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Please rate/ optimise my rig
- Thread starter benrebdan
- Start date
Not grammar police - just a bunch of TB members that would like to be helpful, but cant because we really don't understand what you are asking us. State your questions more clearly and you'll get better answers. Lots of great experience here on TalkBass, but you gotta help us help you.
We are mostly bass players, not sound engineers, and some of us rarely if ever use lots of effects. Forgive the humor, reading your original post I thought you might be attempting some of that yourself? Anyway, just experiment and see what sounds good to you. You have probably put more $$$ into pedals and effects than many of us have put into our basses!
Post some videos when sounds come out the other end, let us know what you've produced. Could be pretty cool stuff.
It is pretty complicated, honestly.
One thing is you seem to group similar effects together on a parallel line.
But I find, for example, that 3 or so modulation effects together (chorus, phaser, flanger, tremolo) are not terribly useful.
I would include disparate effects on each line. Some OD and fuzz at the front, followed by modulation that will really stand out with the extra harmonics from the dirt.
Your task is to figure out what 2 to 5 pedals really sound great together, what order they should be in, and build your parallel lines that way.
At least that’s how I would approach it.
Do you have this set up already or is it a very elaborate plan for the future?
I can't understand what you are using the Eqd splitter for.
I can't understand what you are using the Eqd splitter for.
Also OP, my first pedal board was a PT Pro with 6 channel effect loop switcher - not parallel lines, but still pretty huge and complex. Power supply, the whole thing, Tetris as many pedals on as possible.
Since then I have found smaller boards with more intentionally curated sounds help in a lot of ways, both practical and artistic.
First off, having a set of 5 to 7 “tones” that you can trust on a band stand, and that sound really good, is about as much creative freedom as I need for the bands I play in. The limitation of options actually spurs creativity.
The practical side is now I use a PT Jr with 11 pedals on a daisy chain, with a OneSpot power supply. This is easy to reconfigure live if something craps out, easy to swap out drives/octavers/synth pedals for different projects, and takes up less floor space on stage.
I think many of the jokes about how big your rig is stem from our own past experiences. Don’t take it personally, and just rock it - no one can touch that!
Since then I have found smaller boards with more intentionally curated sounds help in a lot of ways, both practical and artistic.
First off, having a set of 5 to 7 “tones” that you can trust on a band stand, and that sound really good, is about as much creative freedom as I need for the bands I play in. The limitation of options actually spurs creativity.
The practical side is now I use a PT Jr with 11 pedals on a daisy chain, with a OneSpot power supply. This is easy to reconfigure live if something craps out, easy to swap out drives/octavers/synth pedals for different projects, and takes up less floor space on stage.
I think many of the jokes about how big your rig is stem from our own past experiences. Don’t take it personally, and just rock it - no one can touch that!
It sounds over complicated. Why all the splitting? That's going to be a huge headache in any gigging situations.
If this is a possibility and doesn't exist yet, I'd say - get a multifx unit unless you're dead set on pedals.
I like your style; always do it all. There are so many effects to choose from and so many routing/utility pedals available now that the options seem to never end. I spend probably (definitely) too much time on pedalplayground thinking up and mapping out possibilities based on all these devices that I keep discovering. By the way, I hadn’t seen those EQD 4-1 contraptions yet, so thanks a bunch for opening that signal chain rabbit hole for me to dive into instead of…uh…doing anything else? But hey, finding new sounds is a lot of fun, so why the heck not?
Like it’s been mentioned, you could consolidate a lot of your board with something like the Anagram. I keep reconsidering that temptation, but ultimately want to be able to have access to each effect directly for quick on/off switching. Also, the Anagram doesn’t have the flexibility that I’d like to keep in some of my more tweakable pedals. And, like all digital modelers, it will one day no longer be supported and will become an obsolete and very expensive brick. It seems more suited for gigging with pre-created set song lists rather than for living room soundscape explorations, not to say that it doesn't provide plenty of room for the latter.
It really comes down to this:
What sounds are you trying to achieve, and for what purpose(s) - playing in a band or in multiple bands, or just for fun at home or for jamming with friends? Does this setup do any of the things you want it to do and does it work for any of those situations? Does it sound good?
Here's some more solid advice:
-You've got all your modulation and time-based pedals in one path, so you likely plan to use 1-2 of those at a time in parallel with dirt, no? Have you considered adding one of these to the a dirt path to see how it sounds in series, and then how that series sound jives with something in the parallel path?
-Does that noise gate serve you well in that particular path? What if you move the compressor to the end of the chain, or keep it where it's at and add another one at the end?
-Having the wah on its own parallel path sounds interesting. Have you tried it directly in front of any of the other paths?
Perhaps you've tried all of this or many other configurations already and like how it sounds now...or not? Have you built this board already or is this you first Frankenstein/Tetris blueprint? Like others have mentioned, pictures or sound samples or expressed goals would be helpful for a better conceptualization of what you're trying to realize with this build.
Like it’s been mentioned, you could consolidate a lot of your board with something like the Anagram. I keep reconsidering that temptation, but ultimately want to be able to have access to each effect directly for quick on/off switching. Also, the Anagram doesn’t have the flexibility that I’d like to keep in some of my more tweakable pedals. And, like all digital modelers, it will one day no longer be supported and will become an obsolete and very expensive brick. It seems more suited for gigging with pre-created set song lists rather than for living room soundscape explorations, not to say that it doesn't provide plenty of room for the latter.
It really comes down to this:
What sounds are you trying to achieve, and for what purpose(s) - playing in a band or in multiple bands, or just for fun at home or for jamming with friends? Does this setup do any of the things you want it to do and does it work for any of those situations? Does it sound good?
Here's some more solid advice:
-You've got all your modulation and time-based pedals in one path, so you likely plan to use 1-2 of those at a time in parallel with dirt, no? Have you considered adding one of these to the a dirt path to see how it sounds in series, and then how that series sound jives with something in the parallel path?
-Does that noise gate serve you well in that particular path? What if you move the compressor to the end of the chain, or keep it where it's at and add another one at the end?
-Having the wah on its own parallel path sounds interesting. Have you tried it directly in front of any of the other paths?
Perhaps you've tried all of this or many other configurations already and like how it sounds now...or not? Have you built this board already or is this you first Frankenstein/Tetris blueprint? Like others have mentioned, pictures or sound samples or expressed goals would be helpful for a better conceptualization of what you're trying to realize with this build.
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My path is generally as follows:
Tuner>comp>under-drive
Path1
>clean out
Path 2
Octave>Pre amp
Path 2 Split into
>Dirty lows
>Dirty highs
>all dirt back into my modulation/delay stuff.
Most of my parallel paths are to preserve clean lows and run parallel dirt.
Tuner>comp>under-drive
Path1
>clean out
Path 2
Octave>Pre amp
Path 2 Split into
>Dirty lows
>Dirty highs
>all dirt back into my modulation/delay stuff.
Most of my parallel paths are to preserve clean lows and run parallel dirt.
My best advice would be to find that blend where the effects are useful, but not burying the original bass tone where the band loses that solid bottom in the overall mix.
All the Best
JW
All the Best
JW
OP has been back but no posts from them. Not sure what they wanted, maybe there is a rate my rig that’s on Reddit or something and we didn’t follow protocol?
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D
If this gets your panties in a wad - never go to sailing anarchy forums.
Seriously though, there’s more knowledge here than most places- and less flaming, but word salad posts with no punctuation or formatting deserve ridicule.
In my ever so humble opinion.
Seriously though, there’s more knowledge here than most places- and less flaming, but word salad posts with no punctuation or formatting deserve ridicule.
In my ever so humble opinion.
Maybe If you describe what you are trying to accomplish and in what environment, one might be able to provide more pertinent suggestions.
