ROS How do you route your effects?

[pag]

Rickenbacker bass players who use effects from just a compressor or Di all the way to a full pedalboard.

I am interested to hear about all the different ways people route effects when using dual amp setups with the ROS (split) output on their basses.
In particular,onstage where cabling is a tone issue.
Also If you use “old school” amps like Marshall etc.that have no built in send/ret what method you use to route effects and send your sound to the foh desk. And the old chestnut of true bypass,digital,analogue mixup in the signal chain.

I use a CS converted to ‘stereo’ and two Ampeg amps. The whole thing is a work in progress at present as I had a Line6 M13 when I was mono and some analogue pedals that used to go via the M13 send/return sockets.
Even though that unit can be stereo a lot of the effects are summed so Ive sidelined the M13 to the neck pickup for now. The treble pickup has a Malekko B**assmaster fuzz and Bass Cry Baby wah. Both signals go straight from the bass via long cables and the foh feeds are from the Di’s on the Ampegs.

I found the most difficult thing was interfacing analogue and digital effects whilst keeping the sound of the analogue pedals intact.
Thats why (for now) the only pedals on the treble pickup are the analogue ones. Whats your take?

[Isaac]

For most of my career, I've gone bass-cord-amp-speaker. I'd try an effect, and it might sound cool when playing by myself, but, in a band context, either the effect would disappear, or the bass would, so I'd drop it.

A few years ago, I started using a Digitech BassSynthWah on one song. Definitely cut through, both the effect and the bass.

More recently, I got a Digitech RB355. I know that there are newer multieffect units, and a lot of people will say that they're better, but I'm a "It works for me" kind of guy. Typically, I use very few of the available effects. I use it as a DI, and I have come to use the compressor pretty much all of the time.

As for the routing, it's like this: with one band, it's bass, cord, RB355, cord, amp. For the other band I use it with, it's bass, cord, RB355, PA. No amp, straight into the board.

[StereoPlayer]

I use a stereo/TRS cable that I make on my ‘72 4001 and all of my two PU basses. Use two amps, usually the treble amp is the lowered wattage of the two. I do not separate the amps, preferably stack them with the bass PU channel on the bottom. Occasionally I’ll keep them side by side.

Sometimes I use one amp that has two separate channels so that each pickup can be EQ’d individually to my liking.

I rarely use any effects on the bass PU and use effects on the treble PU only.

I use a very slight delay and occasionally chorus, flange, octave doubling, envelope filtering, distortion.

[iiipopes]

Effects? What effects?
Bass > direct box > board
Note: no bass amplifier, either. My sound man takes care of everything else.

[ram]

Years ago I was using ROS live. I didn't use a who lot of effects mostly distortion through the 'treble' pickup. As I got older there was just too much equipment to lug around so went with Standard set up. Now I just play around in the home with ROS and effects on the different channels. Some of my pedals are stereo units... you can get a whole lot of neat stuff happening with the two channels... tremolo at different rates can be sickening or very cool! Fuzz and clean is a traditional cool mix. My recommendation is to just play around with the combinations. I have borrowed units to have like two of the same effect. Cheaper than buying, until you make up your mind that you can't live without it. Another thing you might consider is just recording each channel separately in to one of the home studio programs and using the effects library to add what you like and see how it plays for you. I DO like the unadorned sound from the ROS and with the little amps now available who knows, I may go back to it. Good luck and let us know what you end up finding.

[pag]

Fellow forumites.
There seems to be some misunderstanding of my topic.

Whilst I fully understand how the “plug in and play” setup works (and why one might prefer that), this particular topic is aimed at members who do use effects with their ROS (or customised split) output on their Rickenbacker basses along with dual amp setups at home or onstage and to discuss the many ways one might route those effects.

Thanks.

[pag]

Thanks Tom.
I agree there are umpteen ways of cabling through the ROS output.
(The actual stereo effects are stunning on headphones).
As I mentioned earlier,the snag for me with a multi effects unit was when switching to mono-summed effects the unit (M13) didnt have a programme for sending the mono effect to one side only which would have solved many problems.

[ram]

Yep I have never been into the whole multi effects thing... too much a single point failure for me. That's what I was alluding to with the borrow units from a friend to see if 2 stomp boxes of a certain type would be something I might be interested in. I would think that with a PC one might be able to get code set up or written to run different banks of virtual equipment - stereo to mono, different equipment selections, preset etc... What I do for now is a SansAmp with three presets (one for each of the basses I use to gig with) and my pedal board. This as I never found one ROS based effect I couldn't live without in a live gig. Don't get me wrong I love the ROS but some of the subtleties of ROS based effects are easily lost in a live gig. Then there is the equipment required... a lot to lug around. Perhaps I will change my tune with the advent of the small amps and cabinets we are seeing proliferating the market these days.

[Benjamin]

I have a Boss ES-8 and considered, and may still consider, developing a box which will allow ROS type splitting of pickups to different output paths - parallel chains etc.

I have stayed with full range for now because of the tones that can be had with various blends and how these interact IN the bass, which I understand you cannot do in an ROS scenario. Also I feel I would be missing out on something by not having the option, for example, to run the bass pickup through a B:Assmaster. Or having a wah that doesn't affect lower frequencies because it is in the Treble path, or vice versa.

With an ES-8/5 or similar, you can split your signal and do some things that I imagine might get you close enough to ROS territory. Of course it won't be the same but IMHO if you're absolutely sold on the Marshall + Bass Rig idea, then you have to accept the drawbacks that come with it. It came from a time when that was the only option.

I feel this might be why someone like Dean Turner (RIP) from Aussie band Magic Dirt used a Tym Big Bottom to retain low-end when running a Big Muff, but I think he had most other pedals after this multiplexing setup. He played a 4003, which is why I mention it.

I have experimented with such a setup, combining an EQ pedal (set to all bottom) with a Boss LS-2, with Big Muff and/or Turbo RAT in the dirty high frequency loop - which was actually full range. It worked pretty well, but not long after that I got the ES-8 and haven't looked back, partly because of the ES-8 and mostly because I now like to run all my pedals full range.