News
Markbass launches new bass effects
Rob Hughes Jun 25 2009, 10:17am
Range includes seven new pedals all designed dpecifically for bass guitars
Italian bass amp manufacturer, Markbass has announced the launch of seven brand new effects pedals, each of which has been designed solely with bass in mind. The range comprises the Compressore, Distosore, Super Booster, Octaver, Riverbero, Chous Flanger, Super Pro, and Super Synth pedals
The range starts with the Compressore valve compressor – equipped with all the controls you would expect to find on a professional outboard compressor: gain, threshold, ratio, attack and release. It will also function as a pro-quality DI box and, in common with every model in the Markbass range, it also features a true bypass facility.
The Distosore bass distotion pedal's gain controls your input level, Tube Drive handles the intensity of the distortion and Mix lets you choose the balance between the clean and distorted signals. Since distorting bass frequencies can seriously muddy your low end, the Distosore features the Tube Tone (High Pass) filter that allows you to only distort the high end. This keeps your sound tight and focused, no matter how distorted it gets. The Distosore also features an onboard active DI output and a true bypass.
For many Markbass amp users, the VLE and VPF filters are the only EQ knobs they turn, so the Super Booster pedal allows anyone to add these two magic filters to their sound. The VLE (Vintage Loudspeaker Emulator) filters out high frequencies to give you a mellower, vintage sound: especially useful for acoustic and older styles of music. The VPF (Variable Pre-shape Filter) boosts lows and highs and cuts mids; this filter is great for Rock and is also a favourite of many slap bass players. The Super Booster also gives you a clean Boost, ideal for helping you stand out when taking a solo.
The Markbass Octaver does exactly what the name suggests – allows you to add thickness to your sound by mixing in doubles of your playing pitched either one or two octaves down. The pedal features separate controls, switches and outputs for each octave. The low notes are focused and in tune, and the sound is clean. The ‘dub’ switch mutes the clean signal, delivering just the low octave. Like all the Markbass pedals this unit features true bypass, which means that when the Octaver is disengaged, the signal goes directly from the input jack to the output jack without any degradation of audio quality.
The Markbass Riverbero offers natural, adjustable reverb that can be fine-tuned with pre-delay and decay control. The available stereo presets including spring, plate, and room reverbs, all identified on the display and modifiable in real-time. The USB connection allows you to modify the parameters on your computer using the supplied Markbass software and then store your favourite settings in the pedal to have them at your disposal whenever needed.
The Markbass stereo Chorus Flanger pedal offers lush chorusing and flanging, modifiable in real time using the speed and width controls. The mix control allows you to carefully blend your dry and effected sounds. The easy-to-read display always identifies which effect is being applied. The preset parameters can be modified using the supplied Markbass software and can be downloaded back to the pedal from your computer via the USB connection.
Less of an effect is Markbass’s Super Pro DI Box. Markbass has a keen understanding of the needs of recording and live sound engineers and has worked long and hard to design a state-of-the-art passive direct box that fully addresses them. Designed for active basses, this passive DI is extremely quiet and clean and has been optimised to give rich, linear sound at all frequencies, handling extreme transients without introducing any distortion or colour to your sound.
Finally, Markbass has introduced the Super Synth which offers cool sounds with no tracking delay. Set the sensitivity level to match how hard or softly you play, and the pedal tracks your playing quickly and accurately. Sounds include wavetable, analogue, and FM-style synth bass sounds as well as delay effects, envelope filters and more. You can either use the synth output, or blend in your dry sound and use the mix output. The preset parameters can be modified using the supplied Markbass software, and downloaded back to the pedal from a computer via the USB connection.
Available immediately from leading UK bass retailers, courtesy of sole UK and Ireland distributor, Proel (International), suggested Markbass effects prices are as follows: Super Pro DI Box £87.40, Super Booster £128.80, Octaver £155.25, Comperssore £21.60, Distosore £225.40, Chorus Flanger £310.50, Riverbero £310.50 and Super Synth £312.80.
