Awesome. I was hoping it would be good for emulating the sound of a synth with the oscillators tuned to a chord. Now I just need to decide where to put it on my to buy list.
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Synthy analog bass pedals that are designed to work together
- Thread starter moon-bass
- Start date
Ah I stand corrected. I shouldn't have written that from memory. That is the exact post I was referring to, thanks!
C4 has it built in. HXFX, HXStomp, or H9 are what I use now. The harmony options of using other intervals like 10ths is cool too.
I've never used a Quint Machine, but it looks very cool and POGish.
I had a Quint a few years ago, and I thought it sounded great and the tracking was exceptional. I sold it because I decided to try and go pedal-less for awhile. It was the hardest day of my life. So far.
I like the Quint. The thing is, I just want a pedal that sounds good plays well, and doesn't take a lot of effort to learn or use. Call me lazy, but I can appreciate the simplicity of a few knobs - no menus, presets, or apps or computers to deal with, just a nice pedal that sounds good, with knobs. I realize that might not be everyone's boat, and I respect that. It's that for me, man, I loved the sound, the response, the capabilities, and the overall fun of a pedal like the C4 - it's super cool, but I just want some knobs
And anyways, the Quint does that well.
I like the Quint. The thing is, I just want a pedal that sounds good plays well, and doesn't take a lot of effort to learn or use. Call me lazy, but I can appreciate the simplicity of a few knobs - no menus, presets, or apps or computers to deal with, just a nice pedal that sounds good, with knobs. I realize that might not be everyone's boat, and I respect that. It's that for me, man, I loved the sound, the response, the capabilities, and the overall fun of a pedal like the C4 - it's super cool, but I just want some knobs
And anyways, the Quint does that well.
Yeah man, that totally sums it up. I guess I don't care if they are analog or digital, as long as they are easy to operate, play well with others, and sound good
I think I was limiting myself in my thinking.
I mean, you can get philosophical about this, but in my book there is a huge difference between playing octave and fuzz into a Xerograph Deluxe and using a C4.Yeah man, that totally sums it up. I guess I don't care if they are analog or digital, as long as they are easy to operate, play well with others, and sound good
I think I was limiting myself in my thinking.
One feels like you're making the thing all by yourself, like making a pizza from scratch - starting with the dough. The digital pedal would be like using tomato pulp that has already been seasoned instead of cutting up tomatoes yourself in the process - it's still your pizza - while the C4 feels like heating up a pre-made pizza you just took from the freezer and popped it in the oven.
H
Btw I also picked up an Fmeron. Curios if you have any hints or tips on how to use it.
Hahahaha I like it!
Btw I also picked up an Fmeron. Curios if you have any hints or tips on how to use it.
Here's my short take on the Fmeron:
Switches: Top left in middle position, top right in FM position.
Knobs:
Synth Vol maxed out.
Clean Vol turned up until you can actually hear your clean signal, then backed off a little - so that it's at the door, but not in the room.
FM turned up just a little bit, same as clean - if it's clearly audible at all times, it's too much.
Mod Frequency around 2, carefully fine tuned to match the signal (no wobble).
That's what mine is mostly set, and then there are the two remaining knobs to actually dial in the sound. With the attack/decay knob all the way CCW and the depth knob around 9 o'clock, you get a dubby synth. With the attack knob around 2 o'clock and the depth knob around 11 o'clock you get a bouncy, slow firing laser gun sound.
One thing that took me a minute to realize: The envelope restarts every time you play a new note.
@moon-bass This is excellent advice from @el murdoque, and almost precisely how I use mine as well. I found the 4th node on Mod Freq also worked well for most applications, just a different, slightly more in-your-face style sound.
And then, if you ever feel like messing with its sub-octave capabilities (-1 on the top left switch), the 1st node on Mod Freq is probably the best place to go. I have sub octave covered on my boards with either a Subterranea or an OC-2, so I keep my FMeron at equal pitch to my clean, but it does go great super low sounds.
If you haven't already, check out Zach Rizer's video on YT, and while not quite as useful for me personally, Janek Gwizdala also has a pretty good one, too. These are great places to get to grips with what seems like an intimidating set of knobs and switches
And then, if you ever feel like messing with its sub-octave capabilities (-1 on the top left switch), the 1st node on Mod Freq is probably the best place to go. I have sub octave covered on my boards with either a Subterranea or an OC-2, so I keep my FMeron at equal pitch to my clean, but it does go great super low sounds.
If you haven't already, check out Zach Rizer's video on YT, and while not quite as useful for me personally, Janek Gwizdala also has a pretty good one, too. These are great places to get to grips with what seems like an intimidating set of knobs and switches
Not to decorate myself with foreign feathers (as the Germans say), @sloppy_phil was the person who gave me the starting points for my own exploration and that made a world of difference for me. The weird pedal that did weird noise suddenly became a usable synth.
I could only agree with your assertion if someone only uses presets ~ but if you delve in as intended and treat is as a synth, and yes it is a "for real synth", to create your own sounds it can be just as much a labor of love and rewarding as an "analog" method.
On the fuzz front, I'm really digging both the Fat Fuzz Factory and the OBNE Alpha Haunt. I think they are both keepers. Both sound excellent on their own and with the Iron Ether pair.
The Team Awesome! was in third place, and I really liked it for both synth and non-synth, but it got edged out just a bit because the FFF and AH are a little more versatile.
So I found my two synthy fuzzes, and as an aside both the Idiotbox Blowerbox Deluxe and the JPTR Double Jive sounds great OD/Distortion with the synthy stuff, so I think I found all my dirt that I'm gonna need ... for awhile.
My next chore is going to be to filter out the filters ... envelope filters, that is. I've accumulated quite a few, and I need to sell some so i can buy some more
I love filters, but I can't abide pedals sitting around unused.
The Team Awesome! was in third place, and I really liked it for both synth and non-synth, but it got edged out just a bit because the FFF and AH are a little more versatile.
So I found my two synthy fuzzes, and as an aside both the Idiotbox Blowerbox Deluxe and the JPTR Double Jive sounds great OD/Distortion with the synthy stuff, so I think I found all my dirt that I'm gonna need ... for awhile.
My next chore is going to be to filter out the filters ... envelope filters, that is. I've accumulated quite a few, and I need to sell some so i can buy some more
I love filters, but I can't abide pedals sitting around unused.
Not sure I agree ... the C4 is more like buying the ingredients to make the dough and sauce to make the pizza. It is a highly configurable/flexible pedal not shake n bake at all. However, it does take some learning to get the best out of it. I do like to turn knobs as much as the next person, but I am really digging just how powerful digital pedals are these days. Eh ...digital - analog doesn’t matter to me much. To each their own I guess.
The thing with me (and I've heard this from a couple of folks in my business that also play music) is that I've been working in information technology since my early 20's. I spend hours and hours a day staring into a screen, clicking thru menus, digging thru software, building processes, etc. I can totally appreciate the power of digital pedals, but when I'm not working I prefer to not be in front of a screen.
For me at least, it's not analog snobbery or anything like that, it's just that I can't stand digging thru menus lol.
I think the digital pedals like the C4 are amazing. But yeah, to each their own. Everyone should play what's makes you happy!
I even find that I don't use my Spark practice amp or Fender Rumble Studio 40 as much as I thought I would ... Cuz I have to wait for them to boot lol.
While I can get your points,
it's about how it feels to create the sound. The C4 is a convenient package where all the ingredients are included and in such a way that they work well together.
It sounds a bit counter intuitive to prefer running a $200 octave into a $400 fuzz into a $350 envelope, and needing to buy a bunch of each, pairing them up until you found what floats your board - only to end up with effectively a single sound because you can't really change the intricate equilibrium of knob positions on the fly while playing live. The C4 has 128 presets you can configure and you don't need to fear bumping a single knob by the smallest increment in transport only to figure out what's wrong when the synth chain sounds differently upon arriving at the gig.
However, to some people, having done the synth chain gauntlet and coming up with a combination of pedals is a far superior feeling to having constructed a synth chain in a digital environment and then copied it into the C4.
It is the opposite of frugal, the opposite of convenient and the opposite of practical. But nonetheless, the results are often somewhat unique, since analog pedals have tiny little differences in how they sound and react and those are multiplied by using them in your average synth setup because there are very sensitive things at play here. You can back up your patches and sell your C4. The moment you realize that you want it back, you go to the shop and buy another, copy your backup into it and it'll sound 100% the same.
In IT since 1980 ... developer for 25 years and what you said
‘For me at least, it's not analog snobbery or anything like that, it's just that I can't stand digging thru menus lol.’ Really resonated with me. I feel the same way about pedals, TVs, Computers, and even Thermostats, Ugh ..everything has a friggin app! It gets tiring very fast. I am with you on this one.
Another aspect on avoiding pedals with apps, at least for me, is the two part problem of being an adult with limited free time AND having ADHD. If I open up my phone or a computer and start looking at a screen, I end up spending my very limited free time scrolling through TB or Reddit instead of playing bass like I wanted to.
Oh yeah - ADHD here as well. It's like I'm trying to find a synth tone for a song and all the sudden an hour has gone by because I went down some rabbit hole ..
