Was literally about to order one last night, but held off for some dumb reason... now I guess I gotta go blow some cash ...
Don’t sleep on it!
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Synth like drive
- Thread starter green3101
- Start date
Don’t sleep on it!
You could also make the leap and try a Source C4. There are a skillion fuzz and drive options.
Moog's known for their filters, so I would say MF Drive and maybe a bitcrusher before that in the effects chain to make the bass signal sound more "digital?"
@green3101 The best one man band pedal for anything bass synth is the Source Audio C4. Superbly powerful but you need to set your tone through their app either on your phone or computer. (It actually has a preset called “Flashlight”).
If you just need the fuzz, the Darkglass Duality is a pretty interesting choice as is the 3Leaf Doom 2.
I have even gotten great results with the Grizzly Bass in conjunction with an MXR Octave Deluxe.
Oh lastly, it matters which bass and pick up you use. Passive basses tend to work best, and if you have a bass with more than one pick up play around and see if you like the neck or bridge better, also the passive tone will greatly influence what the fuzz does, how fizzy it is etc... And fuzz pedals tend to hate buffers or buffered pedals so be mindful of where in your chain you place them.
If you just need the fuzz, the Darkglass Duality is a pretty interesting choice as is the 3Leaf Doom 2.
I have even gotten great results with the Grizzly Bass in conjunction with an MXR Octave Deluxe.
Oh lastly, it matters which bass and pick up you use. Passive basses tend to work best, and if you have a bass with more than one pick up play around and see if you like the neck or bridge better, also the passive tone will greatly influence what the fuzz does, how fizzy it is etc... And fuzz pedals tend to hate buffers or buffered pedals so be mindful of where in your chain you place them.
Source Audio Multiwave Bass Distortion is the most synthy drive I've tried so far and from what I've been seeing the new One Series Bass Distortion will be even better.
One trick that sometimes I use to get that synth organ tone is with my p-bass with flats, tone rolled off, and send it to an overdrive. You get that sort of Hammond tone that sounds great when feeding into modulation or filters.
One trick that sometimes I use to get that synth organ tone is with my p-bass with flats, tone rolled off, and send it to an overdrive. You get that sort of Hammond tone that sounds great when feeding into modulation or filters.
Deep dive on some YouTube of Doom with good headphones. I can't stress HOW different it is than any other fuzzes I've heard out there. You can play to it and it reacts with you in this awesomely symbiotic way. Was really a revelation.
I guess what I was getting at above is that the “Drive” from the Moog is probably nothing particularly interesting or special on its own, it’s really the combination of an oscillator into a drive into a filter that makes it special. The Moog MF Drive was marketed as being “filter-based” and does a have a unique character to it, but honestly tended more towards kinda harsh and honky tones to me when paired with a bass than the fatness I think you are attributing to the whole synth package. Any number of drive/distortion/fuzz pedals could fill that role perhaps even better when paired with a bass rather than a synth waveform. I think that’s why most of these suggestions are for very particularly voiced fuzz and synth pedals, because that drive in itself isn’t particularly “synthy”. The 3-Leaf Doom is really something that can kinda emulate the envelope of a synth along with some edge, whereas the actual Moog Drive is closer to a MXR Micro-amp style drive by comparison IME
Last edited:
- Oct 29, 2012
- 264
- 683
- Disclosures
- Mesa, Darkglass, EQD, Mantic, Source Audio, Yamaha, Delano, Hamstead Soundworks, Jad Freer Audio
I think your request for a "Drive" is perhaps confusing things here - it seems to me that what you are actually looking for is something to aid you in achieving the sound of synth oscillators/waveforms, as you mention using filter and octave pedals to recreate the other parts of the synth signal path/sound.
There isn't really a specific sound associated to the drive characteristics to those classic synths (without getting into things like wave-folding, or some of the modern drive circuits in more recents ). Mostly it's just regular old clipping/overdrive, sometimes a little bit of feedback from feeding the output back into the input of the mixer section. SS/BS Mini, EQD Westwood, Fairfield Barbershop, Paul Cochrane Timmy, EHX Bass Soul Food...etc would all help you recreate that part of the synth circuit.... but it seems to me that isn't what you are actually looking for...
Your stated tone goals are the classic Stevie Wonder bass tones.
You also mention not wanting the classic synth-sounding fuzz pedals (mammoth, b/master...etc) as they are "harsh". It is important to understand one of the key principles of subtractive synthesis is that you begin with rich/harsh sounds/oscillators/tones and then subtract the bits you don't want with filter.
The point being that these pedals may be harsh alone, but when used in conjunction with a filter they will yield warm and rich sounding synth-like bass tones. Just as is the case with the oscillators in all subtractive synths.
As @sunbeast mentions above, the "gain stage" of something like a Moog is not anything particularly special. And certainly will not offer any considerable contribution towards making your bass sound like a synth.
Alongside an octave and filter you will get close, but a more harmonically rich/harsh fuzz/drive pedal will IME/IMO yield better results in attaining the sounds you are hoping for.
The Doom 2 or forthcoming Source Audio UltraWave will most likely be able to deliver on your stated tone goals near enough on their own - and can be further enhanced/layered with octave, modulation, other drive, and filter pedals.
Out of interest what are your planned Octave and Envelope Filter pedals?
A better idea of your panned setup/signal will better help with recommendations, as beyond something like the Doom 2/ultraWave or the various more dedicated "synth" pedals, it will be a combination of these pedals that will achieve your desired results.
Thus, it isn't particularly helpful to suggest anything without a better understanding of the context/ecosystem that it will exist within.
It is also worth noting that the Source Audio C4, whilst offering full synth oscillators, can also operate as your Octave > Fuzz > Filter pedal setup in a single pedal, without any need to explore its oscillator, sequencer, or wider modulation opens.
- Octave: it successfully models/recreate something very similar to the Boss OC-2.
- Fuzz: it has a number of in built overdrive, distortion, and fuzz models, including hard clipping, wave-folding, and gated fuzz)
- Filter: all the filter options you could want, that can be directly triggered by your clean bass input for a a more expressive/dynamic response than standard octave>fuzz>signal chains.
Similarly, the Source Audio Spectrum offers all these three things minus the option for mixing oscillators into the equation.
There isn't really a specific sound associated to the drive characteristics to those classic synths (without getting into things like wave-folding, or some of the modern drive circuits in more recents ). Mostly it's just regular old clipping/overdrive, sometimes a little bit of feedback from feeding the output back into the input of the mixer section. SS/BS Mini, EQD Westwood, Fairfield Barbershop, Paul Cochrane Timmy, EHX Bass Soul Food...etc would all help you recreate that part of the synth circuit.... but it seems to me that isn't what you are actually looking for...
Your stated tone goals are the classic Stevie Wonder bass tones.
You also mention not wanting the classic synth-sounding fuzz pedals (mammoth, b/master...etc) as they are "harsh". It is important to understand one of the key principles of subtractive synthesis is that you begin with rich/harsh sounds/oscillators/tones and then subtract the bits you don't want with filter.
The point being that these pedals may be harsh alone, but when used in conjunction with a filter they will yield warm and rich sounding synth-like bass tones. Just as is the case with the oscillators in all subtractive synths.
As @sunbeast mentions above, the "gain stage" of something like a Moog is not anything particularly special. And certainly will not offer any considerable contribution towards making your bass sound like a synth.
Alongside an octave and filter you will get close, but a more harmonically rich/harsh fuzz/drive pedal will IME/IMO yield better results in attaining the sounds you are hoping for.
The Doom 2 or forthcoming Source Audio UltraWave will most likely be able to deliver on your stated tone goals near enough on their own - and can be further enhanced/layered with octave, modulation, other drive, and filter pedals.
Out of interest what are your planned Octave and Envelope Filter pedals?
A better idea of your panned setup/signal will better help with recommendations, as beyond something like the Doom 2/ultraWave or the various more dedicated "synth" pedals, it will be a combination of these pedals that will achieve your desired results.
Thus, it isn't particularly helpful to suggest anything without a better understanding of the context/ecosystem that it will exist within.
It is also worth noting that the Source Audio C4, whilst offering full synth oscillators, can also operate as your Octave > Fuzz > Filter pedal setup in a single pedal, without any need to explore its oscillator, sequencer, or wider modulation opens.
- Octave: it successfully models/recreate something very similar to the Boss OC-2.
- Fuzz: it has a number of in built overdrive, distortion, and fuzz models, including hard clipping, wave-folding, and gated fuzz)
- Filter: all the filter options you could want, that can be directly triggered by your clean bass input for a a more expressive/dynamic response than standard octave>fuzz>signal chains.
Similarly, the Source Audio Spectrum offers all these three things minus the option for mixing oscillators into the equation.
This is a really great thread! My use for fuzz has been exclusively in stacking to achieve this purpose either with octave and filter, or octave alone.
My setup was OC-2 -> Zvex Mastotron -> Emma Discumbobulator v2. I didn't bond with the Mastotron well bc it's tone felt too bright to me, even with treble knob at its lowest, or muddy with the sub switch on 2 or 3. I play passive basses with flats, so that may be a reason?
I've found that running the Way Huge Pork Loin in the fuzz spot has made the clipping more harmonious. The only issue here is that I wouldn't have the Drive level on the PL at such a high clipping level if I'd use the pedal alone and not in the "synth chain." Since I use the overdrive as always-on most of the time, this hasn't been a long-term fix.
I've read that the MXR Sub Machine can be a great option, since it has both sub and octave up options, with the distinct La Machine fuzz circuit (based on the Foxx Tone octave fuzz I think?). Does anyone have experience using the Sub Machine as part of a "synth chain"?
PS loving the demos I've seen so far of the Tech 21 Red Ripper and Keeley synth-1!
My setup was OC-2 -> Zvex Mastotron -> Emma Discumbobulator v2. I didn't bond with the Mastotron well bc it's tone felt too bright to me, even with treble knob at its lowest, or muddy with the sub switch on 2 or 3. I play passive basses with flats, so that may be a reason?
I've found that running the Way Huge Pork Loin in the fuzz spot has made the clipping more harmonious. The only issue here is that I wouldn't have the Drive level on the PL at such a high clipping level if I'd use the pedal alone and not in the "synth chain." Since I use the overdrive as always-on most of the time, this hasn't been a long-term fix.
I've read that the MXR Sub Machine can be a great option, since it has both sub and octave up options, with the distinct La Machine fuzz circuit (based on the Foxx Tone octave fuzz I think?). Does anyone have experience using the Sub Machine as part of a "synth chain"?
PS loving the demos I've seen so far of the Tech 21 Red Ripper and Keeley synth-1!
I use a combination of old pedals for this. Either an OC-2>Chunk Brown Dog>00Funk Mk II or swapping out the 00Funk for a Moog MF-101 and adding an expression pedal into the cutoff for additional sweep control. The Brown Dog is key in both chains, tightening the gate makes the Brown Dog super synthy, plus having the ability to blend in the amount of dirt and clean is a killer feature for me as you can dial out the harshness. It's become one my favourite pedals over the years. Those combinations to me at least sound sonically juicier than anything I can get out of a dedicated single bass synth pedal like the Bananana Matryoska or the Future Impact (both of which are very capable synthy drives).
I've been really impressed with those Keeley Synth-1 demos though, this seems to be a single pedal solution, the only slight questions around it being how well it tracks and (I think) the filter is band pass. Any Synth-1 owners on here care to share their thoughts on this pedal and how it compares to other solutions mentioned in this thread?
I've been really impressed with those Keeley Synth-1 demos though, this seems to be a single pedal solution, the only slight questions around it being how well it tracks and (I think) the filter is band pass. Any Synth-1 owners on here care to share their thoughts on this pedal and how it compares to other solutions mentioned in this thread?
