Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[JES]

circling back to this. you have the 128 or full? if you have the 128, what are you using it with and how do you power it?

This is slightly embarrassing but I have both. The 128 for home and the full for the practice space and performing. This made a LOT of sense when we were on lockdown and I was going to the space after work. I have connected them to:

1. A Eurorack synth controlled by an Expert Sleepers FH-2. The FH-2 provides power but I was getting some ground loop noise so just ran it off a separate 9V adapter. No problem.
2. I've tried it with the following DAWs; Ableton Live (needs a kludge but works fine, 11 will be more elegant), Bitwig (brilliant but it's like going back to the state of DAWs in 2003 with today's power--some basics are missing), Logic and MainStage (hate MainStage but it works). In terms of software, I love U-He Diva for virtual analog. The native samplers in all of them plus Kontakt. Love love love Aalto and Kaivo. From my computer I just power from USB.
3. iOS. Other people say this is great, I find it really fiddly. AUM, Spacecraft, Volt, some piano plugin, and Quanta. I have tried powered USB hubs. Quickly whatever advantage this had over the laptop disappears for me.

One thing to keep in mind is that while the Linnstrument is sold as an MPE device, MPE is really not quite as big a deal as Roger Linn makes it out to be if you are playing music that you want to sound like electronic music from the past half century. As a single-channel MIDI controller, it works great. Like a keyboard but better if you're a bassist. Linn is really invested in "expressiveness" by which he means "like a violin or a guitar" but in fact it works with anything that accepts a MIDI input.

Some stuff is little wonky (lock and latch don't mean the same thing as on other keyboards, there are a couple other choices they made, etc) but it is rock solid in part because Linn conceived of it as a limited and purpose-built thing. I once played a gig where a power surge wiped out the preset I'd set up. It took less time to set up again than fixing a broken string.

It does take time to get to know and you will shag up on it, and you will have to adjust it for your touch, just like a bass. I view this as a plus.

Ask me anything else you want to know.

 

[JES]

ZOMBI live in the studio!



He just responded to me with his gear rundown:

"8-string Hagstrom split through EHX Mel9 and Korg Toneworks G5 synth pedal. 'clean' tone running through the 6x10, FX running through the Jazz Chorus"

This makes me very interested in a synth pedal.... Also: rawk.

 

[JES]

I kind of only use my daw for final mixes and mastering since about a year or so.
Even my audio interface crapped out on me last week.
One more reason to work away from the zombie screen. Got frustrated and bored creating with Ableton.

Ill probably come back to it when I want to change things up. Still use it often for large projects I do for other people.

Especially right now, creating away from the screen=good. The loop based thing doesn't work for me in Live, but as a sort of big sampler it works for me. I have also messed around with the looper which is, ah, ok. I mainly use Logic as "tape" plus some effects.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Especially right now, creating away from the screen=good. The loop based thing doesn't work for me in Live, but as a sort of big sampler it works for me. I have also messed around with the looper which is, ah, ok. I mainly use Logic as "tape" plus some effects.

I'm just too lazy to learn another DAW.

 

[steubig]

This is slightly embarrassing but I have both. The 128 for home and the full for the practice space and performing. This made a LOT of sense when we were on lockdown and I was going to the space after work. I have connected them to:

1. A Eurorack synth controlled by an Expert Sleepers FH-2. The FH-2 provides power but I was getting some ground loop noise so just ran it off a separate 9V adapter. No problem.
2. I've tried it with the following DAWs; Ableton Live (needs a kludge but works fine, 11 will be more elegant), Bitwig (brilliant but it's like going back to the state of DAWs in 2003 with today's power--some basics are missing), Logic and MainStage (hate MainStage but it works). In terms of software, I love U-He Diva for virtual analog. The native samplers in all of them plus Kontakt. Love love love Aalto and Kaivo. From my computer I just power from USB.

embarrassing? hahaha. you should see how many basses i have.

so with the 128, i'd want to run it with the hydrasynth desktop. i've seen that it has no power supply (?), so i'd need to power it via usb. is that correct?

 

[steubig]

i'm basically using live as a nice digital recorder with midi, glitching and effects capability. works so far, but i have thought of going to something else that does all that.

 

[JES]

embarrassing? hahaha. you should see how many basses i have.

so with the 128, i'd want to run it with the hydrasynth desktop. i've seen that it has no power supply (?), so i'd need to power it via usb. is that correct?

Yes, the 128 gets powered by the USB. Any USB power supply will work.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

i'm basically using live as a nice digital recorder with midi, glitching and effects capability. works so far, but i have thought of going to something else that does all that.

Bitwig?

 

[steubig]

Bitwig?

just researching.

dunno . . .

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

just researching.

dunno . . .

Keep me posted , getting the need for a change also......but I'm soooooo lazy learning daws....

 

[steubig]

Keep me posted , getting the need for a change also......but I'm soooooo lazy learning daws....

it could be a looong time, as it's more a passing fancy right now (partially based on when my computer dies . . . and i hope that's a long time from now).

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

it could be a looong time, as it's more a passing fancy right now (partially based on when my computer dies . . . and i hope that's a long time from now).

I'm probably gonna stick with live 9 till it crashes every 2 mins.
I think I'm kidding myself if say I'm going to use another daw.
Tried reaper a week or so.....back to live since I hated learning shortcuts and new interface.

 

[JES]

I spent a year or so learning Bitwig. Some brilliant innovations...and more than a few gotchas.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

I spent a year or so learning Bitwig. Some brilliant innovations...and more than a few gotchas.

Gotchas?

 

[emjazz]

Did someone here tell me about the Neunaber Wet plugin? Just starting using it for some tracks...OH MAN!!!!! Just perfect. I love it so much.

 

[JES]

Gotchas: X is supposed to work, but you need to know about barely visible interface element Y to make it work. Or: unlike every other DAW on the planet you cannot just MIDI map a device. There’s a process involving a lot of pull down menus. Honestly it swayed between a wonderful creative sandbox for me and filling out forms for a bureaucracy. At times it seemed like programmers were offloading basic development to the community because of “open standards.” And their tech support wasn’t useful if you couldn’t take a week off from whatever you were doing.

But I love the modulators. You can do the same stuff in Live but it’s less elegant.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Gotchas: X is supposed to work, but you need to know about barely visible interface element Y to make it work. Or: unlike every other DAW on the planet you cannot just MIDI map a device. There’s a process involving a lot of pull down menus. Honestly it swayed between a wonderful creative sandbox for me and filling out forms for a bureaucracy. At times it seemed like programmers were offloading basic development to the community because of “open standards.” And their tech support wasn’t useful if you couldn’t take a week off from whatever you were doing.

But I love the modulators. You can do the same stuff in Live but it’s less elegant.

Ok. Id rather run bare foot on 2 miles of legos than learn that piece of ^#^$*#(#,$ daw.

Thanks for making sure I won't even say the name out loud.

 

[Bob_Ross]

I'm just too lazy to learn another DAW.

Seriously. After spending most of the 90s and early 00s learning MOTU's Digital Performer I took a respite from recording starting in late 2013 until, well, about a month ago, when I dug all my recording gear out of storage and fired everything up for the first time in 7 years.

And now I feel like I'm too lazy to relearn the same DAW! *** did this button do?!?! :::scratches head:::

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Seriously. After spending most of the 90s and early 00s learning MOTU's Digital Performer I took a respite from recording starting in late 2013 until, well, about a month ago, when I dug all my recording gear out of storage and fired everything up for the first time in 7 years.

And now I feel like I'm too lazy to relearn the same DAW! *** did this button do?!?! :::scratches head:::

I only do it cuz I dont have a magic leprechaun that appears and records and.mixes everything for me....yet!!!!!

My audio interface died last week.....euh.....going through the options of replacing it is like pulling teeth.
Portable 4 track ftw.
But you still have to dump everything in the daw. There is no escape.
(Goes into foetale position)

Ill quote Chuck B again.....

"The less I needed, the better I felt"
Always felt that way....strange, very strange feeling......

 

[monsterthompson]

Ill quote Chuck B again.....

"The less I needed, the better I felt"
Always felt that way....strange, very strange feeling......

My new policy is that if I can’t eat it, I wouldn’t put it in my will, or wouldn’t pay a mover to move it, then it goes in the garbage (or up for sale).