Need A Bass Compressor and Envelope Filter

[BuddytheReow]

Now that I’m getting more time with my bass I’m wondering if anyone can recommend a decent bass compressor and envelope filter from here. I say from here since I was given a gift card for my birthday. I’m leaning toward the Bassballs for the filter since it was originally designed for bass. The compressors here I have no clue without more circuit knowledge. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Diynot]

BassBalls is good for (me) for synth textures combined with a fuzz. Alone/clean it won’t be the warm gooey Mutron sound. Recently built a SWAH (new ppcb poison apple) and it’s a pretty decent filter for bass. My favs though are the MiniMu from Madbean and I have a 3leaf audio wunderlove that is a love tone meatball (I believe there are several pcb options available around the net) clone that is really great. I can’t speak to compressors I have tried the engineers thumb but don’t really get along with it

 

[eh là bas ma]

Aion's Meridian, Guyatone PS20 compressor. It's just amazing, especially the Exciter control, to shape the sound :

"increases the emphasis on harmonics. At 50%, there is no change. When turned to the left,
even-order harmonics are increased. To the right, odd-order harmonics are increased. "

Meridian kit, 43,00

Exciter / Compressor

www.musikding.de

https://aionfx.com/app/files/docs/meridian_documentation.pdf

In my experience, this compressor, built on Bass specs, will also be very effective with guitars, drum machine, synth, etc.

Lovetone Meatball, Aion's Spectron, is probably the best circuit I ever built :

Spectron Dynamic Filter kit, 64,00

Envelope filter

www.musikding.de

https://aionfx.com/app/files/docs/spectron_documentation.pdf

Filter Fx is also very good, but it's not sensitive to your picking like the Meatball. You set the Speed and that's it. There are 2 random waveforms settings that make this effect really interesting and original. The Depth and Resonance settings are also very effective. Featuring tap tempo, expression input, sync input...

FilterFX - filter kit, 50,50

12dB/oct Lowpass/Bandpass/Highpass filter

www.musikding.de

https://electricdruid.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/FilterFXConstructionGuide.pdf

You'll need also a good Bass Tube Overdrive, and a Bass fuzz :

Bass Amuser, 79,00

The bass Amuser is an overdrive pedal specially for Bass It was develpoped in the Musiker-Board, a very large german music instrument forum Credits go to

www.musikding.de

Bass Amuser is far above every other bass dirt circuits I ever tried.

Moosapotamus 360 Fuzz

Here's a bass fuzz designed by Charlie Barth from Moosapotamus.net based on the fuzz section of the classic Acoustic 360 bass preamp. It us...

effectslayouts.blogspot.com

Here you'll find a demo with Spectron (set on reverse wah at 1:20') and 360 Bass Fuzz (used on both bass and guitar) :

DEMO - Moosapotamus 360 bass fuzz

Moosapotamus 360 Bass Fuzz - perfboard. I didn't have the time to post a report. Since it came up in a conversation... I found this circuit by pure luck, exploring Mosapotamus website. He says it's his favorite fuzz, so it got me curious. It sounds more than very interesting. Obviously it...

forum.pedalpcb.com

Edit : BBW can be interesting too, to restore some low-end and some precision to the signal, after an overdrive for exemple. Like the Meridian, this thing can quickly become an essential and addictive corner stone of your pedalboard. Everything will sound bland, dull, weak and boring without it.

BBW - PedalPCB.com

Compare to BBE Sonic Stomp

www.pedalpcb.com

 

[phi1]

I made a couple Snow White Auto Wahs from the Fuzzdog pcb, with a toggle for guitar (standard) and bass (different frequency of the sweep). It works well I think, and you can still use the guitar mode for a different sound on bass.

Not sure how the mod compares to the official mad professor Bass version. I got the mod from the comments section of the revolution deux page about the Snow White auto-wah. Change two of the 22nF caps to 47nF (C4 and C5 on the Fuzzdog schematic). I think I just added another 22n in parallel with each one when the switch is in bass mode (close enough to 47n).

 

[BuddytheReow]

Interesting ideas, although many of the above are non-PedalPCB boards. Any ideas how to tune some of the compressor boards here for bass? Like I said I've got a gift card that I'm itching to use here...

 

[phi1]

Boneyard Delegate (improved eqd warden) would probably be a great choice for bass comp. Ovnilab blog rates the warden highly for bass.

 

[DGWVI]

I can't speak on any compressors, but I can probably help with the filter (I've built all the PPCB filters at least once). What kind of filter sounds are you going for?

 

[BuddytheReow]

I'm trying to get a little bit funky on bass with some filters or auto-wah. Any ideas?

 

[DGWVI]

I'm trying to get a little bit funky on bass with some filters or auto-wah. Any ideas?

I'd recommend the Waddle Box or CDXL Reissue for their simplicity and being geared toward funkier aounds. Neither are tuned explicitly for bass, but they sound decent as is, and a couple value swaps to fatten them up a smidge wouldn't hurt. As a dipping your toes in deal, I think these two would be your best bets

Waddle Box (DOD FX25)-

CDXL Reissue (DOD 440) -

While the Lowballer / Bassballs is awesome, it excels more at synthier kinda formant oriented stuff than it does for snappy funk. Dialing it in can also be a bit of a chore, but I'd definitely recommend it just because it's a fun box, though

There's also the Duck Box, which is sort of a modified Dr Q aka half a Bassballs, and it can do some funky stuff, I feel it's better suited at emulating typical Wah sounds than bubbly funk riffing

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

I like the engineer"s thumb on bass quite a bit. The lowballer however I wouldn't use as my only envelope. It's just it's own thing. Still worth building but the best ppcb envelope for me is the cdxl.

Absolute favorite filter for bass is madbean's junk trunk(w gas tank). I have their Oracle in my queue too as the boss comp is generally well liked for bass.

 

[DGWVI]

I like the engineer"s thumb on bass quite a bit. The lowballer however I wouldn't use as my only envelope. It's just it's own thing. Still worth building but the best ppcb envelope for me is the cdxl.

Absolute favorite filter for bass is madbean's junk trunk(w gas tank). I have their Oracle in my queue too as the boss comp is generally well liked for bass.

Agreed on the Junk Trunk, and would be my highest recommendation as wellz but he's asking for PedalPCB only

 

[steviejr92]

I 2nd the 440 reissue i think its an awesome envelope filter!

 

[eh là bas ma]

You are asking something impossible. I have great respect for PedalPCB, surely the best website on diy dirt circuits for guitars.

There is unfortunately almost nothing entirely designed for bass in PPCB inventory.

This is very frustrating, I know...in 2023, right ? No bass effects on PPCB, and we are almost in the middle of the 21th century ? Bassists have rights too...

I understand you got a giftcard. I think it would be better directed on guitar's effects rather than bass's.

Otherwise you will be ignoring and missing the best circuits for bass, and might even be disappointed with the ones from PPCB.

 

[Passinwind]

You are asking something impossible. I have great respect for PedalPCB, surely the best website on diy dirt circuits for guitars.

There is unfortunately nothing entirely designed for bass in PPCB inventory.

This is very frustrating, I know...in 2023, right ? No bass effects on PPCB, and we are almost in the middle of the 21th century ? Bassists have rights too...

I understand you got a giftcard. I think it would be better directed on guitar's effects rather than bass's.

Otherwise you will be ignoring and missing the best circuits for bass, and might even be disappointed with the ones from PPCB.

What are you favorites for bass? To me the Broughton HPF/LPF circuit (Frequency Interchange Filter) would be one great candidate, and the Equilux would be another one. And then any number of delays and chorus circuits. But I personally have no use at all for dirt or autofilters for bass, which seems to be, ahem, less than the norm around here.

 

[jimilee]

Contrary to popular belief, a lot can be used on bass with no problem. I don’t gig anymore but I did for years. The only real issues I’ve found is with dirt, which most can be modified.

 

[Passinwind]

Contrary to popular belief, a lot can be used on bass with no problem. I don’t gig anymore but I did for years. The only real issues I’ve found is with dirt, which most can be modified.

A blender is your friend!

 

[BuddytheReow]

Yea. I built a blend box a little less than a year ago and unfortunately haven't used it much. I guess I should whip that bad boy out.

Buddy's Bass Fuzz Project - A Blended Dirt Box

A steak and a hamburger are both technically beef, but their preparation and consumption are typically different, so it is with bass and guitar. Thus sayeth the word of diynot.

forum.pedalpcb.com

 

[eh là bas ma]

What are you favorites for bass?

See reply #3.

There are also Downtown Fuzz from Lectric-Fx and Aion's TS-50 Bass Preamp that I use a lot. I like the expensive Tech-21 VT Bass DI, as preamp too, but i bought it before I started building circuits, I am not sure if i would buy it again now. TS-50 is really good too, for a fraction of the price.

Downtown Fuzz/Octaver kit, 83,00

Octave Multiplexer

www.musikding.de

TS-50 Bass Preamp Bausatz, 58,00

Bass Preamp and Overdrive

www.musikding.de

I am not familiar with Equilux and Interface Frequency Filters, looks really interesting. Never noticed them before. I guess they're both on my list now.

 

[Passinwind]

See reply #3.

There are also Downtown Fuzz from Lectric-Fx and Aion's TS-50 Bass Preamp that I use a lot. I like the expensive Tech-21 VT Bass DI, as preamp too, but i bought it before I started building circuits, I am not sure if i would buy it again now. TS-50 is really good too, for a fraction of the price.

Downtown Fuzz/Octaver kit, 83,00

Octave Multiplexer

www.musikding.de

TS-50 Bass Preamp Bausatz, 58,00

Bass Preamp and Overdrive

www.musikding.de

I am not familiar with Equilux and Interface Frequency Filters, looks really interesting. Never noticed them before. I guess they're both on my list now.

Thanks, always interesting to see how others scramble their eggs. Robert has already agreed to work up a PPCB version of my open source bass preamp, which uses an Alembic/Wal-ish resonant low pass filter in lieu of a standard treble control. It works really well for acoustic instruments like upright bass, guitar, and mandolin as well: https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/passinwind-open-source-hybrid-filter-preamp-builds.12146/

The URB version is detailed in @BuddytheReow's recent contest thread too.

And quite a few years ago I used to gig my fretless Travis Bean with huge EFX racks and use plenty of dirt appliances, I just got old and moved along to jazzbo territory, and now mostly to Americana/bluegrass stuff.

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

Thanks, always interesting to see how others scramble their eggs. Robert has already agreed to work up a PPCB version of my open source bass preamp, which uses an Alembic/Wal-ish resonant low pass filter in lieu of a standard treble control. It works really well for acoustic instruments like upright bass, guitar, and mandolin as well: https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/passinwind-open-source-hybrid-filter-preamp-builds.12146/

The URB version is detailed in @BuddytheReow's recent contest thread too.

And quite a few years ago I used to gig my fretless Travis Bean with huge EFX racks and use plenty of dirt appliances, I just got old and moved along to jazzbo territory, and now mostly to Americana/bluegrass stuff.

I'm looking forward to this collab. You got pics of that Bean?