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Fishman Aura, but for bass, does it exist?

H

Honch

Guest
Sep 7, 2006
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3,496
#1
Having searched a great deal for preamps bass, the GK Plex, Ampeg SCR-DI and whatever. However, what I would like is a pedal that works like the Fishman Aura Pedal but for bass. Fishman has their PRO EQ Platinum but it's a different beast altogether.

Now the thing with Fishman Aura, is that it's for acoustic guitarist. Some kind of "ambient" samples or impulse responses from high end Martin acoustic guitars has been made in order to use a preset "toneprint" of such a guitar, dreadnuaght of high repute and so on. Just to give it a little "un-piezo-quack" when playing live.

I've wondered if it can't be done in the same style but with upright basses? What should be so hard with that?

So, I wonder if there's any other box out there that works in the same way but for basses?

I e that they have "sampled" or dones impulse responses from any upright of high repute and stored them in presets, for us warm up, or "upright-it-up" on - say - fretless basses when playing live. Of course one should be able to use regular magnetic pickups. On some early halfrack boxes with digital processors, there was always these preset "uprighter" or making a fretted sound "fretless" but those presets were a joke. I've read the FAQ on Fishman site, about that, and as Fishman himself is an accomplished upright player he would himself love it, but it was a 10 year old question, and by now, the development must have moved forward.

Anyone?
 
#2
I have wondered if using impulse response along a convolution reverb would work to emulate the resonance of a bass body. It's, after all, a very tiny room. I don't have an upright nor a convolution reverb at the moment, so I guess I'm staying in wonder-land for now.
A little bit of research led me to this:
www.talkbass.com/threads/convolution-reverb-bass-samples-needed
If it turns out it's possible, I just might pull the trigger on a Logidy convolution reverb pedal.
 
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#3
Thanks blizward.
As the latest topic here on TB was from 2007 it's nine years ago. I wonder if development has occured?

could this be done?

As for the Logidy DSP pedal. The review on Premier guitar was a quick one, and gave us nothing, but the - allowed - user comments and reviews below that article leaved much to be desired. However, as it is a software pedal, there's very little that can't be upgraded with software.

Logidy EPSi Review | Premier Guitar
 
#4
The problem seemed to arise on electrical basses, which do not have any piezo pickup. Only Steinberger and NS Design has piezo bridges. Because of the "sameness" of a piezo signal from any acoustic guitar, it's better to make calculations from that one, than from any other magnetic pickup which has way different characteristics as well as frequency response.

Me thinks that ... in order for it to produce a short upright bass body ambience, you need to use short decay and almost no sustain on the strings when playing high up the neck. Like an endless sustainer pickup, but phase reversed so it actually stops the string from moving. This is seen on a Moog guitar with infinte sustain. Although they are polyphonic they don't need to be on bass. Also, I don't need endless sustain on any bass...

I think our avatar around here called Whizmoon has his ways around for something like that, but it's another planet. He's onto something. Hardware pickupsystem that inhibits sustain. But it's another topic already.
 
#6
jimfist said:
A bass with a Roland GK pickup and run into a GR55 modeling synth might be worth investigating.

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Click to expand...

Arhmmm....cough cough. No, not at all. That's not what the thread was about. At all. Even in the remotest sense. On top of that I'd rather use the Danish company JamOrigins software MIDIGUITAR which comes for bass too. It's just as sluggish as those GK pickups for basses. But way cheaper! Way too long latency to pick up any quick pitch tracking. And the thing with that software. It works on ANY bass without having to buy ANY polyphonic pickup or something else.

I feel a brexit for hexaphonic pickups and dedicated bass/guitar synth controllers coming up in a few months, becoming more than obsolete. They're on it now. It only can get faster. A few other companies has plunged into this idea too.

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"The concept behind MIDI Guitar is so simple and brilliant that I thought it was a hoax at first. Just plug your guitar in your audio interface with a 1/4” jack, launch MIDI Guitar and that’s it! You now have a MIDI guitar! No special pickups. No 13 pin sockets. No pitch to MIDI converter hardware! Just a lead!!

So I downloaded a demo. I plugged in the guitar to my Apollo and launched the software and then loaded a synth in Logic. I then started to play. Did it work? Hell yes it worked!!

Now I’ve owned a few MIDI guitar setups and never been all that satisfied with them. They’re a pain! This however was a total breeze and some of the best tracking I’ve ever come across."


Here's another one doing the same thing, not for bass as of yet though:

Migic | Introducing MiGiC - Real time guitar to midi conversion
 
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#7
@Honch

Yeah, I know what you were asking in the OP. I know what an Aura is and what it does. I own an AxeFxII, Atomic Amplifire, and totally get the whole IR loader thing, and imposing IR tonal footprints on top of a dry, neutral sound. Have you ever tried the AxeFx Tone Match feature?

I'd like to engage more in the discussion, but you know, you coming off like an insufferable prick and all, you can have at it. Happy to bow out.

Go get em, tiger.
 
#9
Resurrecting an old thread.
I use an extended range electric violin which has the low range that goes lower than a cello. Plenty of upright range.
I have been using Logidy EPSi Version C algorithm loaded with impulse responses from Violins, violas and cellos for nearly 3 years now and it works great. I want to say it sounds exactly like the acoustic but that is not the correct expression. If you follow the mathematical concept behind convolving, it is fair to say that it "is" acoustic signal. There is 0.02ms of lag which I don't think is humanly possible to notice.

So IRs along with convolution algorithm works. But do understand that you are adding the "body" to a signal. It works with my instrument perfectly because the signal from my instrument (Pickup: Barbera twin hybrid transducer) is purely and only the pressure exerted by the strings, zero body. If your signal already has a body then I dont know how it will react
 
#10
The option I've been wondering about: is anyone is using Toontrack's EZ Bass for live performance? If there isn't a serious latency problem, it would be cool to use the sampled acoustic bass sounds in EZ Bass Upright to replace piezo sounds, triggered from a standup electric like an Ibanez UB804.

If you are using EZ Bass (or some other sampled double bass) live, what is your setup?
 

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