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Iron Ether FrantaBit

#305
yay! i'm indescriptive!!! urrrr.... that's a word. shuddup.

no... growing up like 15 blocks from Claypool and seeing him live like a BAJILLION times at small clubs and thinking, "ah. so THAT'S what bass sounds like." had NO influence on a wide-eyed innocent little behnster. NONE.

the H is silent.

woof. i get at LEAST a semi-chub every time i listen to that version of Mad World you have up on Da Toobs. did you play classical guitar for a bit? i dig the right hand picking style you're doing in that. NEAT. when i try that? moohah. SO much harmonic and badly unmuted string noise. SKEELZ.

also, thanksorz!
 
#306
Haha, I grew up across the country from Claypool and had a very similar revelation when I heard him play. He was the first guy I ever saw get truly nasty on the bass. Course I grew up in a very secluded and small town on the Eastern peninsula of Maryland so Primus was pretty hard to come by. I had to seek that stuff out for myself!

Thanks for the compliment on the Mad World vid. I actually never really played guitar much at all, I kinda suck on it with the tiny strings and all. I developed that technique basically to make arrangements of songs similar to the Mad World one for solo shows. And yes, the muting is by far the hardest part of pulling that off!!!

Oh yeah, and I am sooo excited for the pants pooping goodness that is the FrantaBit...
 
#307
Just a quick note on the controls.

The Degrade/Obliterate switch takes you from legitimate digital sample rate reduction and bit crushing to the analog approximation of those sounds. It does it (I believe) as a ring mod with a pulse wave carrier.

In Degrade mode the Sample Rate and Bit Crush knobs are actually adjusting those parameters. With both all the way clockwise the signal in unaffected and turning them counter clockwise reduces the fidelity and introduces crunchy bit crushing respectively. The bit crushing goes from a slightly fuzzy accent around the notes at high bit rates to a really rauncy digital distortion at lower ones. Pushing both knobs counter clockwise past noon gets you into some really crazy sounds.

In Obliterate mode the sample rate knob is basically setting the frequency, much like you'd do with a ring mod. The Bit Crush is introducing some sort of analog distortion/fuzz though I'm not sure (circuit wise) what Taylor is using for that.

This pedal is really incredible and has a range of tones beyond what I was expecting. Ring mod sounds, NIN style distortion, Noisebox type craziness, lofi tones and of course expression controlled madness.

This morning I was playing around with looping a funky lick on my Superdelay and then using the expression control to gradually bit crush the tone similar to how a DJ would. Very cool stuff.
 
#309
too lazy to scour the interwebs... so....

:thumbs up!:

very good description of the Wobblie Knobblies! gah.... Wobblie Knobblies is the WORST sex position EVAH. you need a freaking backup spine to pull it off correctly.

"you don't want this gun."

"why? because i'm a GIRL?!? because it's too big for a icklw wittle GRRL?!??!?"

"no miss. because that gun's only designed to be used by people with two backup spines."
 
#311
Adding a fuzz (I've tried both the Oxide and Brown Dog) to the FrantaBit doesn't do a lot for me, mostly because the FrantaBit itself has fuzz/digital distortion capabilities itself.

Now the Xerograph on the other hand? Pure awesome. You can use the FrantaBit to feed the Xero for envelope or foot swept filter sounds and some amazing stuff is possible.

The other thing I've done today was using an OC-2 into either the Oxide or Brown Dog into the Xero using expression sweeps and then putting the FrantaBit at the end of the chain.

Super cool electronica tones. Sitting down with two expression pedals I could even sweep the Franta and the Xero (either together or opposite one another) for some incredible sounds.

Awesome.
 
#315
I'm also thinking that the Frantabit will go near the end of the chain, possibly only followed by Delay or Reverb.
I think for my use the Expression control will be crucial.
Simply having the ability to add a bit of movement/chaos to the end of a passage as an accent will be amazing using the Frantabit.
I'd normally do this sort of thing (bit crushing etc) in a post production situation, using VST's in Cubase.
To have it on the pedal board during the performance part of the process opens up a whole new world of sonic mayhem.
Thats my expectation anyway :)
 
#317
Matt Dean said:
Jared, I really hate to be a pain in your rear.. but, PLEASE could you make some clips of what you just described....
Click to expand...

behndy said:
yes please. sounds the AWESOME.
Click to expand...

alexa. said:
I second that notion!
Click to expand...

Ok, once three people ask then I'm compelled to do so. I'll record clips either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Wud said:
I'm also thinking that the Frantabit will go near the end of the chain, possibly only followed by Delay or Reverb.
Click to expand...

I have mine just before my delay and reverb. But my looper (when Dan at this1smyne finishes it) will let me flip flop loops so I can also run it into my Xero when I want to.
 
#319
Wud said:
I wanna hear what you were about to say just as the video cut off:D
Click to expand...

think it was something like "GOOD ****ING MONKEY FLAVORED **** BALLZ! I JUST WANT TO **** MY **** AS ****-WAFFLE UNTIL IT'S YELLOW LIKE ***** SMOTHERED IN ***** *** ******* ************* SAUCE!!".... but i decided to turn the camera off and not ruin the whole recording.
 

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