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Shep on Bass - Interviews about effects!


pantherairsoft
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It's the first interview on my shiny new website!

PLEASE BE AWARE - MY WEBSITE IS NOW CLOSED. THE INTERVIEWS CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE -> [url="http://simonpoulton.tumblr.com/sheponbass"]http://simonpoulton.....com/sheponbass[/url]



May I present Brian Hamilton of smallsound/bigsound, the man behind such politely named devices such as the **** Overdrive - A name so naughty that the forum software automatically hides it :)

Check out what he had to say about creating some of the most sought after dirt pedals in the boutique pedal world...

Edited by pantherairsoft
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  • 5 weeks later...

It's been a while folks!

PLEASE BE AWARE - MY WEBSITE IS NOW CLOSED. THE INTERVIEWS CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE -> [url="http://simonpoulton.tumblr.com/sheponbass"]http://simonpoulton.....com/sheponbass[/url]



I caught up with Chris & martin of Coopersonic, one of the UK's best kept secrets...

Coopersonic create a range of amazing sounding, hand built pedals, inspired by the technical knowledge of Martin Cooper and the constant touring demands of Six By Seven main man Chris Olley. Together they make some of the finest dirt boxes on the planet, straight out of my hometown.

Edited by pantherairsoft
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[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1375950255' post='2167698']
Cool read... I don't have sound here at work. What does the fader pedal actually do?
[/quote]

It... er... creates fades :) Ha.

one knob sets the length of the fade in from quick to a long 20 second type thing, the second does the same for a fade out. Tap the pedal once and the fade in begins. Tap it again and the fade out starts. Awesome for recreating fades over continuous riffs just like on an album etc.

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  • 2 months later...

New interview (man it's been too long!!!)...

PLEASE BE AWARE - MY WEBSITE IS NOW CLOSED. THE INTERVIEWS CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE -> [url="http://simonpoulton.tumblr.com/sheponbass"]http://simonpoulton.....com/sheponbass[/url]



I was recently lucky enough to tie down the awesome Anton Dang of O'Brother to answer some questions about his crushing live sound and gear.

Check out what he had to say!

Edited by pantherairsoft
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  • 2 weeks later...

Anyone for a spot of Russian Circles...

PLEASE BE AWARE - MY WEBSITE IS NOW CLOSED. THE INTERVIEWS CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE -> [url="http://simonpoulton.tumblr.com/sheponbass"]http://simonpoulton.....com/sheponbass[/url]




May I present Brian Cook.

Brian Cook is the bass man with acclaimed noise-mongers Russian Circles and is formerly the bass player with Botch and These Arms Are Snakes. Brian spared me a little time in between shows to share the details of his current rig.

Edited by pantherairsoft
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  • 3 weeks later...

[quote name='pantherairsoft' timestamp='1382524267' post='2253099']
Anyone for a spot of Russian Circles...

[url="http://sheponbass.co.uk/blog/interview-brian-cook"]Shep On Bass - Interview: Brian Cook[/url]




May I present Brian Cook.

Brian Cook is the bass man with acclaimed noise-mongers Russian Circles and is formerly the bass player with Botch and These Arms Are Snakes. Brian spared me a little time in between shows to share the details of his current rig.
[/quote]

SICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICK.

Saw them in Manchester two weeks ago and they were INSANE.

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Someone a few of you may know...

PLEASE BE AWARE - MY WEBSITE IS NOW CLOSED. THE INTERVIEWS CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE -> [url="http://simonpoulton.tumblr.com/sheponbass"]http://simonpoulton.....com/sheponbass[/url]



May I present my good friend, and fellow gear-head, Ste Taylor.

Ste is currently the bass player with The Christopher's and previously with successful British rock act, Our Innocence Lost. I've had the joy of spending some time in a studio with Ste over the last year or more playing with pedals and discussing our differing tone. Check out what Ste had to say about his current live set up...

Edited by pantherairsoft
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It's a free world, but as someone who has owned most of the popular blenders and was responsible for the impedance buffer/blender from Barge concepts I stand by my convictions.

But there are many sides to this coin, pedals with a clean signal through like say the Assmaster fine, part of the pedal, part of the circuit and the sound.

Using something like an LS-2 to blend a fuzz with an octaver this is parallel fx processing not blending.

Running always on fx blended with your clean to get your sound then you are likely doing something wrong in my opinion (humble opinion)

For example I see guys complaining that the SFT inverts your phase so you can't blend it, well why do you need to its designed as a low gain od if you need more clean signal with it, lower the gain or buy the pedal that sounds right without the faff.

I think Shep was hoping for the debate to be on his blog for the drama :D and the web hits so happy to discuss this anywhere.

While it was a sweeping statement it was aimed at the less fx savvy that seem so keen to go hmmm my ODB-3 doesn't have enough lows, I should buy an eq pedal for it, then hmm still not right I should buy a blender for it and it's just the wrong approach.

I use to use an always on OD this was because I was using the wrong amp, as soon as I got a tube amp I ditched like 3-4 always on pedals. Now I take a very uncompromising approach to everything so maybe if I was always flying to gigs, had back trouble etc and I had to have a small light amp then these solutions are more acceptable.

So with that said all I have left to say is FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT :D

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Ha! I said that comment would get a response!!!!! You chose to voice that opinion in that way so you have take the flack for it! Ha.

Actually I also disagree with you though Mr Taylor. I think blending is the ONLY way to obtain a certain sound. If you want an 'all fuzzed out' tone then you won't blend. If you want to create a specific texture with dirt voiced in a certain way (so the dirt is drastically different to your clean tone) but run the fuzz in parallel to a clean base I think blending is often better than those pedals with clean blends and often lets you isolate the tow 'voices' better.

I don't think there are any right or wrongs in music, and I think blenders are amazing.

Edited by pantherairsoft
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Guest FretNoMore

Frankly I couldn't give a rats a$$ what anyone else thinks - if blending sounds good to my own ears then that is the right way to do it with the particulat pedals I own.

As it happens I don't blend at the moment (though quite a few of my pedals do anyway since they have a dry/wet mix), but I have used an LS-2 and other similar pedals in the past.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions and choices though, whatever floats your boat. ;)

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I totally get the "I've got an ODB-3...need an EQ...need a blend etc etc etc" side that Tayste is coming from now, though I didn't pick it up in that way on my first read through. I use and build pedals with and without clean blends, and have used blending and also parallel processing (I too note the difference between those two) in the past. Depends on the sound you're after. I wouldn't suggest anyone should limit themselves to not blend, but then I definitely would suggest that people see how a pedal sits in the mix before getting a blender involved.

I agree about the SFT, very little reason to blend it. It would be like eating soup with a fork - pick the right tool for the job at hand.

Overall I reckon it's like Shep and FNM say - no right or wrong.

Unless it's an ODB-3... :o

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here here

It's an interesting debate and I've done it all from blending, parallel processing, bi amping etc end of the day I picked a different pedal and no longer needed all the other stuff.

Most people that have been playing with fx for a while won't bother with what I've said but if it stops just one young player from buying £300 of pedals to fix the sound of his £50 fuzz pedal then my work here is done.

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I think if you have a dirty pedal but you don't like the sound of it without a clean blend, then yeh, maybe you have the wrong pedal, but, maybe you just like the effect of clean in parallel with dirt, which a lot of bassists do. It's not always that the pedal is sucking low end (although you read that a lot) sometimes it's that you want a bit of punch at the same time as horrible dirty mush.

A while back I asked the guy from Karnivool if he ran a clean blend on his board, and he said no, you don't need to if the pedal is good enough. Fair point - but he's running an ODB3 with built in clean blend!

Awesome sound though. I saw them again at Nottingham on Friday and got talking to him after. He was raving about some darkglass pedal. I was a little drunk so don't remember which one but I really want to find out!

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[quote name='FretNoMore' timestamp='1384877704' post='2281765']
Well, if built-in blends are Ok but external mixing isn't, then this discussion is just an exercise in double standards or hair splitting. :)
[/quote]

I think that is kind of the point most are making, that this is all almost entirely subjective. I mentioned about blending an SFT being pointless, but another man may get his core dirt sound from a maxed SFT with a clean blend. It doesn't mean either are wrong, just different :)

Some built in blends are different though. The clean blends I use are filtered so, to my ears, they integrate with the distortion/fuzz/overdrive to be one signal rather than simply being two parallel signals, if that makes sense. Ie, they are designed to complement the dirt circuit they accompany. It's quite subtle, but is a different effect to simply clean blending using an LS-2/VBjr/Xotic etc - the EHX Deluxe Bass Big Muff is another example of a blend designed around the dirt circuit, albeit in a different way.

I get your point though, how is it ok to say blending isn't allowed but then both the Darkglass and ODB-3 that have been mentioned above have onboard blends... It is ok cos it's all opinion rather than fact :)

Apart from the bit about the ODB-3 of course... ;)

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[quote name='FretNoMore' timestamp='1384877704' post='2281765']
Well, if built-in blends are Ok but external mixing isn't, then this discussion is just an exercise in double standards or hair splitting. :)
[/quote]

I suppose what I was trying to get across bluntly is if you have to add pedals to a pedal to make it sound good then you're doing something wrong, the reason why I find blending ok in a pedal is that's part of the pedal's sound like the Assmaster its a very unique sounding fuzz pedal, even if you have a depth charge the Assmaster still sounds different.

Trying to draw from my experience of having massively complicated boards, if you're using 4-5 always on pedals to get your sound and another 3 pedals to get a dirt sound etc then you are likely doing something wrong, you either have the wrong amp, wrong bass or wrong pedals.

I have the same conversation with a friend near every week, he's constantly asking for my advice on pedals, quoting various bassists and what they did and how he likes to replicate this tone and how he pushes up x frequency etc and this that and the other and week in and week out I tell him he's using the wrong amp but he won't listen and continues to use a 800w pa head into 2 4x8 cabs.

While there maybe no right or wrong in music there can be massive rights and wrongs in your equipment of choice, for 14 years my Rickenbacker sat on a stand because I thought they should be strung with rounds, changed it to flats because I took a chance and went away from most internet advice and voila a new main bass and a massive cull of my other instruments.

I wish years ago someone had just let me try a really decent big muff clone instead of me pouring my money away on Fuzz Face clones and various blenders trying to get a fuzz tone that worked in a band.

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Guest FretNoMore

[quote name='tayste_2000' timestamp='1384884161' post='2281870']
I suppose what I was trying to get across bluntly is if you have to add pedals to a pedal to make it sound good then you're doing something wrong
...
[/quote]

Only if you assume you can get that exact same sound from some other single pedal.

I don't really see why this is a debate in the first place, if people get their sound from mixing/blending/parallel processing umpteen pedals - so what?

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