radiophonic

I've never been a fan of the modern types of smooth but high-gain distortion (Darkglass, Pike et al). I'm much more of a fan of the spitty/spluttery end of things. Dirty dirt. I noticed a Harmonic Percolator in the classifieds... Hmmm. No idea how close to the InterFax sound it gets - and of course the originals were gooped, so some of the clones are just best guesses - but those a proper nasty. For a basic soft-clip overdrive sound that doesn't get lost in the mix, I've yet to find anything that beats a Pork Loin.  For really gnarly stuff, I run it into a Turbo Rat with the Reutz mod to fix the bass cut, and the filter dimed. Not perfect but definitelyh the right ballpark.

What style of Fuzz are we talking? The gated fuzz on the Okto Nojs (above) isn't really much use outside of synth-world IMO. I'd assumed the MXR was more of a general purpose circuit.

Bump.

I'm in the process of auditioning with an originals band who are significantly younger than me and simultaneously trying to recruit a drummer for another start-up, where again the potential recruits all seem to be far younger than us. We're up front about it, but a 20 year age gap isn't uncommon. I think maybe up to 10 years ago it mattered, but now not so much. In the covers world it may never have mattered and in the originals world there's no money anymore, so musical compatibility is all that matters. It might matter in London I suppose where you have more choices, but just trying to find good enough players with the right taste and motivations is a big enough hurdle round here.

I've had no problems at all with EBS ones, but the Warwick ones are trouble IME. I've had many sudden failures - sudden noise issues and total loss of signal - and even a dead cable straight from the pack. For some reason the shorter ones seem to be the ones that fail most and I've ditched all of mine.

The prices of some of those are quite eye watering! I wonder if the Boss ES 5 might do the job. There are some pedals I’d always run in combination and in the same order, so 5 inputs might be enough. 

My signal chain is a bit of a compromise and I'm having to tap dance quite a bit. I'm currently using the good ole LS2 for loop switching, but obviously it isn't very flexible. What I need is to be able to assign groups of pedals to a pre-set so I can activate with a single tap. The same pedal should be assignable to more than one preset and some control over pedal order would be desirable. I don't need a gazillion channels as I don't really need a separate channel for every pedal, but It'd need to be able to accommodate a volume pedal. Is anyone using a system like this?

These are great. I bought one for the Octave - which is really good sounding anyway, but the gated fuzz and sub harmonic square wave makes this a super useful synth platform. Just add a filter and you're there. 

Both the bands I play in are 'on hiatus' for various reasons, giving me time to play around with effects - choices, signal path etc.  As usual there are compromises - currently I can't switch the synth sounds in and out with one tap, but I've got maximum flexibility in terms of the drive part of the synth - Pork Loin/Gated Fuzz/Bitcrusher. The Manta is semi-benched, due to the size of the Moog. I can still run it off the board in the spare LS2 loop (i.e no rewiring required) and I need to get my head around all the options it offers first.  It makes sense to exploit all the weirder filter options rather than try to beat the Moog at it's own game.  MXR BCD is also off the the board since I add chorus directly to the Flashback via a tone-print and I don't tend to use chorus as a standalone effect. I still need to sort out the expression control to the bitcrusher but if I'm using the Manta, I still have the option to take the CV output from the Moog, so I can get control of three pedals from the SA Dual expression controller. 

13 minutes ago, GisserD said:

Your wife persuaded you to buy a pedal?!?!? Hold on to that one mate!!! 

If my wife knew how much I spend on gear, she'd chop my hands off

I didn't say that she knew how much I spend on gear! 

I was actually pretty surprised at how good the formants were with only 2 peaks tbh. I've done quite a lot of research that involves speech analysis/manipulation (FFT stuff via PRAAT mostly) and I find voice synthesis pretty fascinating, particularly when you get into what can be omitted and still heard as speech (sine wave encoding, phase vocoding). I'm guessing that the Manta just uses whatever two peaks gives a close match to a few stable percepts and leave the brain to do the rest. I can't see any patterns in the textbook F values though.

I'm not super bothered about the lack of down-sweep on the Moog since I still have the Manta and won't be selling it. I view the Moog as a big inflexible thing in it's own right.  There's always the Enigma for the future, right? Filters eh?

Not sure if this should be in the 'other' thread, but I just pulled the trigger on a Moog MF101 from the classifieds. The Manta is a huge win for flexibility, but maybe not the last word in fatness and my wife talked me into it. I already know that it'll be totally impractical, won't fit on my board, needs it's own PSU and needs a dedicated loop in the LS2, but actually all of that adds up to something that I can easily leave behind if I don't need it and easily refit when I do. Just disconnect two cables and set the LS2 to A <-> Bypass. I've also got some ideas about using the CV out to control sample rate and bit depth on the Scrutator via an envelope.

I'be been really enjoying the flexibility of Manta and now I've got the hang of it, I can dial in a desired sound pretty quickly, provided I can remember which filter is which. I only seem to use 2 and 7 though. 2 seems the best for sweeps so far and 7 is excellent for formant type effects and if I map the expresssion pedal to either side of 0 on the depth, I can shift the articulation of the formant and get a wider variety of vowel sounds. In fact the major annoyance now is not being able to define the frequency ratio of the two filter peaks since control over this would give the complete vowel set. For 140 odd quid, though I'm not really complaining. 

You have a PM. 

Folk Clubs in general. Every time it's the same story. We get booked as a 'featured act' and every time I say 'is it just us?' and every time I'm told 'Yes. No floor singers, no raffle.' Every time there are floor singers (i.e. mates of the organiser) and a fecking raffle. I have 100% had enough. I see another one looming on the schedule and I'm just not doing it.

Now Sold.

13 hours ago, shizznit said:

I use them for different applications. They behave and sound quite differently to each other in use.

The OC-2 has an almost robotic sounding deep synth tone which I can’t get with the MXR pedal. It can get quite close, but when you A/B them the OC-2 wins every time...for that type of sound. If you want that 80’s style keyboard bass effect then this pedal will give you that. I have also used this OC-2 for a drum and bass session I did about 10yrs ago and it sounded awesome. Sounds really great with a gated fuzz too.

The MXR is for funkier, choppier uses. It tracks better than the OC-2 and the mid boost function gives a really growly, punchy presence, which I really love. It doesn’t have the same trouser shaking depth as the OC-2, but I don’t need that using this pedal as I mix quite a lot of the dry signal from the bass to keep it crisp and focussed. When I use it with the envelope filter it sounds seriously funky!

Interesting. I keep flip-flopping on getting an OC2 and I'd heard the MXR could get close and fixed most of the OC2s downsides. Sounds like the old Boss is still the daddy though. I think we could do with a 'post your octave down' thread, with the OC2 via as many basses as possible as a ref.

3 hours ago, shizznit said:

My pedalboard setup changes frequently depending on the gig, but this is how it looks this week (with the addition of a fan whilst we endure the heatwave!)

 

Interesting dual octaver action here.  How close can you get to the OC2 wit the MXR, or are they for totally different applications?

Latest revision includes the Source  expression pedal to control the Manta and the Scrutator filter sweeps. I don’t like the fiddly cable tbh, but If I’d taken the hub route, I’d have needed a second expression pedal off the board. Next change will be swapping out the El Capistan for a nice flexible reverb.

Boss FV30H volume pedal, with box. I’ve been using this as an expression pedal (TRS insert cable method) but the Source Manta required a dedicated pedal - no other reason to sell it. Compact design and all metal construction. Tuner out. £5 UK P&P.

Digitech bass synth wah for sale. Box and manual included. Great intro pedal for synth sounds, but now surplus thanks to the Source Manta. £5 UK P&P.

2 hours ago, CygnusX2112 said:

Small and simpls.

Pedaltrain Metro 20 board with a Volto power supply underneath.

Tuner - Spectracomp - B3K - Pork & Pickle - Bass Chorus - Subway DI.

I don't use the Pork & Pickle much and I think I will swap that out for an envelope filter.  Apart from that I've not found significant use for effects with the bass guitar.

Depending on your filter choice, you might find the P&P comes in handy. I definitely find that filters like something to chew on and I often run a Pork Loin into my Manta when I want something a bit more normcore than a gated fuzz. I may well trade up to the P&P in any case, to get the muff option in the same box.

No surprises here really:

Percy Jones on Eno / Another Green World

Mick Karn on Dalis Car - The Waking Hour 

Jaco on Joni Mitchell / Don Juan 

Not a pure fretless album, but Eberhart Weber's playing on Kate Bush / Rocket's Tail (Sensual World) is tremendous - and some of the best bass I've ever heard Dave Gilmour solo over. Pity about the 80s digital reverb though.

On 08/07/2018 at 13:22, Hellzero said:

Their first three albums were made using conventional instruments and the spirit was already there. Listen to them : Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk 2 and Ralf und Florian.

Don't forget that the two founders were classical musician interested in electronic music of the time (1968) so they knew what they wanted to hear and started with what they had : conventional instruments. Ralf und Florian is the beginning of the "massive" use of "synthesizers".

I would also recommend watching the Swedish film "Sound of Noise", very Kraftwerkian approach.

 

+1. Also, there is much more of a continuum between the 'disowned' early records (Tone Float > R&F) and the 'official' canon than they'd like to admit. Aside from the title track, Autobahn shares quite a bit with R&F to my ears and there are still conventional instruments on Autobahn too. Florian's flute is quite prominent and Klaus Roeder played guitar - although he's been excised from the sleeve notes. I'm not sure if he's still on the back sleeve (inside the car). That picture was doctored anyway.  Not only were Ralf & Florian composition students, but Karl Bartos was an orchestral percussionist - also from the Franz Schubert Conservatory, recruited via their former tutor for the Autobahn tour. Only Wolfgang Flur was a rock'n'roller. Ironically, given the flack they took about musicianship, there can't be many successful pop bands with a higher level of formal training than Kraftwerk. It shows too. 

The danelectro is pretty bulky if i remember correctly - I think there was one on sale here about a year ago. I'm not familiar with the subdecay but there seem to be a couple of different versions - there's no mention on the v. review i read though. I'm guessing I'll end up biting the bullet and losing sound on sound in favour of some sort of weird reverb. I think I'd get more out of a verb than a second delay and something with some novel modulation would be interesting. EQD or similar. 

Not a single album, but Bjork generally. I bought the first Sugarcubes record when it came out. I was into all that weird anarcho hippy stuff that she was involved with early on, via Crass and Throbbing Gristle. I generally like very distinctive female singers and wild voices. I like pretty much all her collaborators too and have albums by LFO, Leila, Forest Swords, Haxan Cloak, Matmos - all people she's worked with, but I just can't make any of her solo records stick.