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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

#19,641
Spectrum said:
I was summoned by the Mom Signal to Easter dinner this weekend so I brought my little Volca Bass synth and a delay pedal with me to record something while hiding from the rest of my family for a couple of hours. Once I get it ready for upload I'll share it later.
Click to expand...

As promised:



This was all done from scratch on my Volca Bass and a DD-7 delay pedal in about 1 or 2 hours. All on battery power, too. Portability is nice. I have to say that for a synth people often dump on, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of the V-Bass. It's probably my most used synth. I like how easy it is to operate, the smoothness of the low pass filter, and how deep and bassy it can get.
 
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#19,644
JES said:
Congrats! I don’t even know what those woods are, so I’m looking forward to seeing the final version.
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07E74BF6-C569-4B35-AC0B-98D9C835370D.gif
 
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#19,645
Spectrum said:
As promised:



This was all done from scratch on my Volca Bass and a DD-7 delay pedal in about 1 or 2 hours. All on battery power, too. Portability is nice. I have to say that for a synth people often dump on, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of the V-Bass. It's probably my most used synth. I like how easy it is to operate, the smoothness of the low pass filter, and how deep and bassy it can get.
Click to expand...


Sounds great. Is it just one take with the VB and the DD7? There's a lot to be said for simple setups.
 
#19,647
JES said:
Congrats! I don’t even know what those woods are, so I’m looking forward to seeing the final version.
Click to expand...

I had to do my homework too. This is what Maurizio said about them:

"Raintree is great. Just perfect, really. It has the warmth of mahogany without the dark voice, even mids, a sweet top end. If you want a versatile instrument at such a short scale, that's probably the best choice. I would go with ovangkol board for a bit more snap. Or ironwood (only 4 and 5 string) for a bit more muscles and a slightly compressed voice. However if you plan to run the signal through a lot of pedals I'd say Nyatoh with either fretboards has an edge, due to its even, clear response across the range."

I figure a DAW is different from using pedals, and I'm always going to be able to get things where I need it as long as there aren't big holes in the spectrum. And I'm somewhere between skeptical and neutral on tonewood generally. I'm picking raintree because:

- it's pretty
- it's sustainable
- the luthier being enthusiastic about it is probably a good sign
- I like the name

Ovangkol is supposed to be very similar to rosewood, I think visually it's a good match (based on digging through some Instagram pics of others who used that combo), and it's also sustainable.


monsterthompson said:
Noce! Which dual coil are you getting? Bridge or neck position?
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Probably Bartolini. I didn't specify, but I did mention that on my Ibanez Mikro I strongly favor the neck P since it has a more solid tone (how much of that is the pickup and how much is the position, I don't really know).
 
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#19,649
lucas303 said:
This is pretty great:



I love the voice sounds. Assuming he didn't overdub himself as all the voices, I'm guessing he used some sort of synth to make those choral sounds?
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sounds like real voices (words are leading me to believe this). my guess would be he lifted it from something or used a sample library and then layered and processed

?
 
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#19,650
JES said:
Sounds great. Is it just one take with the VB and the DD7? There's a lot to be said for simple setups.
Click to expand...

I think it's four layered tracks total. When I use my "big" synth setup I try to figure out how to use multiple synths to play a whole piece in one pass if possible, thinking I may play it live sometime, but when I use these little portable one-synth setups I just layer it up and do what I need to get the sounds I want. Maybe that's part of why it seems to come so easily.

The Volca Bass sequencer clock is digitally controlled and you can set it to an exact bpm number, so for later passes you can adjust it for multiples. For example, the main sequence in that track was set to 70 bpm, and then I laid that arpeggiated sequence over it at 140 bpm so it lines right up.

For portable recording I use a Korg SR-1 Sound-on-Sound handheld recorder, which allows unlimited layering up to the limit of the memory card. It's one of the most useful pieces of gear I've ever bought (so of course Korg quit making them :rollno:) and when it needed to get repaired I went online and bought a second one new in box to have a spare.

The downside is that there is no mixing and no way to record over or delete an earlier track without wiping the tracks made since then; you have to get each track right before moving on to the next layer. Still super useful and portable, and great for recording band practice and stuff, too.

cGc
 
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#19,658
ugly_bassplayer said:
I like the MM tone on others, not for myself.
Does that make any sense at all??
I had a stingray for years and it was a constant boxing match.
(Tone wise not playability)
Click to expand...

mostly it’s about a quad setup.

p/reverse p/straight line p/massive four coils.

look at the bigman too.
 
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#19,659
JES said:
Just learned that this exists: drone day - a global celebration of drone, sustained sounds, ambient worlds, tone clusters, and the communities who choose to make them
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My noise band used to play a drone day celebration for years; unfortunately COVID killed the local scene. It was great fun. Often we'd be set up a small local bar and have us up but also a bunch of spare inputs for anybody else who wanted to show up and join the drone. They could just come up, plug whatever they had in, make some sounds and leave at their leisure.
 
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