Kiwi

By this time, I had started to look into ways of sustaining an arp bass line alongside a manual bass line. It became clear that I would have to look into separate signal chains within the same pedal board so I started searching for mixers and channel splitters that might do the job. There wasn't really much out there until a few months ago when EHX announced the Tri Parallel Mixer. This looked like it might be what I was looking for, although mono only. So one of those will be on it's way shortly.

So after a Moment Machine finally arrived, it seemed to work really well. The arpeggiation was accurate and user programmable. The user interface is pretty good for a pedal, relatively easy to navigate and set up. I did notice that if I started both the tap tempo on the Moment Machine and on my Zoom B3 at 120, they would go out of sync after maybe 8 bars or so. This was surprising but I guess the Zoom might be at fault given it doesn't have any MIDI in or out and was built to a budget. I managed to program in the bassline to I Feel Love but... ...and you knew there was going to be a ...'but'... ...when two steps of the same pitch came after one another, they sounded like one note. This is because the notes are sampled as they are supplied. So if they are supplied without an envelope, then the steps will sound like a continuous tone of double the length in duration. I tried emailing the guy who makes them but no reply and apparently he's too busy given he's still finishing university(!!!) So I set the Moment Machine to one side and carried on looking.

So about 6 months ago I decided to do a bit more research to see if the market had any new products and it turned out that one company, Cooper FX, somewhere in the backwoods of 'Murica had made a pedal called the Moment Machine that specifically functioned as an arpeggiator. So once again I furtively plumped down two hundred and fifty of your finest sterling...twice actually. The first time I ordered from Ebay, I had it shipped via the Ebay Global Priority programme for a heinous amount. Still, you had the best of the best shipping service, right? Wrong. The package was stopped at customs in Guangzhou and I received a request for my passport to prove my identity if I didn't want the package confiscated and destroyed. Given my work visa needed to be renewed later that week, and Customs categorically refused to guarantee either the safety of my passport while in their care or the timely return to avoid being an overstayer, I refused. The package (as far as I know) was destroyed. But not after a complaint to Ebay and a full refund including shipping was provided. Fast forward another month and I bagged another which was forwarded via DHL from a friend in London - it arrived without any problems.

About 5 years ago I did a bit of research into pedal based arpeggiators, not really expecting to find something so specific but to my surprise Eventide offered an arpeggiator in the Pitchfactor pedal. So I plumped down three hundred or so of your finest English sterling and had one delivered. After getting to know the pedal a bit, it became apparent (and this wasn't clear in the user manual) that the patterns available weren't user editable. Basically they gave you some stuff and it was up to the user to decide whether they were creatively inspired by them or not. There was one guy who actually found a way to hack the pedal and create patterns using MIDI CC messages but it required some fairly deep (and time consuming) digging about in the editor. The disappointing thing that became apparent after using the pedal for a bit was that the thinking specifically behind the Pitchfactor was very fluffy. Lots of features available but they didn't really take things one step further and think about what those features might be used for beyond being 'creatively inspired'. So I reluctantly sold the pedal and didn't much do much else for another 3 years.

I should have started this earlier but no time to myself with a business and young family going...here goes: I've been interested in synth bass for a long time. It comes out of a enjoyment of dance music generally which goes back to an Abba album 'Arrival' and Jean Michel Jarre's Equinoxe V which then kind of expanded into disco with Chic and then funk/rnb. For the last 10 years I wanted to get a set up that allows me to arpeggiate bass synth. I kind of achieved that in a basic way with an FI pedal and tap tempo slap back delay to produce the bassline to I Feel Love. It's pretty close to how it was achieved by Giorgio Moroder originally also. But I wanted to get a bit more into keyboard bass without being able to play a keyboard. I really like the Freemasons and have wanted to emulate what they do for a long time. Their tracks are satisfyingly bombastic in nature and that includes their bass lines - some great disco influences too. Check out these for example: But the one track that made me go 'hmmm' was this one. It's got layered basslines - one arpeggiated, one a pedal drone...and I guess there's a third in there as well for accented notes. I thought to myself how fantastic would it be to be pumping out something as powerful and immersive at a gig some time...? So my quest began... For what it's worth, I already have a decent pitch to MIDI system using my 6 string Shuker into a Terratec Axon MkII and Yamaha CSR6 synth module. But the latency on low notes makes it next to impossible to achieve anything close to the tightness of modern dance tracks. Yes I could string it with piccolo strings and transpose everything an octave down but that's a load of faff considering the user interfaces are so poor in the stuff I already have. One option would be the Roland VB99 system, it seems to be fairly reliable but the current model is sort of cab/independent stand based and doesn't really work with the other kit. Besides, having plumped for the Future Impact, I really wanted to work with that. Another option would be Steve Chick/Industrial Radio MIDI controller based on his proprietary fret sensing tech. I've met Steve and given an earlier system (when Charles Celia was making his basses) a go. There was virtually no latency and now the basses are made from Warmoth parts, a system works out to about 1600 quid. But to get the best out of it, the bass needs an expert set up which only Steve can do at the moment. Steve lives in Sydney which is a bit of a walk. I could use the fret sensing system with the Future Impact pedal but I have no idea how I would arpeggiate at this point, without some extra gear...which might make the FI redundant. So I decided to look into pedal based options given that they were generally more accessible and I already had a Future Impact and a Zoom B3.

OUCH! OW OWOWOWOWOWOW!!

Tell us about the bits of gear you nearly bought but didn't and then regretted it later. Mine: Celinder J Update 5 at the Bass Gallery, sounded phenomenal but I baulked at the £2500 price tag and the colour wasn't blue. I was a fool to pass it up, it had everything I ever wanted in a Jazz bass. 1965 Fender Jazz, just didn't do anything for me. Didn't have The Sound, felt fragile, didn't fancy gigging it either. But what if... Wals...I have always liked them since playing a gorgeous 5 string fretless Mach 2 back in the mid nineties at the Bass Centre Wapping. But could never imagine myself with one...until now.

A matching pair of Modulus Quantum Sweetspot basses back in the noughties - imported from the US before shipping charges and the exchange rate went insane. The fretted had a treble attack like glass and the fretless had a warped neck because the phenolic fingerboard wasn't stiff enough I lost 500 quid on each bass. Also that Musicman Stingray parts bass with a status neck. Sold it for quite a bit under the asking price of a used Stingray and had my arm bitten off (justifiably, too). Finally - my first 'custom bass', made from parts I specified (hence no name or shame) but it was a disaster. The graphite neck was floppy. The bridge didn't hold the strings against the body. It sounded weedy even with EMG Jv pickups in. I sold it for about 15% less than I paid for it a few months after receiving it.

The current ones are hand assembled from Warmoth parts, not hand made. The electronics both inside the body and in the neck itself are extremely complicated. Each fret is divided into 4 pieces. Each fret piece is electronically isolated from the others and anyone attempting to bugger about would need to know the right way to reconnect everything after disassembly, there are no instruction manuals included.

Validity based on principle or pragmatism? Traditionally gigging bassists just wanted something reliable and predictable that helped them nail the track as quickly as possible because they're on the clock. Consistency allowed engineers to eq the bass quickly and get predictable results. Fantastic sound creation potential just made things more complicated, especially when a knob might get knocked accidentally while playing...although having said that Alembics were very popular Nashville studio basses for a while in the 80's. I think there is a difference between a player's personal, creative aspirations and the realities of working for someone who is paying the bill for studio time. As Madonna famously said 'time is money and the money is MINE!'. At least according to Nile Rodgers.

Wot? I tried to but got asked to stop faffing about between songs as it was holding everyone else up.

I visited Steve Chick in 2009 on my way through to NZ. Back then he had Charles Cilia making the basses for him. Charles is an outstanding luthier, his guitars play like butter. The basses he made were OK but didn't do much for me personally and they weren't cheap as they were handmade, faithful replicas of a preCBS jazz bass owned by a friend of Steve's. So Steve has been spending a lot of time thinking about how to make the technology more accessible pricewise and one way was to use prefabricated parts which he completes the necks and does extra body drilling for the wiring. It's intentional. He wants the technology to be accepted by as many players as possible so the rationale is use a standard bass that everyone is familiar with tonally.

A sequencer would require programming though. I suggest keeping the role of the pedal quite simple, ie. bass synth note generation and leave the effects to a separate pedal. Because there's no tap tempo, doing time based effects, like slapback delays in "I Feel Love" for example, would need an extra delay pedal anyway.

@Quatschmacher would it be too much to ask for a decent arpeggiator? I mean if they are selling and committed to the whole concept of bass synth thing, I'd like to think that a good, programmable arp is worth a tonne of occasional use modulation effects that are used in other pedals anyway.

Fair points but the Boss SY1 isn't programmable for arp though...and neither was the Eventide Pitchfactor that I used to own. Also the sound of the SY1 (at least when I tried it) was more like a synth waveform of indiscriminate pitch + pitched note from the bass. It's been a while though so perhaps that has changed with revisions? I haven't tried the SA C4 but I already own the FI and a Deep Impact so it's money already spent. The only outlay I face right now is the H9. In terms of value for money, it would be far simpler and cheaper to get a set of Taurus pedals and an old synth module like a Roland JV1080. But I would prefer to use my hands...so I'll probably sell the moment machine and use the proceeds towards the H9.

I have a Joyo JF 14 American Sound on my guitar board - what a great pedal that is! It's a work in progress at the moment, mainly due to the cost of the H9 and I don't have the Deep Impact with me at the moment. Right now I can play dry plus arpeggiator. The Freeze pedal is really interesting though. It's like the sustain pedal on a piano, hit it and whatever it's hearing is millisecond sampled and looped. Great for sustaining an arpeggiator. The only fly in the ointment at the moment is that it's still possible to play through the Freeze pedal once the Freeze button is pressed. This is fine for solo accompaniment but for my set up it means I can still trigger the arpeggiator with any notes that are passed on by the Freeze. It would be really nice if they had a microswitch on the pedal which said 'play thru: on/off". Speaking of arpeggiators, I have both an Adrenalinn III and a Cooper Moment Machine at the moment. The Adrenalinn has a little extra attack at the start of an arpeggiated note but it's a PITA to programme without paying extra for an editor. The Moment Machine is a bit more portamento style which makes it harder to punch out dance riffs but it has a pretty friendly user interface.

I've been doing a spot of planning too although currently stuck between using the loops and just using it as a splitter. If I use it as a splitter, I can preserve the stereo imaging with stereo Soundlab Micromixer. 1) Dry: FEA Labs Double Compressor 2) Bass synth chain: Akai Deep Impact -> Eventide H9 (future purchase) 3) Arpeggiator: Future Impact -> EHX Freeze pedal -> Adrenalinn III The idea is to be able to trigger arpeggiated bass synth at the same time as I'm playing a different bass synth patch. Or hold a drone using the EHX Freeze while playing bass synth over it. If I was gigging, the bass synth pedals, adrenalinn and H9 would be MIDI connected for specific song patches.

Funny, I came on here to suggest a DHA pre and it ended up being the preferred choice. I don't know how Dave managed it but it really is a lovely Ampeggy type sound.

I'm a bit late to the party here but I've just bought one second hand and, apart from the user interface, I've been extremely impressed by it. The drum loops are all professional quality and, dare I say it, inspirational? The amp sims are far more convincing and dynamic than those from my Zoom G3X but I really bought it for the arpeggiator. I'm still exploring the arp functions but, compared to my Cooper Moment Machine, it seems to give each note in the sequence a tiny bit of attack which helps with clarity and dynamics. Even my main gripe - the user interface, is still very logical in it's concept, which makes it refreshingly easy to access an overwhelmingly large range of parameters with relatively little training.

Made by the same factory in the Czech Republic who were originally contracted by Spector to make their CR basses.