Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[TOOL460002]

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Here is a mix I like (mostly bass pitch shifted via Bass Whammy and into an FZ-2 (and sometimes a ZVex Machine) with a Le Bass at the end. Some Chase Bliss for ambience ( Mood, Dark Word, Lossy, and Habit).

Listen to Cubic Music by Tool460002 on #SoundCloud
Cubic Music

 

[Spectrum]

So I’ve been watching Rugrats recently. Yes the animated program that was on Nickelodeon. I noticed a name in the credits that I don’t remember noticing when I watched the series as a kid.

Mothersbaugh is into so much more than most people would think. Interesting to note that behind him there is a rack of Moog Mother 32's. Seems like that synth shows up in a lot of music producer studios. I have 2 myself, used them live last night again.

 

[arvegrinden]

So, I got my hands on an EAE Hypersleep V1 last week. Does anyone have experience with both the V1 and the V2 on bass? Haven’t really found any comparisons on the two versions on bass, and considering an upgrade down the line. I can see the V1 being a bit dark from time to time and some added clarity could be nice after having played around with it a bit.
Still fairly new to modulation in general, so there will be a learning curve.

 

[monsterthompson]

Got around to doing a little recording with the F Bass and my modular rig. The new Erica delay is on the synth and there's some OTO BAM reverb on the send/return. F Bass has a little post processing but it is just bass set to bridge + neck PUs in single coil mode going into the interface.

 

[JES]

The F bass sounds great!

 

[monsterthompson]

The F bass sounds great!

Thanks

I started off with a different bass but couldn’t get it to feel/sound right. The F Bass seemed to slot right in. Of course it does have like 42 pickup combinations

 

[monsterthompson]

 

[JES]

It’s starting to sound like what I’d hoped the Octatrack would become.

 

[steubig]

hey

i’m about to embark on a baritone guitar journey, so i’m starting to look into amp modelers that can do both bass and guitar. anyone here have experience with anything they like?

 

[monsterthompson]

hey

i’m about to embark on a baritone guitar journey, so i’m starting to look into amp modelers that can do both bass and guitar. anyone here have experience with anything they like?

Get out of my head. I'm on the verge of buying a baritone guitar. Consider me also interested.

 

[monsterthompson]

Interesting stereo power amp at 100w per channel at 4 Ohms. Can sim and EQ options. Probably aimed at guitar but maybe an option for live stereo rigs that don’t need to be deafening. Not sure I’d swap my rack power amp for this to power my BB2 cabs but I’d consider it if I was hauling gear to gigs.

 

[Bob_Ross]

amp modelers that can do both bass and guitar. anyone here have experience with anything they like?

No, but I can offer some well-reasoned yet still buttheaded opinions on what I don't like!

Any modeler that has a Neutral or "Off" position will be fine for bass; so long as there's no latency and you can take all of the modelling processing out of the circuit -- or, at least, ask it to model a mic preamplifier or DI -- it'll be fine for bass. But all of the bass amp models I've heard struck me as being worse than just plugging direct into the board.

So you really want to focus on your guitar (or baritone guitar) needs, and then just pray that whatever floats your boat in that regard has a "Bypass" position for bass.
- I have no direct experience with the Kempner stuff.
- Most of the Johnson and Zoom stuff sounds like ass, especially for bass.
- The Line6 stuff can be pretty amazing -- or, on occasion, frustratingly cheesey. But literally any version of a POD will make any guitar sound like an iconic guitar sound that listeners are familiar with from recordings; the complaints mostly come mostly from players who don't like the way PODs respond to their performing nuance [sic].
- The ones I find most gratifying on guitar are the Tech21 SansAmp stuff. They have fewer parameters to dig yourself a hole with, and yet are a quick and efficient way to summon up iconic sounds that react to your technique in a predictable way.

I've owned and/or worked with a crap-ton of modelers (minus the aforementioned Kempner) and the only ones I've kept are a Line6 POD Pro, and a Tech21 Sansamp GT2. And one or the other of them gets used on nearly every guitar track I've ever recorded in the past couple decades.
But the GT2 doesn't offer anything for bass (other than a convenient Bypass footswitch), and the POD Pro only ever gets used on bass if I dial up its faux microphone preamp model, at which point I usually feel like there's still one extra superfluous piece in the signal path.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Interesting stereo power amp at 100w per channel at 4 Ohms. Can sim and EQ options. Probably aimed at guitar but maybe an option for live stereo rigs that don’t need to be deafening. Not sure I’d swap my rack power amp for this to power my BB2 cabs but I’d consider it if I was hauling gear to gigs.

Cab sim is overrated unless in your in the studio.
Even then, now techs have like 897q489573487qty7qrety plugins.
So even playing bass is optional.

Off lawn now,

 

[steubig]

i guess what i’m looking for is a pedal that will be suitable for both bass and guitar tone/eq/preamp going into a bass amp or powered monitor. the cab ir thing might just to be give it more “essence of guitar.”

 

[JES]

@steubig Okay, first of all, I want to know everything about your baritone guitar journey, as I have sometimes thought about one.

Touch guitar basically has the same issue: it covers the bass and guitar range, and guitar gear isn't so great for that.

I am also a big fan of analog modelling pedals like Tech21. They just sound better to my ears.

You have a few other options. Given that you already have distortions you like on bass, you could easily just throw on a low pass filter at the end of chain to remove the high end sizzle. You could also do this in a pedal multi effect. I've done it a lot with my Line 6 pedals instead of using their amp models.

If you're using IRs, you may want something that will blend a couple of them in phase. This is because a single IR often introduces weird phasing or comb filtering (a real speaker moves and responds to impedance change, etc., an IR is a static snapshot--a sample really). I think the latest Line 6 modellers offer that option, as do the Fractal Audio ones. Here's my explanation from the Fractal thread:

Fractal Audio Club

I don't really care about accuracy or trueness to life, I just don't want that hideous phasing sound I hear with unmodulated IRs.

<insert @ugly_bassplayer caveman joke here>

An exception to this is a free set of IRs that were my favourite for touch guitar when I was experimenting with this: Shift Line Bass IR Pack The three "experimental" impulses are edited so that you get the top end of a guitar speaker but all the low end of a direct sound. Very cool.

You might also just like a guitar amp sound with the baritone. You'll have to experiment.

Now, tell me about the baritone guitar(s?) and what you plan to do with them + how you plan to tune them.

 

[steubig]

@steubig Okay, first of all, I want to know everything about your baritone guitar journey, as I have sometimes thought about one.

Touch guitar basically has the same issue: it covers the bass and guitar range, and guitar gear isn't so great for that.

I am also a big fan of analog modelling pedals like Tech21. They just sound better to my ears.

You have a few other options. Given that you already have distortions you like on bass, you could easily just throw on a low pass filter at the end of chain to remove the high end sizzle. You could also do this in a pedal multi effect. I've done it a lot with my Line 6 pedals instead of using their amp models.

If you're using IRs, you may want something that will blend a couple of them in phase. This is because a single IR often introduces weird phasing or comb filtering (a real speaker moves and responds to impedance change, etc., an IR is a static snapshot--a sample really). I think the latest Line 6 modellers offer that option, as do the Fractal Audio ones. Here's my explanation from the Fractal thread:

Fractal Audio Club

I don't really care about accuracy or trueness to life, I just don't want that hideous phasing sound I hear with unmodulated IRs.

<insert @ugly_bassplayer caveman joke here>

An exception to this is a free set of IRs that were my favourite for touch guitar when I was experimenting with this: Shift Line Bass IR Pack The three "experimental" impulses are edited so that you get the top end of a guitar speaker but all the low end of a direct sound. Very cool.

You might also just like a guitar amp sound with the baritone. You'll have to experiment.

Now, tell me about the baritone guitar(s?) and what you plan to do with them + how you plan to tune them.

hey.

rambling musing follows . . .

the distortion and other pedals will stay the same.

i *think* what i'm looking for is (something like) the strymon iridium, which is what i seem to homing in on. stereo i/o, simple interface (knobs!) on/off, a couple of options. possibly with a/b possibilities. all the other things i've seen are mono in/stereo out. since i want to ability to have stereo effects in there—and probably *before* the modeler—mono in won't do it for me. so far that means the iridium . . . of course that's after two days of looking around, so things could change.

i'm not looking for ***guitar***—more like something that's kind to the range and some of that flavor; something clean with a bit of bite, sparkle and mid push that i can incorporate into my current sounds/setup and switch between on the fly.

i assume that the touch guitar has too much range for guitar amps. does a keyboard amp or powered monitor work better? (for some of the mini-tour i did in the east last year, i used a qsc powered 12 that was really impressive, so i've also thought of that.)

thanks for the tip on ir pack.

*my* (lol, three months away) baritones—yes, two, fretted and fretless—are basically gonna be the same tuning as my 6-string basses, but up an octave, so B-C (or B-B, if i go guitar tuning). maybe short-scale piccolo 6-string is more the correct nomenclature, but i'm going to have guitar pickups (probably a variation on nordstrand asat) cause i want that sound. 28-inch scale, 16.5mm spacing, headless.

the genesis of this was playing guitar a bit in the pandemic and digging it, but being annoyed by the high E string, so i started to obsess about a baritone. i actually played guitar at an open improv gig and dug it and people didn't hate it, which sort of solidified the concept for me. (fwiw, i played guitar on tour in the 70s, but didn't love it, so i have some knowledge.)

since i play with multi-reed players, as well as a guy who kicks keyboard bass, i thought it might be cool to be able to bring some different ranges, timbres and possibilities to the table.

hope that makes some sense.

 

[JES]

Thanks! I look forward to hearing them. Please post pics when they arrive.

assume that the touch guitar has too much range for guitar amps. does a keyboard amp or powered monitor work better? (for some of the mini-tour i did in the east last year, i used a qsc powered 12 that was really impressive, so i've also thought of that.)

I’m happy with a bass amp and barefaced cab which I guess is a little flatter than a regular cab, though I also sometimes just plug in direct to record.

since i play with multi-reed players, as well as a guy who kicks keyboard bass, i thought it might be cool to be able to bring some different ranges, timbres and possibilities to the table.

Sounds about right. That was my experience with my bass VI experiments. You’re looking at the “cello” range of the guitar family.

 

[steubig]

btw, there are some nice examples of fretless baritone around on youtube for those who are interested.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

btw, there are some nice examples of fretless baritone around on youtube for those who are interested.

Links?? Chords on fretless always freaking blow my mind
You guys are making want to take a bass and tune it piccolo.
Sadly I can’t play my old Gandl jazz bass anymore, the string spacing is too tight

 

[monsterthompson]

Considering
Bass VI
Eastwood Hooky Bass 6 PRO

Baritone
Eastwood Hooky Baritone PRO