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Chorus pedals for Bass

#121
GMC said:
The problem I find with Chorus pedals is that they are really designed and intended for guitars. On bass there isn't much in the top end there to start with and needs really heavy settings (compared to a guitar) to hear anything worth while. The classic Chorus sound robs a lot of low end too. If you try to mix in the bass original signal to retain the low end, then you lose a lot of the chorus' wetness effect.
Over the years I've had a lot of great chorus pedals. I rocked a Strymon Mobius a long time and I found that I wasn't getting what I wanted out of the Chorus patches. I wasn't getting the sound I was after.
After a lot of research, I went down the Source Audio route. Their three modulators all share the same downloadable patches and are identical except for the baked in physical knob assigns (bit of an over site there SA). I went for a Lunar as it offered more useful controls than the Gemini (mix and tone? Really?) and the Mercury. I've had it about a year and my conclusion is the hardware is amazing and sonically superior to the Strymon Mobius. To the point, I would say that this digital device sounds more analogue and a lot of analogue pedals. The stock phaser and flanger sounds are top drawer out of the box, no edits needed. However, the Chorus' effects...less so.
But I don't think this is a fault of the device or a fault of SA's coding. They are pretty close emulations of the source pedals, it's just that those pedals aren't great on bass to start with. CE-1, CE-2, Dual and Quad Chorus' seem to struggle on bass, and are very difficult to get them wet enough. There is so little treble on bass that there's much to affect. I don't think the designers had bass in mind when they designed their circuits. Adding a parallel mixer may be great for guitar but it's awful on bass. While it can clumsily dial in low end, I find that by the time I've dialled in enough low end...I've totally lost the effect's wetness. What's needed on bass is either a fancy low retain mixer (a parallel mixer that dials in the very low end dry) or a solid bass boost control. The great thing about the SA Modulation pedals is that you have both (and a lot more) in the neuro app.

I've basically spent the last year tweaking my chorus models to work in a fashion that really works for bass. The SA's 4 band semi-parametric EQ allows a lot of tweaking. Plus you have a low retain and mix control. You also have 4 chorus models to choose from, an optional tremolo and you change the modulation shape too. If anything was going to nail Chorus on Bass, the SA gear was going to be my best shot.
So I've settled on a pair of patches, one based on "Phrs82"' "Dimension M ish" patch. It's a classic Flange / Chorus model (think CE-2) but pretty much nails the lush and expensive sound that I was looking for. I also found that a bit of low retain and bass boost helped the low end a lot and a massive 16db boost at 3Khz seemed to add all the lushness I could want (in fact this seems to be the magic source for Chorus on bass). The other patch is a modified "Nikopappas" "Purple Rain" patch, based on a Quad Chorus model. Again, I applied the low retain, touch of bass boost and the magic 16db at 3Khz and voilla...a Chorus that sounds great on fretless, great on it's own, stacks with an OC-2 and / or Gated Muff. I finally think I've found what I've been looking for. Patches will be on the Source Audio Cloud later today and I might even get around to recording some sound bites. "GMC Purple Rain" and "GMC - Mild CE-2", if you search under "gazzajagman" you should find them on the could easily enough.
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I pity you :bassist:
You can never have enough chorus
7E7C3D91-B09B-43F2-9F11-D5A84100F2F1.jpeg
 
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#124
boristhespider7 said:
Nice :thumbsup: How does the Dimension C sound on bass? (I'm tempted to get one for guitar)
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I'll point you to two posts I made a while ago.
Mostly, I like it on a mixer send when recording a clean or clean overdrive, to get a bit of micro pitch stereo (setting 1 or 3 in standard mode).
Show me your compact pedalboard setup
And on guitar, that SSD320 mode on the DC2 is not the effect used on the purple rain intro, as so many ppl claim. Wendy has actually stated it was the CE-1. In my photo above, that Past fx Chorus Ensemble is the best clone you can get.
 
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#125
BassPlayer1980 said:
I pity you :bassist:
You can never have enough chorus
View attachment 4718541
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That's a nice suite of Chorus pedals. I think I've pretty much got all of those pedals / sounds covered in my patches on my Source Audio Lunar. I have 3 knobs on my Fader Fox PC4 mapped via Midi CC to specific controls on my Lunar. I effectively have a 7 knob / control modulation pedal with 6 patches. It's a pretty expansive and comprehensive array of modulation sounds I'm getting with my rig. Sure, it's not for everyone. But if you already have a midi controller and are already fully digital....the Lunar makes a lot of sense.
 
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#126
I found out that for my purposes, I want a chorus pedal that sounds good and doesn't require a lot of tweaking. The CE-2w on CE-1 mode is the king of this, but the Bass Waterfall isn't far behind. I'm not a modulation junkie, but I do want access to some wobble.

But the Source Audio stuff does seem really cool, especially if you're a tweaker. I've just found I'm not, and the only knobs I really want access to are parameters on a filter. For everything else, plug and play works better for me.
 
#128
If I was on a budget for modulation, I'd get an MXR Phase 95. It covers the Phase 90 sound, but also you can flip a switch to 45 and people seem to get decent chorus-ish sounds from it.

If I was on a tighter budget, I'd get a Mooer Bass Ensemble Queen and feel fine.

I'm at the point in my life where spending $200 on a pedal is fine. Buying used and selling stuff I'm not using helps a ton.
 
#130
GMC said:
That's a nice suite of Chorus pedals. I think I've pretty much got all of those pedals / sounds covered in my patches on my Source Audio Lunar. I have 3 knobs on my Fader Fox PC4 mapped via Midi CC to specific controls on my Lunar. I effectively have a 7 knob / control modulation pedal with 6 patches. It's a pretty expansive and comprehensive array of modulation sounds I'm getting with my rig. Sure, it's not for everyone. But if you already have a midi controller and are already fully digital....the Lunar makes a lot of sense.
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Actually that board was more of a sarcastic thing I put together a while ago. But I’ve also got the eventide H9 and tried bass on all its multi parameter choruses and am a big fan of the Tricerachorus. But it’s not something that I or anyone I play with wants to hear too much of in our style. In my current setup I’m getting such a rich harmonic grind going into a single CE-2B which brings out the beauty in it. Anything more than the simple CE-2B would detract from that simplistic beauty.
 
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#133
BassPlayer1980 said:
Actually that board was more of a sarcastic thing I put together a while ago. But I’ve also got the eventide H9 and tried bass on all its multi parameter choruses and am a big fan of the Tricerachorus. But it’s not something that I or anyone I play with wants to hear too much of in our style. In my current setup I’m getting such a rich harmonic grind going into a single CE-2B which brings out the beauty in it. Anything more than the simple CE-2B would detract from that simplistic beauty.
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Lol! I really like the Eventide H9's it's super versatile and yes the Tricerachorus really expanded modulation well beyond what the Mod Factor offers. I'm currently using my H9's for time based and reverb effects, the H9 does a lot more and there's a lot to like in it. One could easily have a pair of H9's and be done for most things. However, my Lunar's modulation sounds nicer to my ears, has less latency and it's internal EQ options vastly expand on it's "one box" versatility.
 
#137
GMC said:
Lol! I really like the Eventide H9's it's super versatile and yes the Tricerachorus really expanded modulation well beyond what the Mod Factor offers. I'm currently using my H9's for time based and reverb effects, the H9 does a lot more and there's a lot to like in it. One could easily have a pair of H9's and be done for most things. However, my Lunar's modulation sounds nicer to my ears, has less latency and it's internal EQ options vastly expand on it's "one box" versatility.
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Just to add...I do use my H9's modulations when I want to add a multi mod / run 2 mods. The Lunar is my primary...but sometimes I want a tremolo and a phaser....
 

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