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A bass overdrive experiment - BBBOD content!

Which tone do you prefer?

  • Clip 1

    Votes: 9 6.8%

  • Clip 2

    Votes: 38 28.8%

  • Clip 3

    Votes: 30 22.7%

  • Clip 4

    Votes: 12 9.1%

  • Clip 5

    Votes: 32 24.2%

  • Clip 6

    Votes: 11 8.3%

  • Clip 7

    Votes: 12 9.1%

  • Clip 8

    Votes: 14 10.6%

  • Clip 9

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Clip 10

    Votes: 9 6.8%

  • They all suck and your playing is terrible

    Votes: 17 12.9%
  • Total voters
    132
#61
Mark Latimour said:
Okay, so I think everyone who was keen to try the experiment has had an opportunity to do so. So, here are the pedals that made each of the clips:

Clip 1: Fuzzrocious Dark Driving

Clip 2: FEA Dual Band Distortion - this was run on full range with both the high and low bands distorting.

Clip 3: SFX Micro-RD - this was run in a "low gain" mode with just a touch of break up (gain at 11 o'clock).

Clip 4: SFX Micro-BD - this was run in a "high gain" mode with the gain set about 3 oclock.

Clip 5: BJFE BBBOD - this was run "low gain" with the gain about 11 oclock

Clip 6: SFX Micro-RD - this was run in "high gain" mode with the gain set at maximum

Clip 7: Darkglass Electronics Harmonic Booster - this was a little unfair as the pedal is not an overdrive or distortion pedal but a boost pedal. In order to get break up in the pedal (and not at the input of the saffire) I had to cut the bass and treble and it shows in the midrangy tone. This pedal sounds wonderful clean.

Clip 8: SFX Micro-BD - this was run with gain at minimum

Clip 9: FEA Dual Band - this was run with the high end distortion circuit bypassed (ie distortion on the low end only).

Clip 10: BJFE Blueberry - this was run at high gain with the gain set at maximum.

Hope everyone was happy with the experiment!
Click to expand...

I was close about no.8. so no.8 is an sfx micro-bd. it does have a nice warm distorted sound. I also dig how the fea labs dual band distortion pedal sounds. it's got a pretty cool sound. other than that, the demos sounded pretty cool.
 
#62
Mark:

Thanks for the clips. A suggestion:

Always include a non-effected control clip if you're gonna do a shootout. Some of the stuff I heard I wasn't sure if it was the effect or the bass you used or EQ or what.

The only clips I sorta knew were the Blueberry and Dark Driving. I was suprised that the majority liked #2 the best. That clip sounded like the distortion I get from a hybrid amp with the gain set too high. It has a place - it sounds OK on those chords at the end where you're playing higher up, but I didn't like it in the low register - sounded fizzy to me.

I'm guessing you didn't record thru an amp. I find all my dirt sounds better thru speakers.
 
#63
Colonel Monk said:
Mark:

Thanks for the clips. A suggestion:

Always include a non-effected control clip if you're gonna do a shootout. Some of the stuff I heard I wasn't sure if it was the effect or the bass you used or EQ or what.

The only clips I sorta knew were the Blueberry and Dark Driving. I was suprised that the majority liked #2 the best. That clip sounded like the distortion I get from a hybrid amp with the gain set too high. It has a place - it sounds OK on those chords at the end where you're playing higher up, but I didn't like it in the low register - sounded fizzy to me.

I'm guessing you didn't record thru an amp. I find all my dirt sounds better thru speakers.
Click to expand...

Well as mentioned in the OP the bass was set flat with both pickups wide open and the recording was from the bass, into the pedal into a Saffire LE system into garageband so, yeah, no amp.

I will post a control clip of the bass as I have a Darkglass B3K turning up today or tomorrow and wanted to record a clip of that to complete the set and can put up a control with it as well. The bass is super clean - to give you an example, the Darkglass and the Micro-BD sound noticeably "dirty" when compared with the tone of my Kennedy au natural - but some people said they sounded like their clean tone!
 
#65
Colonel Monk said:
Gotcha. Yeah my tone is a bit more vintagey these days so even with no fx it's warm and not super clean. The only active alembic I have hasn't been out of the case in a long time.

Anyway would be cool to hear the control run thx
Click to expand...

Yeah, the B3K arrived today so god willing I'll record the clips of that and a control run tonight using the same method (and riffs) as the other clips and post them so people can compare. Actualyl that was one of the reasons I picked the Kennedy over my other basses for the clips because of its clean tone. I thought about using my Sadowsky with flats, but it always makes me laugh when I hear a dirt clip and the person says "here's my clean tone" ...bzzzzt and you are hit with a pbass or RIC through cranked SVT!

I also have another "secret pedal" which I will post clips of tonight to see if people dig it!
 
#66
Yeah, "clean" is pretty relative. I really appreciate clips recorded without an amp. Almost any dirt pedal sounds good through a nice tube amp but that doesn't tell you much about the pedal. I'm curious about the "secret pedal."
 
#67
Okay, I have posted some new clips to the end of the set. There are 7 new clips:

Clips 11 & 12 are a Darkglass B3K. I literally just plugged it in and started recording, one is with a higher gain setting and a high wet blend. The other is a lower gain and higher dry blend.

Clips 13-16 are a mystery OD pedal which I am testing out. I tried a couple of different gain and tone options. Clips 15 and 16 are interesting, I am hearing a clean artifact in the recording. Have to look at that.

Clip 17 is the basses clean tone.

My initial thought on the B3K is that I am digging its tone a lot. It reminds me of the FEA Dual Bands tone with a lot less knobs! :D But I need to play with it before I firm up my views.

The clips: http://soundcloud.com/marklatimour/sets/a-set-of-bass-overdrive-distortion-clips-anonymised
 
#68
The mystery pedal sounds pretty damn cool. I really like the first clip (13). At first I thought I knew what it was, but the low gain settings of it really had me second guessing myself. I'm curious to find out what it is. This thread has also renewed my interest in the newer BBBOD coming out. I can wait :)
 
#69
Mark Latimour said:
Okay, I have posted some new clips to the end of the set. There are 7 new clips:

Clips 11 & 12 are a Darkglass B3K. I literally just plugged it in and started recording, one is with a higher gain setting and a high wet blend. The other is a lower gain and higher dry blend.

Clips 13-16 are a mystery OD pedal which I am testing out. I tried a couple of different gain and tone options. Clips 15 and 16 are interesting, I am hearing a clean artifact in the recording. Have to look at that.

Clip 17 is the basses clean tone.

My initial thought on the B3K is that I am digging its tone a lot. It reminds me of the FEA Dual Bands tone with a lot less knobs! :D But I need to play with it before I firm up my views.

The clips: http://soundcloud.com/marklatimour/sets/a-set-of-bass-overdrive-distortion-clips-anonymised
Click to expand...

The darkglass b3k sounded pretty cool.
 
#73
Interesting thread. I've only owned 1 of the ODs on the original list (the BBBOD) and now the B3K. So, it's not surprising that I picked out the Blueberry, at least the first clip of it. It's a very distinctive tone.

I think I expected the DD to sound more Blueberry like, but it really has its own thing going on, espeically comparing clips 1 and 5. Clips 1 and 10 do sound more similar though. I'd like to try one out some time.

Very interesting that you made a clip of the FEA where you distorted the low end and left the highs untouched. I'd think people would overwhelmingly go the other way around if they were crossing over their dirt.

The Microtubes sounds very different with your bass/rig/technique than it does for me. I think right hand technique (I dig in pretty hard, especially when using OD) is probably the biggest difference, though I'd be interested to know what your settings are.

Made me smile to realize that of all the overdrives I've owned/tried you picked not only two of my favorites (maybe my two favorites period) but two that sound drastically different.

Both the BJFE and Darkglass have very tube like break up but where the BBBOD is dark, wooly and thick the B3K is bright, punchy and aggressive.

I need to record a set of clips with it myself.
 
#76
It's funny while I didn't vote for the BBOD or DD clips, I did like them very much. Kind of feels funny not having voted for the pedal I actually own or that I couldn't spot it :rollno:

Part of me still wants the BBOD and I'm going to jump on the Mad Professor version as soon as they hit the stores.

Yet at the same time....I'm enjoying my DD so much that I don't want to replace it either. I predict that I will have the DD and MP BBOD both on my board in the hopefully not too distant future.

The BJFE BBOD is probably the only pedal I'd spend crazy money to buy if I had the chance to.

Also, whoever voted the "they all suck" option...I hope they were kidding because I really enjoyed this. I wish I could download them.....I actually downloaded Ryans clips of the DD and Momster to my Ipod and I'm surprised how often I give them a listen during my train commute. I'm weird like that I guess.

You did make a strong case imo for the SFX pedals but I'm holding out on pedal purchases unless/until the MP BBOD comes out or a BJFE miraculously crosses my path. Plus I just added a EWS BMC pedal and I'm out of room on my board anyway.
 
#77
Volume4 said:
It's funny while I didn't vote for the BBOD or DD clips, I did like them very much. Kind of feels funny not having voted for the pedal I actually own or that I couldn't spot it :rollno:
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be too worried that you couldn't spot it. The pedals were set to how I would set them using my tone options, playing my (unique) bass through my hands and some pretty generic riffs. There is no gaurantee that in your hands or anyone elses, they would sound the same. You might find ways to use them that are very different from mine. An example is that the SFX Red Dragon is my "low gain OD" pedal (basically clip 3) and that's how I set it. I never really did the high gain thing with it (clip 6) and when I did and played it next to the DD and BJFE I was suprised at how similar they sounded.

The FEA is such a flexible pedal that its hard to say what tone any given player will have out of it since it basically has unlimited options. I thought Clip 9 was kinda cool, a different way to OD a bass with low end distortion and a clean blend (for the low end) and high bypassed. Turns out, I am the only one who likes that! :D
 
#79
Cool Thread! I am glad you are digging my pedals Mark! About the differences between rigs Jared Lash mentioned. Is true! The epdals is quite sensitive to how hard or soft you paly, and even how old the strings make a big difference (with older strings, you get more wool and fuzziness, with newer, is more punchy and aggressive!)
Regards! -Doug.
 

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