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Help with choosing pedals

Aldousv

Aldousv

Aug 5, 2015
151
302
36
Kansas City
#1
Hey guys,

So I’m making my first real board set-up.
I’m trying to keep it medium sized and currently have a Ernie ball volume pedal-tuner, a darkglass element for cab sims and headphone practice and am looking to add 2 or 3 more.

I’m mostly playing indie rock/alternative, will be playing a 80’s P bass and a modulus J, both active. Mostly recording in studio and am looking for a few things.

1. Was thinking of adding either a JHS colour box or an Arkham oracle as a DI, nail down my main tone. Any advice on these would be appreciated. I’ve played through the colourbox and liked it, haven’t tried the Arkham. Are they completely different beasts?

2. The other main need would be something to emulate a synth sound, less 80’s and more daft punk style.

3. Maybe an octave pedal, although was wondering if I get the two above if it would be redundant.

Thanks!
 
#3
Aldousv said:
Hey guys,

So I’m making my first real board set-up.
I’m trying to keep it medium sized and currently have a Ernie ball volume pedal-tuner, a darkglass element for cab sims and headphone practice and am looking to add 2 or 3 more.

I’m mostly playing indie rock/alternative, will be playing a 80’s P bass and a modulus J, both active. Mostly recording in studio and am looking for a few things.

1. Was thinking of adding either a JHS colour box or an Arkham oracle as a DI, nail down my main tone. Any advice on these would be appreciated. I’ve played through the colourbox and liked it, haven’t tried the Arkham. Are they completely different beasts?

2. The other main need would be something to emulate a synth sound, less 80’s and more daft punk style.

3. Maybe an octave pedal, although was wondering if I get the two above if it would be redundant.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Don't know much about your other stuff (volume pedal tuner? who knew!), but I can recommend the Source Audio C4 if you're looking for a hugely flexible and wide ranging synth pedal. I'd skip the octave pedal and get something that does more like the C4.
 
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#4
+1 for the C4. Absolutely great pedal, I use to own a Boss OC3 and a DigiTech Whammy V, I like the octaver better on the C4 plus you can do all kinds of synth stuff.
I actually feed the inputs of my C4 with the Source Audio Kingmaker which is receiving the wet and dry outputs on my EHX Ring Thing, that is producing a clean and an octave below which is what the Kingmaker is working with.
Even though the Ring Thing does a great octaver, it doesn't match the versatility of the C4.
 
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#5
scottfeldstein said:
Don't know much about your other stuff (volume pedal tuner? who knew!), but I can recommend the Source Audio C4 if you're looking for a hugely flexible and wide ranging synth pedal. I'd skip the octave pedal and get something that does more like the C4.
Click to expand...
Just watched a demo on it, it looks incredible. Lots of options and interesting sounds available, do you find yourself having a hard time finding a the sounds you are looking for? it seems a little daunting with all the options.
 
#6
Aldousv said:
Just watched a demo on it, it looks incredible. Lots of options and interesting sounds available, do you find yourself having a hard time finding a the sounds you are looking for? it seems a little daunting with all the options.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I know what you mean. But what I often do is fire up the Neuro desktop app and browse other people's sounds. There's a lot of clever people out there publishing amazing things.
 
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#7
scottfeldstein said:
Yeah, I know what you mean. But what I often do is fire up the Neuro desktop app and browse other people's sounds. There's a lot of clever people out there publishing amazing things.
Click to expand...
Oh nice, that’s a nice feature. So in theory I could find someone that has already put the work inTo tweaking the sound I want? The price point seems right to.

Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll put it as the primary option.
 
#8
Aldousv said:
Just watched a demo on it, it looks incredible. Lots of options and interesting sounds available, do you find yourself having a hard time finding a the sounds you are looking for? it seems a little daunting with all the options.
Click to expand...
When I first got it, it seemed so wickedly overpowered I would lose hours upon hours just messing around with it.

Now I just think of an idea, and then just try to make it happen. I have confidence that the C4 will be able to handle most things.

Also there are a lot of patches that are available online where you can just click on it, and the settings will load onto your pedal. You may need to make a couple of adjustment like setting the input to match your instrument or the output to match your amp. But other than that there are a lot to choose from, and you can modify any of them to suit your ideal sound better as well.

If you keep checking out demos you will realise just how much it can do, but don't be overwhelmed by it.
 
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#10
So.. Tuner first.. I'd do a comp.. origin 76 bass- c4 for synth and octave-damnation audio mbd2- pick a pre- volume pedal- elements as the di.. And mostly done.. Forget the other di..
 
#11
thabassmon said:
When I first got it, it seemed so wickedly overpowered I would lose hours upon hours just messing around with it.

Now I just think of an idea, and then just try to make it happen. I have confidence that the C4 will be able to handle most things.

Also there are a lot of patches that are available online where you can just click on it, and the settings will load onto your pedal. You may need to make a couple of adjustment like setting the input to match your instrument or the output to match your amp. But other than that there are a lot to choose from, and you can modify any of them to suit your ideal sound better as well.

If you keep checking out demos you will realise just how much it can do, but don't be overwhelmed by it.
Click to expand...

I like this approach, I’m sold on it after seeing some more videos and look forward to finding 4-5 sounds that work for me.
 
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#13
Aldousv said:
Forgot about a compressor, also getting one.
Why would you not get the other DI for tone shaping?
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, yes to a compressor. The first thing you should do is familiarize yourself with this website:

Compressor Reviews

That said, here's what I'm doing. I am going for a totally transparent volume leveler. Not looking for tone "magic" or anything you can even hear at all. My MXR M87 does the trick for me. And it's even got LED metering so I can see what it's up to. It's the kind of pedal that I think of as basic infrastructure. It's on at all times and I wouldn't want to gig without it. It actually lets me play louder than I otherwise would because I no longer have fear of big honky notes dominating the mix when I play them. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't notice it when it's there. But if it's not there it takes me about half a song at most to realize something is wrong. It's like suddenly your underwear is on backward. Something isn't right and it takes a minute to realize what it is. Some notes are disappearing, others are blasting through the mix. Not good.
 
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#15
Start with a GT1B with an add on footswitch of you want a small footprint. I'm running this and I have an MXR m80 in my effects loop as an always on "clean" tone

20200828_204220.jpg
 
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#19
Aldousv said:
Hey guys,

So I’m making my first real board set-up.
I’m trying to keep it medium sized and currently have a Ernie ball volume pedal-tuner, a darkglass element for cab sims and headphone practice and am looking to add 2 or 3 more.

I’m mostly playing indie rock/alternative, will be playing a 80’s P bass and a modulus J, both active. Mostly recording in studio and am looking for a few things.

1. Was thinking of adding either a JHS colour box or an Arkham oracle as a DI, nail down my main tone. Any advice on these would be appreciated. I’ve played through the colourbox and liked it, haven’t tried the Arkham. Are they completely different beasts?

2. The other main need would be something to emulate a synth sound, less 80’s and more daft punk style.

3. Maybe an octave pedal, although was wondering if I get the two above if it would be redundant.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
There’s a long thread about preamps here (The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison) including Arkham and sound samples.
 
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#20
Sounds like the C4 will certainly cover your synth and octave needs. Due to its feature-set it can even provide some great distortion, fuzz, and overdrive tones which you can then shape with the treble/bass EQ and filters. Something that often gets very overlooked.
I would recommend looking into something like the Disaster Area DMC.Micro to allow you scroll through saved sounds easily.
The Boss SY-1 or Future Impact are worth looking at too; they'd be the best alternatives for achieving the sort of synth sounds you are looking to achieve.

You mention the setup to be mostly for studio recording, In which I would say you're on a good track with the Arkham Oracle - if you can hold out for the updated version with XLR DI output which should be releasing soon that would give you the option of running a Preamp DI signal direct from the Oracle, alongside a Cab Sim output from the Element which would add some nice flexibility.
Alternatively, you could consider a "modular" preamp setup to emulate something similar, with something light the Night Owl Edison Tube Pre, paired with something like the Barber Linden EQ. This would give you the benefit of being able to swap in different EQ's and tone stacks if you wanted, and could be powered by your existing power supply (Aetos), rather than requiring an additional IEC cable as with the Arkham Oracle.
As others have mentioned, you'd be well served checking out the Tube Preamp/DI Samples thread: Tube Preamp/DI Sound Samples — Noble, Oracle, P-15, Super Stack, Particle Accelerator, Fatboy...

I think within the Alternative/Indie Rock genre you'd be well served with some kind of overdrive/ditortion pedal - loads to choose here depending on your tastes. If you had any particular reference points for tones/sounds you are drawn to I am sure people here could help give you some direction to help focus the search.

Compressor-wise there is a wealth of knowledge to be found within the forums, and there are options to cover all manner of compression needs, from transparent volume levelling, through to characterful tonal-magic and feel.
 
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