Bass Synth Pedals and Making Them Not Suck

[Bo0tsy]

I'm a big advocate of Octaver, (Gated) Fuzz & Filter, for synth sounds, but my favourite dedicated synth pedal by far (if you can find one still) is the Chunk Systems Octavius Squeezer. The interface is admittedly somewhat patience testing(!!), but some of the old school synth sounds available out of this thing are outstanding, plus you can build your own patches. Alternatively, if you can get hold of the Chunk Brown Dog and 00Funk Mk II, they are the synthiest of Envelope Filter & Gated Fuzz around. Combined they sound amazing, very tweakable with fantastic tracking.

 

[pfschim]

Sometimes less is more and unless you are going for an early-80s keyboard synth sound that is quite fuzzy then something with a good punchy attack but with the dry signal mixed in around 50% can work well.

I created a chunky sound on a recording by recording a dry signal and one through a pedal, then fed part of the dry signal through overdrive and octave down, and the double tracked a second entire track though mild overdrive then panned each of those four versions slightly left, right, and centre.

I understand what you are saying here. But, in a recording situation you have all those opportunities to multi-track and isolate and just work on the sound in a discrete way, whereas in a live situation - which is where I generally have my fx challenges - it's make or break in real time, and sometimes the signal chain just does not hold up.
Still working on it.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I understand what you are saying here. But, in a recording situation you have all those opportunities to multi-track and isolate and just work on the sound in a discrete way, whereas in a live situation - which is where I generally have my fx challenges - it's make or break in real time, and sometimes the signal chain just does not hold up.
Still working on it.

Oh, of course. Live sound is always a series of compromises to get an acceptable sound given the limitations. It was just fun being able to use multiple tracks to get a big sound. Splitting signals down multiple routes like that and sending it out in stereo might work with something like the big new flagship Line6 multi but I don't think it would survive the average FOH reproduction! I thought about that sound and would just use the synth version sound (which has an octave down in it anyway) and dry and that would be the best practical option.

I was running sound on a system with 4kW of Crown or Crest watts and H&K speakers and subs a couple of weeks ago that might have done it justice (I wasn't playing) only damned if I could get the subs to work* and there were satellite speakers further down the hall without a delay line set so the bass sound naturally had a double tracking sound!

* There was more than enough bass from the mains, thankfully.

 

[Nephilymbass]

Yeah I have to agree with the idea that synth pedals tend to sound a bit cheesy by themselves but can be cool when used in combination with other pedals.

I've seen people pull off muse covers in a lot of interesting ways with different effects. For example for the song madness in the studio it was done with a synth. Live he actually uses a doubleneck which has a misa midi guitar for the top neck which triggers an actual synth, But I've seen people cover that song surprisingly well with a real bass with just a fuzz and a wah pedal.

 

[Wait what]

I'll be another voice in the "octave > fuzz > mod/filter" crowd.

I've don't own an outright synth pedal — though I guess my MXR BOD should count.

Nailing a good octave down > ring mod tone can get super fat. I've found that it all depends on finding a good ring frequency. Tuning the mod to the root (or 4th / 5th) of your song key will let you keep more of the ring in the mix without completely masking the notes you play. Hell, a well tuned ring set at the right mix is sometimes all I need to get synthy.

Ever since my EHX Enigma went up in smoke the day my Sweetwater warranty expired, I've tried to avoid envelope filters. Probably out of spite — but they are so ubiquitous that I find it fun to work without them. (I bought a PCB for an envelope follower, though: my dream is to have it control the mix of the ring mod for an auto-ring.) I've since fallen in love with vibrato/detuning instead, and love the gooey tones I can get with the Polytope and Warped Vinyl MkII. Still trying to find a DEEEEP modulation combo of the two that doesn't essentially mute me in live settings. Will probably have to make considered use of the Polytope's filter knob.

Here's octave up > Pickle Pie Hella Fuzz > Polytope. Octave up was done in post; still trying to decide on a good polyphonic octave up for a live setting.

 

[Philip Mackenzie]

Hey, thanks for sharing! Thanks for the compliment too! I'm glad you like the sounds! I agree the combo was the best synth tone I could get. I almost forgot all about that vid!!!

This is exactly what I was talking about in my earlier post. It sounds really good, but then through the polytope in there, and it is synth city!!!

Whoa. What's the order on this? Is the TAFM after the filter or in the loop?

 

[aphexafx]

I don't know how to describe it, I'm sure it's me not knowing how to properly set it, but I'm leaning forward selling it and moving towards the octaver+filter+fuzz realm.

It's not you. I think the bass synth units are like 80's Casio keyboards: they have a few sounds and you get bored with them in a few hours. And then it's over.

You are a better oscillator and with a modular pedal board it's never over.

 

[Wait what]

You are a better oscillator

Preach

 

[superspacefunk]

Found this thread nd just wanted to add a though / +1 to the idea of tremolos and movement pedals like this after synths, octaves+dirt+filters, etc, plus taking it a little further. If y'all have checked out the Malekko Charlie Foxtrot gradual delay/glitch pedal ( btw, BY FAR my favorite anywhere NEAR the price range!)
It can auto capture by means of a thread hold or manually capture a sound and stutter it, pitch shift notes by means of stutter up, down, both or randomly. Super rad putting pedals like this, or a nice very fast square wave tremolo tremolo, with 50% or a mix to you liking after a synth in my electronica project. When mix level is lower but audible especially with the feedback set low as well, i make my synths sound like their being chopped like a Beat Repeat setting in ableton live, or by one of the modern beat tweaked style vsts, yet with the mix level below fifty percent it's more gracefully implied and definitely usable in especially electronic settings. Even better when using an expression pedal. Very professional/artificial/premixed sounding, coming out on the fly.. incredible.

 

[JimmyM]

Found this thread nd just wanted to add a though / +1 to the idea of tremolos and movement pedals like this after synths, octaves+dirt+filters, etc, plus taking it a little further. If y'all have checked out the Malekko Charlie Foxtrot gradual delay/glitch pedal ( btw, BY FAR my favorite anywhere NEAR the price range!)
It can auto capture by means of a thread hold or manually capture a sound and stutter it, pitch shift notes by means of stutter up, down, both or randomly. Super rad putting pedals like this, or a nice very fast square wave tremolo tremolo, with 50% or a mix to you liking after a synth in my electronica project. When mix level is lower but audible especially with the feedback set low as well, i make my synths sound like their being chopped like a Beat Repeat setting in ableton live, or by one of the modern beat tweaked style vsts, yet with the mix level below fifty percent it's more gracefully implied and definitely usable in especially electronic settings. Even better when using an expression pedal. Very professional/artificial/premixed sounding, coming out on the fly.. incredible.

Man, I'm kicking myself for not getting that Roland chopper thingy they had out in the late 2000's, but it was pretty expensive. Haven't done much in the way of synth bass sounds these days but the CF sounds like a blast.

 

[4Mal]

IMHO (Humble ? Moi ? Hah!)

Nothing but nothing beats a Future Impact in the Effects Loop of a Stomp HX and a small midi controller. The secret of course is the crossover split in the HX. Drop the split in the path before the efx send to the synth and adjust the freq to avoid the ugly glitching that all bass synths do way down deep.

I do the same with the HX's onboard octaver. I've been chasing Chameleon and Boogie On since deep into the last century. I can just about nail them at this point. boogie on is still a work in progress but I'm getting closer.