EHX micro synth bass - adjust gain

san_339 · #1 09-27-2010, 05:42 AM

I have bought a bass micro synth OX, and I play a Jazz Bass American Deluxe, that is active. I have to adjust the pedal gain in order to avoid saturations and all that stuff, right?

My question is: How I know that I have reached the optimus point of the screw? Maybe I turn the screw more so I quit a lot of gain, or maybe I don't quit enough gain. Where is the point? How will I recognize it?

Thanks a lot.

sillyfabe · #2 09-27-2010, 06:22 AM

what works for me is the following: open the box up from the bottom, turn the trimpot to about 50%, plug in cover the bottom but dont close it. be very carful and plug it in and play, not enough? go up by about 10% until slightly above unity with the oct,sub at 5 and the guitar at full. with this just about any setting should be at unity or damn close.

kevteop · #3 09-27-2010, 07:47 AM

Put all the sliders at zero except the Guitar slider and the Stop Freq slider - put those both at max.

Turn on the Bass Micro Synth, play your bass through it - can you hear any distortion?

If not, turn up the trimpot until you start to hear distortion.

Now turn it down until it's as loud as it will go without distorting.

You are finished adjusting the preamp gain trimpot.

Pandafist · #4 09-27-2010, 12:31 PM

^ nailed it ^

san_339 · #5 09-27-2010, 01:01 PM

Thanks, guys, for your answers.

I thought that, as my bass is active (18 V) I had to turn down the gain, but I have had to turn it up! I was in a mistake... xD

And I have another question: I have to match the bass sound without the synth and the bass sound with the pedal in "guitar and stop freq". Right? But in the low freq, the fat string, I cant match the sounds totally, there is always a little distorsion, a little difference. Is this normal? Or should I be able to make the pedal sound exactly like the natural bass?

kevteop · #6 09-27-2010, 06:04 PM

That's a tricky one to answer. Honestly when I had the XO model I also noticed it was distorting a little on low notes but I thought it was only the sub-octave voice that was causing that. Maybe it does happen on the guitar slider too.

That's part of the reason I sold it and bought another older model to replace it. I don't think the XO model can cope with the low stuff as well.

But! Maybe it's just that I (we?) pick my E string heavier than the other strings, or that my pickup heights were biased towards my E string, etc. If you want to get a bit more scientific about it and you have the hardware available, try recording your bass straight into your computer and looking at the waveform/meters see if notes on the E string are noticably louder than other notes you play.

sillyfabe · #7 09-28-2010, 03:35 PM

hey pandafist thanks for that it helped out even more!

san_339 · #8 09-28-2010, 03:48 PM

Well, I play half a tone under the normal. E b. I thik that will affect.

But I have a good sound with the pedal, I can't complain. ^^

Another question: is it normal that I have so much distorsion with the octave up? I know that the octave puts a distorsion, but... it puts a lot. xD

kevteop · #9 09-28-2010, 04:34 PM

Yes that is normal. I always preferred to use the octave up slider instead of the distortion slider, to add the colour for the filter to work with. The distortion slider by comparison was usually a bit too industrial-sounding for the stuff I was doing.

I almost never used the guitar slider either, I would usually just have oct-1 and oct+1 up, equal amounts.

gratefulphan22 · #10 11-21-2010, 09:40 PM

Do you guys use a compressor pedal w/ the BMS? I just received mine, and I am not too impressed w/ the sustain at all. I see that EHX recommends a compressor in front and a delay after for extra dimension and space.

BTW, I'm comparing the Boss BSY 5 and the EHX BMS for the next couple of weeks. These are my first pedals, and frankly I'm a little overwhelmed.

kevteop · #11 11-22-2010, 02:56 PM

If you have the newer style XO BMS, have you adjusted the preamp input gain trimpot? If you haven't, read the manual, get a small screwdriver and take the back off your pedal.

You will also see another trimpot in there. This one controls how quickly it gates your note as your input signal decays. This is to stop the octave -1 voice from warbling - it simply cuts your note off instead.

If you would rather hear the note decay a bit longer, or don't use the -1 octave anyway, or are willing to adjust your playing/input signal to deter it from warbling too early, or don't mind if it warbles a bit (...phew!), then by all means adjust that trimpot too and you will get a longer sustain phase.

Explorer · #12 11-23-2010, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevteop

If you have the newer style XO BMS, have you adjusted the preamp input gain trimpot? If you haven't, read the manual, get a small screwdriver and take the back off your pedal.

You will also see another trimpot in there. This one controls how quickly it gates your note as your input signal decays. This is to stop the octave -1 voice from warbling - it simply cuts your note off instead.

If you would rather hear the note decay a bit longer, or don't use the -1 octave anyway, or are willing to adjust your playing/input signal to deter it from warbling too early, or don't mind if it warbles a bit (...phew!), then by all means adjust that trimpot too and you will get a longer sustain phase.

Although I've read a lot of complaints about the decay cutting off, this is the first I've heard of an XO-version gate threshold trimpot. I don't own an XO, but I'll see if I can get my hands on one and take the back off.

I had held off getting the new version, and thought I'd have to pick up the older large box because of the abrupt cut-off gate of the new version. This is good news....

kevteop · #13 11-24-2010, 05:25 AM

TBH I think there's a trimpot with the same function in the old version but I never felt the need to adjust it. I only remember it on the newer version because I spent longer with the back off that trying to make it sound good and failing.

gratefulphan22 · #14 11-24-2010, 09:06 AM

Quote:

have you adjusted the preamp input gain trimpot?

Yes

Quote:

You will also see another trimpot in there.

Really? Where is this one located? The preamp input gain trimpot is lower left, right?

This pedal is pretty cool, although it may me more than I need right now. I'm playing with a keyboardist who what lots of synth already. We're sans-drums and percussion right now and I'm thinking most of the songs I'll be clean, focusing mostly on rhythm.

I was thinking of something for solos and intros... not sure if this pedal is my best bet...