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roland vg99 with bass guitar?

Well... so far so sad.

I don't think the guy meant the GT-10B, do you? It sure is a nice toy but in a totally different way.

Any hopes on the Messe at Frankfurt? I'm thinking about going there, so if the dream comes true I could at least check it out immediately.

--------

Buy the way: I've borrowed a V-Bass and I think it's awesome! But one thing is for sure - if there will be a VG-99 for bass or a new V-Bass or whatever, I think one of the major improvements will be the upright sounds!

C yaaarrr...
 
An real upright is of course the best! Even my "Musima" - GDR-Bass from 1967 sounds better than the V-Bass does. But I am very interested in combining an upright sound with my electric bass, for experimental reason and especially when there is only a small stage or no room left for an upright in the car. I could imagine a lot of ways to use it...

I could also imagine, that they spice up those synth sounds (the V-Bass sounds a little bit too much 80s style here and there) and - having played the VG-99 - the bass sounds like Fender and MM will be even more authentic!

The Strats, Teles and acoustic guitars from the VG-99 sound amazing!
 
Interesting and informative clips, Elros, thanks. Right off the bat, I like the GR-20 harmonica and trombone sounds better than my GR-33. I do notice the latency most on your harmonica sample, though in a way it's cool because it sounds like someone accompanying you rather than a perfect note for not match. Also, as you mentioned, latency can vary depending on the patch (pianos have the worst latency on my GR-33 with my guitar). But when you say that latency is worst on lower notes, what range are you noticing it? (Open E and below, or A and below, for example?). You mention you're primarily a fingerstyle player, and so am I. I'm remembering now in discussions that when players were comparing the Roland units to the Axons that the one caveat with Axon was that players thought that the Roland units responded better to fingerstyle guitar playing (I'm assuming because you can fine tune the play settings (i.e. normal, fingerstyle, tapping, etc). As I'm not familiar with the GR-20 yet, can you fine tune playability settings like the GR-33? Also, can you assign different patches to each string like the GR-33 (or combine 2 patches to a string?). The one thing I do like about the Axon units is the ability to split the fretboard up.

Hello, I've completely forgotten about this. Better late than never?

Latency is sort of difficult to tell when begins. I can hear slight delay beginning at low A or around there. But playing fast can cause the GR-20 to miss some notes in higher range - up to and around E2 I'd say. But then above this area technique starts to be a bigger hinderance.

The GR-20 doesn't have much adjustment options like the GR-33. It is much simpler in that regard. Also with sounds - some patches have pre-programmed layers and string-splits but you can't program your own like on the GR-33. The GR-20 is more, if I dare say it, guitard-friendly in that way.... :hiding:

It seems to me that the AXON is the best for advanced stuff like string split and layers and such. GR-20 is super-simple; you hardly even need to look in the manual.
 
Oh one more thing.
I uploaded many new sound clips using the V-Bass to my web page. Look here:
http://hallgeir.no/bass/electronics/
and at the bottom under the heading with todays date. Most of these are patches that I use regularly. The bottom three are a bit more special, including the upright demo clip.
Note that most of these are just bass modeling, no amp modeling or effects. Hardly any EQ. (Well, some effects, you'll know when.) It's only the "Tony Levin" sound that has amp modeling engaged.
 
Hey Guys,

last weekend the Musikmesse has been and I asked a blogger from Germany to ask the Roland-guys about a new V-Bass. The answere was quite interesting - he told me that a new one is definitely planed and will be there soon but he does not know when... He recommends to subscribe to the newsletter where they will post the release date as soon as they now it.

In the meantime a german GK-Website deleted all entries for the original V-Bass so I'm hoping the best!

Maybe the Summer Namm?
 
Hello, I've completely forgotten about this. Better late than never?

Latency is sort of difficult to tell when begins. I can hear slight delay beginning at low A or around there. But playing fast can cause the GR-20 to miss some notes in higher range - up to and around E2 I'd say. But then above this area technique starts to be a bigger hinderance.

Well as you said, better late than never. ;) I'm glad the subject has been revisited.

As far as latency is concerned pertaining to the use of these units with a bass, is the latency a product of the pitch itself or the string gauge? Would latency improve greatly if lighter strings were used, or does it matter?
 
Pitch is the cause. It's simple - but I'm not sure if it sounds simple when I attempt to explain it.....
Pitch is the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. Frequency (f) is measured in cycles per second (unit: Hz). Fewquency is the inverse of wave length (? - lambda) which is measured in seconds (s) - the wave length is the time of one cycle.

? = 1 / f

Thus, for lower pitch the wave length is longer.
The pitch recognising algorithm measures the wavelength to determine the pitch.
So when wavelength is longer, this measurement takes longer. Look at this frequency chart you'll find that low E is f = 41.20 Hz which means ? = 0.024 s so it'll take at least so long to figure out the pitch.

Did that make sense?

I doubt different string gauges would help at all.
But if you're only interested in MIDI accuracy, you could string your bass to alto or piccolo tuning or something, and just transpose the MIDI signal down as much as you'd like.


edit: sorry - the unicode doesn't seem to come through properly. The question mark was supposed to be the lambda sign.
 
Has anyone seen any news on the next gen V-Bass or a VG-99 for bass??
Dave.

Hey Guys,

last weekend the Musikmesse has been and I asked a blogger from Germany to ask the Roland-guys about a new V-Bass. The answere was quite interesting - he told me that a new one is definitely planed and will be there soon but he does not know when... He recommends to subscribe to the newsletter where they will post the release date as soon as they now it.

In the meantime a german GK-Website deleted all entries for the original V-Bass so I'm hoping the best!

Maybe the Summer Namm?
 
As far as I know, there is no new V-Bass in sight - no rumors no nothing from Roland. The old ones are out of stock for more than a year now and the old units are on ebay. :crying:

I had the same thoughts that you have and ended up with buying a GT-10B... which is not the same - I know.

I surely hope that they are working on it!

Maybe they are putting together something really heavy... the last V-Bass was only inspired by a few bassplayers, such as Alain Caron. In the past years a lot of new players checked out the unit - from their different websites I know, that now Richard Bona, Gary Willis and Victor Wooten are using it!

So maybe there is a chance that Roland is really willing to work with these impressive men and create something astonishing!
 
hi guys. tell me if i'm wrong. i have vg-88 guitar system .is there any chance to reset the whole machine and turn it into v-bass. same box, same buttons. is it possible. did anyone fixed this machine like that? if not i'll have to find v-bass owner to swap.


thanks
 
You would have to see about getting V-bass roms and even then it probably wouldn't work. The VG-88 internal parameters are geared for guitar...no adjustments for bass length, etc. Also, I think that they filter the pickup signals more on the V-bass then the VG-88. All that being said, try plugging your GK equiped bass into the VG and see how it works for your needs. I have both and the bass is sort of ok with the VG - but the V-bass has much more in the way of synth sounds. I was always disappointed that they didn't include the GR-300/Metheny patch in the VG88... In fact I think as far as synthy sounds go, the GT-6 was better then the VG-88 though it wasn't polyphonic.

Regarding the anticipation of a new VB-99 or whatever they may call it - I would suggest to those of you on the fence between it and a V-bass to go ahead and get the V-bass. They'll only be a couple hundred bucks while the new VB-99 will probably be close to $1k. You could use the V-bass till the new one comes out and probably still sell it close to what you paid for it originally - assuming you want to do that. It's a fun pedal!

Dave