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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

#3,221
lordradish said:
Got plenty of that, too, which made it even better. :headphone:

Plus someone gave me a MIM J Bass last week, which is great, because I needed a cheap bass. Tired of taking the Wal to dive bars, on the rare occasion I have a dive bar gig.

But seriously, that A+ Astronaut is a cosmic space machine. I had a OBN Rever on my Moog Subsequent 37, and it wasn't that useful. This one has plate, spring, hall, and about 20 other amazing spacy-verby great things. Very happy, as I got the spring for normal playing, and the other stuff turns this into a pad machine.

Click to expand...

Gave you a bass....I need to know more people like that.
 
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#3,222
ugly_bassplayer said:
Gave you a bass....I need to know more people like that.
Click to expand...
Funny story. I had a pickup gig a while ago for a rather interesting singer songwriter - that's usually not my thing, but I liked the guy. He's about 60, and only been doing it casually, but I put a real spark under his ass, he's been real inspired (I think he played with a lot of casual hacks), and we kinda actually started doing the band thing, cuz it clicked so well. We got rid of the guitarist, who only can do the middle-aged blues guy thing (no thanks, yawn), and then decided to do it as a trio. Since we lost a lot of the rock conventions with getting rid of the guitarist, I switched over to fretless, and am now kinda out front playing more melodically, it's been great in pushing me into new areas of my own playing.

Long story short, the guy loves me, is constantly expressing gratitude for getting him to take his music seriously, after so long. Last week, I casually mentioned out loud in casual conversation that I needed a cheap bass, as my stuff's all custom (until I just got the MM), and lo and behold, he brings me out an MIM Jazz, said he bought it for his kid 20 years ago, just been sitting in a closet, ignored. I just had to replace a few bridge saddles, might throw in some SD Antiquities if I can get a good deal on it, now have my cheap bass.

Now if I can just inspire someone enough to give me a Moog One or a Prophet X, I'm gonna start thinking I'm on to something, here.
 
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#3,223
lordradish said:
Funny story. I had a pickup gig a while ago for a rather interesting singer songwriter - that's usually not my thing, but I liked the guy. He's about 60, and only been doing it casually, but I put a real spark under his ass, he's been real inspired (I think he played with a lot of casual hacks), and we kinda actually started doing the band thing, cuz it clicked so well. We got rid of the guitarist, who only can do the middle-aged blues guy thing (no thanks, yawn), and then decided to do it as a trio. Since we lost a lot of the rock conventions with getting rid of the guitarist, I switched over to fretless, and am now kinda out front playing more melodically, it's been great in pushing me into new areas of my own playing.

Long story short, the guy loves me, is constantly expressing gratitude for getting him to take his music seriously, after so long. Last week, I casually mentioned out loud in casual conversation that I needed a cheap bass, as my stuff's all custom (until I just got the MM), and lo and behold, he brings me out an MIM Jazz, said he bought it for his kid 20 years ago, just been sitting in a closet, ignored. I just had to replace a few bridge saddles, might throw in some SD Antiquities if I can get a good deal on it, now have my cheap bass.

Now if I can just inspire someone enough to give me a Moog One or a Prophet X, I'm gonna start thinking I'm on to something, here.
Click to expand...
If you replace the pups. Measure them to make sure they are not the crap-ta-cu-lar ones that are exactly the same length. Usually bridge pup is slightly longer. For exact measurements, Google is your friend.
 
#3,224
ugly_bassplayer said:
If you replace the pups. Measure them to make sure they are not the crap-ta-cu-lar ones that are exactly the same length. Usually bridge pup is slightly longer. For exact measurements, Google is your friend.
Click to expand...
Good to know, thanks.
Considering I just got the EBMM, I probably won't do anything else to this bass until I actually am gonna go out and use it, which could be a really long time.
 
#3,226
monsterthompson said:
Anyone tried the 1010 Products? They Fxbox, Bitbox, and Synthbox module looks interesting. Seems like a rack mounted Zoia. Buy one physical unit, then swap firmware to get various functions.

Click to expand...


been considering a Bitbox for awhile now. 1010 have a stand-alone hardware piece called BlackBox that looks possibly better still, but you can't swap out firmwares
 
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#3,228
ugly_bassplayer said:
Gave you a bass....I need to know more people like that.
Click to expand...

The universe is funny about stuff like this. If you do things like this it comes back to you. I gave an old beater 5 string Ibanez (that was my main player for high school) to some friends for their jam room...another person gave me an acoustic guitar they weren't playing when I complained about my POS one. The universe always gives it back... aybe not today or tomorrow but things will even out..it goes both ways too so don't be a d.ck
 
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#3,231
lordradish said:
Okay, changing topic, for me. I have the stereo pedalboard all set up, going through 2 QSC 8.2's (2000 w each!) and an EV 1000 watt sub. As you can imagine, it sounds absolutely amazing. I have a few mono slots left on my bypass looper, as well as room for two more medium pedals on the daughterboard. Here's my setup (stereo starts with the MD-500). It's also going through the Empress Stereo Buffer +, and there's a vol pedal.
Mel 9
Meris Enzo (I keep it mono, as the only stereo on it is the pingpong delay, and I can do that further down the line)
SA Aftershock (dirt)
Boss MD-500
Strymon El Cap
Meris Polymoon
Eventide H9 Max
Meris Mercury 7
Bypass looper ends here, then
Boss Eq-200 (it's like car wax for your pedalboard!)
Aeros Loop Studio

So, here's what I want. Although I do venture in to dark ambient a lot, I'm not so much a harsh/noise guy when it comes to the pedalboard, I generally don't use the dirt unless the ebow is involved. I have a lot of luck using the Mel and/or the Enzo as my base and tweaking them afterwards to get some pretty otherworldly sounds, but they all tend to lean to the dark side.
I'm looking for some suggestions for some type of synth or something pedal that might give me some more airy/uplifting types of sounds (not going into new age territory here, but just tonally not so damn dark -although if it did give new agey sounds I could certainly de-cheesify them and make 'em palatable to me). I'm kind of at a loss, because a lot of my options just seem to make noises I have no interest in, like the EQD Rainbow Machine. Looking for some blissful, serene stuff, not chaos. I also realize that a pedal might not have what I'm looking for, but provides a base that can be tweaked to get what I want. Generally, my soundscapes tend to be more in the Brian Eno/Steve Roach/Robert Rich vein than anything else.

Any suggestions, good people, and why your suggestion would be good? I do wonder if a Red Panda Particle might provide some good foundations to tweak into something I like.
Click to expand...

I'm really intrigued by the stuff from Meris and thinking of picking one or two of them up down the line, but their reverb and delay always sound very dark and washy to me, which might be contributing to what you're struggling with. Maybe you can provide a track or musical example of something more along the lines of the sound you'd like to go for?
 
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#3,232
remcult said:
I'm really intrigued by the stuff from Meris and thinking of picking one or two of them up down the line, but their reverb and delay always sound very dark and washy to me, which might be contributing to what you're struggling with. Maybe you can provide a track or musical example of something more along the lines of the sound you'd like to go for?
Click to expand...
Actually. since I've posted this, I've had a bit more luck getting what I want, I just had to dig a bit deeper into everything. Crazy as this may sound, I had a lot of luck coming up with new sounds by randomizing some preset combinations on my qConnect pedal, and now I do have some of those thick poly pad sounds I'm looking for, and they don't sound all dark. Thanks, though.
 
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#3,234
ugly_bassplayer said:
Maybe I'm the only one but I like the v1 better.

:bag:
Click to expand...

Can I ask why? I have a v2 and from the research I have done it seems that the v2 is the v1 but with many improvements...2nd footswitch for freeze/tap, presets, MIDI implementation!!!! and even improved sound quality. I have heard some people say that they prefer the more lofi sound quality of v1 but from what I gather, all of those folks have the v1 and I am not so sure that it isn't a little bit of "this is what I have and therefore it is better" since many v1 owners have made the jump. Oh and did I mention v2 has presets and full MIDI implementation...and it allows for merging of modes.
 
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#3,235
cosmicevan said:
Can I ask why? I have a v2 and from the research I have done it seems that the v2 is the v1 but with many improvements...2nd footswitch for freeze/tap, presets, MIDI implementation!!!! and even improved sound quality. I have heard some people say that they prefer the more lofi sound quality of v1 but from what I gather, all of those folks have the v1 and I am not so sure that it isn't a little bit of "this is what I have and therefore it is better" since many v1 owners have made the jump. Oh and did I mention v2 has presets and full MIDI implementation...and it allows for merging of modes.
Click to expand...
For those exact reasons. I like simple. No midi and no presets. I play it like an instrument not a pedal. I'm kinda allergic to midi.....

;)

I'm the only one I guess. And yes....I tried both.
Only thing I'd like is the 2nd footswitch. I'll wait for v3 maybe

:)
 
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#3,236
Well. This organism is interesting.

3E1C2789-B353-444A-B54A-5B60FFD4DF38.jpeg
 
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#3,238
ugly_bassplayer said:
Fill me in
...I have no clue what that is....
Click to expand...

Reaktor Blocks is a virtual euro rack.
Clock is the midi clock coming in from the host Ableton BPM.

Clock Divider is just that. You have 6 lanes of division available. I've got one lane driving the X Axis sequence on the XYS sequencer. Another division is dividing the Y Axis movement in the XYS sequencer.

The XYS is like a Make Noise Rene. The sequence movement for the X and Y axis/axes can be set independently. The output can be a result of various logic conditions for gates based on the X and Y movement.

Quant is a quantizer to keep it all in a scale.

The LFO is modulating the Quant module for a bit of pitch variation.

I've got it driving a bell sound with delays in Massive. I'll see if I can record a clip and/or video of the operation.
 
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#3,239
monsterthompson said:
Realtor Blocks is a virtual euro rack.
Clock is the midi clock coming in from the host Ableton BPM.

Clock Divider is just that. You have 6 lanes of division available. I've got one lane driving the X Axis sequence on the XYS sequencer. Another division is dividing the Y Axis movement in the XYS sequencer.

The XYS is like a Make Noise Rene. The sequence movement for the X and Y axis/axes can be set independently. The output can be a result of various logic conditions for gates based on the X and Y movement.

Quant is a quantizer to keep it all in a scale.

The LFO is modulating the Quant module for a bit of pitch variation.

I've got it driving a bell sound with delays in Massive. I'll see if I can record a clip and/or video of the operation.
Click to expand...
Dope
 

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