Anyone using a Midi bass and/or using a laptop for FX?

[MSUsousaphone]

I'm 99% sure this is beyond me in the money sense and that it also wouldn't be able to cover all of the sounds my pedal board does (Elements, Polytope, Faye's Her, Timeline, Goatkeeper, Badger Schism, Megalith) or at least....won't be able to do it as well.....and I'm also suspect that a midi bass would get the rock sound I currently get and love from my current setup (Status S2 into a Mesa Bass 400+)....but it still interests the heck out of me.

So...anyone using a comp for most of their effects and/or anyone using a midi bass? And if so, what you think and what are you doing?

http://www.industrialradio.com.au/products/pro5.php

[Waterpilot]

While this subject kinda gives me a headache, I am interested. Sub'd.

[lem0nade]

Not midi bass, but I do use computers for signal processing.
Pedals for most things, but some things I like using a computer for.
I split my signal, and run one into live. Compression and gating for the most part, but then ill use some guitar rig for spacey stuff. Oh ya, and digital delay stuff. For nice clean repeats. Also some looping, with midi triggering. I know some people cant get into it, but I am all for it. Granted, we play electronica stuff so the technique works for me.
Also, first post!

[DeltaPhoenix]

Nice first post Lem0nade.

Who has an Industrial Radio bass, or a Wal Midi Bass, Or Peavey CyberBass?

[pwsharp]

I sure would love an Industrial Radio 5er, just no way I could afford one. I do pitch-to-midi with a GK-3B -> Axon AX-100 -> Roland XV-2020 (half-rack size). Not for 'synthy' sounds as such, just the occasional cello or other orchestral voices which the little Roland does very well IMO. I've learned to live with the higher latency down low, & that's where the IR bass would be infinitely better with virtually no latency in all registers. I would also be interested hearing from anyone who has one...

[DeltaPhoenix]

Okay, I do have a Peavey MidiBase, upgraded to Cyber Bass software. I am in the process of dialing it in. There are a fair amount of parameters to program on the bass to get it to play the best that it can for me.
Currently if I am playing something that consist of a lot of the same notes, a few don't trigger, hence the rhythm doesn't translate as well. Occasionally I get an extra note triggered, I have dialed this out mostly.
I am playing through my M Audio Venom synth, So I have to kind of play the patch that I have up. Pads don't get busy basslines, etc.
The lack of latency is great though!

[Inverse Kinetix]

I, like lem0nade, run my line into my laptop running abletone live, then slap on whatever effects I like......sooo many.

It's kind fun running two bass inputs and using one as sidechain compression.

[JCRob]

Never heard of the Peavey and Wal MIDI basses before, although I was on the market for a MIDI bass, until I saw the price of the Industrial Radio...

I play several basses with GK-3Bs on them, which drive the awesome Roland VB-99, a massive control center for bass/e.guitar/ac. bass modeling, plus synth effects of various types, and also have a Roland GR-55, for driving soft synths, and in live situations: pads, strings, leads, and as a 2nd guitarist.

Although I can have both sounds going through the GK cable, I prefer to run my bass signal separate from the synth stuff, so I've to use at least two channels.

I'm into this stuff deep...

[chuck norriss]

Buy my ADA MB-1. Tube digital preamp, midi compatible, so you can still play your own bass & have midi-cake too.

[Caca de Kick]

Originally Posted by DeltaPhoenix

Nice first post Lem0nade.

Who has an Industrial Radio bass, or a Wal Midi Bass, Or Peavey CyberBass?

I have a Wal Midibass. It sure is wild instrument, but I wouldn't have the mental capacity for using this stuff live.
I always wanted one to do layering for studio stuff, and that's about my limit.
Yes this has two signals at once: regular bass and midi, so you can have your rock bass.

[DeltaPhoenix]

I think I figured out how to get the MidiBase to play faster passages and have it trigger perfectly, I forgot about the decay setting. I am going to play with increasing the decay on the bass. So cool that there are 24 performance setups, all you do to change them is hold a fret and click a switch, so I can have something set-up for big swelling pads with infinite sustain, change the performance set-up and boom play super fast runs (when I get that ironed out). There are no apologies from Peavey in the Manual, they say it takes awhile to figure out how to set-up your bass but the rewards are worth it.
Anyways, I'll post when I make another break through.

[JCRob]

Originally Posted by DeltaPhoenix

I think I figured out how to get the MidiBase to play faster passages and have it trigger perfectly, I forgot about the decay setting. I am going to play with increasing the decay on the bass. So cool that there are 24 performance setups, all you do to change them is hold a fret and click a switch, so I can have something set-up for big swelling pads with infinite sustain, change the performance set-up and boom play super fast runs (when I get that ironed out). There are no apologies from Peavey in the Manual, they say it takes awhile to figure out how to set-up your bass but the rewards are worth it.
Anyways, I'll post when I make another break through.

SO, you're in love with your bass again?

I have a regular 6 string bass (is one of those that come in several brands) set up with piccolo strings, which serves me as a MIDI controller through the Roland GR-55 for arranging and sequencing ALL of my music, of course, in my home studio. After I got this, there are no more keyboards hanging around in my house...

[Reace George]

Before I got into real effects and amps, I was just running a cable straight from my bass to my computer, and stocked it with Guitar Rig XD
Useful program for checking out various effects, but the sound was a tad meh.

[DeltaPhoenix]

Yeah, I am still back and forth. I know I have one of the absolute best midi options for bass with my MidiBase. I have a VB-99 and FC300 on layaway. The vb-99 and fc300 could be used in my rock band for parallel signals, effects, and a bit of the synths. I could also use the VB-99 when my electronica side project comes back to life. It would be the good enough option, while the MidiBase is the BadAss option.
The problem is, that I am in school, and don't have a large income. I don't think that I can afford both.
What would you do? I could get away with not having the VB-99 for my band, it is not essential but would be cool.
PM me if you have an interest in buying the MidiBase. It is not officially for sale yet, but real interest could make that happen.

[DeltaPhoenix]

I am going to have to back out of the VB-99...I have to paint my house ASAP. Paint started peeling after I pressure Washed my house this weekend. It is an old woodframed house (1943) with no termite damage or wood rot, I live in Florida so that is amazing. It is raining alot lately so I need to get on it. I feel like a douche for having to back out of a deal that I started. Trying to sell the MidiBase, while paying off the VB-99, and having my Lady worried about the house does not work for me. My bass tone is great in my band, i use the few effects that I have, the MidiBase is beyond amazing for electronica. I can't have it all at once (at least until I have a degree and a career). My lady and house forced my hand, but it is a relief.
Hopefully the rest of my post in this thread are about awesome stuff I figure out related to the MidiBase and my Venom synth and NI Maschine (and maybe Ableton Live 8 suite, I have it but need to learn it), and is no longer a diary of my partial insanity.

[JCRob]

I feel ya man!! I will love to buy that bass right now, but I'm in the middle of a gear up process for a concert we have, and that isn't on the list...
But I'll be contacting you once that's done to talk about it, if of course, you're still interested in selling it.

[MSUsousaphone]

Yeah, man. I've been in that boat. Kinda in that boat. I did that Infanem Faye's Her preorder like three months ago. Totally wouldn't do it under new family circumstances (five kids coming). So I had to put the pedal up for sale before it's even shipped to me. Shameless plug: But the thing looks totally awesome.

[DeltaPhoenix]

I am just kind of bumping this thread. I know Sousa has an increased interest in possible moving towards a laptop for effects using Ableton Live 8, or possibly another program (guitar rig maybe?, can you design effects in that program?). I am already have Ableton and NI Maschine, Massive, Reaktor, Kontact player, I plan on using a laptop for beats, triggering some samples, sending a midi clock signal to some hardware for live use, so I might as well mess with signal processing too.
Since I am eventually buying a laptop, sometime this fall, what type of specs would you recommend? I know quad-core at least, a large amount of RAM, how fast of processor?
I would disable everything in the computer that isn't music realted for the most part. I am looking for 2-3 years of good performance from the laptop before I can afford to do a big upgrade.
THANKS!

[M Sterling]

I've used all software effects live and in the studio. Live, I used a MacBook pro running ableton with a MOTU mk3 ul, controlled by a FCB1010. As far as tweakability goes, software almost always wins. Sound wise, if you are used to boutique pedals, you will most likely be disappointed. There are 100's of filter plugins that can do everything imaginable. I tried most most of the and never found one that sounded as good as my Xero deluxe. Same goes with other effect types. And good plugins are not cheap.

Latency wasn't an issue, once I got my gear and DAW settings straight. The problem was when I attempted to run hardware pedals in the inserts of ableton. Each new insert added significant latency and more settings needed to be adjusted to find a happy medium. It was nice to have control of pedal order by dragging and dropping and It works beautifully in the studio. But live, I can't deal with any latency at all.*

There are a lot of upsides to using software for effects, but in the end I went back to pedals and save the software for looping.

[twocargar]

I use an iMac running Apple's Mainstage at our rehearsal studio (we don't gig) to run my homebrewed MIDI bass pedals. I recently upgraded to a faster Mac, but am still having latency issues when I try to run my rig as an effects unit too.