# Distortion, effects, etc.



## Fiesta_Jack (Aug 4, 2010)

So I'm looking to get a synth-y sound with my bass for my pschedelic project. Can anyone recommend some good distortions or effects that would work well with bass? I'd want to be able to go from spacey stuff to synth sounds, and whatever's in between. What kind of effects would people recommend?


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## GatodeCafe (Aug 4, 2010)

Honestly, I've gotten every sound I've ever wanted out of my digitech multi-effect. Purists will frown and bitch but it's versatile as shit, sounds good enough for government work, and doesn't break the bank. I'm sure there's a bass version for you to look into. This would be my solution, and I really cannot say enough about this pedal I have. Zoom is a cheaper alternative to Digitech which I'm willing to bet is just about as good.

That said, if you're for real into this psychedelic gig, you might want to check out the fuzz factory, or any of the Zvex distortion pedals for that matter. Fucking filthy sound, and if you grab one on ebay, not super expensive. 100$ for what sort of amounts to the greatest fuzz in the world.

If you don't want to spend any money, get a Danelectro french toast octave distortion for 20$. I used one for a while just because I was poor as fuck and I needed that Hendrix sound. Make no mistake, on the inside it's identical to the original octavia circuit, so for all intents and purposes it's a fantastic buy, even for bass.

If you have a sense of humour, you can grab a snarling dog bootsy collins licensed fuzz-wah. The thing is fucking heavy as shit and pretty funny to look at. Apparently it works pretty well too, if all you play is p-funk.

Last suggestion is honestly Electro-harmonix. They have so much weird shit, it's hard to know where to start.. there's a "Bass synth" pedal they manufacture which essentially amounts to a hard clipping fuzz, a clean octave up circuit and an octaver (octave down) with an envelope filter built in. Pretty neat piece of kit, but a lot of the EHX shit tends to be expensive one trick ponies. 

What kind of music are you wanting to play? As in artists you want to sound like. Because you also have to keep in mind strings, pickups, bass, amp, etc.. No pedal will make a shit amp sound decent, you know.


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## Fiesta_Jack (Aug 4, 2010)

Well on the start, I don't know jack shit about effects, honestly. I usually play clean, or just up the gain. I started as a blues bassist, and I'm currently doing ska, but I've got a psychedelic rock project with a friend of mine on keys. 

I do vocals for the project right now, but I've found it really hard to integrate my bass playing to my satisfaction, since I'm so ingrained in blues patterns. As for what I'd like to sound like, I'd really like something to imitate the effects of synth bass in modern trance and other electronic genres of music (a la 1200 Micrograms, Astral Projection, Lords of Acid, Infected Mushrooms), while still being able to go for spacey bass solos (Like Cliff Burton's in Orion) reminiscent of Pink Floyd guitarwork, except on bass.

I've gotta balance my gear for the ska band as well, so strings and pickups are limited to what works for both, seeing as I've only got a single bass until my next couple gigs buy my new one.


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## GatodeCafe (Aug 4, 2010)

Alright let me be honest with you. Never in a million years will you get a convincing trance sound out of a four string bass. A million folks have tried and the closest anybody has gotten is some weird tb-303 sounding bullshit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMbP3Yr2nmk

That's pretty much as good as it gets, to be honest. If I were you I'd save up 200$ for a used alesis micron or microkorg, stick that bitch on top of your bass amp and switch out depending upon what the song needs. If you don't know how to play keyboards, that's cool because it's easy as hell to play basslines on keys, and every psychedelic band benefits from a decent synth. 

You can also check out the kaossilator. Fun as shit but probably less versatile than a straight up microkorg, you can just plug in a scale and then slide your finger around to play lines. More of a toy than anything else, though.


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## Fiesta_Jack (Aug 4, 2010)

It doesn't even necessarily have to be convincing, the SYB-5 demo vid you linked is actually pretty damn close to the sound I'm looking for, although I doubt it'd sound like that if I got the damn thing. I'd rather not crowd keys, since the only other member in the project at the moment is on keyboard, and he's pretty damn pimp at it. 

What about on the other spectrum then? What works for classic psychedelic rock distortion?


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## GatodeCafe (Aug 5, 2010)

Fiesta_Jack said:


> It doesn't even necessarily have to be convincing, the SYB-5 demo vid you linked is actually pretty damn close to the sound I'm looking for, although I doubt it'd sound like that if I got the damn thing. I'd rather not crowd keys, since the only other member in the project at the moment is on keyboard, and he's pretty damn pimp at it.
> 
> What about on the other spectrum then? What works for classic psychedelic rock distortion?


 
Fuzztone, for the most part. Check out the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmjJQojMTTs

That band is pretty much sporting guitars into big muffs into amplifiers, and that's about it. If you dig the sound at all, I'd look into deviever.

www.deviever.com It's a cute little one-girl operation. All her pedals are handmade, incredibly creative, and pretty damn cheap if you get one used. The "eye of god" pedal in particular is what's known as a feedback loop. It takes the output of a pedal and feeds it back through the circuit until the sound reaches it's logical conclusion. i.e. echo devolves into wicked oscillation, reverb becomes a sea of noise, even the most subtle overdrive turns into a sick square wave fuzz and chorus pedals do crazy, crazy shit.  It's the equivalent of a game shark for your guitar pedals and although it does nothing on it's own, it glitches the hell out of any effect you can think of.

My personal favorite straight up fuzz, however, is the Aenima. Check it: http://aenima.deviever.com/ 

It works a wonder on bass, too, so there you go.


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## Sedit (Aug 13, 2010)

Well, almost any multi effect unit will work for you....especially if you don't mind a more lo-fi sound....than you can find something decent for well under $150....even new.

However, if you want more options (not just in effects, but how many parameters of control per effect, how many you can link together, how many presets you can save, realtime controllers, etc.)  you'll need to spend a little more.

For bass I personally have been especially happy with my Line 6 Bass Pod XT Pro rack unit.  It's the veritable 'kitchen sink'.  All kindsa live and direct recording options, amp, cabinet, and even mic emulations.....many many effects, eq's, synths, filters, and routing options.  And if your into bass overdrive/distortion/fuzz, this has emulations pretty much all the classics in it.  Plus you can even blend in the direct, uneffected clean signal....which is really cool cuz you can crank of the dirt, yet still mix in the straight tone to retain punch and the fundamental of the note.  You can even alter the directs sounds timing by milliseconds to do more convincing doubling in real-time, or crank it for a very unique chorus sound.

Best yet, i got mine used, off Ebay, mint in box, for a mere $220 shipped....so hunt around!


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## jinxtigr (Aug 14, 2010)

GatodeCafe said:


> www.deviever.com It's a cute little one-girl operation. All her pedals are handmade, incredibly creative, and pretty damn cheap if you get one used. The "eye of god" pedal in particular is what's known as a feedback loop. It takes the output of a pedal and feeds it back through the circuit until the sound reaches it's logical conclusion. i.e. echo devolves into wicked oscillation, reverb becomes a sea of noise, even the most subtle overdrive turns into a sick square wave fuzz and chorus pedals do crazy, crazy shit.  It's the equivalent of a game shark for your guitar pedals and although it does nothing on it's own, it glitches the hell out of any effect you can think of.


 
You know about the COOLEST crap, 'yote...


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## Fenrir Lupus (Sep 2, 2010)

May take some tweaking, but in the traditional electro harmonix fashion, the effects can go WAY beyond what most people consider useable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPeTOUSlhRg&feature=PlayList&p=C38C63A4AB925960&index=0
While it's a bit much for me, with tweaking I think it would get what you're looking for...  and it'll double as a nice auto-wah.

Also, another pedal (not distortion) from electro harmonix that I think you might get a kick out of is the harmonic octave generator (HOG)
I'll just link all of their guitar synth pedals...  it's in there.  You may prefer the bass micro synth.
http://www.ehx.com/browse/octave-synthesis-pitch
You asked for psychedelic, and these will deliver...  but not without costing a decent bit of money...  and all the time you'll spend adjusting them.


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