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Playing Over a Sustained Note

66pbass

66pbass

Dec 25, 2002
56
6
Pittsburgh, PA
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#1
I would like to be able to play a note, have it sustain indefinitely, and be able to play over top of it.
Sounds like something a loop pedal could do, and the Boss ME-50B claims to be able to do it, but wanted to know how you guys/girls are doing it.

I have a Boss GT-6B and would love to use it. Any suggestions?
 
#3
You need a delay with a hold feature.

I use an old digitech PDS2000 for this but there are few both new and old.

Such as

Boss DD-3
Digitech PDS-1000
Digitech PDS-1002

Any looper will do this but its a bit of a waste

DD-3 is prolly the most common and easiest to do but try and get a PDS as you can pitch shift the note for some fun and crazy antics.
 
#4
I have both GT-6B and ME-50B.
GT-6B wont do that for you, but ME-50B does it perfectly.
I got GT-6B after i got the ME and was disappointed when i found out that lots of the features are not there, so i decided to keep them both, the only problem is when i need to carry them for a gig :)
 
#5
I agree that a looper might be overkill for what the OP wants to achieve...then again, loopers have been getting so affordable lately maybe it's not an extravagent approach?

Another solution might be to find an old Boss Super Distortion/Feedbacker. This was a stompbox fuzz pedal with a faux feedback feature that would grab the pitch of whatever note you were sustaining when you stepped on a footswitch and then morph that into an infinitely sustained synthetic octave up squeal. I never tried one on bass, but it was pretty cute for guitar when used in moderation.
 
#8
the gt6b will do it. you need to set the 4th pedal or the ctrl to be the phrase sampler instead of the delay. hold your note, hit to record, hit to stop, and it will loop for you. it can only record up to like 16 sec tho, so short phrases are needed.

if you are having trouble switching the delay, i forget exactly how to do it, but the manual will tell you
 
#12
jaebee said:
the gt6b will do it. you need to set the 4th pedal or the ctrl to be the phrase sampler instead of the delay. hold your note, hit to record, hit to stop, and it will loop for you. it can only record up to like 16 sec tho, so short phrases are needed.

if you are having trouble switching the delay, i forget exactly how to do it, but the manual will tell you
Click to expand...

I have played around with the phrase sampler, but was not happy with how it responded.
Maybe I just didn't mess with it enough. I am just looking to have a single tone sustain without noticable start/stop to the "loop" and was not able to get that with the gt6b.
 
#14
What if you want this while two hand tapping? :)

Messiah25 - you mentioned the ME-50B does this perfectly. I looked it up online and saw the descriptions about the "sound hold" feature which does sound like it would exactly do this.

Have you used the effect much and is it convincing? Does it avoid all the volume jump looping problems?
 
#16
I usually use the Oscillator COSM model in my V-Bass to hold chords or notes, program one of the footswitches to Oscillator HOLD - usually latched rather than momentary - to trigger it at the time I hit the particulcar note or chord. Doing that I can change held notes or chords whenever I retoggle.
 
#19
Get a capo and a bass sustainiac.

A lot of synth pedals do it, but you might not want a sustained synth note. The ME-50b works great when I've tried one. Otherwise I'd suggest getting a Slow Gear clone and a delay and putting them in a momentary triggered bypass loop. Not the traditional one cause you want the sound to ring out. We were talking about this in the triggered delay thread a few days ago.

Anyway, put the delay at a really high (but not self-oscillating) feedback level and high volume level and leave that and the swell pedal on. All you'll have to do is tap the momentary switch on the bypass box when you want a note sustained.

Oh, and make sure if you do this to get a delay that doesn't have trails so you can stop the sustained note by hitting the box.

EDIT: Here's the thread where we talked through the trigger loop design.
 
#20
funkalicious101 said:
Is the DD-3 hold function similar to the HOG's hold function?

beacuse I havent been able to find anything with a good hold function that is substancially less extravagant or expensive as the HOG.
Click to expand...

i'm pretty sure that the dd-3 can be used to achieve this technique. i don't currently have one, but seem to recall that you can by setting the delay time as short as possible and the repeats to max, play the note and let it ring, then stomp the box. IF i'm right, you can then play over the sustained note. i might, however, be talking balls. someone with one please verify.
 

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