ODB-3 distortion users

Volume has something to do with the way effects distort, speed doesn't.

The signal coming from your bass is a sin wave essentially. The louder you play the more amplitude you end up with (height of the wave). Distortion works by clipping at a certain threshhold and if your amplitude doesn't reach that threshhold, it won't distort. If it barely reaches that threshhold, it will distort only a little. If you play really loud, you result in hard clipping, which is really gritty distortion.

 

actually.....no. I haven't.
But you'll have to qualify that;
Playing too quietly - do you mean turning down the volume on your bass?
I've never had a problem with it not distorting when playing fast either.
Could this be a battery prob on either your pedal or bass?

 

tplyons - beat me to it!

 

Like I have anything better to do

 

don't forget that the ODB3 is an overdrive effect rather than a distortion, and therefore responds to playing strength, so the harder you play, the more "dirt" you get, and often when you play faster you'll probably play with a lighter touch meaning less grit added.

sorry if this means I'm being pedantic, but i find the characteristics of distortion and overdrive are completely different to my ears.

 

Your damn well right: distortion clips the same no matter what you instrument/playing vol, whereas Overdrive is meant to model amp tubes (without the actual amp or tubes). You can use a true "overdrive" as a booster by setting the gain to min and the level to whatever level you need.

That's also why distortion sounds "grittier" and also why I love distortion. Oh, and from my experience Fuzz falls into the Distortion catagory....

 

We mean the absolute volume coming out the output jack of the bass. Generally when you play fast your attack strength goes down. One way of correcting this is to stick a compressor right after the bass. Set it up so that it's just noticable when you play slow. Then when you play fast and you attack strength decreases the compressor will make up for it