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Need economical synth pedal

4-stringB

4-stringB

Jun 10, 2010
610
438
70
Tallahassee
#1
40 years playing bass, and NOW I decide I need a pedal. Having played it straight all this time, I am clueless. We ( band with girl singer) are doing Lady Gaga's, "You and I". Our keyboard player is tied up with the piano part, so the main intro is up to me. I've got a usable part figured out, just need a good synth sound that can vary depending on attack, so as to get different sounds at the same pitch...Thanks for helping out....Cheers...
 
#5
Listening to the intro to the song, it has kind of a "burpy" metallic quality...and I can't think of any *single* pedals off the top of my head that can replicate that. Might be able to make it work with an envelope filter (for the burpiness) then maybe a ringmod or possible a flanger in a manual mode (think EHX Electric Mistress) for the metallic sound. The couple pedals recommended are nice, but won't get you even close to what you're after IMO.
 
#6
Hmmm... not sure if this pedal will get you exactly what you're seeking, but if you're looking for an inexpensive (I'm guessing anywhere between 50-75$) synth pedal, I'd recommend the Digitech Bass Synth Wah. It's a bit of a nutty pedal, but does quite a decent octave, synthy fuzz, filter and filter+octave. And then you get all the other wacky sounds. Got mine used for 60 $.

Eventhough I'm not familiar with the Boss Synth pedal, it could be a solution (a little more expensive) according to what I read on TB. Would be worth researching.

No offense intended to anyone, but if you're gigging regularly, I would stay away from the Behringer Synth pedal. Judging from youtube clips, it sounds good enough (IMO), but it is made out of plastic, so reliability could be an issue. But then again, a few TB members have it on their boards, so it depends, right ?

:)
 
#8
Well, when I think of economical and cheap I think Behringer.
Try these links, scroll down the page for the sound clips of the pedals.
You can buy anywhere really, Amazon.com for example, for $30.

Behringer BASS SYNTHESIZER BSY600
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Behringer FILTER MACHINE FM600
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Digitech Syth Wah (I think this matches the best)
Invalid Link Removed
 
#9
Akai Deep Impact- discontinued and way over priced
Korg G5- discontinued and hard to find
EHX Bass Micro Synth is very analog sounding
Boss SYB3 & SYB5 pedals are loved and hated
Behringer BSY600 clone gets some respect.
Pigtronix MotherShip
MarkBass Super Synth
Chunk Systems Octavius.
Ibanez SB7
Digitech Bass Synth Wah

For a grand you can also look at the Roland GR-55

I am using EHX BMS & Zoom B2 for my synthish needs.
 
#10
Octave -> Filter -> Fuzz is always the best way to go for a gigging bassist who needs the occasional synthy sound. Search for those terms together and you'll see a million threads with good combinations and advice.

No one synth pedal will make you sound like an actual multi-oscillator synth. You need a real synth to sound like a real synth. end of story. The people who are using basses and effects to sound like keyboards have put a lot of time and money into making that happen.

However, having played with most of the bass synth pedals out there, for under $100, the Ibanez SB7 is good for getting faux-keyboard sounds in a gig situation. It's analog so it has none of the tracking issues you get from the digitech, boss and behringer. It has very few parameters to set, which is great for people just learning about synthesis. And it is cheap enough that you can try it out before deciding if you want to go down the bass synth rabbit hole.
 
#13
Different opinion here - just buy an actual synth like the Akai Miniak. It'll nail the sound better, it'll be easier to use, and it will be useful in so many more ways than any synth pedal. I spent about a year fiddling around with so many effects just to get something close, but nothing nailed it. IME, you just can't beat an actual synth.
 
#15
I have yet to see a decent to good sounding synth bass pedal. Most are based on taking the incoming signal and modulating an oscillator plus some filtering weirdness which is a far cry from a let's say MiniMoog bass line.

Best is to get a cheap midi controller, you could get them for $100 used + let's say a MacBook with Logic (could get it now cheap from the Apple store.) Key in any of the ES2 or EXS24 Moog bass presets and you are 75% there.
 
#17
I disagree with the fuzz/filter guys. It sounds really cool. It also sounds nothing like a synthesizer to me. It may sound like funk or bootsy, but not a synth. If you want to play electro-pop, you can do a lot worse than the Behringer or Boss. I play in a covers band that does a Lady Gaga song and a Rihanna song, and I can get the Behringer unit to do a pretty good rendition of the keyboard line in both songs. You DO need to be very careful with your technique though, or it will glitch out. On my bass, I turn both my bass and treble knobs all the way down, and play very stoccato and clean, no ringing strings. Sounds great.
 
#18
Sorry for resurrecting this semi-zombie thread, but our multi-generational band (the back line is all 45+ retreads like me, our front line are in their 20's - as our rhythm guitarist says, his Vox Wah is twice as old as half the band) just added a 22 year-old singer, and she's thrown "You and I" into the mix - so I'm in the same boat as the OP.

Yesterday I dug my old Zoom B2 out of storage - a recent check of eBay shows these can be had NEW for $75 - starting from the clues in the posts above and messing around, I eventually dialed in an AutoWah->Fuzz Face->Step Modulator that does the trick nicely. I doesn't nail the sound, but it captures the burpy/quirky/metallic vibe just fine.

Oh and I put it on it's own loop using a Boss Line Selector, so my signal doesn't have to go through the Zoom's questionable AD/DA converters for the 99% of the time the effect isn't needed.

Haven't tried it on a gig yet - if I get pelted with rocks by 20-something girls I'll report back . . .
 

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