How would you route this board?

[WhoopingHonky]

I am looking to explore some more atmospheric and synth/textural playing in the future, and I put together a rough board idea. Trouble is, with multiple effects loops, midi, and technically one too many pedals for the space, I have a lot of options as far as how everything would end up wired.

So, like all good corporations, I am crowdsourcing the ideas. How would you route the signal chain for something like the below?

The Empress Comp is off to the side because despite PedalPlayground making it look like there is enough space if I moved the HX Stomp down and flipped the comp on it's side, the real life dimensional cutouts I have say otherwise. Can be mounted under the board though, so I am not discounting it.

We've got Midi control in the Morningstar MC6 Pro, an effects loop on the Boss SY-200, two mono loops or one stereo loop on the HX stomp, and the age old question of do I run something like this in stereo when my normal gig would be mono 90% of the time.

 

[wavemaker]

To fully enjoy textural playing and this board, I‘d highly recommend either investing into the brightest bass available to you or switching one of those pedals out for a digital octave up (whammy ricochet, POG, etc.). While you can coax a convincing upper octave out of the Helix, it’s going to decimate your available DSP.

I kind of know what I‘m talking about:

(My ricochet lives below the main board alongside a freqout, my Helix Rack and full wet/dry/wet-rig are not pictured.)

 

[el murdoque]

I would add another thing to that setup: Either a Morningstar ML-5 or ML10X.


Just an example: If you save a preset to the Microcosm and recall it via MIDI, the unit will cut out the sound for about a second. My personal workaround for that was to place it on a loop of the ML-5, then program the MC to send the recall instruction to the Microcosm, then pause for XXmiliseconds, then send the instruction to activate the loop to the ML-5.

The ML10X would give you the option of matrix switching on top, so you can order the pedals as you see fit.

Apart from that, I personally would route like this:

Tuner -> Blumes -> Special Cranker -> Compressor -> EQ -> Chorus -> Generation Loss -> Microcosm -> HX Stomp (I assume you use the Stomp as amp simulator and DI out from there, so it must be last in chain).

If you're using gain or other effects in the HX Stomp, I would put Chorus - Generation Loss and Microcosm into the FX loop of the Stomp.

 

[el murdoque]

Plus: I'd highly advise to add a decent reverb.

 

[WhoopingHonky]

I kind of know what I‘m talking about:
View attachment 5367980

Ah, you know a thing or two because you've seen a thing or two. Much respect.

My current bass is an ESP five string with Nordstrand zen blades tuned up to EADGC. I've considered an octave up, but the last one I liked was the HOG2, and that was more for the semitones and attack/decay filters than the octaves themselves. Way too much real estate for me right now. I was planning on using the semitone shifter on the SY-200 if I needed to do much pitch shifting, as I figured it'd be in the more heavily effected side of things. Is the Digitech something you often find yourself using? Strangely enough, they're one of the few companies whose octaves I haven't checked out.

Tuner -> Blumes -> Special Cranker -> Compressor -> EQ -> Chorus -> Generation Loss -> Microcosm -> HX Stomp (I assume you use the Stomp as amp simulator and DI out from there, so it must be last in chain).

If you're using gain or other effects in the HX Stomp, I would put Chorus - Generation Loss and Microcosm into the FX loop of the Stomp.

Stomp is indeed my amp/cab sim, also going to be primary delay/reverb solution. I figure if I keep it limited to those as primary functions, I shouldn't run out of processing power. The Earthquaker drives are mainly there because I haven't really fallen in love with any of the dedicated drives in the stomp, for some reason.

What makes you think Gen Loss in front of the Microcosm?

 

[jam.majors]

To fully enjoy textural playing and this board, I‘d highly recommend either investing into the brightest bass available to you or switching one of those pedals out for a digital octave up (whammy ricochet, POG, etc.). While you can coax a convincing upper octave out of the Helix, it’s going to decimate your available DSP.

I kind of know what I‘m talking about:
View attachment 5367980
(My ricochet lives below the main board alongside a freqout, my Helix Rack and full wet/dry/wet-rig are not pictured.)

That looks like a lot of fun

 

[wavemaker]

That looks like a lot of fun

That’s actually the most concise way of describing this setup

Is the Digitech something you often find yourself using? Strangely enough, they're one of the few companies whose octaves I haven't checked out.

I use it all the time when I‘m creating textures, which was my main motivation for getting a Microcosm: While you absolutely can use it for rhythmic effects on say, a regular old P-Bass with flats, what sold me on that pedal was this video:


(Which is too, just as myself, a strong advocate for putting the Gen Loss in front of the Microcosm.)

Your C string might come in just as helpful as an octave up, though! Worth a try.

Myself, I use the ricochet to pitch up, then apply low and high pass filters and a guitar preamp (the latter two inside my Helix) to get my signal into a frequency range that works better with my big board for what I‘m trying to achieve: I‘m adding something between a third guitar and synth pads to our orignals band, mostly relying on looping the highly effected stuff and playing rather "regular" bass parts underneath those textures.

 

[el murdoque]

Stomp is indeed my amp/cab sim, also going to be primary delay/reverb solution. I figure if I keep it limited to those as primary functions, I shouldn't run out of processing power. The Earthquaker drives are mainly there because I haven't really fallen in love with any of the dedicated drives in the stomp, for some reason.

I can understand that. Drives are a very personal choice and I have yet to encounter a digital multi that can do one I really like as much as I like some of the analog pedals I have. It's not only about how they sound, but also how they feel, connecting your fingers to your ears.

What makes you think Gen Loss in front of the Microcosm?

The Microcosm is a Strymon TimeLine that was dropped in a cauldron of LSD and cooked for 48 hours straight. It is many things, but not really sensitive to gain.

I've never played a Gen Loss, but as I understand it, it should be a pedal that is affected by the strength of the input signal, which would mean that the fading out repeats of the Microcosm get less affected as they decrease.

 

[WhoopingHonky]

I've never played a Gen Loss, but as I understand it, it should be a pedal that is affected by the strength of the input signal, which would mean that the fading out repeats of the Microcosm get less affected as they decrease.

That makes more sense, thank you. I hadn't heard the gain sensitivity to it yet, I was under the impression that it would apply the effect pretty evenly across the spectrum. So a Gen Loss in front would have the full spectrum Microcosm repeats and wonkiness applied to the modulated signal, but the Gen Loss after would hit the repeats and reverb and do the filtering and modulating from there. Definitely something I will have to play around with once I get them in hand, I'll keep my ears open for that

 

[Ejtibbetts]

Just for shiggles since I’m building a secondary board for this kind of thing. My small board is an Empress compressor, Broughton Scorpion, JF Capo and HX Stomp for basic use case scenarios.

Basses I use are all passive - Epiphone 60s Thunderbird, American Ultra Jazz (pulled out the preamp and replaced with custom passive electronics) and have a Mensinger/Maruszczyk Joker 6 string on order. Potentially considering if I want to make an adjustment to the Maruszczyk and add a preamp or not.

Currently using 3 Leaf Octabvre and Doom 2 using a Sonicake Portal to blend them, Meris LVX and Meris MercuryX.

Potentially looking to add a CB Mood (for drones, microlooping, etc) and route all of that through a Helix Floor. I had a Microcosm for a short bit, but didn’t know what the heck I was doing with it and sold it. Helix would give me midi control, expression, a looper, flexible routing, amp sim, EQ, etc.

Thoughts?