Recreating this reggae/dub staple

[Infernal Affair]

Forgive my ignorance. I'm not sure if I posted in the right forum for this, but basically I've been listening to reggae/dub lately, and there's a fairly common distorted/overdriven sound that I see bass players do. I was just wondering what effects, if any, I'd need to recreate it along with the settings you use. I doubt I'll ever use it, but you never know. I just love the sound of it.

The sound in question comes in at 4:10 on this video:

Dogggystyle - Dance in the Moonlight

I play a G&L L2K through a Markbass Littlemark II into two Aggie 112s. Only pedal I use is a Sansamp Programmable BDDI, but I'm not sure I can get that kind of fuzz out of it.

 

[bongomania]

I'm at work and unable to listen to that cut right at the moment, but a lot of dub recordings got the overdriven bass sound by slamming the inputs of the mixing desk and the reel-to-reel deck with a very hot bass signal. The closest single-pedal, reasonable-budget approximation I've been able to come up with was using a germanium-transistor fuzz pedal (the Frantone Bassweet and certain bass-tuned Fuzz Face clones are the best for this that I've tried).

 

[mboki]

This is a kind of synth sound. I use Boss OC-2 with OCT 1 at 3:00 or later, without the direct sound. So everything you play is one oct lower, but you have this heavy synthy sound.

 

[The BurgerMeister]

+1 to the octaver idea... but but a little fuzz after it in the chain to get that nice growl. bongo's idea is aslo worth checking out. the right kind of fuzz'd get you a similar sound.

you could also look into an electro-harmonix Bass Microsynth. set correctly, you'd be able to get that sound.

but the octaver (i'd suggest getting an Ampeg Sub-Blaster, actually) + fuzz is a better idea, i think.

good luck!http://[malware url removed].net/vicious-smiley-1815.gif

 

[Infernal Affair]

Thanks guys.

 

[Colonel Monk]

In fact, that's to you for posting that clip - those guys are badass!

I'm such a sucker for reggae/dub especially the spacey ****.

I was trying that out with my EBS Octabass, it's obvious to me that this was not used to create that sound.

Maybe a synth pedal, but whatever it is, it's removing entire frequencies from the sound -- almost leaving only the sub freqs and a tad of something mid so you can still hear it.

Anyone else?

Monk

 

[Colonel Monk]

Yo, here's a great link I found on the e-er-net.

http://www.interruptor.ch/dub_bass.shtml

They talk alot about using low-pass filters, which makes sense.

I've been GASing for a low-pass. Moog maybe?

out

 

[40Hz_of_Love]

I use my EBS WahOne in a lowpass mode for this kind of sound. DOD Octoplus with muted direct sound is also good but a bit different.

And don't forget about some overdrive.

 

[bongomania]

Col.Monk, we've actually hashed that concept over a few times. Run a search on "dub" and the lowpass filter concept is almost the only thing discussed!

 

[The Lurker]

octave--> fuzz works for me. I use the same sound now and again. You have to kind of balance things out... you don't want it too distorted or too octaved.

 

[bongomania]

Now that I've actually listened to the clip, I agree about the suggestions for synth or a combination of octave-down and fuzz. I think on "modern dub" records that sound is typically performed on a keyboard, but the pedals named will get you there.

 

[tbone409]

but the octaver (i'd suggest getting an Ampeg Sub-Blaster, actually) + fuzz is a better idea, i think.

good luck!http://[malware url removed].net/vicious-smiley-1815.gif

+1!