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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

#421
I never thought of the ambient/textural thing as "what I do" at least not exclusively; it's been a small component of many of the more abstract or avant-garde non-commercial musics I've played, but it's also been conspicuously absent from all of the more commercially-oriented work I do. So I actually surprised myself when I was recently going through some recording archives and realized I already had enough material in the can to release an entire album of solo bass atmospheres! I'm debating whether I want to release them as-is, or do some subsequent editing and/or re-processing to impart slightly more compositional structure to the collection. But for now it's just inspiring to realize that I have a backlog of fodder available.

Here's one example, recorded live in one take
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...using a slightly earlier variation of this current rig:
Room%20404%2012-28-2016_zpsl5nbz017.jpg
 
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#422
@Bob_Ross .. is that a Hotone volume pedal? If so, how do you like it, does it work well?
Just curious, I'm putting together a small board and the size of the Volume pedals are a turn off.. although I think I have seen that Dunlop has a mini volume now.. please forgive my ignorance on this.. I've been a straight plug and play with maybe some OD or chorus
 
#423
MTN.bass72 said:
@Bob_Ross .. is that a Hotone volume pedal?
Click to expand...

No, it's a Mooer Leveline sitting on top of a [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Extremely tiny volume pedal, very well built, no tone-suck...but it's action is just slightly less linear than what I find ideal. Depending on how critical the gig is I may wind up swapping it out for my old Ernie Ball volume pedal...but it would have to be a very critical gig!
 
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#426
Bob_Ross said:
I never thought of the ambient/textural thing as "what I do" at least not exclusively; it's been a small component of many of the more abstract or avant-garde non-commercial musics I've played, but it's also been conspicuously absent from all of the more commercially-oriented work I do. So I actually surprised myself when I was recently going through some recording archives and realized I already had enough material in the can to release an entire album of solo bass atmospheres! I'm debating whether I want to release them as-is, or do some subsequent editing and/or re-processing to impart slightly more compositional structure to the collection. But for now it's just inspiring to realize that I have a backlog of fodder available.

Here's one example, recorded live in one take
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Click to expand...
dug the first one, now gonna check out all six.

nice.
 
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#427
Shawncavbass said:
We recently just expanded into having a fractal design/movie clip video projecting behind us, and some basic lights.
Click to expand...


About ~20 years ago my band used to host a monthly free improvisation soiree at a local bookstore, and for several of those shows Emil Tobenfeld (aka "Dr. T", the MIDI sequencer designer) would show up and contribute improvised light shows via 35mm slide projectors. There's something incredibly cool about playing extemporaneous music and realizing that you're having a dialog with the visual effects!

btw, I used to run in many of the same circles as your keyboard player Dan Dechellis. I don't think we ever actually played together, but we played with a lot of the same musicians. And we're Facebook friends now :)
 
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#431
Has anyone had any experience using the Strymon Ola? Looking for a more versatile chorus pedal than my Tech 21. Really want something that can do vibrato/Tremelo even though I love the chorus tone on the Tech 21
 
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#432
I do in fact have a solo project in my own name that evolves around drone/ambient/noise music.

And while I do not play bass on all of them, here are a few were I do:





Also made this track, and although the bass on this track is programmed it does play a rather prominent role on it:



This is the track I made up to now with that project that I am most proud of though, even if it doesn't feature any bass:



Also I mostly use VST's for effects, beside my EHX Black Finger (tube driven optical compressor) that I always use when recording bass and Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC 100 (mic tube preamp) at the end of my chain just before going into my sound interface.

I do use my other pedals as well for recording from time to time, which would be:

EHX Tube Zipper (which is defect and only works as fuzz), Boss MT-2 in conjunction with the Tube Zipper stacked in front of it to send the Zipper into over the top and out of control fuzz territory, and then various effects on my Zoom B3.
 
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#433
jsper said:
Has anyone had any experience using the Strymon Ola? Looking for a more versatile chorus pedal than my Tech 21. Really want something that can do vibrato/Tremelo even though I love the chorus tone on the Tech 21
Click to expand...

I'm awaiting delivery of an Empress Nebulus, you might check one of those out too.
 
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#434
NoiseNinja said:
I do in fact have a solo project in my own name that evolves around drone/ambient/noise music.

And while I do not play bass on all of them, here are a few were I do:





Also made this track, and although the bass on this track is programmed, it does play a rather prominent role on it:



This is the track I made up to now with that project that I am most proud of though, even if it doesn't feature any bass:



Also I mostly use VST's for effects, beside my EHX Black Finger (tube driven optical compressor) that I always use when recording bass and Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC 100 (mic tube preamp) at the end of my chain just before going into my sound interface.

I do use my other pedals as well for recording from time to time, which would be:

EHX Tube Zipper (which is defect and only works as fuzz), Boss MT-2 in conjunction with the Tube Zipper stacked in front of it to send the Zipper into over the top and out of control fuzz territory, and then various effects on my Zoom B3.
Click to expand...


Nice! You should visit the Feedback Friday thread and post up your weirdest stuff there.
 
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#435
jsper said:
Has anyone had any experience using the Strymon Ola? Looking for a more versatile chorus pedal than my Tech 21. Really want something that can do vibrato/Tremelo even though I love the chorus tone on the Tech 21
Click to expand...

I was wondering this same thing.. as well as the DIG.. every video I've found is on guitar, typical, although it sounds great on guitar. I'm also interested in the Blue Sky.. several bass vids on it, love its warm, lush sound.
 
#437
Marial said:
Nice! You should visit the Feedback Friday thread and post up your weirdest stuff there.
Click to expand...

Thank you :)

I have posted a pair of weak improvisations in the Feedback Friday thread though at earlier points, a piece of pure improvised feedback which can also be heard in the background of the piece Dør #3 and a piece of improvised noodling testing out my Zoom B3 playing my Ibanez Mikro back when it was strung as a baritone tuned A-C.

These were improvisations though and not regular compositions as the pieces I posted here, even if some of those do partly consist of some purely improvised tracks as well.

It just happens to be that the coincident that inspiration strikes me particular on a Friday or that I happens to finish one of my drone/ambient/noise composition particularly on a Friday happens rarely ;)

I am working on another piece though that I might be able to get done by Friday if I am in any luck.

I'll keep in mind though that should I ever have something finished on a Friday I will post in that thread :bassist:

Also beside this project I am working with my friend Joseph from the U.S on another project that might be of interest to this thread called Tardigrada.

This is more of a surreal/psychedelic/experimental/avant-garde thing than it is a straight out ambient or noise project, though the music we create certainly does have certain ambient qualities and we do make heavy use of noise elements in our compositions as well.

It is unsure how we will deal with the tracks in terms of how and when they are released as of yet though, which will not be decided before we have sufficient material for an EP.

It is likely though that it will be available though Bandcamp and SoundCloud, at least for free listening and possible for free download as well, and I will make sure to make a note about it in this thread as soon as it is out.

Love this thread by the way! :)

Great initiative! :thumbsup:

Though I haven't had time to listen to much of the stuff people have posted here yet, but will try to work my way through it slowly.
 
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#438
I really like this thread also, it's nice to connect with other bass players doing weird ambient stuff. I've been experimenting with combining ambient music mixed with other art forms, like spoken word poetry and visual art. Here's a thing I put together recently. It's a set of photos I took at an aquarium mixed with an ambient, droning jam. I used a few pedals and my EHX 22500 looper.

 

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