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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

27665124[/URL], member: 234523"]Chase Bliss Audio just announced a new pedal, "Reverse Mode C"



Maybe I'm jaded ...or maybe I just have a few too many Chase Bliss pedals? ...but this doesn't sound distinctly different than what I can achieve with MOOD + Habit. More swirly twinkly reverse delays 8va. Is CBA just re-hashing all their old ideas, or am I just getting tired of all the cork sniffing and hair splitting?

Just the opinion of a basement loser, Chase Bliss is definitely an innovative company, but are synonymous with « cork sniffer hipster pedals »

I have not owned any nor tried any.
Haven’t heard any clips or demos that made me even close to getting one.

my 2 grumpy cents

And man are they expensive, no doubt they might cost a bit more to make but jeez ……

Ill go crawl into my hole now
 
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Skinny Puppy just announced a few more tour dates. I’m in for 12/4 in LA.

Have we talked about Skinny Puppy here before? I forget.
Apologies if I'm repeating myself.
[EDIT: ME STUPID; I’m talking about Snarky Puppy, not Skinny Puppy!]
I love Skinny Puppy! Seriously...and yet...
:::angryface:::
I find their schtick so formulaic! Arrgghh!!! It's so annoying how predictable their arrangements are.
I mean, hats off to Mr. League et al for finding a way to get weird angular groovalicious jazzbo instrumentals to appeal to a hipster audience -- and to do it with ridiculously high standards of musicianship. Whatever's in the water those guys are drinking, I want some of it.

But any time I listen to more than two or three of their tunes in a row I find myself thinking "This s**t again?!?!"
 
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I have also never owned a Chase Bliss pedal, mainly because it's too much money and I doubt I'd get enough use out of it, and because when I look at the myriad of controls on it and think about the gear I've owned for years and still haven't mastered, I know I'm better off saving my money.

Also, while I do love that swirly twinkly stuff I'm not sure how that relates to my own music. I do love to listen to artists who do it, though. I'm guessing these guys didn't have any CB pedals in their setup, so who knows exactly how they did it. This tune isn't the best example but they don't have much stuff on youtube. I found them the old fashioned way: I randomly bought a record from a local shop years ago. Can't find a lot of info about them, I think they quit a while back.



Okay, looks like they have a few albums up on bandcamp. Last one was a while ago.

<iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer...kcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="">Gathered Tones by Trouble Books</a></iframe>
 
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Have we talked about Skinny Puppy here before? I forget.
Apologies if I'm repeating myself.

I love Skinny Puppy! Seriously...and yet...
:::angryface:::
I find their schtick so formulaic! Arrgghh!!! It's so annoying how predictable their arrangements are.
I mean, hats off to Mr. League et al for finding a way to get weird angular groovalicious jazzbo instrumentals to appeal to a hipster audience -- and to do it with ridiculously high standards of musicianship. Whatever's in the water those guys are drinking, I want some of it.

But any time I listen to more than two or three of their tunes in a row I find myself thinking "This s**t again?!?!"
That’s why Godflesh rule.
:)
 
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Also, while I do love that swirly twinkly stuff I'm not sure how that relates to my own music.

I have this fantasy that some day in the not-too-distant future I will work up a solo act that involves the most ridiculously minimalist "information input" ...i.e., the notes that I actually play on my instrument ...but that turns into this wild complex evolving soundscape as a result of all the stupid stompboxes I've collected over the years. I keep thinking that my fondness for serialism will keep this idea from sounding like generic New Age "swirly twinkly stuff" but I may be deluding myself.
 
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I have this fantasy that some day in the not-too-distant future I will work up a solo act that involves the most ridiculously minimalist "information input" ...i.e., the notes that I actually play on my instrument ...but that turns into this wild complex evolving soundscape as a result of all the stupid stompboxes I've collected over the years. I keep thinking that my fondness for serialism will keep this idea from sounding like generic New Age "swirly twinkly stuff" but I may be deluding myself.

That sounds kind of like the stuff I've done with pedal looping, often with no inputs. I'm guessing maybe you mean something less random, though, and more "you".
 
Have we talked about Skinny Puppy here before? I forget.
Apologies if I'm repeating myself.

I love Skinny Puppy! Seriously...and yet...
:::angryface:::
I find their schtick so formulaic! Arrgghh!!! It's so annoying how predictable their arrangements are.
I mean, hats off to Mr. League et al for finding a way to get weird angular groovalicious jazzbo instrumentals to appeal to a hipster audience -- and to do it with ridiculously high standards of musicianship. Whatever's in the water those guys are drinking, I want some of it.

But any time I listen to more than two or three of their tunes in a row I find myself thinking "This s**t again?!?!"
You mean Snarky Puppy? Cut from a very different cloth to Skinny Puppy :laugh:
 
On the Chase Bliss stuff, I got a decent deal on a used Blooper and I actually love it, which Ican’t say about any other looper I’ve used. It should be twice as big as it is but even in compressed form, and their software update situation is borked, but it’s more usable than some of my Eurorack modules.

I went back through this thread looking for talk about sequencers, to see where people are at with them. Have we talked technique? I think we’ve mostly talked gear. Does anyone do anything generative? How are you thinking about harmony and counterpoint? Are you sequencing your sequencers?

The other day I was messing around in bed with ID700, Fugue Machine, annd Eventide’s iOS reverbs and got a pretty fun track out of it. I think I will do more of that sort of thing because it’s a way to be creative when I feel like crap. The only problem with Fugue Machine is it is not MIDI mappable and it doesn’t take external modulation and it’s a bit fiddly to work on my touchscreen. I could see setting up something like it on my Vector by copying sequences across tracks, and then transposing, reversing, and varying speed which would allow for much more variation and control.

The way the Buchla is built around switches is also great for instant changeup/modulation.

Also while going back through the thread I found this classic, which is evergreen.

Meanwhile in my basement sound lab:
View attachment 4896857
 
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I went back through this thread looking for talk about sequencers, to see where people are at with them. Have we talked technique? I think we’ve mostly talked gear. Does anyone do anything generative? How are you thinking about harmony and counterpoint? Are you sequencing your sequencers?

I’m still not using my Erica Black Sequencer for creative/generative purposes. For that I tend to use the Qu Bit Bloom. I was sequencing that sequencer with itself. Channel 1 would play a riff, and channel 2 would have a clock division set and the CV out would modulate the root sequence on Channel 1. I wasn’t fluid with this but I got it to work. Similarly, I was able to use Pam’s New Workout to sequence the root of the Bloom so I could riff over chord changes.

My current brain teaser is how to best sequence phrases that carry over from the previous bar. I’m currently working on using AC/DC’s Problem Child as an example, and the A chord/root hits on the “and” of the 4 from the previous bar and sustains across. Conceptually, I get what’s going on. In Ableton, I can set a clip to start playing at the “and” of 4 and loop back around. But with a hardware sequencer I almost need to burn a mostly empty sequence pattern of rests to get this to work. And then I’m struggling with the tie/sustain carrying over into sequence/pattern #2 where the riff/melody plays (I’m using one oscillator+VCA for bass & riff, and a second oscillator+VCA to mimic vocals).
 
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On the Chase Bliss stuff, I got a decent deal on a used Blooper and I actually love it, which Ican’t say about any other looper I’ve used. It should be twice as big as it is but even in compressed form, and their software update situation is borked, but it’s more usable than some of my Eurorack modules.

I went back through this thread looking for talk about sequencers, to see where people are at with them. Have we talked technique? I think we’ve mostly talked gear. Does anyone do anything generative? How are you thinking about harmony and counterpoint? Are you sequencing your sequencers?

The other day I was messing around in bed with ID700, Fugue Machine, annd Eventide’s iOS reverbs and got a pretty fun track out of it. I think I will do more of that sort of thing because it’s a way to be creative when I feel like crap. The only problem with Fugue Machine is it is not MIDI mappable and it doesn’t take external modulation and it’s a bit fiddly to work on my touchscreen. I could see setting up something like it on my Vector by copying sequences across tracks, and then transposing, reversing, and varying speed which would allow for much more variation and control.

The way the Buchla is built around switches is also great for instant changeup/modulation.

Also while going back through the thread I found this classic, which is evergreen.
"How are you thinking about harmony and counterpoint?"

Could you please elaborate on this question?
Do you mean sequencing/programming harmony and counterpoint?
 
Have we talked about Skinny Puppy here before? I forget.
Apologies if I'm repeating myself.

I love Skinny Puppy! Seriously...and yet...
:::angryface:::
I find their schtick so formulaic! Arrgghh!!! It's so annoying how predictable their arrangements are.
I mean, hats off to Mr. League et al for finding a way to get weird angular groovalicious jazzbo instrumentals to appeal to a hipster audience -- and to do it with ridiculously high standards of musicianship. Whatever's in the water those guys are drinking, I want some of it.

But any time I listen to more than two or three of their tunes in a row I find myself thinking "This s**t again?!?!"

unless you’re joking, league the bass player is in *snarky puppy*

skinny puppy is quite different. from 1987.

 
unless you’re joking, league the bass player is in *snarky puppy*

skinny puppy is quite different. from 1987.



OMG :roflmao:
Thanks for clearing that up. I was lost about League.

Rest assured fellow ambient thread friends, if I ever post here about Snarky Puppy you should notify the authorities that my account has been hacked and some AI bot is posting under my name.
 
I don't know Snarky Puppy. Have been a fan of Skinny Puppy for quite a while and saw them live 3 times -- they put on a great show.

Does anyone do anything generative? How are you thinking about harmony and counterpoint? Are you sequencing your sequencers?

I find myself coincidentally doing generative stuff more often than I plan it. At times I've used Drezno feedback loops to generate CV, or Clep Diaz with a switch. I also have Marbles, where my MO is usually to leave Deja Vu set to gradual or no evolution of the loop. I'll do algorithmic rhythms on Teletype but usually not sequence pitch with it.

0-Ctrl is good for counterpoint, since it has 3 rows of CV. Marbles too, since it can sample an external signal instead of using random values. Not something I usually plan for, I just dial in something that sounds good.

I do like keeping my rhythmic sequences separate from CV sometimes and letting them play off each other with different sequence lengths, sometimes getting switches involved.

A few times I've done stuff in Bitwig Grid where I have an unquantized sequence going into different quantizers that have different scales set, and use a switch to select between them (or no quantization).