BassPlayer samples a little odd?

Jared Lash · #1 07-20-2008, 08:16 PM

This is pretty dated considering that the article came out a year and a half ago, but while searching for something else, I stumbled upon that Bass Player article with all the sound samples for "Overdrives", Octavers and Envelope Filters. For anyone who hasn't seen it, here's a link.

Having played a large number of those pedals in the interim I went back and listened to them again. Not only is it weird to me that they got the majority of them to sound so similar, but I have no idea how they coaxed some of the tones out of the overdrives, distortions and fuzzes that they used. Some of their samples have higher gain than I thought some pedals were capable of.

I know "tone is in the hands" but honestly, there were much bigger differences between these pedals when they went through my rig, not to mention my hands.

Or am I just hearing things?

KarateKid25 · #2 07-20-2008, 08:31 PM

Missed the link BigO

Oreomeister365 · #3 07-20-2008, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBigO

This is pretty dated considering that the article came out a year and a half ago, but while searching for something else, I stumbled upon that Bass Player article with all the sound samples for "Overdrives", Octavers and Envelope Filters. For anyone who hasn't seen it, here's a link.

Having played a large number of those pedals in the interim I went back and listened to them again. Not only is it weird to me that they got the majority of them to sound so similar, but I have no idea how they coaxed some of the tones out of the overdrives, distortions and fuzzes that they used. Some of their samples have higher gain than I thought some pedals were capable of.

I know "tone is in the hands" but honestly, there were much bigger differences between these pedals when they went through my rig, not to mention my hands.

Or am I just hearing things.

I really never understood the tone is in the hands bit. Yes it makes a difference, but a P bass does not sound like a Ric, and that applies to every single different bass out there.

but anyways onto the thread, and what I originally meant to say: there is no link.

Jared Lash · #4 07-20-2008, 08:39 PM

D'oh!

Forgot the links.

Here you go:

"Overdrives" (most are actually distortions or fuzzes)

Envelope Filters

Octavers

Brad Barker · #5 07-20-2008, 08:43 PM

oh, man. that issue came out back when i had a subscription years and years ago.

Siegy · #6 07-20-2008, 08:45 PM

It may very well have something to do with how the clips were recorded as well. That's my guess.

KarateKid25 · #7 07-20-2008, 10:52 PM

I think its clearly a conspiracy

rustynuts · #8 07-20-2008, 11:09 PM

Wow...That Rust Ride clip sounded totally like trash....I may have sold mine but not because it sounded that bad. What did they record that with? An Epiphone Guitar practice amp with a 5" speaker?

Jared Lash · #9 07-20-2008, 11:16 PM

I'm not sure what they recorded with. But in my brief time with the Chunk Brown Dog I never got that paint peeling fuzz tone they got. It's almost like they dimed every control on every pedal they tested and used a bass/rig that colored the tone enough to make the individual pedals very hard to distinguish. From their clips a DiscumBOBulator sounds just as wet as the Moog Lowpass.

Weird.

rustynuts · #10 07-20-2008, 11:23 PM

There certainly doesn't seem to be any consistency with their settings, does there? The Blowtorch just sounds like a muffled mess while others are bright and spiky.

KarateKid25 · #11 07-20-2008, 11:25 PM

There have been comments made that the new VT Bass samples done by Bass Player don't sound too 'on the money' either.

rustynuts · #12 07-20-2008, 11:27 PM

Well, I learned something today: Never make a purchase decision based on a BP clip.

KarateKid25 · #13 07-20-2008, 11:32 PM

I hate the 'Lets get a guitard to demo this bass pedal' that Gearwire likes to do.

TB is the spot for clips!

Unrepresented · #14 07-21-2008, 12:25 AM

I think a lot of the issue is that they probably went direct with these. Speakers and amps color things a lot, and usually in a pleasant way, knocking down a lot of the abrasive frequencies.

I know this issue has been really frustrating for me in my search for a dirtbox. Samples are far too often misleading, causing me to rule out good pedals incorrectly, and rule in bad pedals just because they've actually been mic'd and amped up.

SpankyPants · #15 07-21-2008, 02:06 AM

The majority of clips here on TB aren't recorded through speakers, though.

I go direct through a Bass Buddy (which adds very little color - if any at all), grygrx uses a Jadil RDI, and Tayste was using the DI from his Peterson Strobostomp.

All three of us have made a lot of clips and reviews, and we all have pretty clean, uncolored signals.

Swift713 · #16 07-21-2008, 06:19 AM

I've also noticed some sound samples where the "clean" tone sounded heavily colored by a tube amp with more gain than I would call clean - that can make any overdrive sound better.

Unrepresented · #17 07-21-2008, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpankyPants

The majority of clips here on TB aren't recorded through speakers, though.

I go direct through a Bass Buddy (which adds very little color - if any at all), grygrx uses a Jadil RDI, and Tayste was using the DI from his Peterson Strobostomp.

All three of us have made a lot of clips and reviews, and we all have pretty clean, uncolored signals.

Yeah, and hence, I've never acquired GAS from 99% of the dirt samples here.

Delay based effects, filters, etc. can convey their qualities a lot better over a DI without speaker simulation.

Maybe I'm just not imaginative enough to be able to anticipate what an oversaturated blob of sound will sound like through my rig, but really, almost all of these are a loss for me.

SpankyPants · #18 07-21-2008, 12:06 PM

You should by pedals on my merit alone. I'm the man.

Unrepresented · #19 07-21-2008, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpankyPants

You should by pedals on my merit alone. I'm the man.

You convinced me to pull my ancient Metal Zone out of the closet. I tried it, didn't find what I was looking for out of it, put it back for another six months, however...

In my quest to find a good dirtbox without having to spend any real money, I did just ship it out to Humphrey who's gonna mod it for me and hopefully provide a satisfying experience. I know I'm impatient waiting for it.

So, you have been influential when time, money, taste, and effort were not real factors.

In hindsight though, wasn't that a YouTube video? And weren't you playing through a rig?

Colonel Monk · #20 07-24-2008, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarateKid25

I hate the 'Lets get a guitard to demo this bass pedal' that Gearwire likes to do.

TB is the spot for clips!

I'll bet you an FX25B (hah!) that this statement is right on the money.

Many of the "bass pedal" soundclips on the internet were obviously recorded by guitar players who know so little about bass tone. It IS a conspiracy by non-bass players to keep us from using effects!! Ahhhhhh!!

monk