What about bass reverb?

[Benthic]

Hi. This is my first post on this forum.

I've been listening to a bit of surf music lately, and admiring the "surf guitar sound". So I wondered, is reverb usable on bass? How would it sound? Would it be good for solo's?

[Steve Lawson]

I use reverb on my bass when I'm playing solo - it's important to EQ it right to not muddy up the lower frequencies, but it is possible. for melody stuff, it's great. Have a listen to some of the tracks from my CD, all in Real Audio format on my website - almost every bit of bass on there has some reverb on it, and it's all live...

 

cheers

 

Steve

www.steve-lawson.co.uk

[g.]

I use reverb quite a bit. Usually it is only being used on the high side of a crossover above 120 Hz. That neatly solves the mud problem Steve mentions and still is low enough for the B string to get some. Dick Dale on steroids!

[ilan]

Benthic - I actually play in a "surf revival" band... sometimes reverb is useful for a good "tic-tac" bass sound. I use the little plastic-case cheapo Danelectro "Corned Beef" reverb - surprisingly good for surf.

greenboy - isn't Dick Dale *already* on steroids? :-)

 

This message has been edited by ilan on 05-08-2001 at 10:37 AM

[Ed Friedland]

I use reverb for solos too, but nothing fancy,just a Zoom 506II. You can't really get into eqing the verb too much, but I tend to solo with just the bridge pickup, so this cuts enough of the low frequency out to make it useful. Steve and Greenboy's suggestion is right on, I just don't cart that much stuff around.

 

------------------

www.edfriedland.com

[xtian_dup1]

I was doing some recording on my PC last night, and the bass was sounding really "flat". So I added an almost imperceptible bit of reverb, and suddenly it really opened up.

 

I don't know if the same would happen in a live situation, but a bit of reverb really filled out the sound in my recording.

 

- Christian

Budapest, Hungary

[Eric Worthington]

In a live situation, my general rule is the less reverb, the better--for all instruments. The more "out front" the source is (vocals, a soloist) the more beneficial the reverb may be....

 

BUT, the farther away from the speaker, the more the added reverb just mucks up the overall mix. I find that vocals and guitars are often given too much reverb and/or delay as it is; other instruments, especially drums and bass, often don't need any. There's usually PLENTY of real, genuine, uncontrollable reverberation in the room as it is.

 

The PROBLEM is, the players don't want it to be dry where they are standing. But you need to keep in mind that farther out there, your signal isn't as dry--nor as distinct--as it sounds where you are on stage.

 

Too many players hide behind their effects, because they feel naked. Instead, ironically, they almost step on their own solos, because the individual notes start to blur into a blob from the reverb or other effects. The previous note trails onto the succeeding note.

 

BTW, I usually hate it when a bass player who otherwise has great sound, kicks on effects for the solo (heavy chorus, delay, reverb--even all three!) because--besides seeming unnecessarily gimmicky--it actually makes it harder to hear what they're playing, and the solo becomes more about the sound than the notes. (Remember: you're playing a live gig; the sound is less than ideal, at best--AND you're the bass player, and as such would probably be horrified to find out just how poorly your instrument is articulated in the mix at the back of the room.)

 

Short Answer:

In a recording, anything goes, because you can control the sound. In a live setting, even with a good sound engineer, the acoustics are so god awful for the bass (even in places "designed" for music), that I personally wouldn't recommend doing anything to add more reverb to the situation.

[g.]

Short Answer:

In a recording, anything goes, because you can control the sound. In a live setting, even with a good sound engineer, the acoustics are so god awful for the bass (even in places "designed" for music), that I personally wouldn't recommend doing anything to add more reverb to the situation.

 

Yep, in general, very true. Delays, even more then reverb tend to smear the local sound for me. As I said before, almost any effects I use are on the upper side of a crossover so the lows don't get mudded. And with reverbs I tend to use some predelay, set [low-pass] damping so the upper partials are always defined, and mix it pretty dry.

 

Lots of times I use effects mainly for intros and exposed spots to "orchestrate", and sometimes for solos, conversely, I step from effected to dry because I like the contrast. Caveat emptor, know thy rooms -- and it helps to have control over the wetness in realtime if you feel you MUST use effects live.