Midi Bass pedals....which ones?

[dazzathedrummer]

Hi,

I have a friend who's a bass player and is interested in buying some bass pedals and a synth for our Marillion tribute band.

He's pretty much sold on the Moog Minitaur and would like to get some pedals in the £200 to £400 price range.

So far he's looked at second hand Roland PK5's and asked me if I know anything about 'Studio Logic' pedals - I've not heard of them before so I thought I'd ask on here.

Does anyone have any experience of using them? ...are they reliable?

I've also spotted some pedals by Ketron...how do they compare? 

 

Any other suggestions would be very welcome - the pedals need to be durable and reliable with a decent enough range of midi features.

Thanks,

Darren

[NikNik]

PK-5 is a good unit but also works with Arranger keyboards. 

[EMG456]

I used to do the bass pedal thing back in the 70s but if I was going to do it again now I’d be inclined to go for something like this https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/12-step/

You can use it exactly like an old set of Taurus or whatever but should you wish to expand things, you could trigger chords or arpeggios or add touch sensitivity or expression to your sounds. Tough as old boots too. 

[spectoremg]

I have a Minitaur/12 Step set up - changing patches using a laptop which is a bit of a faff. You can change them on the Minitaur but you don't have any visual indication of which one's selected. 

[Svidasmile]

Hello! If you’re interested I am selling a Roland GR 55 synth pedal with a midi pickup, all as new! 
 

 

 

[ambient]

I’ve used a few of the McMillen midi controllers. They tend to be extremely well made, ignoring the QuNexus that became really sticky after just a few months. They seem to work best when used with a laptop or MacBook though. I had to buy a little interface thing when I was trying to operate an 0-Coast synth via midi using the QuNexus keyboard.

 

[KevB]

I used to play basic parts with PK5 pedals but switched to Mcmillen 12 step a couple of years ago. Your mate might be playing bigger venues if its a successful trib and might want the visual appearance of big organ pedals but for me doing my 'crammed in the corner' pub gigs the PK5's became a bit unwieldy. Once you get to figure out how to use the 12 step they offer features that the PK-5's couldnt do and with a bit of imagination they are a useful tool. Any of these triggers are ultimately only as good as the sound sources you will be playing through them. I'm still using them to trigger patches from a Roland JV unit I stick on top of my bass rig so I need the little blue box interface thingy which adds to the collection of cables I need to sort out at gigs, a small laptop or other device would be slicker but as long as the JV is working OK I'm sticking with it. Do a thread search, these things have come up for discussion a few times before on here.

[toneknob]

On 02/01/2020 at 13:26, dazzathedrummer said:

Hi,

I have a friend who's a bass player and is interested in buying some bass pedals and a synth for our Marillion tribute band.

He's pretty much sold on the Moog Minitaur and would like to get some pedals in the £200 to £400 price range.

So far he's looked at second hand Roland PK5's and asked me if I know anything about 'Studio Logic' pedals - I've not heard of them before so I thought I'd ask on here.

Does anyone have any experience of using them? ...are they reliable?

I've also spotted some pedals by Ketron...how do they compare? 

 

Any other suggestions would be very welcome - the pedals need to be durable and reliable with a decent enough range of midi features.

Thanks,

Darren

I've got the Ketron K8 pedal board, I used them for a while to do bass pedals when I was in a Genesis trib (then I found a Moog Taurus I and traded up). I hooked up mine to a Novation Bass Station and they did a good - albeit basic - job. 

They sure don't have the heft of a Moog Taurus 3 so if your chap is heavy-footed, might be best to tape them down.

 

 

[sifi2112]

I’ve got a Keith McMillan 12 Step & Moog Minitaur, paired up straight away & easy to tune the Moog, basically low C to high C & you can choose different octaves from sub to higher .. sounds awesome btw .. also running through a Moog MF Delay & basic reverb pedal  .. haven’t gigged it yet but judging by the sound I get at home it should sound massive through a pa !

[Dan Reidy]

Hi there

What is possibly the smallest Bass foot pedal I can buy,,,,,??  It would only be used occasionally to drive a Ketron SD 90, I have a midi setup on my guitar, and it would only be used to back me playing Banjo and Mandolin etc on some occasions.

Any information greatly appreciated,      Dan

[tauzero]

The McMillen 12-step - unless you make one of your own using buttons and a decoder, which you wouldn't be able to get much smaller than the 12-step as you've got to avoid pressing two buttons/keys at the same time. You can program it to play chords as well as single notes, which is handy.

[tauzero]

And I've just realised who the OP was, and I sold my PK-5a pedals to the bass player who was the one who succeeded me in the band.

[Dan Reidy]

On 16/10/2021 at 06:12, tauzero said:

The McMillen 12-step - unless you make one of your own using buttons and a decoder, which you wouldn't be able to get much smaller than the 12-step as you've got to avoid pressing two buttons/keys at the same time. You can program it to play chords as well as single notes, which is handy.

Thanks Tauzero, I actually bought the Keith Mc Millen 12 Step, it's an amazing little pedal board, the carbon fiber is so light but firm and solid as well, perfect for my use 🙏