Octave + Fuzz + Filter clip

[gastric]

After buying/trying/selling tons of gear and trying to work on my bass playing along the way I'm finally learning how to get some fun synthy sounds and thought I'd share some of my adventure with you.

It's often said the combo for synthy bass is octave + fuzz + filter. And here's a quickie clip to share demonstrating that.

I recorded it in layers so you can hear the sound change - Copilot Orbit fuzz only, add in MXR Bass Octave Deluxe and play higher up the neck to get the same note but morphed by the octave, then the MAM Warp9 filter using mostly an ASDR filter with a little LFO added in for slight modulation. In the past I'd use a slight vibrato to try to get that same slight wavering sound but the LFO'ed filter sounds better IMO.

I'm new to this type of full-featured filtering, and the MAM has a horrible interface so I'm still learning. But the ASDR based filtering with added LFO seems to be the pinnacle of filtering. Far superior to all of the pedals I've tried, and way better than the Electrix Filter Factory as that has no way to pair envelope and LFO, plus a lot less options overall, though it's great for basic filtering.

I've taken no bass lessons, watched no how-to videos, read no how-to books. Everything I've learned is trial-and-error or this forum. And I thank you.

[waleross]

Look, that sounded great, no sh_t.....

[Poor Tom]

neat. What kind of interface did you use to record?

[gastric]

Originally Posted by Poor Tom

neat. What kind of interface did you use to record?

M-Audio Profire 610 then into Reaper. I have very basic recording skills, just enough for simple clips. Barely enough to record a real basic multi-track recording, not much different than using an old tape-based multi-track really. Actually, now that I'm writing this I just realized I ran my bass amp into the mic/instrument input on the Profire instead of the rear line-level inputs to bypass the preamps in the Profire.

The filtering seems to be the most important part of the synthiness formula. And the most difficult (and most expensive) part to master via hardware. In contrast there's tons of great software based filters available, and they're way easier to use from what I can tell.