Just discovered effects! Help please?

[DanielleMuscato]

Hey folks,

I've been playing and teaching guitar and bass for close to 10 years now, went to Berklee, etc... and I never "got" effects. I use overdrive on guitar sometimes, but that's it. Blame it on my classical background.

However, I just saw the video for Outkast's "Hey Ya," and the sound of the bass just enthralled me... What is that sound?!? I've never quite been captivated like that before, like I just had to know what in the world is making this noise.

It's kind of strange, because I actually play a Line6 Variax 705 into a Line6 Bass POD xt Live, but I've never experimented with effects before (I actually keep all the modeling on my POD bypassed, believe it or not... I use it only for the volume pedal and built-in tuner!). It models dozens of stompboxes and other types of effects, so I can pretty much dial in whatever I want, I just don't know where to start.

Can you guys recommend some other great uses of effects, on bass or guitar? I'd love to listen to some examples. And if anybody knows how to get the bass tone on "Hey Ya," I'd *really* appreciate it!

Thanks so much,

Dave

 

[The BurgerMeister]

look into an envelope filter. you've got one or two on your pod... like a mu-tron, q-tron, etc....

oh, and: i just posted this elsewhere not too long ago.... here it is again.

check it:



ya!

 

[DanielleMuscato]

Oh yeah, I've seen that. I have that whole series of videos saved to my Favorites Thanks, though!

I'll play with my POD and see what I can come up with. It sounds like it's got a lot more low-end than your standard envelope filter. Most of them come off sounding really thin IMO.

 

[Rick_no7]

great, now I want an octave divider lol

 

[The BurgerMeister]

....It sounds like it's got a lot more low-end than your standard envelope filter. Most of them come off sounding really thin IMO.

envelope filter blended with regular signal, maybe... or with deep synthbass.....?

keep in mind, that bass part was done in a studio... so it could very well be (in fact, it probably is) a bunch of different parts recorded together. there may not even be a bass in there at all! imagine that!



i say play with synths and envelope filters a bunch... you'll get that sound with some tweaking. i think blending is the key, really. someone else may know the specifics, but that's all i got for now! sorry!

 

[DanielleMuscato]

Thanks, I'll definitely mess with them. I appreciate it!

Got any other songs (or links) I should check out for cool, effected bass tones?

Dave

 

[Higgie]

RATM/Audioslave's bassist Tim Commerford has probably one of the most sought after distortion tones there is.

Chris Wolstenholme from Muse is also another big effects user. Songs like Hysteria, Plug In Baby, and Time Is Running Out all have bass with effects on it in some way or another.

 

[Tedintheshed]

I always wondered who the guy was that discovered effects...

 

[bongomania]

Believe it or not, Mitch Miller ("sing along with Mitch") claimed to have commissioned the first ever electronic reverb from an engineer in his studio.