Sonuus b2m

[squire]

Anyone tried this bass to midi converter yet?

[url="http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~Sonuus-B2M~ID~13223.asp"]http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~S...2M~ID~13223.asp[/url]

[M4L666]

Looks nice, but how well does it actually work? A little box like that, hooked up to a Moog of some description sounds very nice right now.

[bassplayer88]

Mine arrived yesters spent quite some time checking it out. I dont have time right now to write a full review but i'll do my best to give you an idea.

It has very low latency even on the low E, admittedly not completely un-detectable but never the less its quick.

From manual - 8ms for a high e or E5 in midi parlance,
- 32 ms for low E,
5 -stringers low B = 40ms.

Note tracking is good, can switch octaves if your not careful to play carefully tho. Works reasonably well with slides and bends, (ive been using it with a fretless).

Tracking rhythms of fast runs and or fast repeated notes is not so great, however this improves dramatically if you dampen the strings slightly, luckily ive been trying to get this technique down recently for roco prestia esque stuff and also to achieve a dubbier sound.

the more ive played it the better it becomes, as my playing naturally accomodates its needs for clear defined notes. I'd really like to try out a roland or axon pickup system and see how it compares.



It does have a touch of the toy about it aswell. This manifests its self as a very difficult to use tuner function (dunno why they bothered), only battery powered and a wrist strap!??!!!

From manual;
Carry strap

You can use tis to make carrying the B2M much easier: wear it on your wrist to free up your hands; wear it round you neck so its always nearby.

I think you'd have trouble getting the strap over a cats neck! How we laughed!

Basically its good but dont expect miracles, the build quality and toyishness are off putting but for £70 odd you get an awful lot of bass to midi for your money.

[squire]

Thanks a lot

Do you think it's suitable for not to fast lead synth?

[bassplayer88]

[quote name='squire' post='756784' date='Feb 25 2010, 09:36 AM']Thanks a lot

Do you think it's suitable for not to fast lead synth?[/quote]

Sorry mate I dont know what you mean exactly. Obviously you could hook it up to a synth lead sound via midi, you could definately play melodies on it but you might have to adjust your playing style for it to work consistently.

Hope this helps

[sshorepunk]

Bill Dickens demo at NAMM, he's playing a lot of notes outside of a regular 4 strings range, so I guess this would help with the tracking!

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Gfp-zFeZk"]NAMM Demo[/url]

[bassplayer88]

[quote name='sshorepunk' post='761494' date='Mar 2 2010, 08:37 AM']Bill Dickens demo at NAMM, he's playing a lot of notes outside of a regular 4 strings range, so I guess this would help with the tracking!

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Gfp-zFeZk"]NAMM Demo[/url][/quote]

Not really, the tracking (for pitch) is consistent across the full range of a 4-string and the extremitys of a 6-string (I am told and as this video proves). Yes the latency is longer on lower notes but this is down to the physics of sound, low notes have longer wave lenghts and therefore it takes longer for the Sonnus to recognise em. The main problem is fast runs of notes as i mentioned before. But again this can be vastly improved by damping with the left hand. (If your a right handed player!)

Bottom line, you dont have to be Hooky or Bill dickens to make it work!

[squire]

Im thinking of giving it a shot.
Would be cool to control Moog VST's on my laptop

[bozzbass]

So i've been playing with the Sonuus B2M for a few days and for the money it is excellent. I've hooked it up to my microKorg and used a boss line selector to blend the bass and synth sounds.

As someone else said it's best to damp the strings a lot, either with your palm on the bridge or Rocco Prestia left hand muting if you're a fingers player. I would also say pay heed to the advice in manual about setting the bend range on your synth to 2 semitones if you want accurate pitch tracking. It seems the B2m makes an initial good guess at your note - at most I've found it's occasionaly a semitone out - and then uses pitch bend to correct itself. This combination of MIDI data makes for good and pretty transparent tracking.

I've had really good results patching pitch bend onto filter frequency in the microKorg. Because the B2M generates a lot of quite miniscule pitch bend data, you can get some really expressive synth sounds this way, certainly way better than my Korg G5 or Deep Impact (which I suspect will soon be going in the Items For Sale section).

If anyone gets a B2M do persevere with it. When I first plugged mine in it was farting, burping and wibbling all over the place, but with a bit of care about damping and some time spent calibrating your MIDI device, the results are great.

[G.D.]

Hi Bozzbass, I'm interested in your results. I've had one for about 2 months now and find it pretty much unusable. It will track very slow passages OK, but then start to jump around all over the place when you get to even a moderate pace. It also seems to pick up on harmonics somehow because half way through a progression it will play the right note but at the wrong octave. I keep on trying because if it works it will great for my new band.

GD

[bozzbass]

hi there G.D

Yep, I also get some of the octave jump but nothing worse than yer average Boss type octave pedal. To be honest i quite like the notes poopping up in the wrong octave from time, so whilst for some this might be a problem, I like to think of it as a 'feature'.

The key I have found is really the damping. If you play with a pick, do it at the bridge; if you play with your fingers do it Rocco Prestia or Justin Meldal Johnsen style with your left hand (assuming you play right handed). I'm not a huge fan of his band, but Prestia is really the guy to check out for this technique.

As I also said, check the bend range on your synth is set to 2 semitones. A couple of the patches on my microKorg have the bend range set to an octave and they are unusable with the B2M, unless you want total madness that is.

I have also found not playing too close to the bridge helps. If I pick/pluck over the bridge pickup on my J bass the tracking is not great, but playing over the neck pickup or even right on the end of the neck - such as on my Hofner - the tracking is good, even kicking out some speedy parts. I don't feel limited to playing slowly with the B2M.

Hope this helps.

[G.D.]

Thanks I'll give it a try. I've just picked up a passive bass here and I'll try that too.
Thanks
GD

[bozzbass]

hi again gd

One more thing, the B2M's tracking is - similar to most octave pedals - senstive to the area of the bass you play in. Like my old EHX Octave Multiplexer and EBS octave pedal, the B2M seems to track best from about the 5th fret upwards on the E A and D strings, and maybe 9th or 10th fret on the G. It is that zone on the bass that gives you a really fat sound which I suppose gives the tracking circuit/software the most signal to analyse.

I'm not the only one to find this. I saw video posted on here somewhere of a UK bass player who has made a name for himself doing live drum n bass stuff. I'm afraid I don't recall his name but in the clip he played the whole time up around the 12th fret, I guess because it results in the best tracking from his octavers and synth pedals.

best

adam

[sub-a-dub]

Hi Guys,

I assume this can be used to drive the Roland V Bass and Roland Gr 20 type systems as well? Would you use it through the midi connections as opposed to the 13pin outputs that ater used with the GK pedals?
Thanks, Seán

[Davy]

I was thinking about getting one of these to get pure electronic bass sounds with the original bass sound taken totally out of the mix but not sure if there are any good sound modules out there with decent bass sounds on them. Anyone know?

With regard to string dampening, has anyone tried putting a strip of foam under the strings at the bridge? I saw this on a regular electric bass years ago for string dampening.

Edited September 28, 2010 by Davy

[Owen]

[quote name='Davy' post='970628' date='Sep 28 2010, 01:24 PM']I was thinking about getting one of these to get pure electronic bass sounds with the original bass sound taken totally out of the mix but not sure if there are any good sound modules out there with decent bass sounds on them. Anyone know?

With regard to string dampening, has anyone tried putting a strip of foam under the strings at the bridge? I saw this on a regular electric bass years ago for string dampening.[/quote]

You could hang around Ebay waiting for an Alesis Nanobass to turn up. I cannot believe that they have any resale by now and they are packed full of useable bass sounds.

[Davy]

Thanks, I'll check them out.