Double Bass Band in a box - for bass

[tanmanuk]

Hi all. I need an assistant to work on my bass practicing with. I work away a lot and need something portable and compact so that while I am stuck in a grim hotel room I can use the time wisely and practice. I see the 'band in a box' thing by Digitech and think that something like that for bass would be wonderful for me. Basically, on the Digitech box, you strum chords and the box plays the bassline and the drums along with you. What I would like is something that plays chords and drums and lets me play along with my bass, maybe changing patterns or keys on a stomp of the pedal? Now, I realise I can get all this in kit form by using CD's amps etc, but, the simplicity of a little box that I can jam along with and take anywhere is the appeal. Anyone know of anything like this?

 

[old spice]

i Real Pro is an app available for your smartphone that does what you're looking for.

 

[tanmanuk]

that's very good. But a mixer would be needed to play along. If only there was similar in hardware version. :-(

 

[Jason Hollar]

I'm a big fan of the ireal pro app as well. I finally got a new iPad - I was looking at the new iRig HD2 with ampli-tube - I wonder if you could use both apps simultaneously?

 

[Jim Dombrowski]

You should able to find a small 4-channel mixer used for very little money.

 

[tanmanuk]

Hi, yes, but then I 'd also need some phantom power for my bass! Sorry, Genuinely dont mean to sound ungrateful for the pointers, but that's what I was hoping to avoid - ie carrying a small rig around.

 

[turf3]

I don't know if this would work, but here's a thought...

Band In a Box (the software), loaded on your laptop.

Use headphones to listen.

Then, can you use one of the little "amp" thingies I have seen for electric bass, to the mic input of the laptop? There are "mixer" softwares you can load on the laptop. I even think Windows Media Player may have some of these capabilities.

In short, I can't imagine you can't get what you want with one small analog device on the bass-to-laptop cable, and all the rest with software on a laptop. Some of the computer lovers here should be able to identify the exact software.

 

[stanknuckle]

Chordbot. Its an App for either iPhone or Android. Invaluable for setting up your own backing band from your phone. I store heaps of standards and practice routines ie. Cycle of 5ths etc.

 

[Chris204T]

Hi all. I need an assistant to work on my bass practicing with. I work away a lot and need something portable and compact so that while I am stuck in a grim hotel room I can use the time wisely and practice.

Someone may know better than I do, but I think the iRig may be what you want. You plug it into your phone, plug in your electric bass or guitar, and plug in headphones. Then you can play all day and nobody else can hear you. The original version of it is for sale really cheap on Amazon. It is very small--would easily fit in your shirt pocket. Anybody know if you can use it with iRealPro or not? I haven't tried it with double bass, but it seems like it would work.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

There is ImproVisor for your computer, I think you need to get into the Google Group to get it.
Simpler than Band-in-a-Box, but enough if you don't need any time signature changes inside your piece.

Get the imaginary book part I and II, these are the changes for the popular standards. No melodies except a few originals due to copyright, but a lot of solo transcriptions (don't know if any for bass) are available and you can do and share your own ones.

A bit tricky to work with at the beginning, so take a few hour to understand how it works.

 

[El Thumpo]

I'm a big fan of the ireal pro app as well. I finally got a new iPad - I was looking at the new iRig HD2 with ampli-tube - I wonder if you could use both apps simultaneously?

I use them both all the time.

 

[tanmanuk]

thanks guys, the apps sound great. However, checking reviews for iRig on amazon, it seems that it only works with a few phones. My Motorola G isnt one of them. :-(