Audio of MIDI 9 and 11 string Bass

[Al Caldwell]

The guitar(distortion too) keys,horns ,strings and synth parts are played
with my Benavente and Conklin midi basses. I hope this helps people see the potiential of the instrument as a production tool. It also has a great BASS sound. www.cdbaby.com/all/alcaldwell

[ChiliPepper]

Nice Al ! You defnitely know how to use these basses

[elros]

Great stuff, Al!

I've been meaning to ask you: what MIDI conversion box are you using? Is it the Roland GR-20 floor board?

My Benavente 6 with the Roland GK pickup is soon done and I am pondering which synth unit I should go for. Any and all advice / experience is apreciated. I am looking for a box that sounds good, that's the bottom line.
A crucial item for me is that it should be able to translate sliding and such (my new Benavente will be fretless) so that I can do things like trombone solos and bluesy harmonica stuff.... it seems that whatever you are using does reproduce some of that. I'm hearing it on your sax lines, but I am not sure of those are real or MIDI sounds. - like the sax stuff on "no punks allowed" - it sounds very real... How about the flute on "Forbidden"?

thanks

[Al Caldwell]

Originally Posted by elros

Great stuff, Al!

I've been meaning to ask you: what MIDI conversion box are you using? Is it the Roland GR-20 floor board?

My Benavente 6 with the Roland GK pickup is soon done and I am pondering which synth unit I should go for. Any and all advice / experience is apreciated. I am looking for a box that sounds good, that's the bottom line.
A crucial item for me is that it should be able to translate sliding and such (my new Benavente will be fretless) so that I can do things like trombone solos and bluesy harmonica stuff.... it seems that whatever you are using does reproduce some of that. I'm hearing it on your sax lines, but I am not sure of those are real or MIDI sounds. - like the sax stuff on "no punks allowed" - it sounds very real... How about the flute on "Forbidden"?

thanks

The sax part on "No Punks Allowed is played by Amos Brewer and the Keyboard part is played by Richard White. Forbidden and Hop, Skip and Jump are all midi. The sax still eludes me as an instrument to emulate because of the complex phrasing.I use the Gr 33 roland for piano and synth sounds but Roland has a new peice comming out at winter namm.
The guy at Roland would'nt tell me the exact details but he said this would be the best unit for bass. He also told me that the Gr 20 can get a software upgrade that make it track the bass notes better than the Gr 33. The sliding function you want is availible on the Gr 33. Remember that this unit is pitch based.It freaks out if you are a little out of tune on certain patches.(Piano ,Organ ect...) I think trombone should work for you.Also remember that the higher the string the better it tracks. My real piano chops suck so I use my bass for horn parts and string parts and Keyboard parts all the time. Thank god for my high strings! I can't wait to see what Roland has in January. The harmonica works great! I did a solo on Stevie wonder song that Sounds very close to him! No one can believe that I'm playing that on the bass! Midi is a wonderful world. Al