Midi Bass

[Davo-London]

Hi

As I play e-drums and bass, and like to transfer music loops between the two, I wondered how I would go about recording midi bass lines but using a bass rather than a keyboard.

Does anyone do this?

Davo

[ironside1966]

Sonuus-G2M-Universal-Guitar-to-MIDI-Converter
Some on Ebay



[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sonuus-G2M-Universal-Guitar-to-MIDI-Converter-USB_W0QQitemZ180399275108QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMidi_Controllers?hash=item2a00a27c64&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sonuus-G2M-Universal...id=p3286.c0.m14[/url]

[BassBus]

Bit more expensive than the Sonnus but there is the Roland GI-20.

[url="http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~Roland-GI-20~ID~3322.asp"]http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~R...-20~ID~3322.asp[/url]

Roland GR-20 (needs bass pickup)

[url="http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~Roland---GR-20~ID~3296.asp"]http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~R...-20~ID~3296.asp[/url]

If you have loads of money available there's always the Roland VB-99.

[url="http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~Roland-VB-99-V-Bass~ID~10471.asp"]http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~R...ss~ID~10471.asp[/url]

Edited August 27, 2009 by BassBus

[elros]

I recorded the trombone solo for a blues piece of mine using my [url="http://hallgeir.no/bass/benavente/"]Benavente fretless with GK pickup[/url] and the Roland GR-20 guitar-to-MIDI unit. It works fine, great if you play in the upper registers.

For bass lines though I'd suggest transposing down an octave or two and playing in the upper register - the tracking is more accurate (timing-wise) there.

[Davo-London]

That V-bass looks purty but £850. Lordy lordy that's a lot even for a rich bloke like me : )

Anyways, it does what I want which converts a bass signal to midi.

The advice about tracking in the upper registers is a good one - thanks.

The UK distributor of the sonuus G2M say that it is not particularly suitable for bass, but they are bringing out a bass version around Christmas!!!

I think I'll go for that. Thanks.

Dave

[BigRedX]

There are several people here with MIDI equipped basses who hopefully will contribute soon to this thread. In the mean time as someone who's been playing bass and synths since the early 80s (and before MIDI) here's my thoughts.

I haven't used any of the very latest guitar-MIDI convertors but the in past, I've always found that to get anything really good out of them I had to alter my playing technique too much and in the end it was much easier to use a keyboard even if all I did was to bash the keys in the right rhythm and velocity and then edit the pitches in my sequencer.

Of the current interfaces the [url="http://www.axon-technologies.net/"]Axon interfaces[/url] are generally regarded as the best, but unless your playing style is super-precise and clean (plus slightly ahead of the beat) none of them are going to feel is intuitive as the bass itself.

These days if I need a guitar-like method for inputting MIDI I'll use my [url="http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/ContentDetail/ModelSeriesDetail/0,6373,CNTID%253D21546%2526CTID%253D500946,00.html"]Yamaha EZ-EG[/url]. It's not much like a real guitar but it's great for using a guitar-esque technique for playing MIDI sound sources.

Edited August 27, 2009 by BigRedX

[keithmidibass]

[quote name='Davo-London' post='582322' date='Aug 27 2009, 11:49 AM']Hi

As I play e-drums and bass, and like to transfer music loops between the two, I wondered how I would go about recording midi bass lines but using a bass rather than a keyboard.

Does anyone do this?

Davo[/quote]

Hi Davo

I have a Wal Midi Bass and use it alongside Stormdrum for all my percussion, check out my demo vid www.myspace.com/keithholden

I use the Wal for all my composing work, piano, violin, harp in the next few days i will post a video demo of some drum stuff but in the meantime all the music on myspace player has been written on the Midibass, listen to the Bodhran on Park Road the texture of the sound is unbelievable

best
KeithMIdiBass

[Kiwi]

[quote name='elros' post='582424' date='Aug 27 2009, 12:38 PM']For bass lines though I'd suggest transposing down an octave or two and playing in the upper register - the tracking is more accurate (timing-wise) there.[/quote]
+1

Lag is likely to be the biggest issue you'll face when recording using a pitch to MIDI interface. It will make getting notes spot on very tricky without using a quantise function and even then you'll lose feel. Alternatively you can teach yourself to compensate for the MIDI lag but it takes practice and even then might not deliver the exact timing you need for recording.

If you're lucky enough to have a bass with the Steve Chick MB4 system installed such as the Wal, Maton or Peavey variants you'll find the tracking and lag is much better but you won't be able to do string bends.

EDIT: I have the Axon AX100 pitch to MIDI and Graphtec GHOST preamp system which, when I have the right strings installed and the sensitivity set up, works really well. Lag is less of an issue because the AX100 has learned to convert the pitch by sensing only half the waveform, unlike other units on the market. However there is still a little lag, enough to make recording a little tricky.