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Official Industrial Radio MIDI BASS thread

SteveFromBerlin

SteveFromBerlin

Jan 3, 2008
821
1,531
Berlin
www.stephanpfaff.de
#1
Hey folks,

did everybody hear the great news that James Chick, inventor of the great Wal Midi Bass & Peavey Midibase & Cyberbass is back in the game with his late MIDI BASS by Industrial Radio?!?

I think this is really awesome news and I want this thread to be a guidance for anybody who's interestet. Hopefully there will be many owners of this wonderful piece of gear who will be doing reviews and post their soundclips or videos in the future.

Until then you can check out the following links:

http://www.industrialradio.com.au/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Industrial-Radio/82518454678?v=wall&viewas=1322956358

Link Removed

http://twitter.com/midibass


Kind reguards from Berlin!
 
#3
someone has. a long time ago. the rmc polydrive system is great - it uses the roland 13-pin output standard coupled with piezos in the bridge. works great, even below low b. i have it on 4 of my custom conklins and couldn't be happier.

wired fret systems like the old midi bass systems respond a little bit faster on the lowest notes, but in my experience (having played both) i don't think the difference is worth the price differential.

of course, that's subjective. :)
 
#4
I understand that it is quite a price to pay, but let me show you my thoughts on that:

If you buy

- the Roland VB-99 (999 €),
- the PDS-10 Stand (99 €),
- a GK-3B (122 €),
- the 13-Pin Cable (37 €)
- and the Roland FootControl FC-300 (349 €)

You have to pay a total of 1606 €, which is about 2500 $!!!

I understand that most of us already have a bass, but with the MIDI BASS you get a real nice Jazz Bass - which I think everybody should own! ;-)

With the VB-99 you are limited to the internal sounds whilst the MIDI BASS connects you with every sound you could imagine! If the company can keep their promisies, this will be the perfect drug for every soundjunky and TOP-40 Bassplayer...

I hope they really got it together and am willing to safe up that amount of money because neither I have a good Jazz nor the perfect thing to get hooked up with Midi.
 
#6
SteveFromBerlin said:
Hey folks, did everybody hear the great news that James Chick, inventor of the great Wal Midi Bass & Peavey Midibase & Cyberbass is back in the game with his late MIDI BASS by Industrial Radio?!?
Click to expand...

FYI, his name is Steve Chick.

Yes, I've been following the development of this for a few months now very critically, and I'm glad to see they've finally posted video samples (And they're making lefties too!). I have a few questions I plan on sending to them for inquiry soon:

1. Are certain string types/gauges better suited for trackingt than others? (i.e. flats vs. rounds)

2. Are bridge piezos solely for midi interpretation, or will they function as acoustic piezos as well?

3. Is this technology solely available in their Midi bass now, or will they modify and customize an instrument of your own as well? (they used to do that).

4. Can active electronics be an option?

5. What are neck width/radius dimensions? Any options?

6. Conflicting info regarding latency on their site. Some pages say 5ms, some say 9ms. Not a major difference as both are plenty fast, but clarification would be nice.

Reviewing the videos, I have a few questions as well:

1. The slap video is impressive, and shows how quickly the midi bass will respond. But how much of the short slap/pop attack in the playing style is contributing to better latency? There's a second video (I forget what # it is) that shows him playing rapidly, but the sound patch is a poor example to use because it's a low dubby bass synth patch with slow response/decay time, so it doesn't sound like it's exactly keeping up. (A sound patch with a quick attack/short decay such as a marimba, for example, would be a better example to show how well it can keep up with fast playing). As I'm familiar with how Roland's GK/GR systems work, whereby you can improve the latency/playing feel by adjusting the sensitivity to complement whatever technique you're using (i.e. fingerstyle, tapping, soft, hard, etc), I have to believe there are parameters for adjusting within the Midi bass (or even some editing software?), but since you'd be controlling outboard soft and/or hard synths with the Midi bass you'd need to adjust the attack, velocity, sensitivity, etc. in each of your sound patches as well to get the bass to perform best (which you also have to do when using the Axon units).

2. Of all 11 videos on YouTube, there's only 1 video (#8) that shows any polyphonic example, and it's a couple of chords played in the upper register briefly. How well will it track to chords in the lowest register?
 
#7
john turner said:
someone has. a long time ago. the rmc polydrive system is great - it uses the roland 13-pin output standard coupled with piezos in the bridge. works great, even below low b. i have it on 4 of my custom conklins and couldn't be happier.

wired fret systems like the old midi bass systems respond a little bit faster on the lowest notes, but in my experience (having played both) i don't think the difference is worth the price differential.

of course, that's subjective. :)
Click to expand...

IMO, there's a significant difference between these systems on lowest notes, and I could easily justify the extra cost given my experience with pitch-to-midi bass systems. Industrial Radio is claiming a latency on all strings including lowest notes to be between 5ms-9ms across the board. There's no way a pitch-to-midi system like RMC's Polydrive, Graphtec's Ghost Piezo systems, or even the (arguably better) Axon systems can come close to that. I can adjust my playing to compensate for a little latency, but for me, the tracking on the lowest E and B strings was intolerable with any pitch-to-midi system I've tried thus far. I'm currently using my Carvin strung with piccolo strings to get the best tracking results, but that doesn't give me any option to switch back to real bass register notes, obviously. The best solution I've been able to come up for this so far is using a sampled real bass patch tuned an octave lower.
 
#8
john turner said:
someone has. a long time ago. the rmc polydrive system is great - it uses the roland 13-pin output standard coupled with piezos in the bridge. works great, even below low b. i have it on 4 of my custom conklins and couldn't be happier.

wired fret systems like the old midi bass systems respond a little bit faster on the lowest notes, but in my experience (having played both) i don't think the difference is worth the price differential.

of course, that's subjective. :)
Click to expand...

What advantages do you see using a midi bass than just pedals for a specific sound in your head. I have a friend that has a midi guitar and I believe he has it hooked up to a computer but Im not sure.

How exactly does a midi bass work? I read that the midi bass has nordstrand pickups. Does it have regular electronics or preamp...? Do you need a computer to work with a midi bass? Is there an additional preamp that acts as an interface to the midi controls? An additional pickup?
 
#13
After a lot of investigation and deliberation, I pulled the trigger and ordered a 5 string Industrial Radio bass. I emailed Steve and James a lot for a while and spoke to Steve on the phone at some length before I made my final decision. Got a couple of months to go before I get it, but I'm looking forward to it with great anticipation. I have had the yamaha pitch to MIDI sytem, which worked ok (on a 6 string Ken Smith), a lot of latency issues. Later purchased a used Smith 6 string that I installed RMC system in w piezo pickup and was also using using the Axon II, worked better, but still not great, especially on low B. Moved into a Roland VB 99 system, which I still use. For some things its great, but still NOT a MIDI controller by any means. Using a YamahaMotif module for synth sounds. I'll let you know what the final verdict is. Yes, it's expensive, but if it's the only thing that really works and you want/need it......? Considering the thousands I've already spent in the search, if it's what I hope it is, it's all worth it
 
#15
Are there any more experienced IR users that can offer some advice on setting parameters?

I've got it to work to a point but want to configure the bass to respond to a lighter touch (have to play quite hard to get it to trigger), would like to play hammer ons and also slides....

Any ideas or advice guys?

R
 
#16
I got a new IR bass a few weeks ago and I'm still playing the settings. IR recommends you run 4 VSTs when you're running in Poly4 or Imprint mode, and I'm wondering if anyone has found a work around so you can only use one VST? I got it working in Renoise with Poly4, where I use a signal follower on each piezo to the channel with a single VST, and it works...the Bump Mask setting needs to be set to "open".
 
#18
Anyone here that has purchased one experienced a lot of wait time with no response? I'm trying to give them my money and they're taking forever to get back to me. I need to buy it while my GAS is high lol.
 

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