Effects annoyances in general

[SumOne]

^^^

On the multi-fx thing, I always see the rational and convenient side of them and buy them but after a couple of months they just don't float my boat. Having now owned the Zoom CDR 70, MS 60 B, B1- Four, and Helix Effects, Stomp, Stomp XL I've hopefully learned my lesson now (probably not though). So I guess multi-fx pedals annoy me in a lot of ways, usually the interface and the programming which loses sponteneity and creativity for me.

 

Individual pedals are certainly less convenient and cost effective and are not really the rational choice but I don't make music as a rational choice. It's down to what inspires you and what's fun to muck about with, I'm sure for some people that's multi-fx, not for me though. I'll use a Laptop DAW if I want to sit at home and get into the fine-technical tuning of reverse echo's and the like and it'll do it better and more conveniently than any multi-fx (which often end up being hooked up to a Laptop anyway), and if I'm playing in a band situation then I've yet to need sounds that can't be achieved by a few basic pedals where it's useful for them to have visible controls and individual footswitches.

 

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by SumOne

[Japhet]

I do like a volume control and a clean blend option on certain types of pedal.

[Rich]

On 11/01/2022 at 18:08, ped said:

I much prefer and pretty much only buy pedals that take a battery. I don’t use them much and when I do I only use a couple and I don’t want to faff around with adapters etc. there’s no point in a pedal being small if it needs a wall wart too (granted that’s different if you use a pedalboard which most people probs do)

 

You're welcome.  

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303094639647?hash=item4691d92c1f:g:DDcAAOSwPrlgfkXm

 

[Rich]

On 11/01/2022 at 12:06, Oomo said:

3. Non-descriptive button/switch/knob names - especially for effects I don't use often, I hate trying to remember what controls labelled things like "burn", "probe", "stab", "tweak", etc. actually do.

 

 

Yup, I agree. When I made my Woolly Mammoth clone, I deliberately avoided using the stupid 'pinch' and 'wool' labels and just called the things what they are... 'Filter' and 'Fuzz'. 

[Rich]

23 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

The Behringer effects pedals that I previously owned had a blue LED that was so bright you couldn't look at the pedal board. Generally had to put some sticking tape over it to dull them down.

Yes, overly bright LEDs can be a nuisance. Another good way to tame them a bit is to paint a bit of tipp-ex (other corrections fluids are available) on the tip of the LED. I did this with the blinding LEDs on my Genz Shuttle and it works quite well. The more you paint on them the dimmer they get.

[ped]

6 minutes ago, Rich said:

 

You're welcome.  

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303094639647?hash=item4691d92c1f:g:DDcAAOSwPrlgfkXm

 

Lol yep I have tons of those, but you know, not very neat - and some have unnecessarily high power consumption. Companies like EWS do some very clever design that maximises the use of a battery, which speaks to my type of thinking. Darkglass don't use batteries for 'environmental reasons' but I don;t use dark glass so they can do one

[Happy Jack]

9 minutes ago, Rich said:

 

Yup, I agree. When I made my Woolly Mammoth clone, I deliberately avoided using the stupid 'pinch' and 'wool' labels and just called the things what they are... 'Filter' and 'Fuzz'. 

 

What you really want is knobs labelled Quark, Strangeness and Charm.

[Rich]

I'd rather go with 'Gruntbuggly', 'Bindlewurdles' and 'Blurglecruncheon'.

 

[Woodinblack]

19 minutes ago, Rich said:

I'd rather go with 'Gruntbuggly', 'Bindlewurdles' and 'Blurglecruncheon'.

 

 

Obviously they are much clearer labels but not everyone is in somerset

[BigRedX]

I found in the days when I was using individual non-programmable pedals, apart from a digital delay that had a numerical read out for the delay time, I didn't have time to change settings between songs, so each effect was reduced to either being off or on and the setting would be the one that was the best compromise for all the songs that effect needed to be on, rather than tuned exactly to each song. In the few instances where I absolutely had to have different settings for an effect, I would have a separate pedal/device for each different setting. It wasn't ver efficient, and my last iteration of this set-up filled a 14U rack case, and was controlled by a massively complicated custom-made foot switch bank (with its own huge cable snake). 

 

In 1991 I replaced all of this with a 1U Roland GP8 multi-effects unit and it's FC100 foot controller, and I haven't looked back. My current multi-effect unit is a Helix Floor. Whilst I do most of the programming from my computer using the HX Edit program, all the parameters I might want to fine tune once I'm in rehearsal with my bands are at the most 2 button pushes away, and its certainly more reliable and consistent than the 14U of individual effects (and IMO only very slightly less easy to use).

[Rich]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Obviously they are much clearer labels but not everyone is in somerset

 

Or a Vogon.

[TheLowDown]

I prefer a nice clean organic sound, but for the last few weeks I had considered adding some multiFX just to see how much I can make my sound even worse as well as scratching a curious itch. 

 

I don't think effects goes well with bass unless you're playing rock/punk/metal and fighting for your life for any leftover morsels of sonic space. I think effects are much more useful with guitars that are more front-end instruments. It feels quite wrong adding effects to a backend instrument like drums or bass, akin to having puppeteers in fancy dress.

[Quatschmacher]

15 minutes ago, TheLowDown said:

I prefer a nice clean organic sound, but for the last few weeks I had considered adding some multiFX just to see how much I can make my sound even worse as well as scratching a curious itch. 

 

I don't think effects goes well with bass unless you're playing rock/punk/metal and fighting for your life for any leftover morsels of sonic space. I think effects are much more useful with guitars that are more front-end instruments. It feels quite wrong adding effects to a backend instrument like drums or bass, akin to having puppeteers in fancy dress.

This and many other tracks indicate otherwise. 🙂

 

[paul_5]

This ^.
 

Mine mostly get used for funk/disco/ 80s synth pop. 
I’ve got dirt boxes for rock etc… but most of my work is functions stuff, where there might not be a keyboard player for those sort of sounds.

[Boodang]

1 hour ago, TheLowDown said:

I prefer a nice clean organic sound, but for the last few weeks I had considered adding some multiFX just to see how much I can make my sound even worse as well as scratching a curious itch. 

 

I don't think effects goes well with bass unless you're playing rock/punk/metal and fighting for your life for any leftover morsels of sonic space. I think effects are much more useful with guitars that are more front-end instruments. It feels quite wrong adding effects to a backend instrument like drums or bass, akin to having puppeteers in fancy dress.

You've got to have a solid foundation tone to start with but without going wild there are definitely a few fx which can favour the bass (I'm not including pre amp eq and compression in this category as that's part of your basic tone sculpture).

So, not forgetting the ubiquitous envelope filter for your quackingly good funk moments, a subtly blended octaver can work wonders, and I like the Gwizdala trick of using a short delay rather than reverb on the occasion when taste and space permit. And for when an envelope is too much, a phaser is quite funky. 

That's my basic staple but I'm sure others have much more!

[TheLowDown]

@Quatschmacher@paul_5@Boodang

I thought I emphasised the point about the backend of the music. Effects may be useful for things like slap and other circus exhibits that are key part of idle home noodlings, showing off in record shops, and the w#*kery section in some bands, but are much less effective for the rhythm section.

Janek is more known for his solo stuff which is very much in the foreground. 
 

[Woodinblack]

28 minutes ago, Boodang said:

and I like the Gwizdala trick of using a short delay rather than reverb on the occasion when taste and space permit.

 

I have a very short delay (and I mean really short) on as a permenant effect on the HXFX, you can't really hear it as such but it fattens up the sound quite a bit and adds a bit of presence. The rest of the effects are selected as required per the song.

[Quatschmacher]

12 minutes ago, TheLowDown said:

@Quatschmacher@paul_5@Boodang

I thought I emphasised the point about the backend of the music. Effects may be useful for things like slap and other circus exhibits that are key part of idle home noodlings, showing off in record shops, and the w#*kery section in some bands, but are much less effective for the rhythm section.

Janek is more known for his solo stuff which is very much in the foreground. 
 

Not sure what the aim is here. This is an effects discussion on a bass forum so I think you’re unlikely to convince anyone of bass effects’ uselessness per se. 🙂

 

Sure, there’s plenty of music where effects aren’t needed or would be unwelcome/sound out of place. By the same token, there are many settings where a judicious use of effects contributes musically, even holding down the low end. Thankfully there’s a place for all these approaches. (Most of my gigging has been without effects, but I have managed tasteful use thereof in some settings where they wouldn’t normally be heard much and it went down brilliantly with the audience.)

[Delberthot]

Pedals that have names that don't tell you what they are.

e.g. The "Rectal Convivial Bucket Trumpet" might be the best octave pedal in the world but if you don't tell me that's what it is then how do I know what it is?

 

There are a few pedals in the for sale section with interesting names but I have no clue what they are and the description doesn't tell me either.

Edited January 13, 2022 by Delberthot

[Quatschmacher]

27 minutes ago, Delberthot said:

Pedals that have names that don't tell you what they are.

e.g. The "Rectal Convivial Bucket Trumpet" might be the best octave pedal in the world but if you don't tell me that's what it is then how do I know what it is?

 

There are a few pedals in the for sale section with interesting names but I have no clue what they are and the description doesn't tell me either.

Isn’t that this? Certainly brings the bottom end!

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by Quatschmacher

[Doddy]

2 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

@Quatschmacher@paul_5@Boodang

I thought I emphasised the point about the backend of the music. Effects may be useful for things like slap and other circus exhibits that are key part of idle home noodlings, showing off in record shops, and the w#*kery section in some bands, but are much less effective for the rhythm section.

Janek is more known for his solo stuff which is very much in the foreground. 
 

To be fair, there have been players who have been putting effects on their bass for 30/40 years. Just look at players like Pino with his OC2, Anthony Jackson with his phaser, and Neil Jason with his envelope filter.

[KingBollock]

2 hours ago, Delberthot said:

Pedals that have names that don't tell you what they are.

e.g. The "Rectal Convivial Bucket Trumpet" might be the best octave pedal in the world but if you don't tell me that's what it is then how do I know what it is?

 

There are a few pedals in the for sale section with interesting names but I have no clue what they are and the description doesn't tell me either.

You’d hate some of my home made pedals then, they have really pretentious names.
Such as: Dank And Fetid Earth Beneath A Doom Coloured Sun, which is two different modded Big Muffs (a Musket and a ‘73 Ram’s Head. Both further modified by me) in one box.

And: The Scent Of Red Ruin Borne Upon A Mourning Breeze, which is a heavily modified Body Rot II.

 

Half the fun is coming up with names for them!

[Boodang]

3 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

@Quatschmacher@paul_5@Boodang

I thought I emphasised the point about the backend of the music. Effects may be useful for things like slap and other circus exhibits that are key part of idle home noodlings, showing off in record shops, and the w#*kery section in some bands, but are much less effective for the rhythm section.

Janek is more known for his solo stuff which is very much in the foreground. 
 

Marcus Miller, Mark King, and anyone else who slaps will be glad to know they're a circus exhibit!

[Boodang]

3 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

@Quatschmacher@paul_5@Boodang

I thought I emphasised the point about the backend of the music. Effects may be useful for things like slap and other circus exhibits that are key part of idle home noodlings, showing off in record shops, and the w#*kery section in some bands, but are much less effective for the rhythm section.

Janek is more known for his solo stuff which is very much in the foreground. 
 

PS. I thought this was quite a dismissive and derogatory posting. 'Circus exhibits' and 'w#*kery'.... really?!

[Delberthot]

What a great name for an album

 

Can just imagine BLT or Fluff Freeman announcing - "here's a song off the latest album by King Crimson called Circus Exhibits and W@nkery"

Edited January 13, 2022 by Delberthot