Listen to Episode 20b

New Pedal On Display

We have a good discussion about prequels in this one. However, I don’t have much more to say about the Babylon 5 prequel movie after last week. It remains a relic of its time even more than the full series.

Rather than beating that dead horse, I’ll take this week to show off my new pedal. I brought the new stingray bass to practice and my drummer immediately picked me up a synth pedal. He’s been wanting to incorporate a moog sound. Adding a bass pedal to my board was much easier than him learning how to play drums and a moog at once.

It’s tougher than it looks to use. You have to start thinking of your bass as more of an electric sound controller than a guitar. The tracking on any envelope filter is tough to get right depending on your attack level and the bass. I’ve been working with my MXR Bass compression pedal to smooth out the sound.

MXR Bass Compressor When you reach for that smooth tracking on bass

The pedal is the MXR synth bass. I’m starting off with just the presets. I had to pick up a switch pedal to page through the 8 preselects, but it was so worth it. The presets are worth the pedal alone. I used to use the Green DigiTech bass envelope filter when I gigged back in the 00’s. If I can incorporate this into enough songs, I’ll start fiddling with the controls to craft my own.

MXR Synth Bass Only the filthiest funk from this one

What it’s missing is a good slap effect like the green pedal had. Speaking of which, I’m also missing my green pedal… so I’ll have to set aside some time to work on that. We used to call it the “Space Bass” setting. I’m hoping I can dial something in to reclaim that sonic throne.

For now, here’s some of me playing along to Stevie Wonder with the new sound.

I promised a Stingray video, here's the new bass raised by a synth pedal

It can only get better from here. Cheers, All!

This Week’s Guest

Ryan Bond has a lot of thoughts on Star Trek and Babylon 5. He is involved with several Chicago Theatre programs and can be seen on stage around Chicago. Listen to a rival podcast where Ryan talks about his theatre and digital marketing background.

Ryan Bond Ryan is a Chicago Theatre Producer, Director and Actor.

What Did We Learn?

The bigger the bass the filthier the funk

Next Episode

For the next full episode, we cover the first 17 episodes of Babylon 5, season five in the You Gotta Check This Out Babylon 5 Blitzcast coming to you Sunday, May 3rd featuring almost all previous guests of the show.

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Cheers, all!