Effects Discussion

[Ely Lyonblum]

Hey Steve and Michael (and all other solo bassists),
I was hoping we could get a quick rundown of the effects you use, but more importantly how they are used in songwriting and performance.
I'll start off, hopefully that will give an idea of what I am looking for.
Many of the things i say are overgeneralized, and sound very methodological. these generalizations may help other brainstorm how their effects can be used. i am particularly interested in how steve uses his delays and looper to create soundscapes.

I use an eventide timefactor, an ibanez flanger, a lovetone meatball and a an ebs octabass.
The timefactor is my 'building block', used for either looping or delay to create the foundation of the tune. For looping i put in some chords or a simple bass line and go from there.
To add some 'air' to my tunes, i often add in swells with the flanger or the meatball on, or both. this kind of fills the space and fills out the tunes.
the octabass is usually reserved for the bass lines of the tune, but sometimes i will use it for melody when i play in the highest registers.

hope that clarifies a bit, and i look forward to hearing from you folks!

please don't hesitate to get more technical than i have, but whatever you reply with is greatly appreciated!

 

[johhn smith]

i have 2 line 6 dl 4's normally set up to run at half speed delay ( 28 seconds ) i have one feeding the other. before this i have a roland keyboard, a microphone ( for mixing real percussion, acoustic guitar etc. ) a korg electribe sampler, one of my basses ( sometimes a second bass on a keyboard stand which i will play tapped ) my laptop and a drum machine run through a mixer and into the first of the delay modellers. this is the basic set -up but i change it up sometimes as well. i use a vbass, a behringer multi effects and a bass pod to colour the bass sound prior to input. i started out just playing bass through a dl 4 and creating loops that way and morphed into what i have now through wanting different sounds and textures. i have been doing this for over 10 years now and looping is pretty much the only thing i am really interested in. when i have friends over i will set them up with one of the dl4's and we'll get some interesting stuff happening. i tried other loopers ( including the boomerang ) but found the dl4's to be the pefect thing for what i want to do. surprisingly, with everything that i have mixed together, the sound is crystal clear and this is one of the things that i absolutely preserve everytime something new is added.

i also use a boss br 1200 digital recorder to record some of the loops for playback. i think of it as another looper with a very flexible length. i will run this through the mixer as well and alternately raise or lower levels or some sounds or loops that i have pre recorded while recording with one looper or another to create random backgrounds. if you can imagine it takes remakable restraint to prevent things from quickly getting out of hand. the br 1200 is also used to record certain loops once i have them going the way i like, but for the most part i am interested in a more random approach ( kinda the jazz thing ) where the loops sound similar but they are never identical.

 

[Zander4724]

Hi guys,

I have a Line 6 DL4 for looping and echo, and a Line 6 Verbzilla - which has a nice warm reverb called 'cave'. The Line 6 DL4 works well for recording. However, when I've tried recording with the Verbzilla it hasn't been so clean for me (though perhaps I'm doing something incorrectly).

What I really want to get is the Boss GT-10b because I've heard it's fantastic and has lots of cool options!

Cheers,

Zander

 

[Ely Lyonblum]

i have 2 line 6 dl 4's normally set up to run at half speed delay ( 28 seconds ) i have one feeding the other. before this i have a roland keyboard, a microphone ( for mixing real percussion, acoustic guitar etc. ) a korg electribe sampler, one of my basses ( sometimes a second bass on a keyboard stand which i will play tapped ) my laptop and a drum machine run through a mixer and into the first of the delay modellers. this is the basic set -up but i change it up sometimes as well. i use a vbass, a behringer multi effects and a bass pod to colour the bass sound prior to input.

whoa, very cool and creative setup!
i would love to hear soundclips attached to each thread.
Zander, I have seen your youtube vids, which are awesome!
i'll put something up soon

 

[johhn smith]

Hi guys,

I have a Line 6 DL4 for looping and echo, and a Line 6 Verbzilla - which has a nice warm reverb called 'cave'. The Line 6 DL4 works well for recording. However, when I've tried recording with the Verbzilla it hasn't been so clean for me (though perhaps I'm doing something incorrectly).

What I really want to get is the Boss GT-10b because I've heard it's fantastic and has lots of cool options!

Cheers,

Zander

i would contact customer support at line 6 [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

explain your situation and perhaps they can help you with information about conflicts etc. it is strange though. do you have any problems when the verbzilla when it is plugged in by itself ? i have several line 6 products plugged in simultaneously with no problems and it has been my experience that line 6 products are compatible with each other. good luck and i hope you solve your issues.