The Bass unite and the stop being shady threads are deleted!
Way to go IK Multimedia. We are actually the strongest supporters of your product on TalkBass forum. We even stated an Amplitube iOS group on Soundcloud..... I'll stay polite here as I see no point of using energy on this matter any more. You can't deal with a good discussion regarding your product from an unbiased source.
"The voice of the customer" is one of the most important aspects within product development, you ignore it, not MY problem!!
Last night I just wanted to try to see how easy is it to do a play along in Multitrack DAW. So, The Kings Of Leon, Use Somebody: https://soundcloud.com/duke21/play-along-ju-ab-and-mt-daw
I used my Squier CV 60 P bass for that.
Haven't played this song for a long time, but I can say, using Multitrack DAW is very easy. Copy and paste work fine. Importing the song into the multitrack DAW goes much faster then on the 8 track recorder on AT iOS which suddenly seem to be very primitive compares to the DAW.
I started to play the bass "quite" late. I was about 35-36 years old, so I've played the bass now for about 5 years.
As a kid my parents actually wanted me to play an instrument, but I thought it was a girlish thing....
I was always very active regarding sports. I played tennis, I like to swim, I played basketball in a very serious team in my youth.
And then there was a 3 years military service as a combat engineer.
There after came a long period of mountain-biking which I still do. But the mountain biking passion changed into cross country skiing which is my main passion today regarding sports. I love skiing on snow, and even better skiing on roller-skies. I'm a product designer and knows CAD very well. So on my free time I'm helping a little roller ski manufacture with design and testing. So, I've LOTS of gear. Actually I've a whole corner in my basement for storing and working on roller skies. On some summers I do over 3000km on roller skies.
Roller skies always travels with me, and on my only visit to the US (my sister lived in Ann Arbor, GREAT place) they came along. I was roller skiing in the streets/ roads over there, very polite traffic!
Since I was 18 I liked to listen to music. I got addicted to prog rock in general. Mike Rutherford and Chris Squire were my idols back then, and still are. Today I can add Geddy, Dave Meros (Spock's Beard) and some more.
So, when I was 35 I bought this cheap Cort PJ bass pack. It came with a "bass combo", a 10W thing with a 6" driver. Anyway, I've started learning the bass by tabs and YT. The bass passion grew up, faster then my ability to play... .... not so easy to start learning to play "that old". Anyway, I've evolved a bit and got into a level where I considered myself capable to play with others. So I actually started a band where the vocalist was about 30 years old, the lead guitar was 23 years old, the keyboard player 20, same goes for the drummer. At one point the vocalist invited also an other guitar player to the band. I didn't liked the idea. Me and the lead guitar which were the founders of the band thought that even though it will be cool, it will only complicate things. Which it did. We played cover songs, and with so many members it was not easy to choose songs everybody wanted to play. I was the most open one. I said that I'm willing to play anything which I know I'll technically manage within my limitations as a noob, as long as it could be called music. So, hip hop, rap, and super heavy stuff where my only things I would say no to.
Anyway we got along well, and had several nice songs we played together. The problem was that the second guitar player and the vocalist (which was VERY VERY talented) were a bit narrow minded, and always went for this 80s glam rock/ shredder - rock.
I wanted more plain rock (and prog rock of course!) like Hendrix, Cream, U2, The Police, The Beatles etc. The lead guitar player which was by far the best musician in the band was for some reason "scared" of playing Purple Haze!! So hte songs I manged to "press in" where:
Let it be
Sunshine of your love
Use somebody (Kings of Leon)
Tom Sawyer.
Now, Tom Sawyer by Rush, well, we played it in rehearsals, but I was the only one which knew all the parts, all the rest could do some "noise"... the lead guitar never managed to learn the guitar solo. Well, I do not blame him, because nobody remember the guitar solo when the bass is driving the whole part....
Me and the drummer rehearsed Tom Sawyer several times alone and mange pretty well. But with the whole band.. no way. Too many people!!!
The nice thing about being in a band is that I had to learn new things because I had to learn new material. So I had to learn triples in order to play Europe the final countdown etc.
Anyway, the band was based on students, so by the end of the year many moved away and the band broke up.
Btw, me, the keyboard player and the lead guitar started out own "mini band", The March Of The Polar Bear. It was based on ideas mostly from my part. We jammed in the evenings in my living room. I used my Sansamps, the lead guitar used my Amplitube/ iPad. I connected all of us to my mini mixer, and my 4 channel headphone amp. So, we played through headphones. It was great time. We recorded our ideas on the fly... never bothered to stay on one idea and develop it as we knew that our time together is short. So these ideas are to be found in my SC channel under The March Of The Polar Bear sett!
They moved away just before the last summer. So right now I'm playing by myself and keeping myself busy by learning the most I can about iOS apps... something that you guys knows very well.
So, a very long story.... sorry about that, no sex - drugs and rock and roll.
So, that is my story from the other side of the Atlantic.
Any one know any lightening connector audio interfaces coming, I have the Alesis IO dock with my Ipad 3, which is always a pain to squeeze it into but I do use the setup a lot for practicing and recording and would like to not have this as a reason I don't upgrade to the next iteration of the ipad.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toasted
It's really easy to post quickly up here from my pedestal.
I saw a DM go out on Twitter but figured it is easier to explain and contact you here. I'd like to reach out to a few bassists that have definitely given feedback and have an honest conversation.
I'm willing to set up an area on the forum where we can hash out some of the issues that I've seen cropping up lately in a direct manner. I'd say we could Skype sometime but that sounds kinda creepy for me to ask, and harder to wrangle everybody in real time. This would be in the interest of making you happier with IK in the long haul, not to sell you anything or that kind of thing. Setting it up this way could create a good "focus group" and it would give me a way to explain some things that could improve not only products (which you definitely have great ideas on) but also how my team as well as moderators here could all better understand where you are coming from and likewise.
Sound good? Let me know.
Thanks,
Peter
-------------
My response:
I would say that's a great idea if you follow through with it.
We bassists are totally annoyed by IK, and are jumping ship one by one. I've been an Amplitube iOS user for over a year, when a severe back injury made it necessary for me to find a lighter solution for playing gigs.
As a bassist, running direct is pretty much mandatory. However, we always get stuck with the cheapest DI box the soundguy owns, and unless we use a Sansamp we really don't have a lot of options.
Enter Amplitube iOS. Sounds great, an amp sim/preamp that we can carry in the palm of our hand. But it failed us majorly, giving us ONE bass amp other the the generic one that comes free with AT. Really??
How many guitarists do you know that play DI? Short answer: NONE.
We bassists could bring Amplitube into the spotlight in a BIG way, but we've been ignored and deleted for so long that we've largely given up on IK, and are turning to your competitors for our amp sim needs.
This morning, I added the bass expansion pack to Jamup. In less than ten seconds, I now have a GK, an SWR, and 2 Ampeg models that frankly are MILES ahead of Amplitube's "Classic" and B15R.
Then there's Audiobus. A quick look in the App Store (NOT KVR, dunno who's bright idea that was) will show you that Audiobus is WILDLY popular, and rightfully so. It truely is a game-changer. Does IK support it? Of course not. That would mean that IK wouldn't be able to keep everything proprietary, and soak us for more money.
Lets face it. AT Jimi Hendrix includes (shock) yet another Marshall, a fuzz, an Octaver, and a phaser, and a chorus. So did Amplitube Slash, albeit with different graphics. How many times are we to be expected to buy the same pedals and amps??
Amplitube iOS needs SERIOUS work on the bass end, and quickly, or IK will not be able to regain the top spot in the amp sim world on iOS.
Sure sounds like it. I'm sure I don't even need to say it, but make sure to keep us posted on how your contact with them moves forward.
I'm glad I haven't invested as much money into AT as you have. I've felt a little soaked and I've only bought the app, the iRig and the B15R... grand total: just over $50. They've already gotten that much money from me and even aside from what I've been reading in these threads, the fact that the octaver and envelope filter are horrid are enough to turn me off to it and push me to explore Jamup. Luckily I can use the iRig with JU, so that helps a little.
Well, I've spent the better part of the morning exploring the bass expansion in Jamup, and I gotta say I'm blown away.
The GK is my favorite. Great slap tone.
The Redhead I can see being good for jazzier stuff or ballads.
The two Ampegs I'm still tweaking. You gotta watch how hard you push the low end or it'll distort into mush on both amps. On the Blueline, if you cut the lows a bit below noon, it's still punchy and has a great grind.
The B15 again requires the lows to be cut to avoid distortion, but really gives a great old school tone that is slamming with flats.
All things considered, they all closely resemble the sounds of their real counterparts, and the tones of each amp are different enough from each other that there are millions of tones possible.
------
Now there's Loopy. Freakin COOL app. Still learning it, but I've made a few things that didn't sound horrible. It takes some practice because you really have to play the loopers (up to 12) like an instrument and it's damn hard to do that while playing bass!!
Good to know. Wish we could try that stuff out before actually throwing down the $ to buy it. Are you using the free version of Jamup with the bass expansion pack?
Good to know. Wish we could try that stuff out before actually throwing down the $ to buy it. Are you using the free version of Jamup with the bass expansion pack?
5sg.
Yes. I have no use for all the guitar stuff. It's more cost effective to just buy what I need.
Plus when I first got the app it was to try out the BDDI. And it wasn't very good sounding back then.
I saw a DM go out on Twitter but figured it is easier to explain and contact you here. I'd like to reach out to a few bassists that have definitely given feedback and have an honest conversation.
I'm willing to set up an area on the forum where we can hash out some of the issues that I've seen cropping up lately in a direct manner. I'd say we could Skype sometime but that sounds kinda creepy for me to ask, and harder to wrangle everybody in real time. This would be in the interest of making you happier with IK in the long haul, not to sell you anything or that kind of thing. Setting it up this way could create a good "focus group" and it would give me a way to explain some things that could improve not only products (which you definitely have great ideas on) but also how my team as well as moderators here could all better understand where you are coming from and likewise.
Sound good? Let me know.
Thanks,
Peter
-------------
My response:
I would say that's a great idea if you follow through with it.
We bassists are totally annoyed by IK, and are jumping ship one by one. I've been an Amplitube iOS user for over a year, when a severe back injury made it necessary for me to find a lighter solution for playing gigs.
As a bassist, running direct is pretty much mandatory. However, we always get stuck with the cheapest DI box the soundguy owns, and unless we use a Sansamp we really don't have a lot of options.
Enter Amplitube iOS. Sounds great, an amp sim/preamp that we can carry in the palm of our hand. But it failed us majorly, giving us ONE bass amp other the the generic one that comes free with AT. Really??
How many guitarists do you know that play DI? Short answer: NONE.
We bassists could bring Amplitube into the spotlight in a BIG way, but we've been ignored and deleted for so long that we've largely given up on IK, and are turning to your competitors for our amp sim needs.
This morning, I added the bass expansion pack to Jamup. In less than ten seconds, I now have a GK, an SWR, and 2 Ampeg models that frankly are MILES ahead of Amplitube's "Classic" and B15R.
Then there's Audiobus. A quick look in the App Store (NOT KVR, dunno who's bright idea that was) will show you that Audiobus is WILDLY popular, and rightfully so. It truely is a game-changer. Does IK support it? Of course not. That would mean that IK wouldn't be able to keep everything proprietary, and soak us for more money.
Lets face it. AT Jimi Hendrix includes (shock) yet another Marshall, a fuzz, an Octaver, and a phaser, and a chorus. So did Amplitube Slash, albeit with different graphics. How many times are we to be expected to buy the same pedals and amps??
Amplitube iOS needs SERIOUS work on the bass end, and quickly, or IK will not be able to regain the top spot in the amp sim world on iOS.
Well, I've spent the better part of the morning exploring the bass expansion in Jamup, and I gotta say I'm blown away.
The GK is my favorite. Great slap tone.
The Redhead I can see being good for jazzier stuff or ballads.
The two Ampegs I'm still tweaking. You gotta watch how hard you push the low end or it'll distort into mush on both amps. On the Blueline, if you cut the lows a bit below noon, it's still punchy and has a great grind.
The B15 again requires the lows to be cut to avoid distortion, but really gives a great old school tone that is slamming with flats.
All things considered, they all closely resemble the sounds of their real counterparts, and the tones of each amp are different enough from each other that there are millions of tones possible.
------
Now there's Loopy. Freakin COOL app. Still learning it, but I've made a few things that didn't sound horrible. It takes some practice because you really have to play the loopers (up to 12) like an instrument and it's damn hard to do that while playing bass!!
I thought you will like the GK! You are after a cleanish sound with some high end sparkle and clean nice mids, in addition super clean tight lows, which is what the GK all about.
Yes. I have no use for all the guitar stuff. It's more cost effective to just buy what I need.
Plus when I first got the app it was to try out the BDDI. And it wasn't very good sounding back then.
Good to know. That was a sticking point for me on Jamup... paying for the main app just to have to pay an additional cost for the bass stuff.
.... not so easy to start learning to play "that old". Anyway, I've evolved a bit and got into a level where I considered myself capable to play with others. So I actually started a band where the vocalist was about 30 years old, the lead guitar was 23 years old, the keyboard player 20, same goes for the drummer. At one point the vocalist invited also an other guitar player to the band. I didn't liked the idea. Me and the lead guitar which were the founders of the band thought that even though it will be cool, it will only complicate things. Which it did. We played cover songs, and with so many members it was not easy to choose songs everybody wanted to play. I was the most open one. I said that I'm willing to play anything which I know I'll technically manage within my limitations as a noob, as long as it could be called music. So, hip hop, rap, and super heavy stuff where my only things I would say no to. 
