Which modulation effect(s) could you do without?

[Ritter667]

I love my phaser, flanger and tremolo, but I am fine with not having a chorus in my setup, a vibrato would be nice, but can do without that too.

I tend to use my flanger where I otherwise probably would have used chorus, and prefer the somewhat lighter more shimmering sound I get from that.

My modulation effects are following:

- Behringer VP1 Vintage Phaser (great clone of the original big box EHX Small Stone, better than EHX's own Nano resissue), blended in parallel with clean signal, or with flanger and clean signal

- Monarch MFL-22 Stereo Flanger (basically the same as the Arion Stereo Flanger), blended in parallel with clean signal, or with phaser and clean signal

- Boss TR-2 Tremolo, on its own or stacked into the flanger+clean signal


Which modulation effect(s) can you do without, or even simply don't care for/like?

 

[gregmon79]

Personally, I always went without a phaser. It can be utilized to really cool effect at certain times, but overall I always thought it sounded cheesy or "synthetic". I've always kept a chorus, flanger and trem on my board. They've always seemed more "organic" sounding to my ears. Hard to explain. But yeah, phaser has never been my cup of tea.

 

[PNC7]

I've never needed a phaser enough to justify spending on a pedal and taking up the physical space, but now that I have an HX Stomp I'll throw it on random presets for fun.

I've never found a practical use for a tremolo in an actual song or jam... but it is always fun to cycle through and go "woaaaaah that's cool."

 

[Ritter667]

Personally, I always went without a phaser. It can be utilized to really cool effect at certain times, but overall I always thought it sounded cheesy or "synthetic". I've always kept a chorus, flanger and trem on my board. They've always seemed more "organic" sounding to my ears. Hard to explain. But yeah, phaser has never been my cup of tea.

I feel the same way with phasers above 4 stages.

Most 4 stage phasers (or bellow for that matter) though to me sound very organic, especially the Small Stone.

I for one love the sound of the Small Stone, gives a somewhat oriental vibe to whatever you are playing.

Perfect compliment for playing harmonic minor, phrygian dominant and other stuff with that kind of vibe.

 

[bholder]

I'm not so big on flangers, but I like chorus and phasers.

 

[ItsmeSantiago]

Phaser and vibe are pretty useless to my sound. I've liked modulation effects the entire time I've played, and now that I've discovered Retro Reels, that is my go to modulation. Dimensions also kicked chorus to the curb.

 

[sloppy_phil]

I mean, the honest truth is I could do without any modulation whatsoever, for me it's hardly a "core" effect for bass. But, I do like having the option! Personally I have tended towards either phaser or flanger. Both can do that "80s shimmer" thing that I occasionally want when playing old covers. But otherwise, I mostly use modulation for synth tones, occasional chordal passages, or the dreaded bass solo.

 

[Parzival]

All of them. I love chorus but I’m not going to use anymore. Whatever songs we play that use chorus, the guitar players are using it so it becomes overkill at worst and not noticeable at best. Sounds like we are playing through an aquarium with all of us using it.

 

[NKBassman]

All of them. I'll use a bit of chorus or flanger here and there, but I wouldn't miss it if I didn't have it.

 

[Parzival]

Went and saw a band at the beach a couple of weeks ago and the bass player (who I knew was the bandleader because the bass was louder and over everything even in their deafening sound mix) was using some kind of modulation for a lot of songs. It was a heavy chorus or flanger or something and he was just leaving it on all the time on rock songs that did not have any of that effect. It sounded awful. I don't know why he was doing that.

 

[darev]

I love the sound of bass chorus. Unfortunately, I can never hear it when anyone else is playing so back it goes.

 

[MCS4]

Funny, chorus is the only modulation effect I nearly always have on my board. Specifically, I like to use a subtle chorus or chorus-like pitch-shifter that adds some high-end content to my signal for a handful of different purposes, most commonly adding a little bit of interest and pop in the mix when I am playing chords or arpeggios in the upper register that are intended to be prominent in a song or for adding some extra pop in the mix when run through fuzz/distortion if I am playing a guitar-solo-esque part. I have never personally found a use for flanger, phaser, vibrato, etc. in the stuff I do.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Which modulation effect(s) can you do without, or even simply don't care for/like?

I still have a chorus pedal on my big board, mostly because why not? But also because it was the first bass-specific stomp box I ever bought back in the early 80s.

But every time I turn it on, I think “Geez, chorused bass, What a clichéd sound!”

I guess it’s handy for making stuff sound diffuse and even more ambient, but if I didn’t have a chorus pedal, I really don’t think I would miss it.

 

[pholli00]

I just started using pedals. Ain't no way I'm doing without any of them. I'm not sure what a modulation effect is, but I do have a Bassman Reverb and Delay (which haven't been tried yet) and an Electro-Harmonix BassClone (which is quite lovely). But I just play by myself. I have no idea what would work in a band setting. I'm getting a little antsy to find out, tho.

 

[gregmon79]

I feel the same way with phasers above 4 stages.

Most 4 stage phasers (or bellow for that matter) though to me sound very organic, especially the Small Stone.

I for one love the sound of the Small Stone, gives a somewhat oriental vibe to whatever you are playing.

Perfect compliment for playing harmonic minor, phrygian dominant and other stuff with that kind of vibe.

I do dig the small stone as well. The only song that I liked it on was stranglehold. I'm sure there are other songs where they used one and it sounded great. But any time I tried using one, cheese. My guitarist plays with one from time to time and I never really like it. But, he's the one writing those parts, so who is I!?

 

[lowdownbp5]

The only effects I use is a Carl Martin bass chorus. But sparingly

 

[Discount Bassy]

I dig the Source Audio modulation pedals, as any can be configured to be whichever variety that you desire. Personally, I have two of them for oddball placements and parallel setups. As to which I could do without, the question is moot, as you only load the presets you want or design to suit.

 

[Boneless]

I find that phaser on bass kinda goes against the "role" of the bass, since it causes rhythmic phase cancellations in the bass and mid content (well, everywhere depending on depth, but that's where bass needs to provide a foundation), so unless you time those phase cancellations well, you get this "rhythmically" hollow sounding bass. Also, unless you also use distortion, I find that phaser is kinda "subtle" (not the right word). I bought a Small Stone years ago and only kept it for a couple of months.

Chorus and flanger instead tend to be nicer, especially with a pick.

 

[corvette_br]

To me, at the moment, that would be tremolo (though I do have a handmade Tremulus Lune which I enjoy) . My favourite: phasers (currently, the PH-1R, Pigtronix EP-2 and Subdecay Quasar DLX).

 

[Evan J]

I know it gets hate because the app can be temperamental. But I can’t recommend enough the TC Plethora X1 for trying out modulations and reverbs. It’s worth it for the Corona chorus alone.

$120 used and the DSP sounds better than Line 6 to my ears