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cant pick an envelope filter. help!

#21
KarateKid25 said:
:confused: Woah... Totally different experience to mine then.

With my FX25 (old darker green one), I find it increases the low end dramatically. If you really attack the note, it goes high, but then heads really low. Almost 400w GK cab wreckingly low! Its like WeooooooHHHHHH if that makes any sense? Im actually considering moving to something that doesn't scare the hell out of me to use through my rig!

Its an insane filter.
Click to expand...

Well you can get the DOD to produce a great dub tone if the filter doesn't "open up"...Maybe that's what your referring to?
 
#23
KarateKid25 said:
:confused: Woah... Totally different experience to mine then.

With my FX25 (old darker green one), I find it increases the low end dramatically. If you really attack the note, it goes high, but then heads really low. Almost 400w GK cab wreckingly low! Its like "WeooooooooHHHHHH" if that makes any sense? Im actually considering moving to something that doesn't scare the hell out of me to use through my rig!

Its an insane filter.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, mine definately does that, but I don't really find those sounds to be in the useful portion of the filter sweep... Mine gets kinda warbly and has sort of an awkward transition between the Weooooooo and the oHHHHHHH. I think some of the other filters (not many) I've used are a little better at this. The FX25 just suddenly gets this clamped down on everything but the super lows kind of feel when the note decays.

I think that that adds to the dynamics though. I can play roots and lower stuff softly and get that dubby low sound and dig in for quacky, burpy greatness; but I've always found that the really wet filter sounds are devoid of low end... almost bandpassy rather than lowpassy (do we know for sure which it is... I read a few uncertain posts over at DIY stompboxes.com)
 
#25
jucas said:
Oh yeah, mine definately does that, but I don't really find those sounds to be in the useful portion of the filter sweep... Mine gets kinda warbly and has sort of an awkward transition between the Weooooooo and the oHHHHHHH. I think some of the other filters (not many) I've used are a little better at this. The FX25 just suddenly gets this clamped down on everything but the super lows kind of feel when the note decays.

I think that that adds to the dynamics though. I can play roots and lower stuff softly and get that dubby low sound and dig in for quacky, burpy greatness; but I've always found that the really wet filter sounds are devoid of low end... almost bandpassy rather than lowpassy (do we know for sure which it is... I read a few uncertain posts over at DIY stompboxes.com)
Click to expand...

Ahh ok :) I get what your saying now. Especially with the wet sounds not holding much low end. Your right, its very much all or nothing. I took your earlier post to mean you got little low end at any stage of the sweep.

Gotta love the weooooooOHHHHH sound descriptions :bassist:

EDIT: Seeing as the topic of the FX25 sweep has come up, does anyone have any idea on ways I could control, or surpress it a bit. I love the pedal for most of its sounds, but im not joking when I say it nearly kills my GK cab (and my music room) on sustained notes.

Stingray + 800 Watts of Eden Head into my GK cabs + FX25 = near death experience.
 
#26
So far I've tried a DOD FX25 (green sparkle & lime green), Chunk Systems 00Funk Mk. I, EHX Dr. Q, EHX QTron (older silver one), EHX BMS, and an EHX BassBalls. My favorite out of these for versatility sake so far was the QTron (filter-wise), and the FX25 for doing one thing only and doing it well. I've sold or traded off all of these pedals though to try out some more interesting pedals. I've got an AF-9 on the way and am trying to get a hold of a Boomstick Bottom Feeder. :D

KarateKid25 said:
Seeing as the topic of the FX25 sweep has come up, does anyone have any idea on ways I could control, or surpress it a bit. I love the pedal for most of its sounds, but im not joking when I say it nearly kills my GK cab (and my music room) on sustained notes.
Click to expand...
Compressor or volume/boost pedal after it will work, or sticking it in a blend loop will also do.
 
#36
KarateKid25 said:
Seeing as the topic of the FX25 sweep has come up, does anyone have any idea on ways I could control, or surpress it a bit.
Click to expand...

Limiter! Although the FX25 is by far my favorite filter pedal, it is not so great by itself. I use a blender with a phase switch (an Xotic) to keep the presence of highs and lows more balanced, and a limiter (Alesis MicroLimiter) to keep the peaks under control. Other limiters I have used successfully in this application: Guyatone BL2, Demeter, modded Boss CS-3, and Maxon CP9Pro+.

I have been yakking about making a TBP FX25 clone sometime soon- the only thing stopping me is that I really want to incorporate the blend and limiting features, and that adds considerably to the complication of the circuit.

The blend in the FX25B doesn't really cut the mustard IMO. Not a well-designed blend.
 
#40
I went through envelope filters like crazy about eight years ago. I owned and used on stage a Q-Tron, DOD FX-25, Boss Auto-Wha, and I tried a bunch of others. I still have and use my EBS Bass-IQ and have chucked all the rest.

Q-Tron. Sounded very nice if I had the time and patience to tweak it every gig. Very minute changes of the knobs made big differences in the sound. It was on a pedal board and packed so that the knobs weren't getting bumped much, but it still was inconsistent from gig to gig. Also was very touchy about which bass I used. Biggest problem was controlling the overall output level. Plus, it took up a lot of real estate on stage and had an 18VDC power supply so I had to use a separate wall-wart to drive it. Add in the flexible housing and the flex on the circuit board and I thought it was just not good enough for stage use.

DOD- I really liked this one for some things, but for other things it was just too dark and boomy. Nice for dub sounds, but the filter lived at the low end too much and it was difficult to get it to speak without the softer attacks being too muted. Check it out for yourself though.

Boss- Noisy. It didn't work well with bass as it triggered at the slightest touch. It was noisy. The "auto-wha" feature where it swept by itself was uselss. It was noisy. The trigger level was too low so I had to play with a VERY light touch to be able to control it. And did I mention it was noisy?

EBS- It sounds like I want it to. I can set it so my normal attack has a nice round sound and a sharper attack triggers the effect for me. It's rugged, reliable, and sounds very very good.

jte
 

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