dannybuoy

I thought the Ultimate Drive dropped the lows quite a bit unless you set the tone control really low to the point of it being too muffled. The American Sound has more low end for sure. It's the low end hitting the circuit that tends to 'bottom out' overdrives, I find the Tech21 VTDI and YYZ have good features to counter this. The VTDI character control is a high mid boost before the clipping stage; so crank that up and compensate by backing off the blend and adjusting the EQ. The YYZ has a button to lop off the deep lows going into the drive section, which you compensate for by blending in clean low end (the clean channel is EQ'd to boost the lows and roll off the mids/highs). The Amptweaker Tight Drive does something similar too.

Of course, it is the best envelope filter in the universe after all! I haven’t tried the Chromatron or the very latest Proton though...

Mutron III is legendary so should be on the list. The Source Audio Spectrum tries to copy it, so it would be good to see more examples of how close it can get. The Fwonkbeta is the best envelope filter in the universe*, so should also make the cut. * IMHO

GHS Brite Flats are half rounds too, Status used to make them also but looks like they've stopped.

Generally after compression so that your settings don’t affect the compression. Unless you want to to affect the compression! Generally after distortion so that you can adjust the tone after the distortion. Unless you want to adjust the tone before the distortion! E.g. a VT Bass has 2 mid controls, one before the drive section (the character control) and one after along with the rest of the EQ. A high mid boost into dirt is a common thing - it’s effectively what the attack control does on a Darkglass B7K. Other than that it doesn’t really matter - it might slightly affect how your filter reacts or how your octave tracks, so later in the chain may be preferable.

Audere preamps are a good solution to the blend issue. Instead of passive mixing just before the preamp like most active basses, the preamp buffers each pickup individually and the blend then works more like the cross fader on a DJ mixer. Nice smooth transition end to end rather than impedance issues getting in the way that make it behave more like a 3-way switch. I don’t know if there are any other preamps that take this approach? Only downside I guess would be that you wouldn’t faithfully replicate the tones you get from a passive bass.

Stomp XL has been announced btw, should you yearn for parallel processing!

Are you after a subtle overdrive or heavy distortion? Dark/fat/creamy or bright/brash/aggressive? Joyo American Sound is dirt cheap and will cover most of the above. Probably the best starting point you can get and you can pick em up for £25 used!

You can get pure nickel strings, e.g. Pyramid Gold flats.

🤷‍♂️ I don't have one! But I know I found all the amps too overdriven in Helix Native until I reduced the input.

Adjusting the overall input gain goes a long way towards sorting that - I think the manual says to adust it so that your input is peaking at -18 to -24 dB, when most people's natural inclination would be to set it much higher than that.

Dimmer switches too - my setup hummed like crazy when the dimmers were on until I replaced my patch cables - if they have plastic around the jack plug then they're not well shielded.

Is it noisy with just the bass into the interface and no pedals in between?

Digging these guys too:

LOVE Acid King, seen them a few times now. Purple Turtle gig sticks out for me, ended up drinking at the bar with them after the show!

Their Metal Drive is only £39 too: EBS Metal Drive II – Thomann UK

Your Beta is a fine choice for a good soul/Motown sound. I have a MkII that will be staying on my board for the foreseeable! The best pedals I’ve found for Motown are the TC Mojomojo and Aguilar Tonehammer. They nail that sound where the notes sound like twanging a rubber band, if that makes any sense. Tech21 stuff I love for more brighter aggressive tones, the VTDI and SH1 will do a decent Motown as well, so super versatile, but not as well as the aforementioned pedals in my opinion. Darkglass stuff is quite different sounding, none of that squishy tubey character, but keeps your original dynamics and adds a layer of ‘hair’, is the best way I can describe it! The Vintage series would be the one to go for, whereas the B*K pedals are mid scooped right in the place where a P bass with flats grunts the loudest.

Default preset boosts volume, and you can fine tune that to remove the boost via the app. If yours dropped volume, did you buy it used? Perhaps the previous owner meddled with it. I need to dive in and do that myself, just never bothered so far as it's never turned off!

Does it come with a telescopic case? 😕

If you liked the sub of the Cog, you may like the Octamizer! That thing goes deep.

He didn’t really isolate the octaver to give it a fair shot, but at least it sounded like there was no perceptible delay and it tracked well, which is a good start!

I love them - had the same set on my Precision for about 10 years now, I expect to get another 10 years out of them easily!