I just went down the effects rabbit hole

[giantoz]

I'm looking for a really nice and fun effect pedal-but I've never had one before except a digitech bass trainer years ago. I didn't know what I was doing then, but now I'm experienced and I really like these boutique pedals. I like the aesthetic and gadget factor. And sound obviously.

There seem to be some that are not appropriate for bass frequencies...but I thought that was not the case with delays/reverb/modulation? This confused me and I'm emailing several makers but I'm impatiently waiting for a response from some 50 or so companies ( matthews,old blood,chasebliss,alexander,caroline etc. etc). I've heard earthquaker bass demos so I know several work. But I ran into some tap tempo delays saying they're made for guitar. And jam has some models that are bass specific.

As far as sound goes....I'm not sure. As is the way these pedals go-im probably looking at several types. I really like the really pretty delay/reverbs/taptempo sometimes mixed with something else. I also like the phaser filter stuff. And chorus...and even some synth. I don't know.

What I usually play is busy slap stuff and chords. I also like death metal. I do slow it down too which would be the reverbey stuff I guess.

Some that have stood out for me are jam ripplyfall, Keeley caverns, old blood excess, kma cirrus, earthquaker rainbow machine and spatial delivery and afterneath and avalanche run...alot of their stuff. khdk unicorn blood.

It's getting to the point where I'm having trouble keeping track...one will be reverb/pitch/delay and one will be chorus/reverb/vibrato etc.

Btw I'm not looking for the digital multi effects units like the digitech bp90 etc. But digital like chasebliss is ok...and multi fx like the rainbow machine is ok....there's sooooo much! What are your thoughts?

 

[Peaveylover]

My thoughts are basically that it sounds like you are about to spend a ton of money. Have fun!!

 

[mikewalker]

With the release of the SY-1000, these are going cheap now...

(they really work great with bass guitars, it's been my main toy the past year)

 

[giantoz]

With the release of the SY-1000, these are going cheap now...

(they really work great with bass guitars, it's been my main toy the past year)

I'll take a look

 

[jefkritz]

Since no one else has said it yet, 'if it sounds good, it is good.' No pedal is truly instrument specific. An old teacher of mine put his trumpet through a rat and wah wah pedal!

I use a lot of "guitar" pedals for bass. You just have to know how to dial in each pedal for what you want. A lot of 'bass' pedals are just skewed to lower frequencies, but if the issue is that the sound doesn't cut in a band mix, then it doesn't really matter what the frequency range is (IMO of course...).

That said, a clean knob or a blend knob is super handy, and more common on 'bass' pedals.

I will say that delay and reverb are harder to use on bass, just because it gets real muddy real quick. But, lots of folks do it (including myself). Again, you just have to be able to dial in the pedal(s) you have to get the sound you want for the song at hand.

 

[giantoz]

Since no one else has said it yet, 'if it sounds good, it is good.' No pedal is truly instrument specific. An old teacher of mine put his trumpet through a rat and wah wah pedal!

I use a lot of "guitar" pedals for bass. You just have to know how to dial in each pedal for what you want. A lot of 'bass' pedals are just skewed to lower frequencies, but if the issue is that the sound doesn't cut in a band mix, then it doesn't really matter what the frequency range is (IMO of course...).

That said, a clean knob or a blend knob is super handy, and more common on 'bass' pedals.

I will say that delay and reverb are harder to use on bass, just because it gets real muddy real quick. But, lots of folks do it (including myself). Again, you just have to be able to dial in the pedal(s) you have to get the sound you want for the song at hand.

Thanks that helps

 

[bassbrad]

Have fun, listen but remember there are no absolutes, rules are meant to be broken (sometimes, not safety rules) use what sounds good to you, buy used when you can. Research and always YMMV.

 

[AlvarHanso]

The Source Audio C4 synth is one of the best synth pedals ever made, and includes the best envelope filter, tracks incredibly well, has tons of shared user presets, 6 onboard presets, can be used as an envelope phaser, envelope filter, overdrive, fuzz, distortion, octaver, synth or combinations thereof. You can find presets that do that, or take a deep dive into creating your own presets and then share them with us. Oh, and sequencer and pitch shifter.

For slap, you're gonna want envelope filter, and this one can't be beat, because it can emulate just about every single envelope filter out there, and the few that haven't been dialed in probably somebody's working in their music room trying to dial it in right now.

The Rainbow Machine makes great sounds. I did not find the context in which to employ it successfully. I tried to love that Magic Button in a band context. You may certainly be more successful, it is definitely unique and well built.

My favorite Reverb has been the EHX Ocean's 11, so named for 11 types of reverb: plate, spring, hall, tremolo, echo, modulated (chorus, flanger, chorus + flanger), shimmer, auto-infinite (freeze), reverse, polyverb, and dynamic reverb. I typically use the shimmer, tremolo, and sometimes enjoy the Flerb of the modulated effect. It's super easy to dial in great sounds, and it remembers the last settings you had on each effect, so if you switch to another and tweak the knobs, if you return to the previous effect, it's still where you had it set. I only learned about that feature a few months ago, but that's pretty darn convenient for a pedal with no real storable presets. They put out a suped-up version some months back that is dual and stereo with 2 presets per effect available. Not as big a fan of the upgrade.

If you want more boutique, Source Audio's Ventris Dual Reverb is a top notch dual reverb with stereo and 12 reverb types, most in common with the Ocean's, but a couple proprietary ones like SA's E-Dome reverb is a fantastically open reverb that will allow your synth bomb drops to go thermonuclear. If I hadn't gotten an SA Collider Delay+Reverb last fall, and the Ocean's 12 in the spring, I'd have gotten the Ventris. But then I'd lose the Oil Can Delay and other delays I rarely use. I'm big on using reverb, because I use a lot of effects, and I like giving them space to breathe in, also it's a thing of the mix knob to avoid that muddiness, which is not inevitable.

 

[giantoz]

The Source Audio C4 synth is one of the best synth pedals ever made, and includes the best envelope filter, tracks incredibly well, has tons of shared user presets, 6 onboard presets, can be used as an envelope phaser, envelope filter, overdrive, fuzz, distortion, octaver, synth or combinations thereof. You can find presets that do that, or take a deep dive into creating your own presets and then share them with us. Oh, and sequencer and pitch shifter.

For slap, you're gonna want envelope filter, and this one can't be beat, because it can emulate just about every single envelope filter out there, and the few that haven't been dialed in probably somebody's working in their music room trying to dial it in right now.

The Rainbow Machine makes great sounds. I did not find the context in which to employ it successfully. I tried to love that Magic Button in a band context. You may certainly be more successful, it is definitely unique and well built.

My favorite Reverb has been the EHX Ocean's 11, so named for 11 types of reverb: plate, spring, hall, tremolo, echo, modulated (chorus, flanger, chorus + flanger), shimmer, auto-infinite (freeze), reverse, polyverb, and dynamic reverb. I typically use the shimmer, tremolo, and sometimes enjoy the Flerb of the modulated effect. It's super easy to dial in great sounds, and it remembers the last settings you had on each effect, so if you switch to another and tweak the knobs, if you return to the previous effect, it's still where you had it set. I only learned about that feature a few months ago, but that's pretty darn convenient for a pedal with no real storable presets. They put out a suped-up version some months back that is dual and stereo with 2 presets per effect available. Not as big a fan of the upgrade.

If you want more boutique, Source Audio's Ventris Dual Reverb is a top notch dual reverb with stereo and 12 reverb types, most in common with the Ocean's, but a couple proprietary ones like SA's E-Dome reverb is a fantastically open reverb that will allow your synth bomb drops to go thermonuclear. If I hadn't gotten an SA Collider Delay+Reverb last fall, and the Ocean's 12 in the spring, I'd have gotten the Ventris. But then I'd lose the Oil Can Delay and other delays I rarely use. I'm big on using reverb, because I use a lot of effects, and I like giving them space to breathe in, also it's a thing of the mix knob to avoid that muddiness, which is not inevitable.

The c4 looks awesome and looks like it covers a lot of ground

 

[MetalMaximus]

What about some variety of Line 6 Helix? There are a ton of effects and signal routing options, and the HX Stomp could be used with pretty much any amp. The same could be said for other multi-fx units. It might not have the coolness factor of boutique pedals, but there’s something to be said about stepping once to change multiple parameters by switching patches.

 

[lizardking837]

The Source Audio C4 synth is one of the best synth pedals ever made, and includes the best envelope filter, tracks incredibly well, has tons of shared user presets, 6 onboard presets, can be used as an envelope phaser, envelope filter, overdrive, fuzz, distortion, octaver, synth or combinations thereof. You can find presets that do that, or take a deep dive into creating your own presets and then share them with us. Oh, and sequencer and pitch shifter.

For slap, you're gonna want envelope filter, and this one can't be beat, because it can emulate just about every single envelope filter out there, and the few that haven't been dialed in probably somebody's working in their music room trying to dial it in right now.

The Rainbow Machine makes great sounds. I did not find the context in which to employ it successfully. I tried to love that Magic Button in a band context. You may certainly be more successful, it is definitely unique and well built.

My favorite Reverb has been the EHX Ocean's 11, so named for 11 types of reverb: plate, spring, hall, tremolo, echo, modulated (chorus, flanger, chorus + flanger), shimmer, auto-infinite (freeze), reverse, polyverb, and dynamic reverb. I typically use the shimmer, tremolo, and sometimes enjoy the Flerb of the modulated effect. It's super easy to dial in great sounds, and it remembers the last settings you had on each effect, so if you switch to another and tweak the knobs, if you return to the previous effect, it's still where you had it set. I only learned about that feature a few months ago, but that's pretty darn convenient for a pedal with no real storable presets. They put out a suped-up version some months back that is dual and stereo with 2 presets per effect available. Not as big a fan of the upgrade.

If you want more boutique, Source Audio's Ventris Dual Reverb is a top notch dual reverb with stereo and 12 reverb types, most in common with the Ocean's, but a couple proprietary ones like SA's E-Dome reverb is a fantastically open reverb that will allow your synth bomb drops to go thermonuclear. If I hadn't gotten an SA Collider Delay+Reverb last fall, and the Ocean's 12 in the spring, I'd have gotten the Ventris. But then I'd lose the Oil Can Delay and other delays I rarely use. I'm big on using reverb, because I use a lot of effects, and I like giving them space to breathe in, also it's a thing of the mix knob to avoid that muddiness, which is not inevitable.

Sold! Tell me more about the C4, how do you set your up and any advice for someone who's saving for one?

 

[Leonid Nidis]

Get a good multi like line 6 hx stomp,its digital and ok.
It will give you everything you want without a taking too much space and spending too much money.

 

[AlvarHanso]

Sold! Tell me more about the C4, how do you set your up and any advice for someone who's saving for one?

Watch some of the videos like Zach Riser (@Proton Lenny ) and the official Source Audio ones on creating your own presets. You can do it from your smartphone with an included jack and downloaded app, or on a desktop editor. I find the desktop to work better for me. It's more trying to find the time to play with it. But in the same app, you can find all those user presets, sample them by clicking on it, and burn them to the pedal if you liked it. You can start with that, and fill up a lot of the 128 preset slots that way. To use all of those, you would need another piece of equipment to scroll through the presets via MIDI, like a DMC Micro. I'm not using that yet, I've just loaded in 6 presets I'm likeliest to use for now. And those are fairly simple to change around through the editor if you needed a certain sound for one song in the setlist or something. Also, all of the presets for the Spectrum Intelligent Filter will also be at your disposal, as the C4 is that pedal, but on synthy steroids. And you can tweak presets you download, too.

And don't worry if you don't have time to do a deep dive on setting synth presets, the 6 factory presets are great to start with, and again you can find those user presets in the hundreds, and then maybe start tweaking your own presets further down the line. With the C4 you have options, many, many options.

 

[vvvmmm]

gadget factor.

In the running for my next band name.

 

[Ron Berenato]

Since no one else has said it yet, 'if it sounds good, it is good.' No pedal is truly instrument specific. An old teacher of mine put his trumpet through a rat and wah wah pedal!

I use a lot of "guitar" pedals for bass. You just have to know how to dial in each pedal for what you want. A lot of 'bass' pedals are just skewed to lower frequencies, but if the issue is that the sound doesn't cut in a band mix, then it doesn't really matter what the frequency range is (IMO of course...).

That said, a clean knob or a blend knob is super handy, and more common on 'bass' pedals.

I will say that delay and reverb are harder to use on bass, just because it gets real muddy real quick. But, lots of folks do it (including myself). Again, you just have to be able to dial in the pedal(s) you have to get the sound you want for the song at hand.

Anyone ever used one of these for bass? I picked one up cheap at a yard sale. I've lived in an apartment until recently so I've not played it through an amp yet. Someone told me it would cut my low frequencies.

 

[equill]

Sold! Tell me more about the C4, how do you set your up and any advice for someone who's saving for one?

Check out the dedicated thread: source audio c4
Just, uh, don't try to read the whole thing. It's been going a while

You'll need to pay some attention to your picking/plucking technique, as well as pickup choice and tone controls, to help it figure out which note you're playing and when the note starts and ends. Once you get that clean enough, well, it follows glissandos on fretless nicely enough.

 

[lucas303]

What about some variety of Line 6 Helix? There are a ton of effects and signal routing options, and the HX Stomp could be used with pretty much any amp. The same could be said for other multi-fx units. It might not have the coolness factor of boutique pedals, but there’s something to be said about stepping once to change multiple parameters by switching patches.

This is also a good way to get a feel for a wide variety of effects because they're all in one box and moving them around is just a matter of pressing buttons. After you spend some time with a multi effects unit you'll have a better feel for what, if any, boutique pedals you really want.

 

[lizardking837]

Check out the dedicated thread: source audio c4
Just, uh, don't try to read the whole thing. It's been going a while


You'll need to pay some attention to your picking/plucking technique, as well as pickup choice and tone controls, to help it figure out which note you're playing and when the note starts and ends. Once you get that clean enough, well, it follows glissandos on fretless nicely enough.

Thanks for the link. For now, I'm the most interested in using as for a flange effect, and the band leader on my current project wants to incorporate synths as well.

 

[Killing Floor]

Plus 1 for the C4 if you want something fun that is also very useful and adaptable.
If you want boutique and fun and useful check out Hologram effects, those guys are aliens.

 

[Trailertrash74]

You don't have to spend a ton of money to get some nice effects. Keep it simple. My current board has a combination of moderately and low priced pedals. It works for me... (I don't know why this a double shot, but you get to look at it twice!!)