Envelope Filter for an "Upright" Sound??

[charliethomas]

Ok hear me out. I was playing around with my MXR Bass Envelope Filter, and I noticed that if I play softly so it doesn't trigger the envelope very much, it seemed to give a sound that works very nicely (to my ears) with, for example, a walking bass line.

I recorded both of these sound samples with my G&L tribute LB100 (EMG GZR P pickup), tone all the way up, straight into my audio interface. Plucking softly near the neck.

No Filter Envelope (Direct Audio):

With Filter Envelope:

(Notice the amplitude spikes every time I hit an E - something with the MXR settings causing resonance on that note? The largest spike is the only time I hit an E on the A string)


Here's the settings I was using on my MXR Envelope Filter:

(initially I had the Q around 12:00 and the Sensitivity quite high - but since I was trying NOT to trigger the env filter, I turned down the sensitivity and turned the Q up high, but I barely know what I'm doing with the settings on this thing half the time)

My uninformed opinion on why I might be hearing more of an 'upright' sound with the filter is that 1) env filter is causing a higher initial attack and then flattening out the decay, also making it sound more tubby, and 2) I don't play upright so I'm simply mistaken, but I'm hearing something else in the sound that my ear likes for this 'walking bass' example

What do you think? Is there something to this? Is there an FX that would be more suited to whatever the env filter is doing here when you play soft enough to not trigger the filter env? Do you hate the way it sounds with the env filter?

 

[BassBrass]

You are just hybridizing that pedal and people do that all the time, your sound is a little processed because of the mix of dry being low, but you are using the envelope as a fixed wah. That pedal is unusual because it's a band pass envelope with a dry mix, so it's great at quacking. Usually people have used low pass with the sensitivity low and if possible a low freq at the bottom. The old DOD had that in bucketts. Also Moogs.
The MXR Micro synth allows the pitch starting place and finish place and time it takes to move from one to the other. So you can do a very slow speed from very low to a little less low, or mid. Your slope. To get an acoustic sounding very subtle envelope that doesn't get in the way of low end, I use a Prunes and Custard. It just effects the upper mids.