Does anyone have any pedal / pedal-setup suggestions for live Drum'n'Bass. Are there established ways to arrive at similar sounds to those commonly used in the electronic forms? Does anyone have any experience, or interest in this?
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Live DnB
- Thread starter BassinyerFass
- Start date
A synth pedal???
I'm not really sure what you're asking I guess. Methinks a keyboard might help you. Most electronic music uses keys to do that stuff.
I'm not really sure what you're asking I guess. Methinks a keyboard might help you. Most electronic music uses keys to do that stuff.
you're talking 'bout the likes of Pendulum? I think you should get one for every type (distortion, filter, synth, chorus, flanger, etc)
That may be true, but it's not unheard of to see a real bass. Also, while it may be easier to achieve class DnB tones iwtha keyboard, doing it with a Bass is a fun challenge, eh?
The question is what sort of Bass sound are you looking for in your DnB. Some DnB uses a sound like a Double Bass, and I don't know any effects that will give you that. Some DnB has the quality of a fretless bass (I saw it described as "mwah" elsewhere on this board), so that might be something to look into. The other two DnB bass sounds I can think of are the analog monosynth and the sub-bass. I've heard a lot of people say that the DOD FX25 (or FX25B) can bring the subbass stuff really well. You just need to make sure your cab can handle it. For the analog-style monsynth (the most classic DnB bass sound IMO), you've got options. There are tons of pedals that are meant to do this sound. Some of them track your tone and synthesize one at the same pitch. The only one like this that I've ever tried is teh Boss SYB 3, which does a not-so-good job of it, with very bad tracking, but there are others that should be better and can be researched in the synth pedal megathread. The other style would be a pedal that changes your tone to make it synthlike, usually using OD, octave and/or filter. The BassSynthWah is an option, as is the Ibanez, EHX BMS, etc.
What do I do for my synth-bass tone? I run an octave pedal into an envelope filter or trigger wah with varying amounts of distortion. In particular I use the Ashdown SubOctave Plus, which blens original signal, suboctave and distorted suboctave, into a Boss AW3 (which I don't like, and am hoping to replace soon), with the Ashdown Bass Drive Plus sometimes on also. I like the sound very much, and it's clearly synthy, but it's not a spot-on recreation of an analog synth bass. You can hear an example on the Ashdown website of their octave pedal into their envelope filter to see if you like that synth style.
Hope that helps.
ok i do know i was quite open with that request, as i was looking for people's direct experiences with this sort of stuff mostly.
to clarify (a bit) - i have a general synth effect (auto wah -> synthy distortion) which i am generally happy with but am looking to improve, and am indeed (thanks beachcoma) looking to get the bass micro synth but am more interested in some of the sounds usually created with other bits of dnb kit. Thanks to tayste for the snare drum suggestion lol, and muchly to speak_onion for some genuinely useful pointers.
to clarify (a bit) - i have a general synth effect (auto wah -> synthy distortion) which i am generally happy with but am looking to improve, and am indeed (thanks beachcoma) looking to get the bass micro synth but am more interested in some of the sounds usually created with other bits of dnb kit. Thanks to tayste for the snare drum suggestion lol, and muchly to speak_onion for some genuinely useful pointers.
bongomania
Commercial User
+1 to a DB-like sound. Combine that with a looper, and a filter with an expression pedal, and you are good to go.
Fretless will do you very well for jazz-step stuff like Roni Size - sure, it's no upright, but the vibe will be cool enough.
I'm currently involved in the germ of a live DnB act - early days yet, but we've had a few jams and things are starting to come together.
My signal chain is:
Boss SYB-3 > Boss OC-3 > Big Muff pi > Boss CE-2b > Dunlop 105Q > Ibanez DE-7 > Bassballs
All parked in the loop of an LS-2. I need a tremolo to give it some real LFO chop, but this is pretty close to perfect for my needs. It could also stand a low-pass filter in there, I find it a bit stronger than the wah.
The OC-3 is the core of my sound. I use OC-2 mode with no original signal, full -1 and half -2 to make the basis of a square wave tone, and then mangle the hell out of it with everything else to varying degrees. The drive mode is pretty useful too.
The SYB-3 is normally used in the first 3 synth modes as a lead synth, into chorus or wah +/- delay.
The chorus is literally set with everything dimed to give it an out-of-tune sound - have a listen to Renegade - Terrorist. The bass kicks in at 1 minute. It also works really well with the SYB-3.
The great thing about DnB is that it gives you a wonderful freedom to make noises that just don't fit anywhere else
I'm currently involved in the germ of a live DnB act - early days yet, but we've had a few jams and things are starting to come together.
My signal chain is:
Boss SYB-3 > Boss OC-3 > Big Muff pi > Boss CE-2b > Dunlop 105Q > Ibanez DE-7 > Bassballs
All parked in the loop of an LS-2. I need a tremolo to give it some real LFO chop, but this is pretty close to perfect for my needs. It could also stand a low-pass filter in there, I find it a bit stronger than the wah.
The OC-3 is the core of my sound. I use OC-2 mode with no original signal, full -1 and half -2 to make the basis of a square wave tone, and then mangle the hell out of it with everything else to varying degrees. The drive mode is pretty useful too.
The SYB-3 is normally used in the first 3 synth modes as a lead synth, into chorus or wah +/- delay.
The chorus is literally set with everything dimed to give it an out-of-tune sound - have a listen to Renegade - Terrorist. The bass kicks in at 1 minute. It also works really well with the SYB-3.
The great thing about DnB is that it gives you a wonderful freedom to make noises that just don't fit anywhere else
Sweet! that sounds like a fun chain. I am curious about one thing, though. Why do you keep everything in the loop of the LS2? Are you mixing in clean signal? It would seem like it based on what you described. It seems to me like you might want to keep everything after the OC3 in the loop so you can kick it all off and get back to your "core" sound with one stomp. Just wondering; I'm sure you know how to use your gear better than I do.
I normally use the LS-2 as a blend pedal in other projects, but in this case it's literally just a quick bypass for when I want a clean tone. I could just as easily do the job with a passive bypass looper - which happens to be my next DIY project
However, your suggestion about running the loop after the OC-3 is definitely worthy of consideration. It's going through one buffered bypass at the moment with no hassles, I can't see two being an issue. And who needs high end clarity in DnB anyway?
However, your suggestion about running the loop after the OC-3 is definitely worthy of consideration. It's going through one buffered bypass at the moment with no hassles, I can't see two being an issue. And who needs high end clarity in DnB anyway?
Is this similar to "Livetronica" at all? Those bands tend to have bass players. Most also have keys or a laptop guy or both. Down here I guess it's getting kind of big, Sound Tribe Sector 9 seems like the king. I saw Pnuma Trio and Grimace Federation the other night, Grimace is more jazzy oriented but definitely has some Livetronica to it.
Pnuma is just Drums (all acoustic), Bass, and a guy on Keyboards. The Bass player doubles on laptop sounds.
Grimace had 2 drummers (all acoustic), Bass, 2 Guitars, and VIBRAPHONE. The Vibraphone guy doubled on keys.
It's pretty crazy... I wanna play it. I think it's hard to find a drummer that can pull those kind of beats off though (or wants to). For bass I think it's definitely a good time to get out every crazy effect you can find and go nuts. I'm going to program up some Electro beats and jam with my upright once I get it back
Maybe an EQ and boost the lowest possible frequencies. Also maybe, this isnt an effect, but getting a 2x15 or 1x18 cab.
