How do -you- use effects?

[Sheffield]

First off: not an Effects forum troll.

I love heavily effected (flanged, chorused, filtered, octaved, super-squashyily-compressed, overdriven, distorted, fuzzed...) bass tones - when OTHER people use them. However, no matter what I'VE got at my feet, I don't find myself stomping on anything... but I want to, I swear!

Effects forum: where do you use effects? How many? Is it for your overall tone or only during certain songs/parts of songs?

Help me become one of youuuuuu...

[AlvarHanso]

Really depends on the song and/or sound I want to achieve at that moment. For funk, I like adding envelope filter, for spacey stuff, chorus/univibe, phaser, Moog MuRF in combination, overdrive and distortion for harder edge (sometimes with my wah, as well, without rocking it), synthy sounds for jazzy/funky, space/funk. There's at least one song, I always use my Soul Vibe, for that certain tone. I vary my uses from one song to the next, and from one night to the next. Also, I like to weave sonic tapestries, and using effects in combination will allow that to happen, especially if you have more than one output source for mixing a dry sound in, or two separate effect sounds in. It really depends on the situation...

[JetBlackJazz]

Only use essential effects....let the sound mastery come from your fingers. Not a 600 dollar effect pedal... all ive got is a digtech grunge. I can play with my fingers and make it sound like flange (four finger fluctuation)

[onosson]

I used to have an envelope filter, a phaser, distortion, delay, verb, chorus ... etc. when I was starting out in my teens and into my 20s. Now I have ... a tuner, and sometimes a compressor. I still use effects when recording, depending on the song. But for live, I mostly feel no need, perhaps because over the past 25 years I have gotten better at getting different tones from my bass through playing technique and the controls on my bass.

[Toastfuzz]

Use a VT Bass as "always on" tone shaper and use other effects to taste. Only one guitarist in my band, so distortion comes on to thicken the top end of my sound and take over the sonic space of a rhythm guitar during the guitar solos. Phaser used to give a different taste during jams. Low-pass envelope filter for any dub/reggae songs. Delay for the elusive "bass solo".

I use effects like salt and pepper... food tastes alright plain, but salt and pepper add flavor.

[RickenBoogie]

Before I swithed over to being more of a keyboard synth player, I had a bunch of fx pedals I used at home, but never took out to the gig, ('cept for a small board, tuner, compressor, eq, DI)- now, I use alot more pedals with the synths than I ever did with bass. But, the honest answer is: you only need them if you think you need them.

[stratovani]

I just have the basics - overdrive, limiter, EQ, and chorus. That's good enough for the style I play.

[BassMonstrum]

Sansamp BDDI and EBS Multicomp, both on at all times, to shape my sound. Digitech Bass Synth Wah to, eh, make synth-sounds. EBS Octabass to rattle the house and Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff PI to get dirty and nasty.

[kaputsport]

‪kaputsport's Channel‬‏ - YouTube

‪kaputsport's Channel‬‏ - YouTube

[kevteop]

It depends on the band you're in, really. The last two bands I've done (one an grimy R&B sort-of band, one a punk/reggae band) I've used a lot of effects to completely replace the sound of the bass on a lot of the tunes, but the band before that I didn't use any effects at all - it was fairly straight guitar music so it wasn't really suitable.

[Swift713]

I mostly use effects to make different voices when I'm playing with a looper. Matt Swift | Free Music, Tour Dates, Photos, Videos
I've written tunes where I switch on an envelope filter for the bridges but mostly when I'm playing with others I tend to stick to one sound per song, like a filter all the way through one song and overdrive for another. Combining effects is fun, a little overdrive plus tremolo, fuzz and/or octave plus filter, phaser plus delay. I also use compression either alone for a super tight, clean kind of vibe or to tame my filter or tighten up/modernize my overdrive.

[bassbrad]

So much depends on the music and the other players, I can go from no effects, to shades of subtle effects all the way to bass taking over the world with effects and back again. Effects are like extended technique, colors or textures or spices that are used to enhance the music always carefully blended.
Being the type of player I am more solos get put in my hands than most bass players so using effects is an extension of that for that I often use a UniBass or pitch shifter an octave or 2 up.
Just as important as when is when not to use effects, if you are in a situation with players that use lots of effects it limits, what the bass player can do so things sometimes have to be worked out.

[Bassmike62]

When I play in my band, I have the PBDDI as an always-on thing. Chorus is also a favorite effect of mine, which I use about 75 % of the time, mostly with a mildly overdriven tone (love that Duff sound, man), but it doesn't fit everything we do, so I'm careful with it. Otherwise, I mostly use effects to accents certain passages (filter in quasi-funky tune intro, phaser in a drum & bass only passage in another tune).

When I rehearse on my own (most often than not with a rythm machine set on a funky beat) I will use filters quite often, 'cause they're pure candy to my ears.

[IvanMike]

almost none. A big issue with any kind of phase or delay units, (as well as a bunch of others) is that the bass kind of disappears when you use them. A bass with chorus being used with a guitar with chorus or flange will tend to "melt into" the guitar sound.

Production on recordings can fix a lot of this, but live it's really tough to manage (i have enough trouble disappearing when guitar players jack up the bass knob on their amp or when keyboard players have a heavy left hand).

I mostly use a sans amp for some grit, and i've used other pedals in the past for this. Even with this it's really easy to have the sound mesh into that of a distorted guitar unless you work hard at having the sounds be distinct. whenever possible i try to run one cab dry and the other with an effect if i choose to use one.

[slaphappychappy]

I use mine to make the bass sound like a synth or a keyboard house baseline.

[Surmong]

First off - Money doesn't matter

And second - To hear in what band im playing :
- ‪Steak Number Eight - Pyromaniac Live Video [HD]‬‏ - YouTube - Thats a hard song of us
We have also quiet melody songs such as these
- ‪Steak Number Eight - Black Fall‬‏ - YouTube - So its really hard to find a distortion who fits in both

[change-jug]

Wow. That first song was awesome! Totally took me by surprise! You and your band kick ass!(Nice job on the HD live footage too!)

[OPBASSMAN1994]

I mainly go with some compression, overdrive, etc. Otherwise, I've been known to use a chorus effect once in a while, but that's about it.

[behndy]

Originally Posted by JetBlackJazz

Only use essential effects....let the sound mastery come from your fingers. Not a 600 dollar effect pedal... all ive got is a digtech grunge. I can play with my fingers and make it sound like flange (four finger fluctuation)

soooo....... what do you do with your fingers to make a thick gated fuzz? or a step filter? or a reverse delay at the end of a octaver -> filter -> squarewave distortion? no offense to you, but it's always interesting that people that talk about how awesome they are that they don't need effects....... USUALLY cite a pedal that i think is a flaming pile of dookie as their "one necessary pedal". i'm sure you're a baller on bass and all, but c'mon. this is the efx forum. people here LIKE the tones you can't find in the hackneyed boring "it comes from your fingers" argument.

to the OP - i do a project without a guitar player right now and i get to do a lot of the writing, so i usually get to play with the tone shaping before i bring it in to the other two guys and build from there. i like a Pickle Pie B and/or a TAFM (with a naughty gate footwitch!) for parts where i need to be huge and distorted and take up loads of space, the Aggy Octo with or without fuzz in more synthy parts, a little bit of delay on buildups, riff switching, a little bit of OD on grindier but not total LOOK AT MEEEEEEEEE parts.......

everybody's right that it matters what kind of music you're doing a LOT. i'd probably have a WAY different setup if i was doing a straight ahead Rokk thing with 2 or 3 guitar players. i'd probably also try to swerve into oncoming traffic to kill my pain too but.......

[M Sterling]

+1 I would love to see JBJ make these sounds with just fingers. See believe it or not, you can use finger technique and effects at the same time. Wow.

http://soundcloud.com/marcsterlingbass/dead-people