Bass synth pedals

f59bassman · #1 09-05-2011, 11:30 AM

What pedal would give a bass a low end synthesizer tones? Or are there a plethora of pedals that can give me that sound?

Jazz Ad · #2 09-05-2011, 11:34 AM

Not sure what kind of tone you're after.

cableguy · #3 09-05-2011, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

Not sure what kind of tone you're after.

^This and budget would be helpful. EHX Bass synth, Line 6 M9, Tech 21 Red Ripper come to mind. Plenty others out there as well.

NOVAX · #4 09-05-2011, 11:43 AM

Tech 21 rules. Buy the Red Ripper and report back on how great it must be

The Digitech Synth Bass Wah is leaving me cold.

Shish · #5 09-05-2011, 11:45 AM

I'm happy with Robot Factory Pulse Synth. pricey new and hard to find used but very cool.

gastric · #6 09-05-2011, 12:08 PM

Check my signature for a variety of synth effect sound samples and reviews.

casio · #7 09-05-2011, 01:05 PM

I use a Line 6 M5 for all my synth needs. And some mod needs. And some drive/dist needs!

It fits most budgets, doesn't have a huge footprint, and some sounds are awesome.
I mean, they state it at 100 sounds, but I've found about 6 that I tweaked and love. I still consider it a profit since I didn't have to buy 6 different pedals! and I managed to swap my tuner from one board to another!

f59bassman · #8 09-06-2011, 05:23 AM

Gnarly. Thanks guys! And the tone I'm looking for is like the distorted korg synth sound. I'll definitely check out those pedals though (:

f59bassman · #9 09-06-2011, 05:26 AM

And if there's any other pedals to try, let me know (:

gastric · #10 09-06-2011, 06:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by f59bassman

And the tone I'm looking for is like the distorted korg synth sound

Some sound examples are always helpful.

Note you can always run your synth pedal into overdrive/distortion if that's your preference. No different than selecting a similar FX block on a synth.

scottfeldstein · #11 09-06-2011, 10:15 AM

I know nothing about synthesizers or synth pedals, but I'd really dig being able to approximate the sounds I hear on, like, Venus Hum or Delerium albums.

iTunes - Music - Big Beautiful Sky by Venus Hum

iTunes - Music - Chimera by Delerium

Bassmike62 · #12 09-06-2011, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NOVAX

Tech 21 rules. Buy the Red Ripper and report back on how great it must be

The Digitech Synth Bass Wah is leaving me cold.

+1 for Tech 21.

As for the BSW leaving you cold, any specific reason you could share ?

Laurent · #13 09-06-2011, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by f59bassman

Gnarly. Thanks guys! And the tone I'm looking for is like the distorted korg synth sound. I'll definitely check out those pedals though (:

EH Micro Bass Synth will get you there.

KCLRbass · #14 09-06-2011, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laurent

EH Micro Bass Synth will get you there.

+1

Love the EH Bass Synth. Octave up, Octave Down, Square Wave and a bunch of filtering options. VERY cool. I'm also currently experimenting with the Dave Smith Tetra controlled by the YouRock MIDI guitar. Real analog synth without having to worry about my mediocre keyboard abilities. Highly recommended, although pricey.

bassbrad · #15 09-06-2011, 01:17 PM

EHX Bass Micro Synth is a pretty good starting place, I also use a Boss OC2 with envelope followers, fuzz, phase and delay for some synth sounds. I also have a Zoom B2 just for synth sounds, takes some tweaking but the sounds are well worth it.

russtolium · #16 09-07-2011, 09:01 AM

If you're just looking to experiment you could get a Behringer BSY600 Bass Synth for around $50, it's a copy of the Boss bass synth and sounds good from the videos I've seen. At first I was looking for synths but realized that I didn't want to have to worry about tracking, especially since a lot of synth pedals are monophonic.

Turns out envelope filters are extremely synth-like with the right settings. After shopping around a bit I ordered a Source Audio Bass Envelope Filter Pro (should be getting it today, woo hoo) after seeing some of the really cool stuff it can do, plus it is expression pedal and midi friendly, and supports their cool 'Hot Hand' expression ring. Here's a music vid their bass player Will Cady made that shows the kind of stuff it can do: Bass Effects Video Song - "Slurple Gurp" by Will Cady - YouTube

No worries about tracking (unless you like tracking glitchiness) and its very multifunctional. Source Audio's bass distortion pedal is actually pretty synthy on its own as well. You could probably use any reasonably robust envelope filter to get synth sounds though. I look forward to distorting the hell out of mine.

scottfeldstein · #17 09-07-2011, 09:16 AM

That's pretty amazing. And it's $219 on Amazon. I may swap out the MXR envelope filter for that one on my wish list...

It's big, though. Wonder if I can squeeze it onto my Pedal Train Mini...

russtolium · #18 09-07-2011, 09:46 AM

They make a non-pro version that's about $100 less and has a smaller footprint, but obviously you lose some of the more advanced features. I'm a tweaker so really the extra bit of bulk is worth it to me. I'm putting a wireless hot hand ring on my Christmas list this year definitely.

scottfeldstein · #19 09-07-2011, 10:21 AM

I am slowly beginning to understand that a really versatile envelope filter can totally be a "synth" effect. I though it was just auto-wah. But with one of these, I could get sounds like this:

iTunes - Music - Big Beautiful Sky by Venus Hum

Which is super cool. Love that stuff.

gastric · #20 09-07-2011, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottfeldstein

I am slowly beginning to understand that a really versatile envelope filter can totally be a "synth" effect. I though it was just auto-wah. But with one of these, I could get sounds like this:

iTunes - Music - Big Beautiful Sky by Venus Hum

Which is super cool. Love that stuff.

One issue with bass synth via octave+fuzz+filter is that the filter often cannot retrigger fast enough for that quick tempo dance electronica you referenced. And a lot of it is sequenced which is extremely difficult to do successfully via effects, such as the song Hummingbirds though maybe you can brainstorm some workaround like a 3 tap beat synced delay to give you that sequenced sound.

Not trying to burst your bubble. Just trying to set some reasonable expectations. There's not really a lot of options for playing super fast stuff and having it (whatever it is) retrigger fast enough.

But the rest of the clips on that page you linked to sound reasonably doable with some sort of synthy effect. I'd personally choose the Korg G5, then put some chorus/delay/verb after.

Or if you wanted to go all the way down the rabbit hole the Roland GR-55 though it has it's own issues it brings with it.