Better tracking basses?

[OilcanRacer]

what basses or even strings track better for octave and synth pedals?

active or passive make much difference?

[cybersnyder]

Basses don't track, the effect does the tracking.

In general you will do better using the neck pickup and removing treble content as that can cause glitching. The primary factor with a decent pedal is your technique. You need to play cleanly as most pedals track only one note and other noise - ringing notes, fret noise, string scrapes, etc will cause glitches.

[OilcanRacer]

Originally Posted by cybersnyder

Basses don't track, the effect does the tracking.

In general you will do better using the neck pickup and removing treble content as that can cause glitching. The primary factor with a decent pedal is your technique. You need to play cleanly as most pedals track only one note and other noise - ringing notes, fret noise, string scrapes, etc will cause glitches.

ok thats all good info that i already know, but well put for those other reading.

i have noticed that fret buzz, highs(as you noted) and "non" actual bass note do produce glitches and the such.

but some basses(active or not) and some strings are easier for the pedal to track. just wondering what others have found that does works better. some flat wound strings do track better as different pickups also.

[FreaqyFrequency]

A bass with a strong fundamental presence will track better than those without. The ideal signal for an octave divider to track is a sine wave, with just the fundamental and no other harmonic presence.

[bassist4dalord]

Originally Posted by OilcanRacer

But some basses (active or not) and some strings are easier for the pedal to track. Just wondering what others have found that works better. Some flat wound strings track better as different pickups also.

Umm... Not quite sure what you're trying to say here. IMO, the bass/strings/pickups have very little (if anything) to do with the effect tracking well or not.

[OilcanRacer]

Originally Posted by FreaqyFrequency

A bass with a strong fundamental presence will track better than those without. The ideal signal for an octave divider to track is a sine wave, with just the fundamental and no other harmonic presence.

then i should split my signal and send a sine wave only to the octave pedal and combine the wet signal from that with the original that was split from the sine wave.

[FreaqyFrequency]

Originally Posted by bassist4dalord

Umm... Not quite sure what you're trying to say here. IMO, the bass/strings/pickups have very little (if anything) to do with the effect tracking well or not.

Not true. As I said, the more fundamental and the fewer harmonics a bass puts out, the better an octave divider will track.

Originally Posted by OilcanRacer

then i should split my signal and send a sine wave only to the octave pedal and combine the wet signal from that with the original that was split from the sine wave.

Split signal will be necessary for the absolute best tracking from the divider, but how do you propose to isolate the fundamental of the bass?

On that topic, there are a couple effective ways to mimic sine wave output. The first is to combine a very precise EQ (31-band or a multi-band para/semi-parametric EQ), a low pass filter (for cutting harmonic content above the highest fundamental you'll be using), and liberal doses of limiting/compression. If you want to find out more about that method, send a PM to LowB-ing, as he is most knowledgeable on the subject.

Another option is to acquire the FEA Growler, which should be out soon. Basically, it amplifies and distorts the second-order (octave) harmonic on your bass. If you dial all the dry signal and brightness out, you should have literally no other harmonic content to confuse the octaver.

The issue with that method is that the octaver will view it as being an octave higher than what you're playing, and thus synthesize the note at the same pitch you are playing. I haven't figured out a way to reasonably work around that yet.

[dannybuoy]

Originally Posted by FreaqyFrequency

A bass with a strong fundamental presence will track better than those without. The ideal signal for an octave divider to track is a sine wave, with just the fundamental and no other harmonic presence.

+1

Use flats, makes tracking much more stable.

[Auchenorrhyncha]

flats are awesome for this, so is your tone knob.

[Hoover]

I mentioned this on another thread somewhere, but fwiw I've found my graphite-necked instruments (Modulus Quantum-6 SPX and Steinberger L-2) sound better w/ all my effects than any of my all-wood instruments. The synth/octave stuff tracks better, the envelope filters respond w/ more nuance, the distortions and delays and loops etc all seem to produce more exquisitely detailed sounds with the carbon fiber axes driving them.

[JohnDavisNYC]

passive basses seem to do better... but i have had luck with my fodera as it has fairly low output (i matched the active output to the passive mode) and dark pickups (bartolini jazz)...

passive jazz bass with flats is my current weapon of choice... might be building a new parts jazz bass soon with vintage pickups but a preamp to act as a buffer... we'll see how that works... there is something about the focus of a good active circuit that feels tighter to me... i just hate having eq on the bass.

oh yeah, and turn that damn tone knob down.

all the way.

john