• 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.

Double Bass Effects Pedal to make EUB sound Accoustic?

#22
pmarche said:
Okay... I think I was silly thinking that I could find an EUB that would sound as soulful as my upright. To think you can get that purety only found from the accoustic mass hollow body of a true bass from a stick with strings is a little silly. But how about an effects pedal that can fill in that wholesome tone that the EUBs are missing? Is there one out there? I love to be able to travel lightly with my EUB but I am not willing to give up the sound of my double bass for it. Does anyone out there know of an effects pedal that can make an electric sound like a real bass? There has to be one. They make guitar pedals to sound like orchestras, vocals, robots, etc... they have to have a bass pedal that makes an electric bass sound like and upright....

pmarche
www.garageband.com/aparatus
Link Removed
Click to expand...

I reckon, in theory, adding a little 'room' reverb to your signal may help a little in going towards making it sound to electronically dry... if its a good enough reverb. I'm going to try it out on my Shuker.
 
#23
I'm seeking advice on whether an octave pedal like the Boss OC-3 will convert the sound of my EUBs to better replicate the sound of an acoustic upright? I play both EUB and acoustic, primarily for jazz/Broadway, and while I love the convenience of performing with the EUBs (my favorite is the NS-CR4), I miss the fuller sound of the acoustic. Will the Boss OC-3 or any similar device create a sound closer to that of an acoustic? Thanks much, Paul
 
#24
pmarche said:
Okay... I think I was silly thinking that I could find an EUB that would sound as soulful as my upright. To think you can get that purety only found from the accoustic mass hollow body of a true bass from a stick with strings is a little silly. But how about an effects pedal that can fill in that wholesome tone that the EUBs are missing? Is there one out there? I love to be able to travel lightly with my EUB but I am not willing to give up the sound of my double bass for it. Does anyone out there know of an effects pedal that can make an electric sound like a real bass? There has to be one. They make guitar pedals to sound like orchestras, vocals, robots, etc... they have to have a bass pedal that makes an electric bass sound like and upright....

pmarche
www.garageband.com/aparatus
Link Removed
Click to expand...


I was on that quest at one time. Can't say I succeeded but I'll tell you what I tried . I tried a boss pedal meant to do the job for guitars (AC-2 perhaps ?), didn't do it for me. (Though recently on here I found someone using a newer boss, possibly an AD-2 with quite different controls, and he was claiming success.) Meantime I was researching and discovered that the companies D-TAR (Duncan Turner Acoustic research) and Fishman were producing boxes that emulated a full-bodied, miked up, acoustic sound, from just a piezo pickup in an acoustic guitar, and I thought the answer might lie along those lines. A friend of mine who was into electronics picked up on this idea, said he knew how to work with signal processing chips, and allegedly spent a lot of time on it as a personal project, spending days miking up acoustic basses in the studio, as raw data for his emulations, along with reverse-engineering the AC-2.

Unfortunately, I never saw the results, lost touch with him. But I was also losing interest because the more I listened to upright players I liked, the more I became convinced that the sounds I associated with upright bass, notably string interactions with the fingerboard, were never going to pop out of a signal processing box, no matter much EQ adjustment and clever delays / reverbs might be applied.

So the place I finished up ? I bought a Rob Allen Deep 5, and figured that, for me, that was as close as I was going to get to carrying something bass-guitar sized and yet sounding reasonably close (certainly in a band context) to an upright.

Wether any of that is useful to you I don't know. The D-TAR name sticks in my mind, maybe I heard one time they were going to do the same trick for bass as they already did for guitar ? I can't find any evidence for that now but you may want to email them and see what they have.

What I read about D-TAR, the Fishman Aura, and what my friend talked about all sound remarkably similar. Putting the instrument to be emulated in a studio, spend ages recording how each string responds (which frequencies swell, which frequencies die rapidly, which resonate) and then rigging a signal processing chip to emulate that based on a different input signal. So its a popular approach for guitar, but maybe nobody wants to make a similar investment in doing it for bass ?

Anyway, I've rambled a lot, hope you find something of use in there.

{EDIT} Just realised I've been extremely silly and replied to an 8 year old thread.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: amper
#25
The DTAR Mama Bear was designed to make a piezo sound like a miked acoustic. Unfortunately, the DTAR series of products have been discontinued some time ago.
 
#27
You might want to read the whole Tonedexter thread in amps, mics and pickups. It might be useful if you have of find an acoustic double bass with the same kind of pickup as your EUB uses.
But since the sound transfer back into the string and off the string into the body is different, it might not be as good as you might expect and the training of the Tonedexter is not totally trivial.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigBeatNut
#28
Paul Mickey said:
I'm seeking advice on whether an octave pedal like the Boss OC-3 will convert the sound of my EUBs to better replicate the sound of an acoustic upright? I play both EUB and acoustic, primarily for jazz/Broadway, and while I love the convenience of performing with the EUBs (my favorite is the NS-CR4), I miss the fuller sound of the acoustic. Will the Boss OC-3 or any similar device create a sound closer to that of an acoustic? Thanks much, Paul
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why you would want on octave pedal to make your EUB sound like an acoustic upright? That's not what an octave pedal is for.
 
  • Like
Reactions: amper
#29
Another pedal to consider is one of the Zoom pedals with acoustic modeling. The a-3, ac-2, and ac-3 have an upright setting to make a piezo sound more acoustic. Before I changed to the Tonedexter, I used the MS100bt which has an acoustic modeling effect but it didn’t have the upright setting like the newer pedals with some success.

Here is a video of the zoom pedal on my MK studio



This next video is with the Tonedexter which I use now.

 
  • Like
Reactions: tfer
#31
madbanjoman said:
Another pedal to consider is one of the Zoom pedals with acoustic modeling. The a-3, ac-2, and ac-3 have an upright setting to make a piezo sound more acoustic. Before I changed to the Tonedexter, I used the MS100bt which has an acoustic modeling effect but it didn’t have the upright setting like the newer pedals with some success.
Click to expand...

How did you set source/target for the upright ? I see for instance on the AC-3 that there's a source setting for upright bass, but no corresponding target setting.
 
#32
More info on the Boss AC/AD pedals and the bodyrez:

amper said:
I have used a Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator with my piezo fretless StingRay with flatwounds and mutes to get a more upright-like woody tone. Around this time last year, I built my tc electronic pedalboard and used the BodyRez, but it doesn't quite work the same way as the Boss Acoustic Simulators, it's more like the AD-2 Acoustic Preamp.

The AD-2 and the Body Rez are good at subtly adding a bit of body to the piezo pickups of an acoustic/electric guitar, but for my purposes, I don't think they work as well as the AC-2 or AC-3. I will have a more final answer later this week, because I have an AC-3 coming in, as well. Somehow, I suspect the AC-3 is going to be the winner, for me.
Click to expand...
 
#34
BigBeatNut said:
How did you set source/target for the upright ? I see for instance on the AC-3 that there's a source setting for upright bass, but no corresponding target setting.
Click to expand...


The MS100BT doesn’t have the source and target settings . It has body and top. My guess is the modeling is more specific and refined in the zoom acoustic pedal line. The MS100BT’s modeling was to make an electric guitar sound like an acoustic. I just found it worked well with my EUB, at least better than the pickup alone. I should add that I also had a couple eqs in that video to reduce the piezo quack.
 
#36
Let me say this: in the end, nothing is going to make your electric bass guitar sound exactly like an acoustic double bass. That being said, you can get a very pleasing tone from an electric bass guitar, that has some of the character that we love about the doghouse.

1. Use a fretless bass with piezo pickups, flatwound strings, and string mutes. I recommend a Precision Bass or a StingRay, because they sound better with flats than a Jazz Bass sounds with flats. You might even try orchestral strings. D'Addario makes a set of NS Design strings for bass guitars.

2. Play with a more upright style. Use more of the side of your finger to pluck, rather than the tips, and *dig in*.

3. Of the "acoustic enhancement" pedals I have used, my initial impressions are that the AC-2 and AC-3 probably get closer to where the double bass lives, tonally, but both of them are unacceptably hissy when you get into that range. The BodyRez and AD-2 do not work the same way. Where the AC-2 and AC-3 are designed to make a magnetic pickup guitar sound like an acoustic/electric guitar, the BodyRez and AD-2 are designed for use with an acoustic/electric piezo guitar, so what they do is add boominess to counteract the tendency of piezo pickups to be a little quacky. However, they are quiet enough to use on a recording.

Between the two, I think the BodyRez works better with my bass, with a bit more sparkle on the top end, but I wouldn't have any problem using an AD-2, which gets about 90% as far as the BodyRez, plus the AD-2 has a built-in reverb and DI.

Which one I end up using, if any, is going to depend on whether or not the other pedals in my chain prove better or worse, between my tc electronic based board and my Boss based board. I like things to match. I have a Boss BB-1X Bass Driver coming in tomorrow.

At this point, I am wondering if a multi-band parametric or semi-parametric might actually do a better job, but for the time being, I have exhausted my available funds for experimentation. More to come in a day or two.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Les Fret and BigBeatNut
#39
Could you use a pedal that can load IRs and then find an IR of an acoustic upright? Someone has had to have made one by now...
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back