Filling out my a bass/ pseudo organ/ clavinet board for bass and drum duo oddball outsider funk jazz

[DudeManWhat]

The title description alone sounds like a mess, hell it may be impossible, but for posterity sake I figured I'd throw it out and see what sticks. I've been in the shed with a drummer, and we've been putting together some stuff, and have been thinking about keeping it a duo to avoid scheduling with more people on the regular. We dig on alot of stuff but tend to always drag in dissonant moody quirks into anything we play together think Tom Waits' Latin and Afro Cuban rhythm stuff, and The Residents bizarro dissonance and melodic layers. now think if they got together and started doing a meters/mmw style project where they were digging on Andrew Hill/Mingus, and dark psych. Still with me? No, I'll give you a second to process this mess. Now think of them doing that with a bass and two amp parallel setup ala royal blood. Can you? Is that even possible? Maybe sorta?Still not ridiculous enough for you, well do I have the rubfor you. I don't want it to sound like a guitar playing power chords. I'm hoping to get some keyboard sounds like organ sounds and or clavinet sounds, weird keyboard sounds. I'm thinking signal chain would be bass into some sort of bass<signal splitter with momentary switching, ground lift, and polarity switching options ( I would think this is almost a definite need with a chain like this [Undecided])< Signal A.) Clean signal into bass chain MXR vintage bass octave>sgfx beta mkii >empress bass comp>amp (bb800/ revsound b112)

Then there is signal B.) Poly Octaver for "organ" (Undecided)> maybe modulationof some sort for rotary sounds> volume pedal (for swells)> ring mod (I have a Randy's Revenge [for bell tones and it can get pseudo sample rate reduction sounds that might work for dirty clav like tones but thinking about a bit crusher for that]) > dirt (i have a dba interstellar od and a dba reverberation machine which can be gritty as hell even without the reverb running but i like it for the belton verb when I do bell stuff with the ring mod)>filter (I'm thinking about running my Dr. Scientist Dusk on envelope with an exp pedal for quacking the dirty clav and organ stuff )>eq for shaping the signal>vibe (i have an eqd the depths may put this after the octaver for sort of a throbby movement)> reverb (recently acquired a dba rooms)>delay (dba just got an echo dream 2 this week)>trem (Undecided)>powered speaker I have a Mackie thump 112A

Basically I'd love to hear suggestions on the splitter: old blood noise signal splitter thing? Eqd Swiss things? Or just a Morley pro and just use the volume pedal

The octave/ pitch "organy" element: MXR Poly Blue Octave(has modulation on board doubles as a monophonic should I choose to get synthy)? EQD ORGANIZER (another interesting option)? POG2 (good tracking? Sliders? I like big pedals?

and Trem (looking for cool moody & swampy not the synthy chop.)

NOTE: I'm not trying to get a dead on organ or clavinet sound just something inspiring that sits in that space, that isn't a guitar sound, or a synth pedal (nothing against them just not what I'm chasing with this particular project concept).

Also a parallel buffer where would you put one with something like this?
Please don't try and talk me out of it, I've gone too far there's no turning back hahaha. P.s. I have a tuner no need to remind me that I didn't list it Much respect thanks y'all.

 

[Mighty Thumb]

The Boss LS2 is a pretty handy utility pedal. https://www.boss.info/us/products/ls-2/

 

[DudeManWhat]

The Boss LS2 is a pretty handy utility pedal. https://www.boss.info/us/products/ls-2/

Would the ls2 work in the 2 amp setup?

 

[Mighty Thumb]

It can if you’re set on hauling two amp/cab setups, but you don’t really have to. It will do two loops in parallel that you can mix to a single output. Check out the sample settings document under support on the product page.

 

[bassbrad]

Would the ls2 work in the 2 amp setup?

Yes the LS2 can be splitter, switcher, mixer and ABY box all at once even depending on the routing and selection.
I use mine as a wet/dry mixer and loop selector on my board. For Clav/Harpsichord flavor and other freaky textures the SA Ultrawave does spectacular things plus it has the multi band tremolo, LFO and ring mod. The TRex Quint Machine is a useful harmonizer for what you're looking for but there is also a used EHX HOG in the classifieds that could be cool for your thing.

NPD: TRex Quint Machine Octave+Fifth updated

For Sale - Electro Harmonix Hog

For Sale - Source Audio Bass Ultrawave

Ultrawave Multiband Processor

My board for reference.

 

[DudeManWhat]

Yes the LS2 can be splitter, switcher, mixer and ABY box all at once even depending on the routing and selection.
I use mine as a wet/dry mixer and loop selector on my board. For Clav/Harpsichord flavor and other freaky textures the SA Ultrawave does spectacular things plus it has the multi band tremolo, LFO and ring mod. The TRex Quint Machine is a useful harmonizer for what you're looking for but there is also a used EHX HOG in the classifieds that could be cool for your thing.

NPD: TRex Quint Machine Octave+Fifth updated

For Sale - Electro Harmonix Hog

For Sale - Source Audio Bass Ultrawave

Ultrawave Multiband Processor

View attachment 4721907 My board for reference.

Cool thanks I'll look into the quint and the ultrawave a bit how are the tracking on those? I have messed around with a HOG and a HOG 2 before but haven't really even considered SA stuff. I think it's because I don't want to get into a midi setup, that and having to use a computer or my phone to load/ adjust presets just kinda weirds me out. I like tactile knobs faders etc but if it's for one or two presets I don't see it being out of the realm of possibility for me.

 

[DudeManWhat]

It can if you’re set on hauling two amp/cab setups, but you don’t really have to. It will do two loops in parallel that you can mix to a single output. Check out the sample settings document under support on the product page.

The two amp setup is mainly for the way it acoustically hits the rooms we play in I can set two distinct sounds coming from different sides of the stage with some amount of separation, spread and clarity. If it works as an aby that I can mute signals on the fly easily though it's definitely a contender. Boss makes great stuff. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[tpaul]

I love this idea! If you get the setup going you have to post some clips.

I would think a DOD Luxe pedal would be good to have for this project. And a good fuzz box although you didn't mention it. The DOD Carcosa is a good fuzz but there are many others.

For the tremolo you want an optical trem. The Guyatone VT-X Vintage Tremolo pedal from their Flip series is fantastic but hard to find and expensive. If you want a cheaper option, the GarageTone Chopper Tremolo from Visual Sound is good and can be found cheap (apparently it's a clone of a Demeter circuit).

 

[Alivefor5]

No idea, but the OP is a sincerely fun read.

 

[scott sinner]

For the octave synth chain, what would give you a ton of options would be
-having your core octave sound, e.g. POG2
-adding an Empress Zoia, it is a virtual Eurorack

the Zoia can mangle your sound in a multitude of ways. Some things comes to mind stylistically…Granular, sequenced note patterns (which you could tap tempo w the drums), random delays, random additional octave up ir down, expression controlled extras. Can also do multi band processing. E.g. you could add effects just on the bass highs.

 

[Nighttrain1127]

If you use an Electro Harmonix HOG2 you don't need a splitter and for the organ sound if you want the Hammond B3 Deal Use a Neo Instruments Ventilator II You Can speed things up or slow them down. No need for any other gear as the HOG @ splits the signal.

 

[blakelock]

damn...i'm in. where to listen?

 

[DudeManWhat]

Seriously considering a HOG 2. It's been a long time since I messed around with one but I remember being able to get some hammod-esque tones out of it with the harmony controls. That and if you mess with the attack on it I think you can almost get key click sounds.

 

[singlemalt]

This is a pretty cool look at a set up that’ll do some of what you want.

 

[DudeManWhat]

If you use an Electro Harmonix HOG2 you don't need a splitter and for the organ sound if you want the Hammond B3 Deal Use a Neo Instruments Ventilator II You Can speed things up or slow them down. No need for any other gear as the HOG @ splits the signal.

The splitter is mainly to be able to mute either channel on the fly preferably with momentary switching

 

[Gregory H]

Sounds like an exciting duo, and I love the influences that you wrote about. I am into a lot of similar sounds, although I also dabble in keys so if I want a really organ-y organ sound that's where I go.

My favorite pedal for this type of stuff is the EHX Superego+, hands down. The main feature is that it acts like a freeze pedal, holding a note or several layered notes depending on settings. Then, it runs the frozen sound through one of 11 effects including delay, echo, reverb, wah, pitch shifting, phaser, flanger, etc. I think that the pitch shifting is basically a POG.

It gets good when you add an expression pedal. Need a wah? Got it. Want to change your delay time and get that rubberneck sound? It's in there. Want to make organ sounding chords that glissando from one to another, with subtle or not-so-subtle trem applied? You got it. Also, it has an fx loop so you can add whatever other pedal you want to affect the frozen sound, or use it as a blend pedal.

It gets GREAT when you trade the expression pedal for a sequencer. I've used it with a Korg SQ-1 and an arturia keystep pro, using control voltage into the expression jack. Program your wah to do whatever you want. Set it up to modulate delay time, change the rate of the phaser, change the delay time, etc. It becomes such a beast when you start to sequence the fx. Also, if you dabble in synths, this thing takes any mono-synth and allows you to play paraphonically. Definitely my favorite pedal.

Hope you'll post some music at some point because this project sounds awesome.

Cheers!

 

[Timmah]

I’ve been trying to do this myself for a while, and I think the most gear-efficient way to do it is probably with a Line 6 HX stomp and separate patches that are assigned to different outputs (L for bass, R for effecty stuff). That way your switcher and your pedal dancing are all rolled into one footswitch. The downside, and the reason I moved away from this approach, is that it’s damn tough to plan all that out in advance. And changing one parameter for one bit of one song becomes a chore.

Lately I’ve been using bass-> LS2 to split, one out to bass board, one out to guitar board. It’s not as easy to flip around in the moment but it feels more like I’m in control.

 

[bassbrad]

Yes the LS2 can be splitter, switcher, mixer and ABY box all at once even depending on the routing and selection.
I use mine as a wet/dry mixer and loop selector on my board. For Clav/Harpsichord flavor and other freaky textures the SA Ultrawave does spectacular things plus it has the multi band tremolo, LFO and ring mod. The TRex Quint Machine is a useful harmonizer for what you're looking for but there is also a used EHX HOG in the classifieds that could be cool for your thing.

NPD: TRex Quint Machine Octave+Fifth updated

For Sale - Electro Harmonix Hog

For Sale - Source Audio Bass Ultrawave

Ultrawave Multiband Processor

View attachment 4721907 My board for reference.

for me the tracking on both is fine but my articulation is very precise from studio work and using effects so long. IMHO any inconvenience of needing to use the app to make adjustments on a
source Audio or other digital pedal is far outweighed by the added ability and qualities those parameters offer. You can save up to 6 sounds on the pedal for recall with the toggle or hold of the foot switch or if you add another device up to 128. The other upside of the SA pedals is the Neuro Cloud where other users share their sounds and you can sample, store and mod them as you might wish, There are a lot of very creative users and those sounds would greatly enhance your intended project.

 

[Bob_Ross]

POG2 (good tracking? Sliders? I like big pedals?

I love this thread! Hope to hear some examples when you guys get the project underway.
Regarding the above query, I've been using a POG2 for ~6 or 7 years now, and I've never been disappointed with the tracking. Seems quite capable of handling anything I throw at it. And those multiple sliders are an incredible asset for the organ-like qualities you described, as you can play them like drawbars if your bass part only requires one hand...or if, like me, your rig includes looping delays that can play source material through the POG2 while you grab faders with both hands and tweak in real-time.
I've never used a HOG but I presume it can do similar stuff.

 

[DudeManWhat]

I’ve been trying to do this myself for a while, and I think the most gear-efficient way to do it is probably with a Line 6 HX stomp and separate patches that are assigned to different outputs (L for bass, R for effecty stuff). That way your switcher and your pedal dancing are all rolled into one footswitch. The downside, and the reason I moved away from this approach, is that it’s damn tough to plan all that out in advance. And changing one parameter for one bit of one song becomes a chore.

Lately I’ve been using bass-> LS2 to split, one out to bass board, one out to guitar board. It’s not as easy to flip around in the moment but it feels more like I’m in control.

Yeah that's why I am thinking in terms of individual stompboxes we improvise so much that I need to be able to make adjustments and build effect combos on the fly. I tried doing this once for a while almost 20 years ago. I was using piccolo strings for D and G and heavy gauge flats on the E and A because I didn't have an octave up pedal.I ran it to a splitter to an Ampeg ba115 and the other channel ran a volume pedal into a pork loin into a beat up old Roland JC120 that i got for free in high school because the reverb didn't work. I just dimed the rate and depth on the onboard chorus haha it felt weird as hell to play and sounded even weirder.