Importing synth patches to an effects pedal

[zekimert]

Hi,
We recently began to play a little Guetta, LMFAO, Pitbull, Black Eyed Peas etc. so the band expects me to play some synth sounds.

Our keyboard player makes his patches using Reason, and he's quite good at creating new patches. He uses a midi keyboard and a laptop computer in gigs.

He's asking me if there is any effects pedal that we can import his patches created in Reason into the pedal which lets me play the bass like a keyboard.

Would a Roland V-Bass or equivalent make any sense? Any suggestions?

[RickenBoogie]

It's possible, but not without alot of effort, and the results will be less than optimal. First, I know of no bass synth pedal that will download patches, aside from the MarkBass synth pedal, but I think you're limited to what you can create with it. You're asking alot for a stringed instrument to sound like a keyboard. If it were me, (and it was), I'd buy a small synthesizer, like a DSI MoPho keyboard, and double up.

[Swimming Bird]

You'll probably need a laptop. Have you looked at the NI Guitar Rig?

[Joe Nerve]

The Zoom b91ut has 8 foot switches you can use to trigger notes, or any midi info you want. Ya can't import patches, but you can do some pretty cool stuff. Also has some built in analog synth sounds that actually sounds good. Ya might want to check into it.

[gastric]

Spend some time reviewing the many, Many, MANY synth related discussions in this forum. There's a ton of them.

No, you will not be able to download the keyboardist's patches directly into any guitar pedal. That's simply not possible. But there are options to generate synth sounds.

* Pitch-to-MIDI and simply trigger your keyboardists softsynths right in his laptop.
* High end synth pedals like the Roland GR-55 which can generate synth sounds right in the box, no MIDI required. But a lot of cash is required, probably $700 or more. Plus learning to use it and play into it as it requires a clean performance to sound good.
* More basic and simple synth pedals of which there are quite a few ranging from $50 on up.

I have a variety of synth pedal reviews and sound clips on my website. Check my signature. Note I'm not a pro, just a self-taught hack.

[brianrost]

Originally Posted by zekimert

He's asking me if there is any effects pedal that we can import his patches created in Reason into the pedal which lets me play the bass like a keyboard.

The closest would be a Roland GR or V-Bass rig. Even then translating patches from one synthesizer to another is troublesome at best (trust me, I'm also a synthesizer player).

You would be better off getting a small keyboard controller and using Reason yourself.

[zekimert]

Thank you all for the invaluable answers.

I think the most reasonable solution would be quitting looking for "importing" the patches but "creating" them with a pedal providing a user friendly controls/interface.

In this manner, i consider two options:

Roland v-bass: biggest advantage is letting me to have a direct midi output from the bass, and i believe there are no negative comments on the quality of the machine and the tone possibilities it provides.

Second option is Markbass super synth: the biggest advantage is the computer interface. and it is an analogue device (not pretty sure but sure it is more "analogue" than roland )