What pedals for synth sound?

[RafBass]

Future Impact v4. I got one and it is very good. Here's how it sounds:

 

[RafBass]

The Future Impact is so freaking legit, that today my neighbor complained about a keyboard and not a bass sound!!! Go for it.

 

[Krisfield]

Good to know where the idea original came from. Cheers.

I think Ian actually stole the idea from me.
Back at a show in 2019 I saw him up near the stage eyeing my board.


I had lots of fun with this board while I was playing with a band for about a year before COVID times.
I mostly just plug into an amp.
BYOC Large Beaver Triangle Muff up in the top right. Cool pedal.
I had the V1 Sea Machine, and liked it a lot better than this one.
View attachment 7008428

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Yeah but not everyone can play keys. or prefer layering it with the natural electric bass tones.

Synth pedal.

I use a bass mono synth

Ahh. Gotcha. When I heard bass mono synth what comes to mind is Moog Sub Phartty or a Novation bass station

Nope, EHX

 

[TheLowDown33]

Yeah but not everyone can play keys. or prefer layering it with the natural electric bass tones.

I hear ya, but the OP was asking for a comparison and preference between the two. If that's the case, I'm assuming they can or are willing to learn how to play keys.

 

[Fuzzbass]

 

[JesterR]

I may be the dissenting voice, but when I was doing something similar, I had a dedicated keyboard. So much easier to dial in the sounds than to have to buy another pedal, learn another program, and tweak ad nauseam to get 80% of the way there. I used a Korg Minilogue XD and it was perfect for the synth stuff. Occasionally I would use the octave-filter-envelope-mod option on bass, but it wasn't accurate enough for me for the breadth of synth sounds I was covering.

Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to describe to people, that with that synth pedals they just get bass playing with some weird effect, not synth bass. But buying a new pedal is easier then explore a new things.

 

[sunbeast]

Thank you all for your wisdom.
I should add a few pieces here. First I'm a bit of a Luddite. I had a C4 shortly after it was released and it baffled me. At that time I really didn't need it and let it go rather quickly. I also had a Boss GT100 Core (I think that is what it was) and likewise was not able to make it work so it went away. I have a Spectrum that I've got a few useable sounds on but really haven't figured out how to edit sounds in any way that is helpful. Could I learn to program an FI or C4 or Helix Stomp? Probably. Maybe.
I don't have an analog octave or envelope follower... maybe that is a path I should try first. Yes, both of them are there in the Spectrum but Luddite. I do have a chorus, distortion, and fuzz.
My keyboard skills are limited but I think I could pull off a bass part. Could I program a synth? Luddite.

Well it depends on how close you are trying to get to hitting exact sounds from recordings. The closer you want to get, the more work that device will likely take. If you don't want to work to find the sounds then you are stuck with presets sounds that already exist out there and are available for all the lists devices you mentioned as well as most keyboard synths (some keyboards do not have presets, probably not a good idea for your use case).

A typical keyboard synth is still going to require programming to nail certain tones, possibly with the benefit of having more of the controls in knob/button form rather than software editor as the C4 or FI utilize. Or you can just try to use existing presets that come with a keyboard, or that come with (or are available for) bass pedals like the C4 or FI. There are a ton of user community presets for the C4, and quite a lot for the FI as well, that won't require a whole lot of work to get down as long as you are able to get them on the pedal, scroll through them, and hone in some things like volume and sensitivity to match your instrument and playing style.

The analog bass pedal approach (octaver into fuzz into filter) can be more rewarding in the sense that again all the knobs are physically there in front of you, but without the actual synth waveforms found in these other devices it will be much more about approximating synth sounds and you usually won't have preset ability so you'll have to tweak sounds on the fly or use the same sounds over and over (or have a bunch of different pedals for different sounds, a big investment). An octaver pedal makes a synth-type waveform, a fuzz gives it more harmonic edge (and can approximate some different raw waveforms), and a filter helps tone that down into a useful sound.


Also worth noting that starting in the 1980s, much of the synth stuff in pop and dance music was being made via digital FM synths (Yamaha DX7 being the most prevalent), whereas almost all of the guitar/bass-to-synth pedals are emulating the sounds of earlier analog subtractive synthesis (Moog, Jupiter, Oberheim, etc). The few FM synth guitar pedals there currently are (the C4 has a limited FM option, Iron Ether's FMeron, etc) offer little of the sound foundations of even the most basic FM synth keyboard (only a couple of "operators" in any of those pedals, whereas the most popular FM synth- the Yamaha DX7- had six operators and so its sounds can't really be matched by any guitar synth yet).

 

[Djadja]

Again, thanks for all of the help although I don't know whether I'm any closer to deciding on a direction. The Luddite in me is more than a little anxious and I'm realizing that the closer I want to get, the more I'll need to confront him. I've learned a great deal here and in my research - the difference between FM and subtractive synthesis for one thing. More importantly that whatever direction I choose, I'll need to commit some time, energy, and money to make it work.
So… at this point, I'll limp through with the pedals I currently have and see whether the band is actually going to take shape. If it does, I'll do more research, read through this thread again, make some choices and come back and let you all know what I did.

 

[sunbeast]

Again, thanks for all of the help although I don't know whether I'm any closer to deciding on a direction. The Luddite in me is more than a little anxious and I'm realizing that the closer I want to get, the more I'll need to confront him. I've learned a great deal here and in my research - the difference between FM and subtractive synthesis for one thing. More importantly that whatever direction I choose, I'll need to commit some time, energy, and money to make it work.
So… at this point, I'll limp through with the pedals I currently have and see whether the band is actually going to take shape. If it does, I'll do more research, read through this thread again, make some choices and come back and let you all know what I did.

I will say that I just recently grabbed the newest Panda MIDI Future Impact (v4), and with the recent major upgrade it has become my favorite pitch-tracking digital option. I don't know how he did it, as pitch tracking on a bass is notoriously slow, but this is the first digital pitch tracker I've tried that at least seems to keep up with my playing, even on low notes. Downsides are that it is monophonic (and will likely glitch if you accidentally play two sounds at once) and it will require computer programming for anything much outside the loaded presets (though it now has much more tweakability on its face than previous versions, just not the foundational parts like waveforms)