Synth bass

[g-dude]

So does anyone else ever take to the synth bass?

After not doing it for a year (and then it was on a lesser synth), I've started again for church - mostly using it for long drawn out pad purposes...and to shake the building.

Would definitely appreciate some good suggestions on other ways to approach the instrument that aren't just "download this patch collection" as I'm using a Minimoog, so downloading isn't an option.

Oh, and my son got to experience my Minimoog in action for the first time on Sunday.

His verdict, "I don't like it, because it was shaking the whole building. I felt it shaking in my chest and it wasn't nice at all."

I can't imagine what would have happened if we pulled out the 18" powered subs.

 

[Yaralag]

I did use the Source Audio C4 synth pedal for a while and it was pretty cool. I saw this guy using an octave pedal and a fuzz together which got a great tone and eliminated the tracking problems associated with most synth pedals.
https://youtube.com/shorts/iCekyZLAZUc?feature=share
It also eliminates the need to go online and download anything which is nice.

 

[g-dude]

I did use the Source Audio C4 synth pedal for a while and it was pretty cool. I saw this guy using an octave pedal and a fuzz together which got a great tone and eliminated the tracking problems associated with most synth pedals.
https://youtube.com/shorts/iCekyZLAZUc?feature=share
It also eliminates the need to go online and download anything which is nice.

Personally I've never bothered with synth pedals, because the ones I wanted were out of my budget...which is ironic because I somehow managed to find the budget to buy the Minimoog when they reissued it a few years ago.

I think with a synth pedal you'd play differently than with a keyboard. Not better, not worse - just different. Which makes it its own unique sort of animal as well.

 

[Michedelic]

So does anyone else ever take to the synth bass?

After not doing it for a year (and then it was on a lesser synth), I've started again for church - mostly using it for long drawn out pad purposes...and to shake the building.

Would definitely appreciate some good suggestions on other ways to approach the instrument that aren't just "download this patch collection" as I'm using a Minimoog, so downloading isn't an option.

Oh, and my son got to experience my Minimoog in action for the first time on Sunday.

His verdict, "I don't like it, because it was shaking the whole building. I felt it shaking in my chest and it wasn't nice at all."

I can't imagine what would have happened if we pulled out the 18" powered subs.

I did, 40 years ago, as it was an emerging new frontier in those days. Like fretless or five-string, I viewed it as another tool in the toolbox, an additional realm of sound with the added advantage of infinite sustain. As the technology for guitar(and bass)controlled synth was barely there(ARP’s attempt destroyed the company financially, leaving Roland on top), and all of that was way more expensive than just a monophonic keyboard, I saved up all my bottle caps and settled on the Sequential Circuits Pro-One, a worthy counterpart to the Mini-Moog. Perhaps not as fat as the Moog, but very punchy, plus an on-board sequencer.
Inspired by Kraftwerk(but, of course), Giorgio Moroder, Bernie Worrell’s stanky work on Parliament’s “Flashlight”, and most impactful, the UK’s future-minded Ultravox(a band that Gary Numan swiped way too much from), I set to work teaching myself a crude type of key technique(I never had the dreaded childhood piano lessons). I also absorbed, as a kid, the earlier examples of Wendy Carlos, Dick Hyman’s “Minotaur”, and the way-ahead-of-their-time duo, Silver Apples, on late 60’s FM radio. I kept at it, started a band in the new realm(the high point being an opening act for Berlin in their “Metro” period), split my time between my P-Bass and P-One, but after a while, and as effects pedals advanced in capability, features, and variety, I drifted away from the keys.
In this golden age of stomp boxes, the possibilities are endless, but I don’t regret learning my way on the Sequential.

 

[Yaralag]

Personally I've never bothered with synth pedals, because the ones I wanted were out of my budget...which is ironic because I somehow managed to find the budget to buy the Minimoog when they reissued it a few years ago.

I think with a synth pedal you'd play differently than with a keyboard. Not better, not worse - just different. Which makes it its own unique sort of animal as well.

I'm sorry. I made the quick assumption that you were talking about synth pedals. I've never used synth bass before but the other bassist at my church decided he wanted to try out a synth for some bass parts so the church bought it for him (it's a big church). It's so new it hasn't been used yet but I can't wait to hear it.

 

[g-dude]

I'm sorry. I made the quick assumption that you were talking about synth pedals. I've never used synth bass before but the other bassist at my church decided he wanted to try out a synth for some bass parts so the church bought it for him (it's a big church). It's so new it hasn't been used yet but I can't wait to hear it.

If you have things dialed in right, it can be a massive wall of sound in a way that a bass guitar simply can’t be.

Think along the lines of when a pipe organ hits those super low notes.

The truly modern ones with patch memory have an advantage when it comes to dialing in multiple sounds for a service…but at my last church we only ever used a single patch - so sort of a waste there.