Clarky Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 Hi all, just received an MXR M80 ... but I don't have a battery for it, doh! As I am off to football shortly (come on you Gooners) will not get the chance to play with it and have a band practice tomorrow night after work. Don't think band members would appreciate me fiddling with the unit for 15 minutes trying to get the sound I'm after so just wondered if someone would suggest a setting that gives a tube-y, slightly overdriven (but not fussy) sound that will sit well in the mix with noisy guitars and drums, just to give me a good starting point? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwilym Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 I had one of these briefly. I though the best results came from blending the dirty and clean channels, if you were after a subtle distorted sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 Make sure the "colour" switch is on too. Great pedals, i love mine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 do you have the booklet with it? It gives sample settings for a few players. If you don't have it pm me an email an I'll scan it and send you it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted January 31, 2010 Author Share Posted January 31, 2010 (edited) [quote name='MacDaddy' post='730727' date='Jan 31 2010, 04:20 PM']do you have the booklet with it? It gives sample settings for a few players. If you don't have it pm me an email an I'll scan it and send you it.[/quote] Thanks MacD, I do have the booklet but the sample settings are all heavy metal-ish settings (Twiggy Ramirez, Trujillo in Ozzy's band, Rex Brown in Pantera) so I figured these would be a bit too in-your-face for what I am after Edited January 31, 2010 by Clarky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 [quote name='Clarky' post='730993' date='Jan 31 2010, 07:50 PM']Thanks MacD, I do have the booklet but the sample settings are all heavy metal-ish settings (Twiggy Ramirez, Trujillo in Ozzy's band, Rex Brown in Pantera) so I figured these would be a bit too in-your-face for what I am after[/quote] yeah see what you mean. I tend to use the Rex one as a base, then adjust accordingly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 I'd say set the mids and distortion to what you like, then boost them both a little bit more to cut through the mix. Dave Meros told me to do it that way once! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudewheresmybass Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 here is one of mine that i find works well for me in a mix. vol to suit blend 10 ish trigger full on gate in gain also 10 the eq for me is bass 1 - 1:30, mid 2:30 ish, and treble 1 ish. i also find that just using the clean channel with some boost in the mids works wonders when you dig in. hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted January 31, 2010 Author Share Posted January 31, 2010 [quote name='dudewheresmybass' post='731104' date='Jan 31 2010, 09:28 PM']here is one of mine that i find works well for me in a mix. vol to suit blend 10 ish trigger full on gate in gain also 10 the eq for me is bass 1 - 1:30, mid 2:30 ish, and treble 1 ish. i also find that just using the clean channel with some boost in the mids works wonders when you dig in. hope this helps[/quote] Very kind! I will set at these levels and take it from there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1976fenderhead Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 I usually use it clean but I'd assume it would be a matter of blending in some distortion to the clean tone... I have color on. Then to get a tubey sound I do: Boost Bass to between 1 and 3 o'clock Cut Mids to between 8 and 11 Boost Highs to between 2 and 3. It varies depending on the circumstances of the studio, etc. When playing live I usually have to [i]cut[/i] bass if I engage color... Then I say fiddle with the distortion to dial a bit in to your tubey sound (color is always on when you engage distortion anyway). I set gate to 11 o'clock and Blend and Gain to slightly over 12 o'clock. I suppose you'd lower Blend to give it just a slight driven tone... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted February 1, 2010 Author Share Posted February 1, 2010 Used the pedal at band practice tonight - the other guys loved it when I blended in a bit of overdrive/distortion. Tons of beefy low end too. Very pleased with it. Thanks all for your suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1976fenderhead Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 [quote name='Clarky' post='732266' date='Feb 1 2010, 09:37 PM']Used the pedal at band practice tonight - the other guys loved it when I blended in a bit of overdrive/distortion. Tons of beefy low end too. Very pleased with it. Thanks all for your suggestions.[/quote] I'm glad you like it... Overall my favourite pedal ever I think... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliveT Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 I like the M80 and find it a very useful tool but I don't tend to use the "color" button on the clean channel. I find it sucks too much of the mids from the tone. With my P bass I like to leave the eq pretty much flat, boosting what's required for the room. I find you get a nice grind from the distortion with blend around 11 o'clock, and gain at 9 - 10 o'clock. Push the gain to 12 - 2 o'clock for fuzz. The "color" button is engaged when the distortion is on but I find that helps put back the bass which distortion usually loses. Anyone else use the M80 with a fretless? I find the mid control comes in very useful here and a small boost really helps define the fretless tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deej Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Im starting to find the M80 becoming one of my favourite pedals now. Ive had it half a year or so but its only recently thats its grown on me. Really gives my tone some power and depth behind it, and can add that little bit of grind to give me a more aggressive tone which I like. For my clean tone I just use the color button and boost my mids a bit, and for a slight grit ive got the blend at around 10:00 and the gain at about 8:00. It only adds a very subtle drive to it but thats what I like, and you can crank it as much as you like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1976fenderhead Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 (edited) [quote name='CliveT' post='732635' date='Feb 2 2010, 10:23 AM']I like the M80 and find it a very useful tool but I don't tend to use the "color" button on the clean channel. I find it sucks too much of the mids from the tone. With my P bass I like to leave the eq pretty much flat, boosting what's required for the room. I find you get a nice grind from the distortion with blend around 11 o'clock, and gain at 9 - 10 o'clock. Push the gain to 12 - 2 o'clock for fuzz. The "color" button is engaged when the distortion is on but I find that helps put back the bass which distortion usually loses. Anyone else use the M80 with a fretless? I find the mid control comes in very useful here and a small boost really helps define the fretless tone.[/quote] I tried it with a fretless, overall I prefer the tone but I feel I lose the expressiveness of the mwwwahhh of the bass especially in higher notes so as a trade off I don't use it with my fretless. I suppose I could boost the highs to get the mwaahh back, but if so, I get just a normal transparent tone like my SWR already has, no point in using the M80 then (unless if no amp being used). At the moment I have it set up as proper clean and proper distortion but I'll try to add just a slight touch of distortion to my clean tone and leave it on all the time to see how that goes... Edited February 2, 2010 by 1976fenderhead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliveT Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 [quote name='1976fenderhead' post='733506' date='Feb 2 2010, 09:31 PM']I tried it with a fretless, overall I prefer the tone but I feel I lose the expressiveness of the mwwwahhh of the bass especially in higher notes so as a trade off I don't use it with my fretless. I suppose I could boost the highs to get the mwaahh back, but if so, I get just a normal transparent tone like my SWR already has, no point in using the M80 then (unless if no amp being used). At the moment I have it set up as proper clean and proper distortion but I'll try to add just a slight touch of distortion to my clean tone and leave it on all the time to see how that goes...[/quote] I use the M80 with fretless but just not the "color" button. The mid scoop kills mwah as you say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1976fenderhead Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 [quote name='CliveT' post='733931' date='Feb 3 2010, 11:58 AM']I use the M80 with fretless but just not the "color" button. The mid scoop kills mwah as you say.[/quote] Sure, I see the point of that if not using an amp, but using it with an amp without the color, might as well use the tone controls of the amp for that purpose... But without amp, straight to mixing desk or audio interface, definitely better than the 1 tone knob of my passive Corvette!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1976fenderhead Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 I tested now to add just a bit of 'tubey' grit to the clean tone and to me the best setting for that is Blend at 9o'c and Gain at 8o'c. I don't think it adds that much to the tone though, but will try it in a band setting next week and see, at least it seems to improve attack definition, might help the bass stand out better in the mix but apart from that I don't see much worth in it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliveT Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 Because the colour button is engaged when using rhe distortion channel do you find you need to push the mids a bit to allow for this when using the distortion? If I want the clean part of my distortion tone to be similar to my actual clean tone I find I do need to push the mids from 12:00 to 3:00. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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