Markbass Super Synth programming

[prowla]

So, I bought a Super Synth and it works really well...

...and then I decided to connect it to my computer via USB and have a fiddle with some of the settings.

Has anybody made any successful patches?

Are there any references, downloadable patches available?

One panel in the editor app, showing controls for the VCOs, is greyed out - is that correct?

Great pedal, shame there's only 12 presets to save, but then again, how many would you use is a set?

[Al Krow]

Good topic thread thanks and one I'll be following with interest as a fellow MBSS user. 

Picking up on your last point, although there are only 12 presets you can download onto the pedal (for the purposes of playing live away from your computer); as you say that should be plenty for most sets. There's no such limit, though, on how many patches you can save via the software editor onto your PC. 

Edited April 29, 2018 by Al Krow

[pete.young]

The panel being greyed out doesn't sound right, but I can't remember what you need to turn on to get it to light up. There is a  manual for the software, do you have it?

Might be some useful stuff on Chris Graham's site - there are some sample patches and a review of how the pedal works. http://www.cgraham.com/chris/music/bass/super_synth/

[Al Krow]

Don't be too discouraged by Chris Graham's review, I think his conclusion is spot on:

"For the sounds it can do, it sounds really good." 

...and for the money, that works just fine for me  

If there's a synth pedal on the market that is both better and more compact, I'd be very tempted to get it. In the meantime, I'm happy to crack on with the MBSS...

[prowla]

3 hours ago, pete.young said:

The panel being greyed out doesn't sound right, but I can't remember what you need to turn on to get it to light up. There is a  manual for the software, do you have it?

Might be some useful stuff on Chris Graham's site - there are some sample patches and a review of how the pedal works. http://www.cgraham.com/chris/music/bass/super_synth/

I was playing my bass through it and changing settings interactively.

(The panel I'm talking about is the 2nd tab at the right half of the window.)

I'll check out that site - thanks! (Ah - I'd been there and downloaded those patches, though I haven't tried them.)

 

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by prowla

[prowla]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Don't be too discouraged by Chris Graham's review, I think his conclusion is spot on:

"For the sounds it can do, it sounds really good." 

...and for the money, that works just fine for me  

If there's a synth pedal on the market that is both better and more compact, I'd be very tempted to get it. In the meantime, I'm happy to crack on with the MBSS...

I think it's a darned good pedal!

I've also got a Boss SYB-5, which I never really bonded with and an EH Synth-9 which rather good too.

But the programmability of the MB one is a big feature.

[pete.young]

2 hours ago, prowla said:

I was playing my bass through it and changing settings interactively.

(The panel I'm talking about is the 2nd tab at the right half of the window.

Try left-clicking on the tab.

[prowla]

4 hours ago, pete.young said:

Try left-clicking on the tab.

Yep - I tried that (that's how I found out that all of the controls there wouldn't do anything).

Here's a screenshot from a youtube video

https://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=markbass+super+synth+editor&fr=yhs-invalid#id=1&vid=1c0a01228ca2683d5d4a39230839112a&action=view

It's the tab under the cursor arrow there.

In the video, the person clicks on it and it shows the oscillator controls.

But when I do it they're greyed.

Aha! - the video explains it at 2:30! The large Tone control has to be fully clockwise and showing "User" - then they are enabled.

[prowla]

Well, I spent a bit of quality time with it last night and I think I'm starting to get to grips with it.

I got a near Tom Sawyer growl and also a phat synth sound (with the oscillators at 0, +12, and -12); I'll try and record them and do screenshots of the settings and an upload of the sounds.

One thing I am disappointed with is the +1 octave sound - it's just dull and lifeless. The -2 octave is of questionable use on a bass, as you can hear the individual pulses of the sound if you go below A, but that's more about physics than an issue with the unit itself!

It's too bad that the unit is limited to 9 saved synth sounds, but you can have a PC connected via USB to load one on the fly; that's of questionable use in a gig situation, but I suppose you could always buy a 2nd unit to double up!

[Al Krow]

32 minutes ago, prowla said:

Well, I spent a bit of quality time with it last night and I think I'm starting to get to grips with it.

I got a near Tom Sawyer growl and also a phat synth sound (with the oscillators at 0, +12, and -12); I'll try and record them and do screenshots of the settings and an upload of the sounds.

One thing I am disappointed with is the +1 octave sound - it's just dull and lifeless. The -2 octave is of questionable use on a bass, as you can hear the individual pulses of the sound if you go below A, but that's more about physics than an issue with the unit itself!

It's too bad that the unit is limited to 9 saved synth sounds, but you can have a PC connected via USB to load one on the fly; that's of questionable use in a gig situation, but I suppose you could always buy a 2nd unit to double up!

Looking forward to getting your screenshots / sound uploads.

I fully agree that the octaver is no great shakes on the MBSS. It's definitely a 'synth' and not an octaver for me and has in no way shifted my COG T16 off my pedal board!

[prowla]

I think the -1 octave is alright, though; it's more stable than my Aguilar.

[Ceebass]

On 04/05/2018 at 10:40, prowla said:

I think the -1 octave is alright, though; it's more stable than my Aguilar.

Everyone to their own I guess, but I thought the octaver was killer! Aside from the tracking, which was spot on, I loved it's growly timbre. I think it might be the only time I've seen an audience specifically react to me using an effect pedal (in a good way, I think).

On an slightly unrelated note, I always used a solo'd sub octave before my SS (when I still had it), which seemed to really make it sing.

[prowla]

31 minutes ago, Ceebass said:

Everyone to their own I guess, but I thought the octaver was killer! Aside from the tracking, which was spot on, I loved it's growly timbre. I think it might be the only time I've seen an audience specifically react to me using an effect pedal (in a good way, I think).

On an slightly unrelated note, I always used a solo'd sub octave before my SS (when I still had it), which seemed to really make it sing.

I wasn't intending it as a negative; I was following on from saying the high octave is not so good.

The 1 and -2 ones are good (subject to the caveat of physics wrt the -2).

You're right that ths SS's tracking is spot on.

[Ceebass]

1 hour ago, prowla said:

I wasn't intending it as a negative; I was following on from saying the high octave is not so good.

The 1 and -2 ones are good (subject to the caveat of physics wrt the -2).

You're right that ths SS's tracking is spot on.

Sorry, didn't mean it come across that way dude! Likewise, was just carrying on with that line of discussion (should have chosen a different quote )

Edited May 6, 2018 by Ceebass

[prowla]

1 hour ago, Ceebass said:

Sorry, didn't mean it come across that way dude! Likewise, was just carrying on with that line of discussion (should have chosen a different quote )

No worries! :-)

The folks at the Bass Bash yesterday seemed to like it.

[Al Krow]

My main pedal board resurfaced today after a brief sojourn. I've been using a single board PSU and previously found my MBSS worked ok with a 9V 450mA ouptut, but for some reason it really wasn't happy with that today! Clean by-pass was fine but try to engage the synth engine and it was just 'click click' and no output!

In theory the pedal needs 12V 550mA 'minimum' according to the manual.

Tried it on a variable voltage output, but which only delivers 250mA current draw. What I found was as follows:

• At < 8V the synth engine just didn't engage and defaulted to clean bypass;
• 9V to 10V got the 'click click' again;
• however (to my relief) at 11V to 15V worked just fine (and actually with added oomph at the higher voltages, but I only did that temporarily in case I fried something that wasn't southern chicken).

Conclusion: the MBSS seems to be happiest at 12V, it struggles with lower voltages but can easily cope with less than half the 'minimum' current draw.

Oh and btw...I was finding that a combination of MBSS followed by SA Manta is really rather juicy!

Edited May 12, 2018 by Al Krow

[prowla]

Here's a couple of patches I managed to program.

 

They could probably be refined a bit more, but they're not far off.

I'll add screendumps and saved files next time I use my laptop.

[prowla]

For contrast, here's an EH Synth 9 on the OBX setting.

 

[Al Krow]

@prowla Aha you have an EHX Synth 9 as well as a Markbass SS! Not seen too much feedback on the Synth 9 but it does look interesting.

If you had to choose between them which would you go for and why? In particular, which are you finding you're able to get the more usable synth tones from?

[prowla]

3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

@prowla Aha you have an EHX Synth 9 as well as a Markbass SS! Not seen too much feedback on the Synth 9 but it does look interesting.

If you had to choose between them which would you go for and why? In particular, which are you finding you're able to get the more usable synth tones from?

The EH has 9 canned sounds, coupled with tweaks via the control knobs. It's good for playing things which complement the bass line; I think it's an accompaniment.

The SS generates the sounds and is very direct and is more of an instrument in its own right.

I think their roles sort of complement each other.

[Al Krow]

On 04/05/2018 at 10:16, Al Krow said:

I fully agree that the octaver is no great shakes on the MBSS. It's definitely a 'synth' and not an octaver for me and has in no way shifted my COG T16 off my pedal board!

Ok I'm man enough to admit when I've got something wrong, and the above statement falls into that category!

On 04/05/2018 at 10:40, prowla said:

I think the -1 octave is alright, though; it's more stable than my Aguilar.

 

On 06/05/2018 at 13:06, Ceebass said:

Everyone to their own I guess, but I thought the octaver was killer! Aside from the tracking, which was spot on, I loved it's growly timbre. I think it might be the only time I've seen an audience specifically react to me using an effect pedal (in a good way, I think).

On an slightly unrelated note, I always used a solo'd sub octave before my SS (when I still had it), which seemed to really make it sing.

Having spent some more time with MB SS, I agree with you both that:

a) the -1 octave is stable and tracks well and sounds pretty good;

b) although the +1 octave is not amazing, it's at least there! 

So as well as being a synth it's a pretty decent octaver too. Having got my head around that, I kinda realised I could probably manage without my COG T16 on my board as well, so that duly got moved on today and the MB SS is going to take over duties as octaver as well as synth...

[Ceebass]

3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

So as well as being a synth it's a pretty decent octaver too. Having got my head around that, I kinda realised I could probably manage without my COG T16 on my board as well, so that duly got moved on today and the MB SS is going to take over duties as octaver as well as synth...

I made the same decision when I got mine! After one gig, I decided I wanted my other octave back though. One is never enough.

[Al Krow]

24 minutes ago, Ceebass said:

I made the same decision when I got mine! After one gig, I decided I wanted my other octave back though. One is never enough.

Hah! I've got emergency cover in the shape of my Zoom MS-60B, in case I need an octaver at the same time as using the MB SS as a synth. (That is unless I've missed a trick and it's possible to program the MB SS to do synth and octave at the same time?!) 

[prowla]

Well, you can add a sub not to the synth sound...