Can I kindly get some recommendations?

jmjbassplayer · #1 09-09-2010, 09:32 PM

Hello friends with effects!

I want to expand the collection. Can I get some recommendations? I haven't really been in a buying mode lately and don't know what might be out there for me to explore.

Specifically, I'm looking to create some new and beautiful ambiances and textures. I want to send the bass...elsewhere. I'm thinking of literally taking my Eventide H3500 with me everywhere because that's what I'm talking about. That beautiful box just SENDS the bass. That, and all my Max for Live and Logic plug-ins. Barring those extremes, what about pedals these days?

I have plenty of things that bit reduce, fuzz, ring/fuzz, sample rate reduce, overdrive, distort, etc. etc. As well as plenty of standard delays, basic modulations, things that create octaves, things that filter.

Anything that's blowing people's minds right now? I hope I'm making sense. I'd love to hear about some new toys and/or items I've never heard of...

Thanks very much in advance!

Best,
JMJ
(in my studio, looking at MIDI, wanting to scream)

Mozilla · #2 09-09-2010, 09:44 PM

I am kind of new to bass....but, I am really enjoying the Groove Regulater(original). I especially am looking forward to adding some pedals into the effects loop of the GR. It's lots of fun to mess around with.

Good luck with your search. Wish I could be more helpful.

jmjbassplayer · #3 09-09-2010, 09:47 PM

Sounds nice, thanks. Specifically looking to move beyond envelopes/distortions/octaves/fuzz/standard modulation and go into outer space.

JMJ

*insertcoolname · #4 09-09-2010, 09:52 PM

Reverse Delay and Reverb would be some things I would say. Right now I've been combining the following effects:

+1Oct -> Reverse Delay -> Flanger -> Reverb

It gives a really ambient sound but the reverse delay has a little punch at the end of it's sweep (I have it set 100% wet on the delay). I suppose these are still conventional effects but it's a fun sound to use.

skulletwhip · #5 09-09-2010, 10:02 PM

Boss Pitch Shifter Delay. PS3 for short. Mode 7 is awesome. I can PM you a vid of my band playing a song in which I use said mode if you wanna hear it.

They are discontinued, but ebay usually has one or two.

Also the old Digitech Space station. XP300. Eugene from Autolux uses one. Sounds real cool.

jmjbassplayer · #6 09-09-2010, 10:06 PM

Good call on both. I know both, and for some reason never pulled the trigger. Thx!

sikamikanico · #7 09-09-2010, 10:10 PM

when i was into effects more, i found splitting the signal very fun and promising, i just never completed my ideas...

I always keep a Boss LS-2 around for such experiments, I even used to have a two output bass... actually, I just came to talkbass this evening to search for a PPP bass with three outputs (one P per output), because that should offer interesting possibilities... actually, wasn't one of Bootsy's basses like that?

what this offers is basically parallel processing... then, you can use conventional pedals to achieve massive sound-scapes!

but in the end, i realized that i always want to hear that simple passive bass sound, so I'd always have one channel of clean bass

hence the 3P bass - the regular P for cleans, the neck P for lows and the bridge P for highs

hope i added some ideas to this little brainstorming

edit: and pitch shifting devices should come in handy! I loved playing with my guitarists HOG, I just never found the right pedal to mask the digital sound...

nad · #8 09-09-2010, 10:11 PM

I really like the Hartman Flanger for ambient/texture bits. It has more of a spacey/shimmery/whatevery vibe than other flangers I've used.

I mean yeah, it's just a flanger, but combined with a delay, pick, and some treble boost I create some real textural type stuff that sounds nothing like a BF-2.

cheapbasslovin · #9 09-09-2010, 10:11 PM

EHX Freeze is new, and reasonably unique. I believe you could combine it with some things to go all neato.

What do you recommend to the guy who has everything?

skulletwhip · #10 09-09-2010, 10:16 PM

EHX Ring Thing seems wacky.

Swimming Bird · #11 09-09-2010, 10:18 PM

If you haven't tried it, the Eventide Pitchfactor is totally mind blowing. You know Eventide and what they do, but I think it may be worth it for you to lug around this box as well. I have a Boss PS-3 and I can cop every single tone AND make it higher or lower fidelity. I can do all sorts of touch response chorus and pitch sounds. It can do tremolo effects like no one's business -- it can do tap tempo, sequenced tremolo & add an octave down and/or up at the same time. The whammy big is great, so are all the other pitch shifts. There are some neat hold modes that will stutter the sound. The delays are very strong even when they're just being used as a regular delay.

My favorite patch right now: square wave lfo pitch shifter that alternates between root and octave down. It's typically set to 1/8 note triplets at 121 bpm (sounds incredible going into a gated fuzz), with the expression pedal controlling what tempo subdivision I want.

Anyway, I've had it for a bit over a year and I'm still excited and still finding new sounds.

onionpuzzle · #12 09-09-2010, 10:25 PM

after years of noodling with a pretty massive fx set-up for bass, I opted to use my Novation K Station (pretty small analog-style synth) for the textural and trippy stuff and just play bass pretty straight up now. I can loop, delay, or arpeggiate the synth and play bass on top of it.

not the answer you were looking for, but an option....

skulletwhip · #13 09-09-2010, 10:27 PM

I just thought of another one. The EHX Cathedral Reverb. Has a switch for infinite verb, if I'm correct. If I understand the direction you are wanting to go, this would probably be cool.

jmjbassplayer · #14 09-09-2010, 10:43 PM

Great tips! Fun!

No, I'm not looking to just move on from pedals and relegate the spacey stuff to synths.

I have a huge collection of synths, yet so many times there is something more visceral and satisfying to me hearing the sound of electronically amplified strings going through effects...or my MS-20...or my modular. It always provides something unique that I can't quite do with a keyboard...and vice versa, of course. Everything has its place, but sometimes the lines blur wonderfully.

A good example: the entire score to the film "30 Days of Night" was pretty much four guys in a small room losing their minds: Brian Reitzell, the composer, on percussion and bowed/prepared organic percussive instruments, Dave Palmer playing synths (CS50, CS80, PPGWave, MS20) a very innovative cellist, and myself doing mostly atonal, effected treatments on bass...anything that sounds like sinewy, crashing violence is generally myself or the cellist going nuts. Sometimes NOTHING creates the right atmosphere and texture but an electric stringed instrument.

That said, I've become an extremely avid keyboard player/sound explorer in the past five or six years. It's getting ridiculous, and I officially own 50% too many things. But somehow, I just keep coming back to pedals and want a few more tricks.

Thanks so much everybody! Great to hear about some new things/old things people are loving.

Might I make a recommendation for some things that I love that help create the spacial weirdness, just to contribute: Ibanez DML10 Modulation Delay II, Ekdahl Moisturizer, AdrenaLinn, and Pfefftronics Super Rand-O-Matic. All four very different beasts, but they all contribute uniquely to tasty, bleepy, crashy, swoopy ambience-making. Though it sounds like y'all on here are way hip to just about everything.

Cheers!

Best,
JMJ

bongomania · #15 09-09-2010, 10:58 PM

My favorite thing for crazy ambiances is to set a delay to 100% wet, and then run that delay signal through further processing; the original dry bass signal will be on a separate channel, and can be faded in and out to taste. A second stage of processing I like for the wet channel is a gate, triggered by a drum machine or a different musician. Actually the gate can be either before or after all the effects--either keeping the "feed" rhythmic, or forcing the output to be rhythmic. Give the gate a soft attack and release, or give it a hard chop and then add some nice stereo reverb.

Another thing you might like is to feed the output of the bass into the strings themselves (like the way a spring reverb works). Very cool resonances result.

warwick.hoy · #16 09-09-2010, 11:04 PM

Montreal Assembly Wrong Side of Uranus.

AndersS · #17 09-09-2010, 11:29 PM

I used to do some freaky stuff with a Dunlop 105q, Homebrew Electronics UFO (Great Fuzz Face style fuzz with a footswitchable octave up), and a Line 6 Echo Park. What I did was split the signal at the source, then put one signal into the HBE UFO set to octave up, from the HBE UFO into the 105q and then into the Line 6 Echo Park, the other signal also goes into the Echo Park. The Echo park was sent in stereo into the mixer (we rehearsed silently). The idea with this is to set the Echo Park to a huge sounding tape or analog delay and then play harmonics and then sort of "fade" in the harmonics with the 105q, gives a very different sound compared to using a volume pedal. If I were to do it today I'd probably use an LS-2 to split and remix, then send the signal to an RV-3 and then into the Echo Park.

If not that... check out the new Devi Ever envelope controlled gate. Oh yeah, try and combine any of the above pedals with an E-bow.

Jake of Bass · #18 09-10-2010, 12:21 AM

I'm no expert so some of this may be old hat, but recently I've noticed a few pedals that might be worth a look on youtube at least.

Line 6 Verbzilla - specifically something like the octo setting I believe, adds alot of upper harmonics

EHX Freeze - there's a good youtube vid of this used with the EHX HOG, Cathedral reverb etc.

Have a few more but no time, sorry.

JimmyM · #19 09-10-2010, 12:42 AM

4mspedals.com has some really trippy stuff. sort of like taking normal pedals, taking them to their most extreme, then circuit bending them.

Crystalman85 · #20 09-10-2010, 04:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmjbassplayer

Hello friends with effects!

I want to expand the collection. Can I get some recommendations? I haven't really been in a buying mode lately and don't know what might be out there for me to explore.

Specifically, I'm looking to create some new and beautiful ambiances and textures. I want to send the bass...elsewhere. I'm thinking of literally taking my Eventide H3500 with me everywhere because that's what I'm talking about. That beautiful box just SENDS the bass. That, and all my Max for Live and Logic plug-ins. Barring those extremes, what about pedals these days?

I have plenty of things that bit reduce, fuzz, ring/fuzz, sample rate reduce, overdrive, distort, etc. etc. As well as plenty of standard delays, basic modulations, things that create octaves, things that filter.

Anything that's blowing people's minds right now? I hope I'm making sense. I'd love to hear about some new toys and/or items I've never heard of...

Thanks very much in advance!

Best,
JMJ
(in my studio, looking at MIDI, wanting to scream)

For ambient sounds, definitely add a volume swell pedal. combine it with one of your modulation effects and one of your distortion effects(if you want to) and you'll be able to create some pretty cool sounds. give this combination a try.