Synth Bass video on SBL

[nilebodgers]

Anyone else seen this yet?

 

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

I was beginning to get fidgety even by the time I reached 'one of the best bass lines of all time' which features in a Dizzy Rascal tune - who knew?

Super dope. Yeah, he's probably half right.

[nilebodgers]

I'm from a no-FX playing background and I'd never taken much notice of pedals.

I watched this and was surprised to hear what could be done with an octave pedal, a distortion and an envelope filter. That has certainly given me ideas (and GAS).

 

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

It’s fine if you have the time and patience to dial in each sound from that array of pedals, but it’s not very practical from a gigging bassists point of view. Not that you would ever play that selection of songs in the same set, but a single synth pedal with patches would make life a lot easier on the fly. His set up is fine for recording, but I think I’ll stick with my Future Impact and Boss SY-1.

[nilebodgers]

Just now, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

It’s fine if you have the time and patience to dial in each sound from that array of pedals, but it’s not very practical from a gigging bassists point of view. Not that you would ever play that selection of songs in the same set, but a single synth pedal with patches would make life a lot easier on the fly. His set up is fine for recording, but I think I’ll stick with my Future Impact and Boss SY-1.

Yes, I was wondering about a Helix Stomp or similar - that works out cheaper than discrete pedals and would allow switchable patches.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

Having said that, I have an octaver, delay and distortion on my board already and also have that envelope filter in it’s box, so I could make use of them, but the Future Impact takes up so much room*, there’s no space for the MXR at the moment.

*I know there is a fix for that, but I can’t be bothered 😬

[Doddy]

43 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

It’s fine if you have the time and patience to dial in each sound from that array of pedals, but it’s not very practical from a gigging bassists point of view. Not that you would ever play that selection of songs in the same set, but a single synth pedal with patches would make life a lot easier on the fly. His set up is fine for recording, but I think I’ll stick with my Future Impact and Boss SY-1.

I don't think it's impractical for a gigging player to use a selection of pedals like that.  I've been using pedal combinations to get sounds on gigs for a while, and I prefer to do it that way than to sit and programme a pedal like the Future Impact or the C4. 

[SumOne]

That's a good video for showing different synth sound techniques without using a synth pedal. The mxr envelope filter only sweeps up though - he kept saying to use it for things like chameleon that use downward sweeping filters.

[Al Krow]

17 hours ago, SumOne said:

That's a good video for showing different synth sound techniques without using a synth pedal. The mxr envelope filter only sweeps up though - he kept saying to use it for things like chameleon that use downward sweeping filters.

And rumour has it that he is playing over the original tracks for some of them, so you're actually hearing the original synth lines rather than his attempts at recreating them.

[BigRedX]

I've found it easier and cheaper to learn a bit of rudimentary keyboard technique, rather than spend ages messing about with pedals and having to modify your bass (or guitar) playing style. Then you can buy a cheap modern synth with user programable memories and have the right sound available every time at the touch of a button, no worries about tracking/ghost notes etc.

[SumOne]

17 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I've found it easier and cheaper to learn a bit of rudimentary keyboard technique, rather than spend ages messing about with pedals and having to modify your bass (or guitar) playing style. Then you can buy a cheap modern synth with user programable memories and have the right sound available every time at the touch of a button, no worries about tracking/ghost notes etc.

 

Yeah, I love synth Bass sounds but I'd had multi-FX pedals with Synth and a Boss SYB-5 and they were enough to put me off using Bass Guitar with synth pedals as they weren't enjoyable to play (latency and tracking issues), needed to heavily modify playing style, and the sounds were really dated-  a cheap kids keyboard would give them a run for their money.  I came to the conclusion that Bass guitar's strengths are mostly in producing clean Bass guitar tones, perhaps add chorus, envelope filter and distortion or some combination of them to get synthy but no point trying to sound exactly like a keyboard synth that can do so much more so much better for cheaper.

 

....however! I then got a Source Audio C4 followed by a Future Impact and they are a whole different league. Can't notice latency, tracking is really good (you do still need to be quite 'solid' with each note), and the sounds are often as good as keyboard synths. They're still not as practical as using a keyboard but aren't far off for monophonic stuff (which I prefer) and I find it more fun and creative playing a Bass than a keyboard so I'd recommend them mostly for the fun factor. 

Edited July 23, 2021 by SumOne