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syth and pedalboards
- Thread starter kshewchuk
- Start date
I would spread your wings a bit from boss and line 6, the effects world is a very big one, it is worth thoroughly exploring before you go out and spend money.
Good luck!
Good luck!
i think the digitech bass synth wah is pretty sick for the price. Its got i think 7 "settings" including auto-wah, envelope filter, sub bass, you name it. you can get some wacky tones out of it if you mess around with it long enough. Plus i think theres one in the accessories section for about 50 bucks. Good luck!
There's been much dissatisfaction expressed in the boss asnd line6 synths on these pages. Much more popular around these parts is the ehx bass microsynth. some people rave about much the hyped deep impact (but I'm looking to sell mine), or the korg g5 but as both have been out of production for some time the amount of money they generatwe on ebay is close to absurd. If you look at most of the boards around here it's quite clear that many people prefer creating their own synth sounds with a combination of fuzz, octaves and filter. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be much of a quick fix in the search for a good synth- happy hunting.
The synth on the Boss GT6B is terrible. It's way too sensitive to touch. It could be the settings that I have to mess around with, but they are pretty bad out of the box.
The synth in the Boss GT6B work great. All it takes is understanding how it works (like most synths). The Bass Micro Synth, while very easy to use, is limited to square wave. It does track better than the Boss.
I don't know what BMS you were playing with, but the current version (and also consequently the vintage version) have a lot more than just squarewave .. squarewave is just 1 voice out around 6 or 7 that the thing has.. LOTS of different sound options, and total customization. I just wish it had presets.
Do you have sawtooth wave in yours? Or maybe a bow wave? Mine doesn't. The other sounds are just original, octave and suboctave. It does not have 6 or 7 voices.
the gt6b is a fantastic effect unit, very glad i decided to sell my single pedals
however the synth does suck, on all settings. but i own a deep impact, which for me is hands down the best, and theres not many i havnt tried
however the synth does suck, on all settings. but i own a deep impact, which for me is hands down the best, and theres not many i havnt tried
+1
That's probably the only major drawback of the BMS (size and 24VDC adapter aside). It's surprisingly flexible in terms of tone, but it really only has one waveform, a few octaves, and a filter for you to play with. The square wave slider technically doesn't produce a pure square wave - just a fuzz tone that's sufficiently close when combining it with a filter.
So, while you can get a lot of flexibility and awesome tones... there are plenty of analog and digital tones that are out of its reach.
The other synthesizer pedals out there capture a different range of synthesizer tones, and their digital natures allow them to do things the BMS can't do without being Moog-sized and Moog priced. Of course, even they happen to be limited, as they can't cover much of what the BMS can.
It all narrows down to personal taste: how far do you want to be from "synth-like bass", and how close do you want to be to "keyboard/synthesizer"?
I would gladly help you with selling your deep impact - I've been trying to get my hands on one for some time now, but I don't want it off ebay - 500$ for the deep impact? Thats lame.
Anyways, shoot me an email if you're interested.
I really like my Boss ME20B and my Diditech BSW. Beetween these two I can come up with just about anything I want synth-wise. The ME20B is also the easiest to program multi effect I've ever put my hands on, and it's fairly inexpensive.
Just in case this is at all helpful, I have recorded a short clip of the EHX Bass Micro Synth. Just go to this page and scroll to the bottom: Link Removed
NOTE: this clip is just random crap I am doodling on, while tweaking the sliders every 5 or 10 seconds. It is crappy playing, I was just trying to get as many sounds out of it as I could in a minute and a half
NOTE: this clip is just random crap I am doodling on, while tweaking the sliders every 5 or 10 seconds. It is crappy playing, I was just trying to get as many sounds out of it as I could in a minute and a half
I having a tough time getting useable sounds out of the GTB6 synth - any chance of passing on what settings you're using on yours?
+1 for expanding your search, one of the BEST synth pedals I have used and still use is the Korg G5. A little hard to find but they do pop up on talkbass, usually $250 to $300. It tracks very well and there are some very usable sounds.
Don't forget, these pedals are just doing their best to mimic a synth. Depending on what you are doing you will need to experiment to get the sound you want. After a little knob tweaking, try muting with your palm, light and heavy attacks, playing with a pick, and listening to a lot of synth bass styles and bass players copying synth styles.
Listen to some George Clinton/Parliment/Funkadelic, Stevie Wonder, Bernie Worell (on and on) or a little more modern stuff in drum & bass stuff like JoJo Meyer (or a little more old school SQUAREPUSHER), or Jesse Murphy from Brazilian Girls. Doug Wimbish, JMJ... Check out the Funk 101 thread. The more you have the sound internalized the easier it will be to get it out of any pedal. SO SORRY FOR GETTING OFF TOPIC!
Before spending a a lot of money get an envelope pedal and an octave pedal, a volume pedal. After long hours trying to get sounds out of different synth units that combo was magic!
Don't forget, these pedals are just doing their best to mimic a synth. Depending on what you are doing you will need to experiment to get the sound you want. After a little knob tweaking, try muting with your palm, light and heavy attacks, playing with a pick, and listening to a lot of synth bass styles and bass players copying synth styles.
Listen to some George Clinton/Parliment/Funkadelic, Stevie Wonder, Bernie Worell (on and on) or a little more modern stuff in drum & bass stuff like JoJo Meyer (or a little more old school SQUAREPUSHER), or Jesse Murphy from Brazilian Girls. Doug Wimbish, JMJ... Check out the Funk 101 thread. The more you have the sound internalized the easier it will be to get it out of any pedal. SO SORRY FOR GETTING OFF TOPIC!
Before spending a a lot of money get an envelope pedal and an octave pedal, a volume pedal. After long hours trying to get sounds out of different synth units that combo was magic!
I notice alot of guys slamming the line 6 synth. I've actually found my Bass floor POD to be a pretty good synth. Sure you have to tweak it and adjust your playing but the end result is pretty decent.
If you're considering a Boss synth, especially the SYB-5, I would only recommend it if you have a clean bass channel mixed in at the same time. It sounds good that way, otherwise, if it's just your bass going through the pedal, you get the tracking issue that most people complain about with that pedal. Personally, I love my SYB-5 pedal, but I'm definitely in the minority on this. Go to the wiki and look at the pedal samples. I have one up there for the SYB-5.
And the tone-destroying crappy bypass.
It never sounds anything like a square wave to me, but it does sound nice and gnarly.
I love mine, I really do. I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't generate pure waveforms, and that the bypass sucks, and it needs 24V and it's the size of a suitcase and it doesn't work until it warms up a bit and it's generally quite disagreeable when it feels like it, but it's still my favourite pedal. I wouldn't put up with that sort of crap from any of my other pedals, which I think says a lot for the BMS.
I'm planning to buy the upcoming Chunk Systems synth to give me the waveforms I want (and that awesome gated fuzz will be a nice bonus too), but I'll still be keeping my BMS.
Agreed on loving the BMS despite its many flaws. I just got a Freqbox to do the pure waveform stuff, but my BMS isn't going anywhere. The filter is so flexible with the separate start, stop and rate, and I also love the attack delay for swells
