I just picked up a Freqbox. It seems extremely promising for synth bass fun. And I thought it deserved its own thread for discussion, tips, what not as currently there's simply various comments spread throughout other threads.
Honestly, I've bought a TON of effects based on other people's reviews at how great things are and have usually said "Meh" and sold them off after trying them. In contrast I bought the Freqbox on the strong suggestion of just a few TBers and without there being much in the way of positive reviews, YouTube videos, sound clips, etc.
So I was suprized when I got it, started using it, and was actually happy blowing this amount of cash on a single pedal.
In particular I was suprised it can cop a very similar tone as the heavily gated fuzz of the Brown Dog. And when you consider the Freqbox is only about $75 more expensive retail than a Brown Dog, and has wayyyyy more applications and sounds for that "synthy bass", I'm suprized more people are turned onto it. Though it has less applications for non-synth stuff.
Anyway, there's been a lot of side discussions on the Freqbox in various threads here and there, but no "master" thread on the Freqbox like you find with some other effects. So I thought I'd start one in hopes other owners could post here and we could have some sort of collective on this great product.
To start, here's some Freqbox comments I've culled from TB. I didn't happen to copy the username of the person logging the comments, but most (maybe all) are probably from FightThePower who's been the Freqbox's biggest promoter.
From my hour or so of playing with the box I'll say that the tracking is really pretty good. It can definitely get glitchy when running a clean bass through it like most analog tracking. But it'll track all the way to an open low B on my Ibanez SR506 as long as you don't let it ring out while pushing a totally clean signal to the Freqbox. But I was genuinely suprized since people complain about the tracking. I was expecting it to be truly horrible but I've had better luck with it than my OC-2, BOSS VF-1 synth tracking.
Additionally, it seems to track fairly fast notes very well. Lastly, the overall tracking SIGNFICANTLY improves if I run the Brown Dog set to a high gate and fuzz in front of it, though you lose most/all of the Freqbox envelope capabilities since the Brown Dog compresses the bejesus out of the signal. But the Brown Dog makes the Freqbox really effortless.
A-Bing the clean bass then the Brown Dog into the Freqbox also illstrates how the Freqbox produces pretty different sounds based on the input signal. I don't pretend to understand the technical workings of the Freqbox, but it's definitely not the same as simply triggering a digital synth.
Here's a quick audio, everything played on my B string. Starts clean; Brown Dog with gate max, fuzz 2 O'clock, pure dirty no clean, switch to hard; then Freqbox set to saw, Freq on 2, Mix on 10, hard sync on, everything else off. I bounce back and forth between the BD and Freq, and lastly run the BD into the Freq to illustrate the difference in sound and tracking, then noodle with the tracking down my B string. At the very very end I loosen the BD gate from max to about 2 O'clock where I normally run it. That seems to give the Freq nearly limitless sustain and help tracking those low B notes much better since the gate doesn't sputter.
http://www.cgraham.com/chris/music/bass/freqbox_vs_browndog.mp3
I never play a clean signal so I should post up in the "what effects do you use to hide your lack of talent" thread as: EVERYTHING.
Other comments:
I'm sure some of the excitement will die off I as use it more and come to learn it's limits and downsides.
I'll close with the fact that all of this is a bunch of words. I'll whip up more sound samples to share over the weekend. I'm admittedly not the best player, and extremely inexperienced with effects in general compared to some of the other bass synth guys active here. But I'll try to contribute what I can.
Also, I think the Ibanez SR506 generally sounds like crap clean. I bought it used off eBay, it still has the factory strings on it which the coating is peeling off like a bad sunburn, and I think the pickups are set too high as no matter how soft/hard/where I pluck, or if I use a pick, there's always a slight "popping" sound from the attack. I'm not trying to hijack my own thread but thought I'd throw that out there. I have some DR Sunbeams and a pro setup scheduled for next week in hopes of making me love this bass.
Honestly, I've bought a TON of effects based on other people's reviews at how great things are and have usually said "Meh" and sold them off after trying them. In contrast I bought the Freqbox on the strong suggestion of just a few TBers and without there being much in the way of positive reviews, YouTube videos, sound clips, etc.
So I was suprized when I got it, started using it, and was actually happy blowing this amount of cash on a single pedal.
In particular I was suprised it can cop a very similar tone as the heavily gated fuzz of the Brown Dog. And when you consider the Freqbox is only about $75 more expensive retail than a Brown Dog, and has wayyyyy more applications and sounds for that "synthy bass", I'm suprized more people are turned onto it. Though it has less applications for non-synth stuff.
Anyway, there's been a lot of side discussions on the Freqbox in various threads here and there, but no "master" thread on the Freqbox like you find with some other effects. So I thought I'd start one in hopes other owners could post here and we could have some sort of collective on this great product.
To start, here's some Freqbox comments I've culled from TB. I didn't happen to copy the username of the person logging the comments, but most (maybe all) are probably from FightThePower who's been the Freqbox's biggest promoter.
From my hour or so of playing with the box I'll say that the tracking is really pretty good. It can definitely get glitchy when running a clean bass through it like most analog tracking. But it'll track all the way to an open low B on my Ibanez SR506 as long as you don't let it ring out while pushing a totally clean signal to the Freqbox. But I was genuinely suprized since people complain about the tracking. I was expecting it to be truly horrible but I've had better luck with it than my OC-2, BOSS VF-1 synth tracking.
Additionally, it seems to track fairly fast notes very well. Lastly, the overall tracking SIGNFICANTLY improves if I run the Brown Dog set to a high gate and fuzz in front of it, though you lose most/all of the Freqbox envelope capabilities since the Brown Dog compresses the bejesus out of the signal. But the Brown Dog makes the Freqbox really effortless.
A-Bing the clean bass then the Brown Dog into the Freqbox also illstrates how the Freqbox produces pretty different sounds based on the input signal. I don't pretend to understand the technical workings of the Freqbox, but it's definitely not the same as simply triggering a digital synth.
Here's a quick audio, everything played on my B string. Starts clean; Brown Dog with gate max, fuzz 2 O'clock, pure dirty no clean, switch to hard; then Freqbox set to saw, Freq on 2, Mix on 10, hard sync on, everything else off. I bounce back and forth between the BD and Freq, and lastly run the BD into the Freq to illustrate the difference in sound and tracking, then noodle with the tracking down my B string. At the very very end I loosen the BD gate from max to about 2 O'clock where I normally run it. That seems to give the Freq nearly limitless sustain and help tracking those low B notes much better since the gate doesn't sputter.
http://www.cgraham.com/chris/music/bass/freqbox_vs_browndog.mp3
I never play a clean signal so I should post up in the "what effects do you use to hide your lack of talent" thread as: EVERYTHING.
Other comments:
- For the audio my signal chain is Ibanez SR506 > BOSS LS-2 > A channel Brown Dog > B channel Freq > Tech21 Sansamp with Rane DC24 in the FX loop providing mostly limiting on the lows and some 2:1 compression on highs > DAW with an ancient Aardvark Q10.
- Patch ENV OUT to EVN AMOUNT IN and it totally changes the scope of the envelope feature into some really extreme, crazy stuff.
- I'm thinking that extreme, crazy stuff you get when turning the Env knob up while patched as noted above would mix/blend well with other sounds for some really interesting synthy noise.
- There's so many different sounds you can get out of the box from turning just 4 knobs. So many that I'm wishing it had presets. Which is where the Moog MP-201 probably simplifies things a ton. Though I'd imagine you'd want to run all 4 CV outs from that into just the Freqbox leaving none for LPF control.
- Good god it actually has an OUTPUT knob to control the output volume! SHOCKING!
- Holy cow it actually has GOOD bypass unlike the absolutely HORRIBLE bypass on the Moog LPF.
- It'd be great if there was some cheap MIDI to CV device similar to the MP-201, but that was dumber and cheaper and with many more CV outs. Then you could have a Behringer FCB1010 (which I'm about to own anyway) or similar wildly functional MIDI pedal with multiple expressions and CC pedal assignments to tweak it out in possibly a much more versatile manner than the MP-201. But that's my uneducated mind brimming with ideas. But really I hate having to label my pedals to remember the various settings, I'd rather have presets, or some what to master control everything via MIDI patches that I program instead of having to use real-time brain power to remember. I certainly will NOT have 8 expression pedals on my board to control a couple Moogs. That's rediculous. But I'd like to hear some thoughts on MIDI-to-CV as it has to be the real way to go with this stuff.
- But really, I was mostly under-impressed with the Moog LPF considering it's cost, though it does what it should. Where in contrast I'm extremely excited about the bass synth possibilities the Freqbox will probably provide.
- In some other thread the Freqbox was mentioned it was proposed as a way to get that awesome Snoop Dog Doggystyle tone. I think this would definitely be the beast to do it, and my audio is an attempt to show that though the riff isn't exactly right it'll give you an idea.
I'm sure some of the excitement will die off I as use it more and come to learn it's limits and downsides.
I'll close with the fact that all of this is a bunch of words. I'll whip up more sound samples to share over the weekend. I'm admittedly not the best player, and extremely inexperienced with effects in general compared to some of the other bass synth guys active here. But I'll try to contribute what I can.
Also, I think the Ibanez SR506 generally sounds like crap clean. I bought it used off eBay, it still has the factory strings on it which the coating is peeling off like a bad sunburn, and I think the pickups are set too high as no matter how soft/hard/where I pluck, or if I use a pick, there's always a slight "popping" sound from the attack. I'm not trying to hijack my own thread but thought I'd throw that out there. I have some DR Sunbeams and a pro setup scheduled for next week in hopes of making me love this bass.
