Week 16: Tweak Time vs. Play Time
Synopsis
4 months with this unit so thought I’d toss out an impression of how the V Bass has brought about some changes in my bass experience.
For starters I’ve basically only played through the V Bass since I got it and time spent on a bass has about doubled. There has been a distinct progression from all tweak and no play initially to almost no tweak and all play as of late. Lately I’ll play for a few days then feel a need for a new tone or a modification and tweak till I get something productive or get my fill of it. Sometimes I’ll hear a sound and jump on the V Bass and try and replicate it. Regardless, it’s apparent editing patches will be a never ending process for lots of reasons.
The V Bass is a very expressive tool and is expanding my bass playing world in lots of ways. I play as much solo as to tunes now. I’ve pulled old guitar materials off the shelf, bought player tapes, downloaded tabs and tunes, listened to clips and new tunes, looking into doing some recording, and in general pay more attention to any sound thinking in terms of a tone. Playing atypical sounds alone generates novel play and thought process.
Whole Enchilada
For starters I’ve basically only played through the V Bass since I got it. Overall time spent with a bass in hand has doubled but, up to the last couple weeks, most of my time was spent learning/tweaking the V bass and intermittent dinking with riffs. There was a distinct progression from all tweak and no play initially to almost no tweak and all play as of late. Since the V Bass has no software-editing like the pod, the bass has to be in hand to generate a tone to hear what you’ve done. The up side of that is you’re always in playing mode and not sitting at some computer. As a result there are frequent tangents of steady play and nearly constant play of some sort going on. Also getting a tone on a unit like this amounts to a lot more than just the sound itself. I don’t know what you can get from software sitting at a computer but a BIG part of getting a desirable sound for playing bass comes from playing a real bass in a style appropriate to the tone with all the nuances involved (slap, slides, bends, pull-offs, etc.), hearing it through your rig, and trying it in tunes. The down side is the twiddle time wear and tear could be on your computer instead of your equipment and computer software may be superior in terms of actual editing.
As for REAL playing time, up till the last couple weeks, I felt my actual playing time was roughly cut in half. Since then my playing time has at least doubled. I find it’s increased my playing in terms of time spent producing sounds with a bass. I don’t play to tunes as much as in the past but spend a lot of time playing solo (which I seldom used to do at all).
In general I find the more I’m satisfied with the patches the more time I spend playing to tunes and playing solo. The less satisfied, the more time I spend tweaking patches. There’s a pendulum swing that occurs from having my fill of tweaking/perusing some curiosity on the V Bass, time spent playing patches, and feeling a need for some new sound. As of late I’ll go through a couple days of playing before feeling the need for some new sound searching. Sometimes I’ll just hear a sound and try to replicate it on the V Bass.
The V bass is a very expressive tool. The tone created at a given moment naturally evokes a style and phrasing appropriate to that tone which may be nothing like what I‘m accustomed to playing. While there’s value in playing such tone to tunes I am accustomed to playing (never know what a tone will sound like to a given tune till played), often it’s pounding square pegs into round holes and I can only take so much of that. Many of these tones are so different they force me into playing different. I hear different composition and arrangements in my head going along with them that vary from jungle drum/jug bass to Sproing City. I listen to sounds more, all sounds - especially weird ones: crickets, jets, whatever. Basically no sound's off-limits now. Turns out there’s hardly any contemporary soundtrack that doesn’t have some form of boing sproing tucked into it. I just hadn’t noticed. I’ve been more creative in terms of new licks, writing new songs, progressing on uncompleted songs.
Some other observations include that I can already tell modification to patches is likely a never ending process as there’s always room for improvement, needs change, and I get bored with sameness. As my patch editing’s improved what seemed a basic keeper patch has become comparatively boring. But the same patch can seem decent one day and a dog the next so it’s only over a period of time that I decide what gets deleted, which is not much to date. There’s also been a steady stream of tidbits indicating the solo/lead style of bass play will be ongoing in development. Something like the V bass is so expressive you’d have to be creativeless not to expand your playing world. I’m digging out materials I used to use for guitar that have bee shelved for years, buying player tapes, downloading tabs and tunes, listening to tunes, listening to clips and paying a lot more attention to sounds in general. It’s also got me looking into some simple recording (also something I’ve had no interest in). So there’s probably some clip recording forthcoming in the near future and whatever’s involved with that and I‘ll latch on to an interface for bulk transfer of patches. It also has me looking into expanding this realm in terms of a pod and a piccolo setup. In accord with my opening post to this thread, in deed it appears basses and an excessive inventory of pickups will be jettisoned (only to be replaced by the stuff I just mentioned - it‘s always somethin).
Synopsis
4 months with this unit so thought I’d toss out an impression of how the V Bass has brought about some changes in my bass experience.
For starters I’ve basically only played through the V Bass since I got it and time spent on a bass has about doubled. There has been a distinct progression from all tweak and no play initially to almost no tweak and all play as of late. Lately I’ll play for a few days then feel a need for a new tone or a modification and tweak till I get something productive or get my fill of it. Sometimes I’ll hear a sound and jump on the V Bass and try and replicate it. Regardless, it’s apparent editing patches will be a never ending process for lots of reasons.
The V Bass is a very expressive tool and is expanding my bass playing world in lots of ways. I play as much solo as to tunes now. I’ve pulled old guitar materials off the shelf, bought player tapes, downloaded tabs and tunes, listened to clips and new tunes, looking into doing some recording, and in general pay more attention to any sound thinking in terms of a tone. Playing atypical sounds alone generates novel play and thought process.
Whole Enchilada
For starters I’ve basically only played through the V Bass since I got it. Overall time spent with a bass in hand has doubled but, up to the last couple weeks, most of my time was spent learning/tweaking the V bass and intermittent dinking with riffs. There was a distinct progression from all tweak and no play initially to almost no tweak and all play as of late. Since the V Bass has no software-editing like the pod, the bass has to be in hand to generate a tone to hear what you’ve done. The up side of that is you’re always in playing mode and not sitting at some computer. As a result there are frequent tangents of steady play and nearly constant play of some sort going on. Also getting a tone on a unit like this amounts to a lot more than just the sound itself. I don’t know what you can get from software sitting at a computer but a BIG part of getting a desirable sound for playing bass comes from playing a real bass in a style appropriate to the tone with all the nuances involved (slap, slides, bends, pull-offs, etc.), hearing it through your rig, and trying it in tunes. The down side is the twiddle time wear and tear could be on your computer instead of your equipment and computer software may be superior in terms of actual editing.
As for REAL playing time, up till the last couple weeks, I felt my actual playing time was roughly cut in half. Since then my playing time has at least doubled. I find it’s increased my playing in terms of time spent producing sounds with a bass. I don’t play to tunes as much as in the past but spend a lot of time playing solo (which I seldom used to do at all).
In general I find the more I’m satisfied with the patches the more time I spend playing to tunes and playing solo. The less satisfied, the more time I spend tweaking patches. There’s a pendulum swing that occurs from having my fill of tweaking/perusing some curiosity on the V Bass, time spent playing patches, and feeling a need for some new sound. As of late I’ll go through a couple days of playing before feeling the need for some new sound searching. Sometimes I’ll just hear a sound and try to replicate it on the V Bass.
The V bass is a very expressive tool. The tone created at a given moment naturally evokes a style and phrasing appropriate to that tone which may be nothing like what I‘m accustomed to playing. While there’s value in playing such tone to tunes I am accustomed to playing (never know what a tone will sound like to a given tune till played), often it’s pounding square pegs into round holes and I can only take so much of that. Many of these tones are so different they force me into playing different. I hear different composition and arrangements in my head going along with them that vary from jungle drum/jug bass to Sproing City. I listen to sounds more, all sounds - especially weird ones: crickets, jets, whatever. Basically no sound's off-limits now. Turns out there’s hardly any contemporary soundtrack that doesn’t have some form of boing sproing tucked into it. I just hadn’t noticed. I’ve been more creative in terms of new licks, writing new songs, progressing on uncompleted songs.
Some other observations include that I can already tell modification to patches is likely a never ending process as there’s always room for improvement, needs change, and I get bored with sameness. As my patch editing’s improved what seemed a basic keeper patch has become comparatively boring. But the same patch can seem decent one day and a dog the next so it’s only over a period of time that I decide what gets deleted, which is not much to date. There’s also been a steady stream of tidbits indicating the solo/lead style of bass play will be ongoing in development. Something like the V bass is so expressive you’d have to be creativeless not to expand your playing world. I’m digging out materials I used to use for guitar that have bee shelved for years, buying player tapes, downloading tabs and tunes, listening to tunes, listening to clips and paying a lot more attention to sounds in general. It’s also got me looking into some simple recording (also something I’ve had no interest in). So there’s probably some clip recording forthcoming in the near future and whatever’s involved with that and I‘ll latch on to an interface for bulk transfer of patches. It also has me looking into expanding this realm in terms of a pod and a piccolo setup. In accord with my opening post to this thread, in deed it appears basses and an excessive inventory of pickups will be jettisoned (only to be replaced by the stuff I just mentioned - it‘s always somethin).
