Lo-Fi effect pedal??

[psi]

Is there a pedal that would make my bass sound like a square wave with high sustain? The sound I am going for is something a synth from a Nintendo or Gameboy.

Thanks!

 

[xan]

a synth pedal of some kind would give you the old nintendo sounds. there are lo-fi pedals around - J Everman Pedals does one, check it out at www.pedalgeek.com . Check out these synths too:

akai deep impact
digitech bass synth wah
ibanez sb7
boss syb-5
electro harmonix bass micro synthesizer

most of this stuff isnt cheap. your best bet might be the ibanez or digitech.

 

[nemo]

Apart from dedicated synth pedals also the Boss Octaver OC-2 (probably also OC-3 or others) can do the trick. Set Direct to zero, OCT2 to zero and OCT1 to full. You will get only synthesised sound that is one octave down so you have to play high on the neck, but thats the pure 80s game stuff..

 

[donut]

Not sure how it would sound on bass...

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8-Bit Fuzz

The 8-Bit fuzz was originally designed to give a synth feel to do some Nintendo cover songs, but then the bias knob was added to give some great fuzz tones as well. You basically lose all dynamics. The note feels like a keyboard, immediate attack and the note just disappears suddenly. Random octave dives at certain settings and a fat fuzz are also available by turning the Bias knob. Comes with true bypass. $87 shipped in the US.

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James

 

[TaySte_2000]

WANT ONE


Sounds kinda similar to the MXR Blue Box kinda specs wise I mean (glitchy)

 

[jondog]

Alesis Bitrman or any pedal with Bit Reduction.

 

[psi]

The Bitrman and the Sonic Alienator look really cool. The Alienator is about $225 more though, heh. ANy other suggestions?

 

[xan]

how nice does the sonic alienator look? pity about the price tag!

 

[TaySte_2000]

So how about the MXR blue box are these any good? I'm kinda tempted by one just as I was on the straight and narrow to normal effects.

Any one ever used a nintendo sound in a band situation? hehe I loved the sound clips of the fxdoctor 8 bit fuzz

so come on let me know about the blue box.

cheers

 

[psi]

I'm planning to use this type of effect in a video game type sounding band. Something sort of like Devo I suppose.

(An alternative to this would be to use a keyboard or even a keytar! There are some keytars being sold on ebay for like $100 that were selling for $15 brand new twenty years ago.)

 

[PhilMan99]

Wouldn't the cheapest guitar "fuzz box" from Beheringer or one of those companies that make $20 units suffice? Square-wave is very easy to make - just a single transistor "clipping" is about all that is needed.

 

[psi]

Wouldn't the cheapest guitar "fuzz box" from Beheringer or one of those companies that make $20 units suffice? Square-wave is very easy to make - just a single transistor "clipping" is about all that is needed.

Well it's really more than just a square wave. It's a consistent frequency of the output that'd really make it sound Nintendo-ish.

 

[psi]

Just to wrap up...

I ended up going for an Alesis Bitrman. Unfortunately, the bit reducer feature kind of sucked when I used it with my bass. I guess it wasn't made for low frequencies. All I could get out of it was little pops and farts, and the sustain would just drop off sharply after like a fraction of a second. The other effects worked okay but they weren't really what I was looking for. I'm going to return it.

The Akai Deep Impact is impossible to find. There are a couple on ebay selling for way more than they're worth.

The demos I heard of the EHX Micro Synthesizer just didn't sound that impressive to me compared to the Deep Impact. Maybe if I heard some better samples of it I'd change my mind. The "square wave" slider on the Micro Synthesizer sounded pretty cool originally but I read that it's basically a weak type of distortion. I wonder if that's true. You would think it'd be a synthesized square wave instead of a square wave filter, but oh well.

The guy from FXDoctor said he's planning on making an 8-bit Fuzz box for bass over the summer. That sounds promising.

For now, though, I guess I'm stuck.

 

[jondog]

Put a comp with a hot output in front of the Bitrman and your sustain will improve. I don't use the bit reduction alone, it's always with the distortion or other fx.

 

[psi]

Yeah I noticed that if I turned the distortion dial up it improved a bit and I also increased the gain from my compressor before it which helped. BUT, it still just sounds too clicky/poppy for my taste. Actually it sounds similar to a speaker blowing out which sort of scares me, lol.

 

[jondog]

That's what I like about it!

 

[judas jedermann]

How about Effector 13 truly beautiful disaster? It`s freaky alright.

 

[TaySte_2000]

I've only ever heard bad things about the Effector 13 pedals, they look cool, but people I know never seem fond of them.

Also the TBD isn't really lo fi.

PSI, I'll post you some sound clips of the MXR Blue Box this weekend that might be what you are looking for.

As long as Toasted let me

 

[phxlbrmpf]

WANT ONE


Sounds kinda similar to the MXR Blue Box kinda specs wise I mean (glitchy)

Argh! Me too! Although I'm more a fan of those fuzzy C64 SID synth bass sounds. I feel really geeky for saying this, but some C64 music has wicked bass lines that simply ooze coolness and are so full of octaves and 7ths they're a real challenge to play with a real bass.

 

[psi]

Argh! Me too! Although I'm more a fan of those fuzzy C64 SID synth bass sounds. I feel really geeky for saying this, but some C64 music has wicked bass lines that simply ooze coolness and are so full of octaves and 7ths they're a real challenge to play with a real bass.

Absolutely man. Any time I feel like a challenge I pick out a random Nintendo game and try to cover it. A lot of the video game music I play has taken me a while to get down but it's helped me build tremendous speed and muscle memory.