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I had my first good jam session in a while tonight with a drummer and guitar player, with me on bass VI. Everything was groovy till I tried throwing some delay in the mix. It seemed like the only setting that really worked for me was a quick little slapback. Everything else just turned into a washy muddy mess. I tried messing with the low cut and stuff on my El Capistan but then it just got lost in the mix and turned to white noise.

So, bass players, how do you guys use delay in a band setting? I felt pretty dumb with a $300 delay pedal on board that I only used the simplest setting on, and only for a few minutes total.

neonblack wrote:I had my first good jam session in a while tonight with a drummer and guitar player, with me on bass VI. Everything was groovy till I tried throwing some delay in the mix. It seemed like the only setting that really worked for me was a quick little slapback. Everything else just turned into a washy muddy mess. I tried messing with the low cut and stuff on my El Capistan but then it just got lost in the mix and turned to white noise.

So, bass players, how do you guys use delay in a band setting? I felt pretty dumb with a $300 delay pedal on board that I only used the simplest setting on, and only for a few minutes total.

Delay can't always hang when you're playing a rhythmic instrument, especially if the rate of the repeats is not in time with your rhythm. Still, it's nice to get some tasty echoes or loopy repeats on the boomstick. It's doable but requires a lot of control over your delay effect. For an always-on sound, I prefer reverb to delay, but slapback as you mentioned is nice too and a decent verb substitute. However I do like to have some rhythmic longer delays sometimes, and I like to be able to change the delay time on the fly for those cool analog pitch-whoops that happen when you do that, which is awesome for dub jams. That's why I use the EHX Memory Boy with an expression pedal (Moog is the best on this one), cuz then I can have it all.

Well I have tap tempo on the Capistan so it wasn't really a matter of it being out of time. It's just that it all turned into big wash. The multi head mode, which is my favorite at home by myself, was the most useless in a band context. Even playing higher on the neck, I was sort of stepping on the guitarists toes a bit.

Dial it in to be annoyingly treebly and piercing solo then see how it does with people.

use less repeats…. … .. .
I have always used delay, with bass you really have to pick your moments in a band setting.

Mudfuzz wrote:use less repeats…. … .. .
I have always used delay, with bass you really have to pick your moments in a band setting.

I'm starting to wonder if I'm just more into reverb than delay.

I'm also starting to wonder if I only have a crazy delay on board cause I'm trying to fit in. been trying to write with it and like I said, I have one delay setting that really gels with me.

I might trade in the strymon and get a simpler delay and a real reverb.

neonblack wrote:

Mudfuzz wrote:use less repeats…. … .. .
I have always used delay, with bass you really have to pick your moments in a band setting.

I'm starting to wonder if I'm just more into reverb than delay.

I'm also starting to wonder if I only have a crazy delay on board cause I'm trying to fit in. been trying to write with it and like I said, I have one delay setting that really gels with me.

I might trade in the strymon and get a simpler delay and a real reverb.

what works for you is what works.. for me verb on bass is useless in a band setting as much as I like it solo.. for me delay was as eye opening as distortion when I started playing many moons ago.. so much fun

Like you said man it can be really hard to be in a jam situation and not invade the guitar's sonic space.
Just hanging out with a teency bit of slapback on some more spacious riffs allows more room for collaboration from the other dudes.
The way I do it is with an old Echoplex looper, just punching in a super quick record time and dialing feedback down to two or three repeats.
Then sometimes if that establishes an idea that repeats a while I'll usually end up multiplying it out to a looped phrase over a few bars.
Then what's really fun is retriggering smaller sample windows by multiplying it back down to tiny slices of overlapped sounds.
But still note-wise I try to challenge myself by making each sound short and simple so that it sounds trippy but still leaves other players some room.

It's how you use it, really. Try mastering tapping into different subdivisions, especially things like 3rd's. Those can really expand your rhythmic repertoire and fill out your sound. The trick is also to let your echos breath in between your bass notes, I recorded a demo to show you how I use echo on my Bass Vi, currently I have an Empress Tape Delay, but I'm about to move onto the Walrus Audio Bellwether once that comes out. First I play without echo and then I add the echo. Sorry about the sound quality, I just plugged my bass into my computer directly as to not wake the wife.



EDIT: accidentally half my post.

Inconuucl wrote:It's how you use it, really. Try mastering to tap into different subdivisions, especially things like 3rd's. Those can really expand your rhythmic repertoire and fill out your sound. The trick is also to let your echos breath in between your bass notes, I recorded a demo to show you how I use echo on my Bass Vi, currently I have an Empress Tape Delay, but I'm about to move onto the Empress Bellwether once that comes out. First I play without echo and then I add the echo.

That was really cool, and I tried some stuff like that, but it just really quickly got lost in the background. It didn't seem worth it to have it on.

It doesn't help that every guitar player I know uses generous amounts of delay so I feel like I should be playing strong notes without delay to keep things anchored.

That might also have to do with it, I grew up in the math rock scene, so I had to add space while attempting to be as rhythmically interesting as the fretboard gymnastics going on the topside.

neonblack wrote:guitar player I know uses generous amounts of delay so I feel like I should be playing strong notes without delay to keep things anchored.

using dinosaurs to make my point..
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRPCrWPAtEQ[/youtube]

Write music that fits a bass line using delay, tap tempo is stupid useful, a tone control set for more treble than bass, and a crystal clear digital delay is not that bad of a thing.

Strangely enough, the delay I've found the most useful was the Goodbye 24, and that's hardly a regular delay. But dotted eighths with reverse octave up on that thing was insane.

Tap tempo is super useful. Maybe I should get a cold sterile digital delay with tap tempo, instead of this warbly tape business.

Always liked the bass delay here:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmjJcCutAXE[/youtube]