What effect to create an ambient 'pad' ?

[ambientbassist]

I mean the sort of synth type pad of sound that you hear Steve Lawson using behind his looping.

Is it just an ebow and a looper ?

Thanks !

 

[Knettgummi]

I'm not too familiar with Steve Lawson, but I'd recommend a reverb for this effect (preferably one with a long-ish decay that lets you go to 100% wet blend). I've used a bunch of different reverb pedals for this purpose and my favorite is easily the SA Dimension, so that's my recommendation. Team it up with a delay, or put some kind of pitch shift/octave up goodness in front for even bigger, wider pads.

 

[6jase5]

Delay and verb were my answers as well. Volume pedals work nicely but so do volume knobs.

 

[Knettgummi]

IME you won't even need a volume knob to do swells if you have a reverb at 100%/0% wet/dry mix. Try fast tremolo picking or rapidly fingerpicking octaves/chords, starting out quite gently and then gradually increasing the intensity. One of my favourite techniques, and it can go from soft, soothing "pad"-sounds to enormous screams.

 

[DirkP]

According to himself, he is using a lexicon (so definitely a kind of reverb) and an ebow. The ebow sounds really interesting.


Dirk

 

[dannybuoy]

Try a reverb with a shimmer mode:

E.g:

Line 6 Verbzilla
Behringer RV600
Mooer Shimverb
Neunaber Wet
Strymon Bluesky
Mr Black Eterna
Stanley FX Gold Mine

 

[ambientbassist]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your replies, I'll experiment with some verbs and delays on my laptop, and see what I can come up with, prior to buying some effects.

 

[Nephilymbass]

I use the pod hd and run the particleverb and octiverb in series cant remember the order off the top of my head though. could do the same thing with the m9 or m13 I'm guessing, as far as individual pedals; the Hardwire supernatural and the space station sounds on the digitech ex7 are also pretty cool. basically with all these theres an octave up and reverb going on.

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

EHX Superego excels at this.

 

[thumbs3000]

I had my gear set up today and I read this thread so I thought I'd post a video of how I sometimes do synth pad sounds on bass. Check it out:

 

[Dr Steve Lawson]

The main things I use for big ambient sounds are reverb, delay, chorus, envelope and a VOLUME PEDAL.

Getting rid of the attack is vital to creating pads rather than echoing rhythmic effects. I often use an envelope filter of some sort after the delay so that the 'shape' of the sound is constantly shifting...

Enjoy

Steve
www.stevelawson.net

 

[Joeynone]

EHX Superego all day

 

[Swimming Bird]

EHX Superego all day

Yup. Though I guess you should probably do what Lawson recommends to get a Lawson sound.

Alternatively heavy fuzzes can completely take away you note attack and some can drone on their own.

Alternatively alternatively you could use a Roland GR system and trigger actual synth pads.

 

[chuck norriss]

Try a reverb with a shimmer mode:

E.g:

Line 6 Verbzilla
Behringer RV600
Mooer Shimverb
Neunaber Wet
Strymon Bluesky
Mr Black Eterna
Stanley FX Gold Mine

Mooer shimverb very interesting effect I believe it's a 5th along w a delay pedal and comp set to sustain high ratio high threshold I think and you'll be padding like a keyboard

 

[gully_jones]

I get good results with a Zoom MS-70CDR.

 

[Driven Crane]

I get good results with a Zoom MS-70CDR.

Timeline + Wet = !

 

[dannybuoy]

There's the Neunaber Seraphim shimmer pedal now too:
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[bcoomes]

EHX Superego excels at this.

I second the Super Ego, but also recommend the EHX Freeze. It does some of what the Super Ego does - I use it a lot for the kind of thing you're looking for.

 

[Driven Crane]

There's the Neunaber Seraphim shimmer pedal now too:
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It is the same reverb with another cover.

 

[DagoMaino]

Superego is a good choice. Personally I like the Freeze into a modded BF-2, then loop a Particle verb in parallel... Dang, I just went to space station holodeck rainforest!