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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread
- Thread starter ttasselm
- Start date
Thanks! I already jumped the gun and ordered the Brig (used). Is the sound quality and feel of the Joshua as good as the Brig?
hi smeet
i don’t know that delay, but thought i’d offer my thoughts on bass and delay.
in terms of ambient delays, longer can be better.
in terms of soloing, too long with too much feedback can be a problem. not sure what you mean by vibey, but if you’re looking for flangey kinds of things, short delay times with a lot of feedback can be useful. psychedelic could mean reverse delay with low feedback.
i tend to think that a lot if feedback can muddy things up with anything using lots of long tones—particularly with low notes.
expression control over delay time *or* wet/dry mix can be really good.
what i look for in a delay is ≈20-1,000 ms (or more), stereo, forward/reverse, good range of feedback.
my 2¢
i’ve used that capability sparingly, as it’s not part of my flow.
sound design on the hydra is really easy—and deep—ime.
i’d like to do no new gear in 2026, we’ll see. maybe the buying spree at the end of 2025 will cool my jets.
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Thanks for that, @steubig .
The Brig is Strymon’s analog (bucket BRIGade) delay simulation. As such, it is relatively short delay times (under 2 secs at max). Also, the repetitions degrade and darken so they don’t get in the way of soloing. By “vibey” I meant evocative, having character, putting the listener in a space, that kind of thing.
The demos of the Brig sound great to my ears. Not the few on bass unfortunately, but hopefully it will work for me.
The Brig is great. I think the Joshua and Brig are very comparable, at least in mono, not sure about stereo - the Strymons are pretty gorgeous in stereo. I think the Brig looks better on the board, as well. The Brig offer those two different bucket chip settings which are not really noticeable on bass, offers analog noise which is not that useful. The Joshua offers a shimmer add-in which is pretty cool on bass. All-in-all, the Brig is an excellent choice.
I use ambient sounds in our worship setting. There are a lot of light layered intros or instrumental sections in these songs and I enjoy adding a delay/modulated bass layer, especially using a volume pedal. My needs are simple.
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Well, I don't use any slapback type effects on bass so I don't think that demo is a good showcase for the Brig on bass.
As I mentioned in my last post, my use case is adding an ambient layer to lighter sections of worship music and the Brig sounds excellent on bass for that. Especially if I add a hint of sub octave and volume pedal in front of it. I can get very Moog like sub swells bass layers that are quite nice. The Brig modulated delay makes it more ambient and hide in the mix better.
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The Strymon El Capistan is pretty killer on bass, I haven’t tried the Brig but have owned both a Strymon Timeline and the Capistan for several years and found myself using the tape sounds (Capistan) in the Timeline for bass over the analog delay sounds (Brig) pretty consistently. The El Cap used to be pretty often recommended around TB for bass, I’m sure there are tons of new options that bring new stuff to the table but honestly I’ve never felt a need to look at anything else between the Strymons and the delays built into my multis (the delays in the Eventide H9/90 are pretty fantastic for big ambient sounds) and the Capistan gets probably 3/4 of my play time vs the Timeline for bass (it’s my one most brought “filling space and between songs” pedal even on small boards).
!?!?
Wow…
Weirdest. Church. Ever.
…but I’d check out a service just for the ambient bass!
99% certain I’m grabbing the Two Notes Genome today. I’m eyeing the Suite vs Basic. I just realized a few of the cabs and amps I want are not in the Suite and it might be cheaper just to get the basic and add a few items I want.
I was considering the Opus pedal which includes the Genome license. Particularly since I’d need to add some items anyway. I’m just not convinced I need a hardware sim. I already have a SansAmp BDDI and a DSM OmniCab.
I was considering the Opus pedal which includes the Genome license. Particularly since I’d need to add some items anyway. I’m just not convinced I need a hardware sim. I already have a SansAmp BDDI and a DSM OmniCab.
I always thought pipe organ was a great "ambient" instrument, in the sense that it fills the space with awesome drony music.
When they do the Gatherings electronic shows in Philadelphia they do them in an old stone church on the Penn U campus which has a large pipe organ, and to my annoyance that organ never gets used in any of the shows. I don't know if it's because the church won't let them or if it's because you can't rehearse unless you're in the room, or maybe it's just too much trouble to operate the machinery, but for an ambient space music show I think it'd be awesome.
Given there are likely more Unitiarians up here than anywhere else, definitely checks out. They're so hip they welcome atheists.
Can confirm a pretty wide open door policy is part of the experience. Having spent some time going to a Unitarian church is what inspired the joke. I’m not sure what other congregations are like, but I would not have been surprised by ambient bass playing at mine. Though, I went ages ago when ambient noisemakers were not easily found at the local GC.
No- this is the first I’d heard of it! There are so many new delay options since I last tried any out, it’s kind of overwhelming! Looks cool to me, I’d be curious to hear how it compares to the engine in the El Capistan (I’m sure there are some videos comparing them). FWIW, my Capistan is one of the v1 versions before they added MIDI and some other cool features- still rocking though! I think it might be the second longest regularly-used piece of my current pedalboards after my early OC-2. Those two have definitely stood the test of time!
I’ve been using my HX Stomp for reverb and delay. They are great in the Stomp but I want something more tactile and easy to adjust on the fly.
I just ordered the Keeley Nocturne Reverb. I will report back.
I just ordered the Keeley Nocturne Reverb. I will report back.
If you haven’t seen anything weird (musically) today...
