New bass pedalboard: compressor and envelop filter

[ghiekorg]

Hi everyone 😊
Some time ago i made several pedals  for my guitar+bass pedalboard. Now i decided that i need a smaller pedalboard and i wanna split it.

For my 5 pedals bass pedalboard i need to build 2 pedals: a modulation and a compressor (the other ones i already have)

I want to build an envelop filter/autowah so i can use it "pure" for more funky stuff or just light like a "phaser". This seems cool http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/2016/01/mad-professor-snow-white-autowah.html#comment-form but if you have better suggestions i will be glad to hear them

For the compressor i am not sure. I have a MXR studio compressor and i love it. I just think it's more usefull on the bass pedalboard, so i would need to buy one for my guitar pedalboard. There are plenty of projects about compressors but i really have no idea where to start. Any suggestions?

Thank you guys

[Marcos - Munky]

Imo one of the best envelope filters out there is the Electro Harmonix Bass Balls. Don't let the demos of the original unit fools you, it's way better than that. With panel mounted pots instead of the trimpots, you can tune the filters. And you can add atack and decay pots to make it even more versatile. The Slurpee from Madbean is exactly the Bassballs with those mods: https://www.madbeanpedals.com/EP/downloads/filter/Slurpee.zip. You can add a switch to turn off one of the filters, and you'll have basically the EH Doctor Q, but I'm not sure how useful is this mod.

[11-90-an]

For compressors you can try out...

Jonny Reckless's PMC... https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=124777.0

Merlin's ET... http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/engineersthumb2.html

Maybe the EQD's The Warden... http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/2020/04/eqd-warden.html (schem can be found on the "other" forum..)

And of course, the Orange Squeezer, and all it's variations... (Orange squeezer+, OS++, GGBB's Orange smoothie, etc.)

There are many more, but these are just some good ones...

[auden100]

Qi-Gon Filter is nice. Complicated, but it has an LFO and envelope, can do LP, BP, and HP, and a tremolo. Based on the Lovetone Meatball but without any hard to source or manage parts. I've been tinkering with one on the breadboard for weeks and I really enjoy how much I can hone the sound. For Bass use, folks use the Moog Mod or sub some of the filter caps to your preferred range.

[ghiekorg]

Thanks everyone

Imo one of the best envelope filters out there is the Electro Harmonix Bass Balls.

I heard something, also from some modified versions like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40H_Zgu1sUQ but i don't like much the effect itself... Do you have a demo or somehting about the one you mentioned? I would like to understand if the effect changes ...

For compressors you can try out...

Thank you, i will have a look at them

Qi-Gon Filter is nice.

I had a look at that here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhZxvOCUoRI and yeah, it seems a bit too much for me. it sounds nice but i want to keep it as small as possible, max 4-5 knobs, This is overkilling

[auden100]

max 4-5 knobs, This is overkilling  

Yeah, that makes sense. But really you could reduce the complexity with permanent or internally set controls. If you hardwired it to just lowpass, one or two cap pairs, internal sensitivity control, and set sweep range, I think you could get away with five knibs and one or two switches. That's with the benefit of having  an envelope, envelope-controlled LFO, or a normal LFO for the filter control. Maybe modding another envelope filter by adding an LFO is better, but I think the QiGon has all the options you're looking for. But I'm just brainstorming. 🙂

Of course, if you just want a normal auto-wah, the Snow White is lovely.

[Mark Hammer]

Remember that the envelope filter will expect a signal with some dynamics to force a sweep.  Compressing the signal before the envelope filter may result in less sweep than you want.

The ideal is to take a feed from the input stage of a compressor, or perhaps a buffer before the compressor, and send that to the envelope-follower.  The compressed signal can be fed to the swept filter, but you want the filter to think it is receiving a signal with full dynamics.

In other words, you want the compression to be treated as a loop inside the envelope filter.

[DIY Bass]

I really like my Pumpernickel compressor

[Marcos - Munky]

I heard something, also from some modified versions like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40H_Zgu1sUQ but i don't like much the effect itself... Do you have a demo or somehting about the one you mentioned? I would like to understand if the effect changes ...

Unortunally, I think this is one of the best demos out there, so you probably won't like it too much then.

What about the Dod FX25?

[Ben N]

I won't suggest specific filters or compressors, because I don't know your needs. But I will suggest that if you want to use them together, build your compressor with separate inputs for signal chain and sidechain, so you can put your compressor after the filter (which you have to do in order to get the full effect of the filter) and still use a clean, unaltered, low noise signal to control the comp. One way to achieve this with a minimum of outboard wiring is to to put an "effects loop" in the comp, a la the Boss NS-2 noise gate. Input goes (possibly via a buffer) to loop send, which is normalled to the comp circuit. When something is plugged into the loop send, only the loop return is connected to the comp circuit.

[eh la bas ma]

Filters ? I use this one, it is very powerful : Lp, Bp Hp filters and resonnance options are impressive and cover pretty much everything from a subtle effect to something very noticeable.  It offers a wide range of sounds, including phaser (but not as good as some more sophisticated phasers, like the AD/A, or the Whetstone Phaser). Description is accurate : https://www.musikding.de/FilterFX-filter-kit.

https://electricdruid.net/filterfx-lp-bp-hp-lfo-filter/

Frequency and depth controls interacts nicely and are very effective. This has been very well engineered, à la façon Mutron and Maestro FSH-1.
Straightforward build, an expression pedal input is available as well as a sync input to match the clock with a drum machine or a synth...  It sounds very good and it's perfectly silent in a pedal chain.

For compression, I like very much Aion's Meridian, it allows to fine tune the bass low frequencies very well, the Exciter control is amazing, giving a beautiful and well-defined sound to your instrument : you can't get a bad sound out of this circuit, it is always a nice and original addition. I build the bass version and it is still working very well with a guitar (perfect to add some low-ends to some fuzz or distorsions) : https://www.musikding.de/Meridian-kit

Et voili-voilà !