Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Best Bass Envelope Filter Pedal ?
- Thread starter Sayclean
- Start date
-
- Tags
- envelope filter
I think Source Audio produce an army of great filters. My weapon is the Spectrum(like the C4 but for bassist who don't want to wade through all the other cleverness). I get what I call a "chatty" effect. Bit like the teacher in Charlie Brown. The MXR is a bit boring to my ear and not very organic.
"Chatty Filter" 
What pedal do you think they used to make the teacher's voice in Charlie Brown then? Sounds more like a bandpass than a lowpass to me.
What pedal do you think they used to make the teacher's voice in Charlie Brown then? Sounds more like a bandpass than a lowpass to me.
I agree on the Mojohand 443, it's on one of my bass boards And it gets used replacing a 1979 DrQ when I play electrified trumpet. (there was something about the first DrQ's that got lost in later versions, less chip quality?) The other filters I still use (there have been many) are Prunes & Custard (which is in a different category than most, but some Attack Decay into P&C sounds better to me than any "synth" pedal... and as an evolution of the original heavy and large Ashdown envelope, Dr. Green's Doctor's Note recreates their attainable subtle sweep combo of up and down filters (which no one on YouTube demos has shown, they jack it up and it sounds lousy...) Ibanez Bass Synthesizer is just 2drives (you don't use) in an excellent envelope that has control of peak frequency as well as sensitivity and range so it can sound darker than many. Finding one in good condition is rare though. Then there is the Maxon. Pretty good.
I wish I had fancier ones like Iron Ether but I haven't finished with what I have on hand. Also envelopes aren't exactly the sound for these days. To me the 80s were the time for envelopes and I used them too much!
Last edited:
For me? Seamoon Funk Machine. I wish Iwould never have parted with it.
Roland GR 88
Commercial User
Best is subjective as there’s tons of great choices.
Personally I use an EHX Tube Zipper, Polyphase, Aguilar Filter Twin and a Carl Martin Optical. Having more than one is a good thing and stacking can be a blast. The Zipper is tube driven and has a distortion circuit that adds some craziness. I described it in some other thread as the sound of a flock of ducks going through a meat grinder and meant it as a compliment. The Aguilar is kinda unique. Two sweeps, one up, one down and a fairly narrow sensitivity range. The Carl Martin is a standard with low, band and high pass settings. It’s clean and has a big range of tones. The Polyphase is old and discontinued but has a decent envelope setting and running a filter into its LFO gets very gooey and adds some movement and depth to the tone.
Good luck but it’s hard to make a bad choice these days. Everything mentioned in this thread will sound great.
Personally I use an EHX Tube Zipper, Polyphase, Aguilar Filter Twin and a Carl Martin Optical. Having more than one is a good thing and stacking can be a blast. The Zipper is tube driven and has a distortion circuit that adds some craziness. I described it in some other thread as the sound of a flock of ducks going through a meat grinder and meant it as a compliment. The Aguilar is kinda unique. Two sweeps, one up, one down and a fairly narrow sensitivity range. The Carl Martin is a standard with low, band and high pass settings. It’s clean and has a big range of tones. The Polyphase is old and discontinued but has a decent envelope setting and running a filter into its LFO gets very gooey and adds some movement and depth to the tone.
Good luck but it’s hard to make a bad choice these days. Everything mentioned in this thread will sound great.
Yeah, I was gonna mention that one. A built-in wet/dry blend knob, and good control over the sweep and sensitivity.
Had one, gave it away. It’s not bad, but there are better - depending on your price range.
I like the EHS Bass IQ a lot. Don’t own one, but I’ve had the opportunity to use one with some frequency and I find it very solid-sounding and it tracks great.
Josh Wah (Broughton) is on my board, I love it. You will to if you are cool. You want to be cool, right? It's a fantastic analog playground for your bass.
C4 has the Source Spectrum functionality wired in. Love the C4. And the envelop options are fantastic.
Here's the sitch... If you are not patient enough to really dig into the functionality of the C4 and the Neuro app you won't get as much of it. If you invest the time it pays off.
Can't go wrong with these 2. Be cool. Really clear knob top options that you cannot mess up = Josh Wah. Unlimited MIDI options with the community of bass and guitar hackers at your service = SA C4 (or Spectrum).
C4 has the Source Spectrum functionality wired in. Love the C4. And the envelop options are fantastic.
Here's the sitch... If you are not patient enough to really dig into the functionality of the C4 and the Neuro app you won't get as much of it. If you invest the time it pays off.
Can't go wrong with these 2. Be cool. Really clear knob top options that you cannot mess up = Josh Wah. Unlimited MIDI options with the community of bass and guitar hackers at your service = SA C4 (or Spectrum).
I've tried the MXR, the EHX micro qtron, EHX Bassballs, Aguilar Filter Twin. As far 3Leaf goes, their V3 (purple enclosure) Proton sounded great to my ears. Haven't tried the V4. There's a thread here that compares all the versions.
I didn't like the MXR BEF bc it is bandpass, and all knob adjustments affected only one type of sound from the pedal. I couldn't get other sounds out of it, no matter what settings I chose, just varying degrees of the same sound from those settings.
The Emma Discumbobulator v2 is the best envelope filter I've played. Dynamic, responsive, versatile, and many sounds--from cocked wah, to laserbeams, to quacks, and beyond--can be found in the pedal. It also has a boost footswitch with dedicated knob to adjust level. The boost can function independently from the filter. There's also downsweep/upsweep options.
Unfortunately, I had a recent Microtron IV from the new ownership company and the pedal did not work with my gear. It just didn't trigger. I tried internal trimpots and called/emailed them for help. Eventually, I returned it. Of course, YMMV, etc. The MuTron is the OGest of OG envelope filters. It's def pricey and might not be "worth" the extra $$$.
From the ones I've played, the Discumbobulator wins hands down.
If you can find an Emma V2, it has my vote for best envelope filter in its price range. Haven't played the Fwonkbeta but everything I hear is excellent.
I didn't like the MXR BEF bc it is bandpass, and all knob adjustments affected only one type of sound from the pedal. I couldn't get other sounds out of it, no matter what settings I chose, just varying degrees of the same sound from those settings.
The Emma Discumbobulator v2 is the best envelope filter I've played. Dynamic, responsive, versatile, and many sounds--from cocked wah, to laserbeams, to quacks, and beyond--can be found in the pedal. It also has a boost footswitch with dedicated knob to adjust level. The boost can function independently from the filter. There's also downsweep/upsweep options.
Unfortunately, I had a recent Microtron IV from the new ownership company and the pedal did not work with my gear. It just didn't trigger. I tried internal trimpots and called/emailed them for help. Eventually, I returned it. Of course, YMMV, etc. The MuTron is the OGest of OG envelope filters. It's def pricey and might not be "worth" the extra $$$.
From the ones I've played, the Discumbobulator wins hands down.
If you can find an Emma V2, it has my vote for best envelope filter in its price range. Haven't played the Fwonkbeta but everything I hear is excellent.
One thing about SA Spectrum and C4 is to fully unlock all the potential you need to install an editor app on a computer, and I could not get it all connected on my Mac laptop from work. That could have been due to security software my employer runs on our laptops?
That said, I was able to dial in and save setting changes to the originally provided 6 patches on my Spectrum pretty easily; certainly more easily than tweaking the Manta’s UI is.
It would still be challenging to tweak at a gig. And now that my settings are “close”, attempting an edit through the controls on the housing is even more challenging as the minute you move a knob the original “position” for that knob, the one I had saved, is lost. So minor tweaks to input and output volume are going to be tough.
Could work on a single patch at rehearsal, because once you save then the physical knob positions match the saved positions *for that patch*, and further tweaking will be pretty simple. Then you still hope that the settings you dialed in work for every band...
I do find advantages to analog single-patch pedals. They are the most WYSIWYG, the easiest to tweak at a gig for band/room/song changes.
That said, I was able to dial in and save setting changes to the originally provided 6 patches on my Spectrum pretty easily; certainly more easily than tweaking the Manta’s UI is.
It would still be challenging to tweak at a gig. And now that my settings are “close”, attempting an edit through the controls on the housing is even more challenging as the minute you move a knob the original “position” for that knob, the one I had saved, is lost. So minor tweaks to input and output volume are going to be tough.
Could work on a single patch at rehearsal, because once you save then the physical knob positions match the saved positions *for that patch*, and further tweaking will be pretty simple. Then you still hope that the settings you dialed in work for every band...
I do find advantages to analog single-patch pedals. They are the most WYSIWYG, the easiest to tweak at a gig for band/room/song changes.
I still like Discumbobulator v.1 better than others I tried.
This is true, the MXR is definitely a one-trick pony as far as I am concerned. It’s just a pretty good trick, and seems to handle upstream effect stacking really well, which maybe could be described as having a wide sweet spot.
with filters, the vintage mutron III in all honesty can not be beat in terms of its sound.
I owned one and gigged with it maybe 10 years ago, and to this day it's the only vintage piece of gear that lived up to and surpassed the hype.
other than that my top pick is a lime green DOD fx25, two knob version. with a (boss for me) limiter after it, it's a usable, but wild sound.
those two always stand out to me, the rest of them are very nice, but nothing can really compete in my mind. played lots of funk and tried lots of filters before coming to these conclusions.
i'm also going to repeat, don't use an FX25 without a compressor of some sort after it, it'll destroy your speakers.
I owned one and gigged with it maybe 10 years ago, and to this day it's the only vintage piece of gear that lived up to and surpassed the hype.
other than that my top pick is a lime green DOD fx25, two knob version. with a (boss for me) limiter after it, it's a usable, but wild sound.
those two always stand out to me, the rest of them are very nice, but nothing can really compete in my mind. played lots of funk and tried lots of filters before coming to these conclusions.
i'm also going to repeat, don't use an FX25 without a compressor of some sort after it, it'll destroy your speakers.
