I may just do that. You guys seem to know your stuff and we have similar gear and tastes so...
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Worship Bass Pedalboards
- Thread starter Cshanks5
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jacoby75
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- Mar 11, 2010
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It's not about warming it up like a tube. It's about honing it in and focusing it. I've read elsewhere that someone said when they engaged their HLPF, it sounds like a produced, finished product bass tone like you'd hear on an album. That may be a bit much, but I can see why they'd say that. It cuts the boomy lows that nobody can hear anyway. If set rather subtly, I actually feel like I'm boosting my low end when I engage it. Because it cuts the subsonic stuff and lets your amp or the house system spend its energy only amplifying the frequencies you want it to. And rolling off the highs really tames my maple-boarded passive jazz. Gets rid of a lot of the clank and finger noise. I'm not exactly sure what frequencies I tend to set it at, though, because I have the older model that doesn't have the frequency markings on the dials. I just turn them until it sounds good. But I'm only lopping off the lowest lows and a little more than the highest highs. It's also great if you're playing a boomy room, so you can reign in the low end. I used it last week in a theater gig. With the HLPF, I was able to get my little 15" GK combo amp to fill a whole theater with a balcony without having to be in the system at all, because it cuts the boom, mud and flub, and lets my amp just work on pumping out tight low end. It's a real beaut. It's fascinating what it can do for your sound. I would best describe it as a focusing, tightening effect. (but not "compressing"). You really just have to hear it for yourself. Once you turn it on you won't ever turn it off.
@SteveC I use the RFE (when not using Berg HP amp)...but similar concept. I find L+HPF’s quite addicting...just use your ears, and turn filter dials to taste.
jacoby75
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Thank you. Seriously. Once I tried it (which was only within the past few months), I was mad at myself for not trying it sooner because I did not understand what it did. It's one of the very few pedals that I think EVERY bassist should have. It doesn't matter what style you play, what kind of bass you play, etc. It will just make you sound tighter/better. There's also the Broughton RFE, which is supposed to be the HLPF with bonus boosts to frequencies, but that one makes my head hurt. I prefer simple.
This morning I was on the electric guitar and I found out that my shift line IR loader has the ability to be used as my rolls and monitor my guitar directly. I do not have the mixing capability but the it still works very week. Since I have been using my own monitoring I notice that my volume in my headphones has gone way down and that’s a good thing.
@SteveC .. I'll even throw this in..
Although I don't have the the Broughton HLPF.. mentioned, I did just recently get one of his always on HPF... just like stated, even just with the hpf it does magical things to your sound... cleaning all the boom and mud and leaving fantastic, clean, thick and juicy chest thumping, shaking enamel off your teeth bass goodness.. AND...it's cheap..
I'm kicking myself for not picking one up sooner
Although I don't have the the Broughton HLPF.. mentioned, I did just recently get one of his always on HPF... just like stated, even just with the hpf it does magical things to your sound... cleaning all the boom and mud and leaving fantastic, clean, thick and juicy chest thumping, shaking enamel off your teeth bass goodness.. AND...it's cheap..
I'm kicking myself for not picking one up sooner
For more info on how an hpf /lpf works and more success stories, check out the graphs and more on my TB Wiki: High Pass and Low Pass Filters | TalkBass.com and follow my HPF LPF Mega Thread
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@Stumbo Do you guys find yourself turning on and off the HPF? Any practical reason the Broughton always on would be a compromise in real world usage?
jacoby75
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I can't imagine a reason to ever turn it off. Unless you WANTED to sound really dubby and flubby for a hot second and then turn it back on again. It's definitely a set-and-forget, always-on pedal for me.
Depends on how you have it set. If you're using it as an effect to REALLY take away the bass frequencies, then a switched one would be useful. Or like @jacoby75 mentioned, if you have a situation where you want to be able to have all the sub-frequencies... But I have found boosting the frequencies above the HPF corner to be a more effective way to add girth where I have mine set. It really fully depends on your intent and where you will set it.
If your thinking of getting one just to use on IEM and FOH gigs I would check with my soundman as all good digital boards have built in HFP and LPF built in.
I have the Bro-ton always-on and so far, for general playing(no other pedals or effects), it's set and forget, especially to tame room boom and in the future, a LPF to tame bacon sizzling tweeters/horns or fret noise.
HPF/LPF.
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Agreed. We did some service re-arranging at my church last year. P&W service moved from a smaller sanctuary, that was actually our church's original sanctuary, to the larger one where traditional service is held. Our P&W ministry is growing, so we needed the bigger room. Anyway, new room, new sound system... I had a Broughton H+LPF, on my board, and could never get it to sound right once we moved over. Made my tone sound weird. I can't really describe it, It wasn't un-musical, just sounded like a synthetic bass tone that would come out of one of those mid to low end keyboard set on "string bass" for the voicevoice choices. My tone was better with just my MXR M81. I ended up just switching the H+LPF off. One of our drummers does pro audio for arenas and such as his day job. After struggling with my H+LPF pedal I asked him to listen. He had the little iPad that has the software on it that controls all the sound in the sanctuary, so I figured he would know or be able to tell what was going on. Took him about 2 seconds to identify that we had H+LPF already going via the soundboard. The bass was being double eq-ed. I deferred to the filtering the church was doing and sold by Broughton. That M81 is pretty subtle, it isn't targeted like the Broughton, but it does let let me tweak out string noise and also gives me the ability to change the mid range frequency center, which really helps.
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Yeah, it would be for DI/IEM gigs. Same sound guy (and mixer I think) for both setting/groups (church and cover band) so maybe I start there. I'll text him and see what we have available. If it's mostly "set and forget" I'd love to not have another pedal and just have it on the board.
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jacoby75
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I definitely find that too extreme of settings with the HLPF make my bass sound inorganic and weird. Too mid-focused (which makes sense, since you're cutting the low and high frequencies. I use mine fairly subtly. As I noted elsewhere, I don't have the frequency markings on my older version, so I'm not sure where I'm lopping it off. But the knobs look almost like this: - - With the LPF knob (the one on the right) angled down a bit more to the right, if that tells you anything, lol. Anything much more than that and it starts to sound too honky. (Honky like a horn. Not honky like a white person, though that may also be true).
I’ve found that if you go to the extreme and then bring the lows and highs back in slowly, you’ll find your sweet spot. This will change depending on venue, or the rig your using.
That's a thing of beauty...
Are you using the Doom 2 for synthy sounds, or is it dialed in on the more traditional side of fuzz? (I had the 1st edition, but haven't played the 2.)
I have the Broughton always on HPF. I start by setting it all the way down and bring it up to where I can hear a difference in the good part of the low frequency. I then back it back down a hair. It works great. The only negative is the input, output, power connection and the frequency adjustment are all on the same side of the pedal which make board placement a little more difficult.
