MIDI & Bass

[Basshole]

Joe, I've never played a wired-fret system like the Peavey. It at least has the potential to minimize one of the most annoying aspects of bass-to-MIDI; higher latency on lower notes.

As to how it works in the real world, I can only speculate. I do know there is a controller interpreting the notes via these fret sensors, and that it's conceivable that varying left hand sloppiness or variances in technique could even potentially vex such a system. I guess a lot of these things are up to the player. Some people can tame these systems, and even master them.

A drummer friend of mine has zero problems playing Roland V-drum kits. I deliver parallel hits in such a manner as to trigger the brain's echo cancellation circuit, and it constantly squelches my crash cymbal hits. Different people seem to integrate with these interfaces differently.

 

[namraj]

I tried reading threads already posted, but I was left more confused than I was before. What I want to do is use my bass as a MIDI controller for Reason on my computer. Can some one explain all the options I have, and their pros and cons?

Don't record it as audio midi synths are awful, reason does have some ok sounds but if you want it to sound like a bass use audio, if u want it to sound like a synth then program it

 

[WarriorJoe7]

The bass handles chords just fine as long as you can fret each note right up against the fret. I should get a pic but each fret is divided into 4 sections with a nonconductive spacer in between. (they even had the foresight to slant the spacers so it could handle bends past it.)

So no it won't short out. You can set the bass to mono (limited to one note at a time) or poly and it works great.

 

[WarriorJoe7]

yes you must be very precise on your fretting technique and it must be very clean. Also no hammer ons or pull offs; All notes must be plucked. It is not a huge adjustment though. As a matter of fact it has made me a better player. It could be true that it depends on the player though as the example you mentioned. But honestly if you become good at the midibase it will help with your technique on ALL of your basses. Clean accurate fretting and playing will be the result. It only took me a good hour to adjust fairly well and I keep improving.

Update: actually you can do hammer ons and pulloffs. When i wrote this I was using a cheap synth that would not do this. Now I have a better one that will. Also handles slides beautifully.

Joe, I've never played a wired-fret system like the Peavey. It at least has the potential to minimize one of the most annoying aspects of bass-to-MIDI; higher latency on lower notes.

As to how it works in the real world, I can only speculate. I do know there is a controller interpreting the notes via these fret sensors, and that it's conceivable that varying left hand sloppiness or variances in technique could even potentially vex such a system. I guess a lot of these things are up to the player. Some people can tame these systems, and even master them.

A drummer friend of mine has zero problems playing Roland V-drum kits. I deliver parallel hits in such a manner as to trigger the brain's echo cancellation circuit, and it constantly squelches my crash cymbal hits. Different people seem to integrate with these interfaces differently.

 

[kerryg]

I thought I'd add my own clip of the Peavey MIDIBase in action here. I thought it might be helpful to give some examples with more "motion" in them so folks can assess its tracking.

In the examples, the midi from the Midibase's "brain" is being sent directly into a USB MIDI interface (a sixty buck MidiMan 1x1) and from there via USB straight into my Mac. I'm triggering GForce's MiniMonsta (a MiniMoog emulator plug-in) under Logic Audio. The dry audio signal of the bass is going straight into my mixer.

One seriously cool thing about this is that although the brain of the MidiBase is nominally a one-rackspace unit, it's really only a box a little bigger than a bar of soap tacked on the back of a one-rackspace plate. Cut the plate off and strap the MIDI interface to the now-tiny "brain", connect them with a short MIDI cable and what you've got now is a block roughly the size of a pound of butter with a MIDIbase cable in and a USB cable out - no muss, no fuss, perfect for quickly plugging in one USB and one audio cable and starting to lay in some synth basslines.

The recording was made with a Roland R-09 sitting between the monitor speakers; the mix of dry and "midi" sound should give you some indication of the tracking. Ignore the "forsale" in the directory - I fixed it up recently and I love it again, so I'm hanging on to it for the moment (I'd forgotten how much fun it was).

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

[Anyone in for a TalkBass "MIDIBase Owner's Group"? We'd be small and specialized but it would make a great place to organize info - and we've got the original system engineer here on TB ]

 

[WarriorJoe7]

I made a midi-equipped bass club here:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5801511

 

[WarriorJoe7]

OK my extra Peavey midibase (the lowest latency option available) is available now. PM me if anyone is interested in buying or trading for it. Here is a soundclip thread for Peavey's midibasses (midbase and the later cyberbass

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428122

 

[WarriorJoe7]

I thought I'd add my own clip of the Peavey MIDIBase in action here. I thought it might be helpful to give some examples with more "motion" in them so folks can assess its tracking.

In the examples, the midi from the Midibase's "brain" is being sent directly into a USB MIDI interface (a sixty buck MidiMan 1x1) and from there via USB straight into my Mac. I'm triggering GForce's MiniMonsta (a MiniMoog emulator plug-in) under Logic Audio. The dry audio signal of the bass is going straight into my mixer.

One seriously cool thing about this is that although the brain of the MidiBase is nominally a one-rackspace unit, it's really only a box a little bigger than a bar of soap tacked on the back of a one-rackspace plate. Cut the plate off and strap the MIDI interface to the now-tiny "brain", connect them with a short MIDI cable and what you've got now is a block roughly the size of a pound of butter with a MIDIbase cable in and a USB cable out - no muss, no fuss, perfect for quickly plugging in one USB and one audio cable and starting to lay in some synth basslines.

The recording was made with a Roland R-09 sitting between the monitor speakers; the mix of dry and "midi" sound should give you some indication of the tracking. Ignore the "forsale" in the directory - I fixed it up recently and I love it again, so I'm hanging on to it for the moment (I'd forgotten how much fun it was).

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

[Anyone in for a TalkBass "MIDIBase Owner's Group"? We'd be small and specialized but it would make a great place to organize info - and we've got the original system engineer here on TB ]

Just made the a midi equipped club. I also have a thread just for midibase and cyberbass clips.

Who is the engineer again? I did run across him here once.

 

[kerryg]

was Mick Donner, who introduced himself in post #24 on this thread:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=184575