Synth Bass Pedal recs?

[lefty-bassman]

New to TB, left bass player. Building a new pedal board and looking for a synth bass pedal? Suggestions

And on the topic, an overdrive/fuzz pedal. Noting too heavy, just to add a little grit to my tone.

Thx

 

[bassbrad]

Welcome Lefty,

It is hard for me not to recommend you check out both the Source Audio C4 and Panda Audio Future Impact VIP V4.5 IMHO they are bot equal in terms of sound options but each have different feature sets in some regards that may sway you to either one. Both can cover a cover band bassists needs and have ample possibilities for delving into actual synth programming if you so choose.

Future Impact has just released the 4.5 update version that includes the sounds that make the MXR so popular plus it is capable of 4 voice synth voicing and adds a full FM (Yamaha DX7) feature set for those sounds. It has an overdrive, pitch shifter, can do octaver & envelope sounds and has a built in delay and 4 band EQ. There is a user base for sound sharing.

C4 is also a 4 voice synth that has an expanded set of drive/distortion sounds, excellent octaver as well as a full range of envelope sounds and a sequencer. SA offers the Neuro interface and there are over 1000 patches to sample for the C4 which can also run sounds from Spectrum. You can also down load the Neuro app for practically any device and hear and see sound samples.

 

[kleinenenten]

Overdrive and fuzz are very different - so it may help to know what sorts of tones you're going for. My guess is you're wanting something synthy, given the name of this thread. For me, when I think of synthy drive, I'd lean towards fuzz. Some sort of Russian Muff or derivative would be my choice. You need something with a little grit to make it work. I get synthy tones using my octave pedal into dirt into my envelope filter. The fuzz is easily the synthiest, but the others work well too. My low gain overdrive (a modded Pork Loin) sounds great as well, and is nice and smooth. Just depends what you're looking for.

I've never had a bass synth that I really gelled with, but I hear good things overall about the new MXR Bass Synth pedal (or whatever it's called). The old Digitech Bass Synth Wah was fun when I had it.

Good luck with the hunt!

 

[moon-bass]

New to TB, left bass player. Building a new pedal board and looking for a synth bass pedal? Suggestions

And on the topic, an overdrive/fuzz pedal. Noting too heavy, just to add a little grit to my tone.

Thx

Are you looking for a stand alone synth pedal? @bassbrad has some great recommendations above. For something a little more pug and play friendly (especially if you're a knob tweaker as opposed to an app user, like me), I like the Boss SY-1 - easy to use, tracks and sounds great.

If you want to go analog, there are a few all in one synth pedals - essentially an octave pedal, an envelope filter, and fuzz all in one. My fave is the FKT Octavarium, but that's pretty pricey. A lot of folks go the separate, three pedal route - see attached

 

[Bob_Ross]

I own four different synth pedals. Of those, I would recommend two of them:
- Korg G5 …which is disco’d but might be available on the 2nd-hand market; and
- MXR MB301 Bass Synth …which is relatively new but might actually be in stock at your favorite dealer. Maybe.

My recommendation is based on the usability of their sounds, and the accuracy of their tracking…though I know some bassists disagree with me on the tracking. Both pedals are sensitive to your playing technique.

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For a fuzz/overdrive, I am a huge fan of the Damnation Audio MBD-1. Ostensibly their MBD-2 is the same device in a smaller enclosure?

 

[bassbrad]

If analog is your preference then the Pigtronix Mothership 2 or EHX Bass Micro Synth are excellent choices. I had an original AC powered EHX BmS for ages that covers a wide range of tones. As @moon-bass mentioned the classic 3 pedal combo; octaver, filter, fuzz goes a long way to building those sounds.

 

[sunbeast]

For synth there are two common pedal approaches-

the first approach just uses your input sound to calculate pitch, note on/off, and dynamic information and then plays an actual digital synthesizer algorithm that attempts that follows all of those pitch/dynamic calculations. The plus side of this approach is that you get accurate actual synthesizer sounds and some of the options in this category (like the Future Impact and C4) have a really wide variety of sounds and tweakability on tap (4 different tunable synth oscillators at once, versatile filter sections, etc). The downsides to this approach are latency (it takes time to calculate the pitch of your input signal, plus time for other general processing) and potentially funky tracking (most of these options are monophonic and can play the wrong notes, miss notes, or play extra notes depending on the signal you feed them and so tend to require a lot of setup trial and error and learning to “play to the pedal”).

The second approach are pedals that take your input signal and manipulate it directly into something that resembles a synth waveform that can then be played through filters and other effects to emulate a synth. Analog octavers like the Boss OC-2 fit into this category (the timbre of the -1 octave is in the ballpark of a filtered square wave sound due to the way the octave is created from your original tone), as do some digital synthesizer pedals like the Boss SY series (which do some similar magic plus to the OC-2 plus a lot more but in the digital domain and have built-in filters and other goodies) . The positives from these pedals are very little to no latency (since pitch doesn’t need to be tracked) and usually no missed/doubled notes (though you can get octave up glitches from something like an OC-2 if the harmonics from your input tone overpower the fundamental too much), and digital pedals like the Boss SY series are polyphonic so are very forgiving to different playing styles (the OC-2 and other analog octavers are still monophonic and so will require some careful “playing to the pedal”, though less than pedals like the C4 or Future Impact IME). Downsides to this approach are generally less accurate synth timbres (everything in this category is instead an approximation of a synth waveform sound and the sound will vary depending on what you feed it), and usually less versatility (because your input tone is making the output tone you can’t get synth sounds that sustain longer than the sustain from your bass for example without a “freeze” type effect like some of the Boss SY pedals have) and among the analog options you are usually stuck with only a single synth “voice” and usually need a chain of pedals to get more versatile synth sounds (a common analog synth chain might be 3-4 different pedals, like Octaver-fuzz-filter-chorus or similar). The EHX Bass Micro Synth is a rare analog option that has multiple mixable voices and a built-in filter, though it has a tone that is very distinctive to itself (of you like what it does there is very little out there that can match it exactly).


I have a bunch of the options from category one, and would definitely recommend the Panda MIDI Future Impact v4 (VIP or the big-box version) out of all those options. I end up using category two options more often (usually analog synth chain options like an OC-2 into fuzz into filter into chorus) live though because of the tightness and immediacy of tracking that it gives me, even at the expense of (quite) a lot of versatility. The current update of the Future Impact is pretty dang impressive though, and IMO the best “actual synth triggered by a bass” system you can get these days, and the tracking is pretty freaking fast and accurate to the point that it might become a more permanent live pedal fixture for me!

 

[Michedelic]

New to TB, left bass player. Building a new pedal board and looking for a synth bass pedal? Suggestions

And on the topic, an overdrive/fuzz pedal. Noting too heavy, just to add a little grit to my tone.

Thx

Keep in mind that a fuzz(in extreme settings) is essentially a square wave. If you feed an octave into that first, then follow with a doubler/chorus then some sort of ADSR/filter/noise gate thing, you can approximate synth. I recently picked up a Boss SY-1, lots of people think highly of it, but I really haven’t put it through its paces yet.
I had a Digitech Dirty Robot for a while, but it was too fussy, got rid of it but it might work for you…check YT demos

 

[eriky4003]

You’d have to get Dirty Robot used. I don’t believe they are still being made. Thumbs up to the Boss SY-1. Great sounds on there that tracks well but I find it has a bit of an ‘afternote’ which doesn’t allow for really tight phrasing on the settings I like. I tried the EHX BMS but didn’t believe it would be useful live as the switches are really sensitive.

 

[TOOL460002]

I've owned an EHX Bass Micro Synth and it was great for those bowed sounds. Other cool options but really excelled there. Had a Future Impact v1 and now have a v4 VIP. Big fan. That might be my recommendation. I need to download v4.5 and find out, but right now I'd say go with that. I had a Source Audio C4 as well. It's easy to buy and sell, so it might be worth it to learn what you like even if you sell it. Boss SY-1 and SY-200 kinda "meh" for bass and range of sounds.

My favorite just based on the sound is the Chunk Systems Octavius Squeezer and I am on my second one but not sure if that's a good place to start. No MIDI, expensive, and hilarious UI. I also use my ZOIA's for bass synth and pure synth but that's more because I have them around and not because they're the best "classic bass synth." If you want something wild it might be the best bass synth.

Ya buy a Future Impact or a ZOIA.

 

[Kenny056]

I love each of these for very different reasons. There's lots of good advice in this thread. I just shopped around and found most of these used for great prices. When I was first getting into pedals, I picked up the Zoom MS-60B+. It has a few different synth effects with lots of parameters to twiddle. It allowed me to find out which sounds i was searching for without spending a ton of money. Good luck on your search!

 

[ValerieK]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but for me nothing comes even close to the Boss SY-300/1000 (I haven't tried the SY1 or 200). I still have barely scratched the surface of how to use the thing after several years - though I haven't spent much time really trying either.

Every other guitar or bass synth effect I have tried sounds like a glitchy messy toy. The SY you can just play.

 

[Pep]

I have the MXR Bass Synth. Soundwise it does everything I need. I recommend it only if you’re willing to spend a lot of time getting to know it and what it likes. If you’re not a “clean” player I would recommend against it.
It works great for me because I cleaned up my playing, but many members here don’t care for the tracking. No problems here, but I’m always wanting to try new things so I have a Future Impact V4 - VIP on order and due to be delivered next week. It’s been getting rave reviews since the 4.5v update.

 

[sunbeast]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but for me nothing comes even close to the Boss SY-300/1000 (I haven't tried the SY1 or 200). I still have barely scratched the surface of how to use the thing after several years - though I haven't spent much time really trying either.

Every other guitar or bass synth effect I have tried sounds like a glitchy messy toy. The SY you can just play.

Are you using the SY1000 with the 1/4” input or the 13-pin input? If 1/4”, then all the synth sounds you have available (“Dynamic Synth” engine in the SY1000) are using waveshaping to get the tones (ie manipulating your input tone into something resembling synth oscillator tones). This type of sound engine doesn’t require any pitch-tracking to work and so can track super fast compared to a pedal that is tracking an actual synth engine or sampled sounds at the pitches of your playing (which is what most of the other dedicated synth pedals are doing). That is the same as all of the soubds available in the smaller SY pedals as well. If you play the SY1000 with 13-pin input then the “Osc Synth” engine is a pitchtracker triggering an internal synth and more directly comparable to something like the Future Impact or C4, etc (although polyphonic because of the hex input).

 

[urkel3000]

I love each of these for very different reasons. There's lots of good advice in this thread. I just shopped around and found most of these used for great prices. When I was first getting into pedals, I picked up the Zoom MS-60B+. It has a few different synth effects with lots of parameters to twiddle. It allowed me to find out which sounds i was searching for without spending a ton of money. Good luck on your search!View attachment 7461543

I like the keeley synth one too and I don't see it mentioned here a lot. I use that, and an EHX BMS. I have an expression pedal hooked up to the Keeley and leave it in square wave mode, heel down gives a nice sub bass and heel up gives a good buzzy synth sound

 

[vvvmmm]

The Synth One, the Digisynth and the EHX Mono Bass Synth are my faves in that the presets, or obvious settings, work well quickly, and you kinda hafta wanna sound rude to end up there with 'em. Add one more pedal of choice to one of 'em (I reco dirt, or modulation), and you have a pretty unique sound pretty quick without having to sober up.

 

[DJmtd]

I'm waiting on an MXR Bass Synth myself. In my limited play time with it, it was pretty much all it's cracked up to be.

When it comes to fuzz, I think @kleinenenten is right with a Russian Muff or variety thereof. I would also say a Zvex Mastotron is a cool synthy sounding fuzz. This combo is phenomenal:



(not my video, but it's the reason I got a Mastotron!)