strong or a little too much bass you could hear the music drop out quite a bit. Of course, speaker technology is much more advanced now. I'll have to see if any Guitar Centers in the Twin Cities have any S1s in stock to go take a listen.
Honestly, I think if I needed any kind of power (like a dance or karaoke) I would use a QSC k8.2 (or two). Sure, they are double the weight at 30 lbs-ish each and no battery but even one of those would be more than two S1s. Those little babies throw 2000 watts of power and at just about $50 more than the S1 you get a whole lot more for bang for the buck. I plan to one day add one of those to our stable to augment the S1 if I ever find I need that kind of power. But the gigs we're playing now are relatively small and anyplace we play we need more almost always has a house PA.

Last edited by Methos1979; 04-24-2018 at 08:57 PM.
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