SYNTH BASS using a conventional bass guitar and pedals? Anybody?

[Greg.Bassman]

Hi all. Hope you're well.

I'm getting more and more enquiries regarding 'synth bass'; and if it is something that I offer in my session playing.

Though I am a huge fan of electronic music (namely House), admittedly, I have not got a clue when it comes to synth bass; so sadly, I've had to decline these
sort of gigs until now. I feel at a huge disadvantage, and this is definitely something that I would like to start offering in my playing.

Friends have suggested such items as the 'Novation bass station' and 'Roland GAIA' (both popular synths). However, hand-hand coordination is an issue for me; so using a conventional (keyboard form) synth is out of the question. My day job makes finding the practice time[i] to learn [/i]very difficult.

Surely, there is a way of replicating the same sounds using a conventional bass guitar and pedals. Any suggestions please?

P.S - I have attached afew examples of what sounds I'm talking about: (please listen with good headphones or speakers).

Edited October 9, 2016 by Greg.Bassman

[pete.young]

I think I have tried pretty well everything that is available except for a midi bass, and the only thing that has been remotely successful for me at replicating actual recorded synth sounds was the Roland VB99 .

[Bigwan]

Octave into gated fuzz into envelope filter. Job done.

[DanOwens]

The problem is that there isn't a single 'synth bass sound'. The 'octave > fuzz > filter' setup definitely gets you a sound that can be found on a synth, but it isn't FM synth and doesn't have any PWM-type component, etc.

I used pitch to midi, parallel paths, midi-sync'd gates... at one point I had 5 simultaneous signal paths to create a HUGE live synth sound. I eventually just bought an M13 for some cool sounds and played a Microkorg. So much easier to set up, less to go wrong.

[MacDaddy]

Dare I suggest the Future Impact?

Pricey, but apparently worth it. There's a thread somewhere with the demo sounds etc.

[la bam]

Electro harmonic micro synth pedal. And a multi fx pedal for little extras when needed.

[dannybuoy]

A Boss OC-2 with the octave soloed sounds awesome - but the output volume isn't quite up there. The 3Leaf Octabvre fixes that though, I highly recommend it.

Then pair that up with a Source Audio Manta, a mad filter/distortion pedal with envelope/LFO/expression/hothand control and you can conjure up tons of sounds from those two pedals alone.

[0175westwood29]

ive got pretty synth like with certain setting on my Cog t70, which the moog clusterflux and cicada from fuzzrocious

[fretmeister]

Digitech BSW.

It does a very good Deeper Underground keys tone.

[Byo]

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1476088379' post='3151029']
Octave into gated fuzz into envelope filter. Job done.
[/quote]

+1

Event better if you had some modulation and maybe some delay/reverb in the signal path too.

A low pass filter could also be great to do some "filter sweeps".

There are so many combinations out there...

[Greg.Bassman]

Hi all. Cheers for your feedback, some interesting suggestions here

[Greg.Bassman]

[quote name='DanOwens' timestamp='1476090785' post='3151060']
The problem is that there isn't a single 'synth bass sound'. The 'octave > fuzz > filter' setup definitely gets you a sound that can be found on a synth, but it isn't FM synth and doesn't have any PWM-type component, etc.

I used pitch to midi, parallel paths, midi-sync'd gates... at one point I had 5 simultaneous signal paths to create a HUGE live synth sound. I eventually just bought an M13 for some cool sounds and played a Microkorg. So much easier to set up, less to go wrong.
[/quote]

Hi Dan. Cheers for your response.

How effective is the Line 6 M series for synth? Could I replicate the ‘drawbar organ’ like sound that I’m looking for, say?

I’ve found that most synth pedals/units are often a let down; as they are generally all about aggressive saw sounds etc. What I’m looking for are the more smoother sounds associated with House music.

[dannybuoy]

If you want a drawbar organ sound look at the EHX B9 / C9 pedals.

If you want a mellow house-like synth bass sound - 3Leaf Octabvre Mini gets my vote, that's exactly what I use mine for!

Edited October 14, 2016 by dannybuoy

[DanEly]

Anything like a Micro Synth, TWA great divide, Future Impact, Octaver + gated fuzz will/should do the trick.

Personally I think a Meatbox would be a good choice

[Duarte]

All the Moogs!

But you'd be better off buying a synth in that case

[AustinArto]

Funnily enough I've got both a BSII and a Gaia. Don't get the Gaia, the BSII is a great little synth though.

Regarding doing it with pedals: You can certainly get sounds that would fool anyone into thinking they were hearing a synth - listening back to some rehearsal recordings I couldn't tell if what *I* was playing was bass guitar or synth - but there's a lot you can't do that a synth can, for example reliably triggering what sounds like an ADSR envelope is basically impossible especially when playing quickly. It's also difficult to ape an arpeggiator.

There are just some things that you need a keyboard for.