What bass is this?

[Tim Schnautz]

The tracking of Roland synth basses is lousy because it takes a half-wavelength before the pitch can be identified. Bass is tuned an octave lower than a guitar, so the delay is twice as long.

I don’t know, here’s the Art of Noise vid that I pull those pics from. They must have everything right because it sounds to me like a p bass with flats and the treble rolled off imo, it sounds Ds really good. Unfortunately you must click the “watch on YouTube” to see it

 

[tim gueguen]

Those basses are perfectly playable as a normal electric bass, as they use a magnetic pickup like any other bass. It's when you try to use the synth section that you get into trouble. Because of the pitch to voltage method used to control the synth there's a lag between when you pluck the string and when the synth triggers, making it hard to play in time with everyone else.