My friends and I are starting a band and it's the first time for all of us. Right now we're just playing in a basement and figuring things out. We just got a mic and quickly realized vocals sound BAD without reverb and possibly other effects that are unknown to me. What should I get to make the vocals sound decent? Also probably need help on how to set up the signal chain. Right now the mic is plugged directly into a Roland KC-550.

Also, recommend some bass pedals that won't make me homeless if I buy them. I currently just have a P-Bass going into an Ampeg RB-108.

  • BobDole [none/use name]
    ·
    3 months ago

    For pedals, definitely check local guitar shops, facebook marketplace, Craigslist, Reverb, etc for used gear.

    If there’s a guitar store where you can try pedals out, I would start there and just kind of figure out what sounds you like. For bass, you may not even want effects depending on the genre. Also, if you’re unaware, you can typically use a guitar pedal on a bass without any issues. Some circuits will kill the low end, and if you run into that you can put an EQ pedal at the end of the pedalboard chain.

    My bass must-haves are a tuner pedal, a volume pedal, and some kind of fuzz, distortion, or overdrive (I put the distortion before the amp and the volume pedal first in my amp effect loop so I can crank up the distortion if I want without pissing off my neighbors). Delay and Reverb are good effects for basically every instrument and genre. I find I really like the dry sound of my bass most of the time, and the effects are just when I’m playing a specific genre or noodling some haunted house sounds.

    I have a hard time recommending specific pedals because I’ve built most of mine, which is only cheaper if you’ve got the tools already (and even then I’ve bricked a few boards being careless). You can’t go wrong with Boss pedals IMO, and you can usually resell them for about what you paid, especially if you buy used.

    If you’ve got a lot of time and interest, JHS Pedals has a good YouTube channel where they talk about effects in general and go over lots of classic and contemporary pedals.