what's your take on effects?

[just_me]

Hi Janek,
well the title says it already?
I was wondering, when you use effects, like with jojo mayer's nerve, if you go for a specific sound (like emulating another instrument's sound or just a sound that you pictured in your head), or you kinda go to the shop, buy a bunch of them, try and see what kind of sound you get out of the boxes?
I can't really seem to find them really satisfying (soundwise) most of the time, and thought that you, or anybody else who has experience with effects, had something worth saying about it.
thanks a lot!
yannick

[janekbass]

Well I think most of the things I hear electronically can be done with a boss OC-2, some sort of good distortion pedal - Wooly mammoth is great! a moogerfooger low pass filter with the expression pedal, and a delay pedal of some sort, and that's about it......

I add a bunch of things to the signal chain for different colours. Boss chorus pedal on some extreme settings, Fender, Small Stone, and Pigtronix Phasers all on different settings, EQ pedal sometimes, different distortions, ibanez synth pedal, Bass Balls Nano, and Bass Balls, Line 6 synth emulator pedal (the purple one), and a few other things that escape my memory right now.

It's really about getting the signal chain right, and then using the expression pedals for the delay, synth, and moog. It's a lot of footwork, but that's really how it's done to get those kind of programmed and synth sounding electronic sounds out of your bass. You can of course you a synth for the sounds too. On all the pop gigs I do I use a keyboard for most of the programmed synth bass sounds from an artists album.

Passive basses are kinder to pedals whereas active basses drive the pedals way too much and the handling is a bit erratic.


Hope that helps.

Easy,

Janek

[j-raj]

Originally Posted by janekbass

Passive basses are kinder to pedals whereas active basses drive the pedals way too much and the handling is a bit erratic.

First off, thank you for sharing you knowledge with us.

Do you switch your bass to passive when you engage certain effects or to passive when you are using effects in general?

Jai

[janekbass]

I have been using a P-bass with the effects more these days.

actually played it on the letterman show a few days ago, but no effects this time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZb6r_5b6gI

Really liking the feel of the bass though.

If I'm playing the Fodera on a show with Nerve for instance, I'll put it in Passive for pretty much the whole show, unless I do any playing without any effects at all and use a clean sound.

Easy,

Janek

[j-raj]

Originally Posted by janekbass

I have been using a P-bass with the effects more these days.

actually played it on the letterman show a few days ago, but no effects this time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZb6r_5b6gI

Really liking the feel of the bass though.

If I'm playing the Fodera on a show with Nerve for instance, I'll put it in Passive for pretty much the whole show, unless I do any playing without any effects at all and use a clean sound.

Easy,

Janek

Wait, did I miss your Delta gig on Letterman!?! I had a reminder set, telling me that it was this Wednesday night, oops.


Does playing through mostly true bypass pedals, eliminate some of this problem of over-driving effects w/active basses, or in active mode?

[janekbass]

yeah, they called me last minute and moved the date from the 1st of Oct to the 24th of Sep.... flew me to NYC and we did it with no rehearsal.

Band sounded great, and they got a good all round mix.

and with the pedals thing.....

passive wins every day of the week. I have such a mish mash of pedals that all have a different signal strength that I really couldn't tell what works besides a passive bass.

Easy,

Janek

[j-raj]

oh well, glad we have youtube. You, Delta and the rest of the band sounded/looked great, rehearsal or not... thanks for sharing that with us.

RE: pedals, that helps to explain some of the craziness I experience, glad all of my basses have a active/passive switch (or are passive to begin with).

[just_me]

well first thanks a lot....
but it sounds like a million pedals for me (I don't have any)
I was wondering if you happen to use those effects in a jazz settings? like with mike stern? or just a clean sound?
also, when you produce, are there effects that you use "automaticaly", like a reverb for the voice, because it's somehow a standard thing to do?
thanks a lot for your time and advices,
also it's nice to see you playing the p-bass
yannick