@@nicolasdulaurans9187 you won't be able to get that sound. It was a combination of the player, bass, pedalboard, amp, and the most important - studio equipment and engineers work during mixing. Alpha Omega was made to recreate the sound of Karnivool Simple Boy and Goliath in a single box - if you watch John Stockman's current pedalboard video, you can see two ODB-3 (and of course Darkglass Alpha Omega because the pedalboard video was made after the album recordings and Darkglass premiere)
After years of only playing clean, this was my first bass overdrive pedal. I ran it through a line selector to get a true 50/50 clean/dirty sound, but eventually replaced all with a Darkglass AO. I’ve got a soft spot for all things Boss, but I don’t miss this pedal.
as a guitar player who occasionally plays bass and owns this pedal, my only use case is to put the level at max and both eq knobs at noon as well as gain and balance completely rolled of so the pedal acts as a boost
Every time I've ever played around with the ODB-3, I couldn't help but feel that it sounds sterile and artificial. There are way better artisan-made overdrives out there in the same price range.
Im sad I didnt experiment with overdrive more years ago, but out of my little collection i have now the darkglass gives the best sound like this. I like the low end compression that really makes the pedal.
Got an ODB-3 as my first effects pedal way back in 2016 and it's still on my board. It's not the best bass overdrive by any measure, and I do plan to replace it soon, but I can't recommend it more highly as a first OD. Easy to use, inexpensive, and you can get everything from slight grit all the way to full blown fuzz which is perfect for a younger or newer bassist wanting to try effects for the first time.
Those that say it sounds bad, are the ones who don't know how to use it properly. This pedal is great. You need just a tad of distortion on an already clanky clean sound, and it gets really gnarly.
I have had my odb-3 for around 15 years. I was buying a bass amp, and at the checkout counter I asked the salesman to recommend a bass *overdrive* (not distortion) and I added it to my purchase without hearing it. Since then, I have been trying to dial in a decent sound on a pedal that apparently doesn'thaveone. The only thing I use it for is a sort of bass boost pedal, with the "overdrive" effect essentially turned off. To me this pedal sounds like a bass version of the Boss DS-1. Blech!
I really don't get people's beef with this pedal. If you don't like the sound of the breakup, that's something, but then why would you buy it. As far as usable settings, it only has one in my mind and i love it. I don't want to be tweaking knobs while i'm going through songs anyway. I just go with minimum gain, 10 o'clock dry blend, boost the lows to 2 o'clock, the highs to 12:30 and it sounds fantastic. Makes my Bassman sound more like an Ampeg- warm, grinding bassy goodness.
@Go HM-2 Yourself What would you have changed about it? Maybe less gain? Three quarters of the gain knob are useless, but what do i care- the fist quarter sounds fantastic.
@@SeeSawMassacre I mean, I got mine free with an amp way back in the day... Yes, I find it better on lower-gain settings and aggressively cutting the high-end to tame the hiss. There are a couple of sounds around there that I like, there's that sort of low grumble that Therapy? used on Prison Breaker which it nails (makes sense as that's what they used for it!). But overall I find it not worth the space on my already rather crowded pedalboard. I used to use if for my second band and on lower-gain settings it worked quite well even though that was a punk band not demanding a huge amount of dirt. At the other end of the scale, I think that it can do a decent, albeit unsubtle, chunky dirt sound if you want to do something a bit more like Lightning Bolt.
Certainly sounds better than the mainline Microtubes range to me which seems like a close tonal comparison? I could be wrong but this sounds pretty great all the same!
Would probably still gun for Vintage microtubes or similar though (there's a brand from like europe making a great vintage style circuit too), or for modern sound an Alpha Omega, but Darkglass can be quite expensive with all the features they're stuffing in. This sounds like a great cheaper option with more natural sounding harmonics than the microtubes.
Looking now it's not a base pedal but I once had an analog Hospital somebody gave me that weight about 10 lb but was a size of this orange and it was a turbo Overdrive they don't make it anymore you don't see them like I've never seen another one. But it had some unique aspects it was awesome and I'm not normally over driver fuzz kind of guy though the Russian big muff on a guitar which is kind of distortion overdrive and fuzz all I want it seems that thing is just insane and if you ever grew up through the 90s you'll know that sound from the Smashing Pumpkins and a whole bunch of other famous 90s bands and going all her back to the 60s when they first came out with it and you had Santana on Hendrix and David Gilmour from Pink Floyd who's use that thing consistently through his career the Russian Big Muff pedal cuz the other big muff pedals don't sound the same at all. But I was able to take that overdrive dual sorts of weird things really old '60s amp had two rectifier that's when you have a real too bad and have the two rectifier. I crank that Overdrive put all the way up in the guitar all the way up and it would warp out in a weird ways I never ever heard before like psychedelic except for Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum when you hear that beginning guitar that's really warped out with a high power fuzz puddle It's actually an overdrive circuit that's super powered and fuzzed out that he had installed inside of his Telecaster guitar and he was switch it on and it was just massively distorted and then he damaged his amp in some way and it would warp out until two band and Crank It Up and people like my God what is that sound and I was telling it like yeah that's it and it was that was the sound it was crazy but you could also hook the bass guitar up through all that and do some really weird stuff and have some insane sounds out of that was really old tube amps from the 60s and stuff the two rectifiers you can do amazing amazing things with the Distortion and sound worse thing they ever did was invent rectifier chips for guitars and bases to be cheap you don't have a real two Vamp unless preamp tubes and rectifier tubes that's the secret right there to the real sound and that's why some amps are thousands and thousands of dollars have all those proper components like muscle boogies their best amps have tube rectifiers.
I tried very hard to like it because seems like everybody does, but the can of bees sound and the fact that the pedal had a mayor volume drop when engaged was so so bad.
Classic tones aren't always best. For a while I ran a line selector loop with a pitchfork into a metal muff. Recently switched to Sub n Up into Dark Matter.
Take an oh see demon or v2 ocd over just about any other distortion pedals. This thing did not fair well in a band setting for me, despight sounding pretty great unaccompanied. Just not an option for me
The mark of a great pedal is not necessarily the number of good tones you can get out of it. I get one great tone out of this pedal, and i never have to touch the knobs. The Big Muff is like that too, pretty much. I had a Bass Big Muff for a while, and while it was very versatile, it didn't sound that interesting in my setup (the breakup bored me- too predictable), so i got rid of it. I don't think i'll ever ditch the ODB though; it's become the sound of so many songs, and there's no fault to be found in the tone for that one setting i keep it on.
@@ileutur6863 Like i said, that one sound the ODB does well IS great. I build pedals, so i could easily replace, or modify it, if it wasn't exactly what i like, but it is. I also don't like the darkglass pedals i've heard demoed- they seem to introduce some mud to the clean signal, and i find their character kind of sterile and boring. In my setup, in a blind test, i'm sure i'd prefer the ODB over 99% of distortion pedals.
I’ve used one of these since I was a teen. Once upon time as a flat out distortion, these days I have a slight treble boost, slightly more bass, 60% drive blend and only about 25% gain. It sounds like a light dusting of what this pedal can do, but you run that straight into a fuzz pedal and the combined tone is amazing.
It definitely retains lows with the blend knob set correctly- mine's at about 10 o'clock. I actually get a small bump in lows when i switch the pedal on, though my "low" knob is set at about 2 o'clock as well. I play in a band, and record with it all the time. Anything with a dry blend and enough volume on tap is capable of keeping your low end intact. It's quite dirty at minimum gain, and that's where i keep it. I'm pretty sure Flea used one for a bit.
@@Ukraineaissance2014 Like i said, if it's got a dry blend, it won't. It's just math or logic. If you set it to 100% dry, it sounds exactly the same as your bypassed signal. So if you move it to 75% dry, your dry signal will be quieter, but as long as you can turn the volume knob up enough to get the dry signal back to the same level it was at 100%, your low end will be at least the same, if not louder (there are added lows from the wet signal). But yeah, if a dirt pedal doesn't have a blend knob, you'll definitely lose lows (especially "subs") as they begin to become distorted. If a pedal has 2 band EQ and a blend knob, with enough volume on tap you could get twice as much low end as your dry signal if you wanted. It's also not hard at all to add an active or passive bass boost to the end of a circuit.
That's not the case at all. It has a dry blend, and 2 band eq, so it's easy to get more lows than what you started with. I use mine on a ton of songs, and i'm definitely getting above unity lows. It pretty much makes my Fender Bassman sound more like a grinding Ampeg- at the lowest gain setting and with lots of dry blend.
Unflexible, noisy, and doesn't cut through a mix live very well. Had it for three gigs or so. Sound engineers never like it. Switched to a Line6 M5, found one out of 25 fuzzes and distortions I liked and used that ever since. No complaints anymore..
Used one for years before Darkglass came out. A real tone sucker. Sucks the life out of your tone. That was my experience anyway. After I ditched the Boss I got an EBS Multi-Drive. Way better. Either that or Darkglass is the way to go.
