Bass clips

[ped]

Hi,

Just been sent the copies of a jam I had recently with my studio band. My brother just got his Vdrums and we were playing with them and recording everything we did from a cheap mixer into Garageband, no mixing or anything. As a result I have carved out a few clips to demonstrate some of the more wacky settings on the Vbass pedal. This was a while ago, before I worked out how to use the pedal in stereo but it gives a good idea.

First clip is my bass clean:
[url="http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/85432/jam%20clips/Half%20moon%20short.mp3"]http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/85432/ja...oon%20short.mp3[/url]

Second there is a Jazz bass clip:
[url="http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/85432/jam%20clips/Holiday%20fun%20short.mp3"]http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/85432/ja...fun%20short.mp3[/url]

Here is a fretless clip. Delay matched to click:
[url="http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/85432/jam%20clips/Seismic%20mellow%20short1.mp3"]http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/85432/ja...ow%20short1.mp3[/url]

A synth one:
[url="http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/85432/jam%20clips/Enemy%20lines%20short1.mp3"]http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/85432/ja...es%20short1.mp3[/url]

Another synth (I'm playing the bass notes and the keyboard sounding high bits)
[url="http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/85432/jam%20clips/Enemy%20lines%20short2.mp3"]http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/85432/ja...es%20short2.mp3[/url]

These are all played on one bas remember!! Since recording these and discovering the absolute joys of stereo things sound even better!

Cheers
ped

[stacedabass]

very nice, liking the jazz bass and the squelchy synth.

[ped]

Cheers mate! The synths are really fun as there are no tracking problems and they are polyphonic. You might say I am a synth player now rather than just a bassist!!

ped

[crez5150]

Hey Ped... how does the synth re-act to slapping??

[ped]

Very well, much better than any other sort of synth because of course each string is processed separately. There is one patch which works especially well, the E and A strings have a kind of slapback echo effect and the top strings are two octaves higher and sound like a trumpet... you can create some amazing grooves with it!

That is another thing that excites me about the VB99 because you could set a synth up to give way to a clean bass slap which would be pretty cool.

Another fave patch is a really fat synth that has a clean bass on the G string for a pop now and then.

Cheers
ped

[agoulding]

im thjinking about getting the gr-20 with bass pickup. is it any good dya know?? its fairy cheap aswell i think for a synth. can you blend the synth sounds with the original signal from the bass?

Edited November 29, 2008 by agoulding

[ped]

Hi mate,

Never tried a GR20 but Elros had one. You can blend the clean bass with anything on the Vbass, so presume you can on the Gr20 as well. Wouldn't mind trying one...

Cheers
ped

[agoulding]

cool. is that the older one or the new one? v-bass that is?

if i can get my hands on a gr-20 and i cold blend the sounds, say, sax and bass. would sound awesome. i dont quite understand how they are set up though...

[ped]

Mine is the old one, the original unit. I haven't seen the new one yet but think they are out now-ish.

As for setup, you have to install the pickup according to the instructions and then on the pedal itself you type in the exact distance between the edge of the pickup and the string saddle of each string etc etc so the pedal can interpret the string movement accurately. Amazing piece of kit!!

[agoulding]

do the rolands contain just synth sounds or synth sounds and bass effects?

[ped]

The Vbass contains a boggling amount of things. Whilst it can be an fx unit with every type of effect under the sun, you can also model amplifiers and cabinets, and then there is the really interesting part.

The pickup interprets the string movement and takes on board everything from scale length to string height to put virtual pickups on the bass so you can play 'other' basses, synths and other things like organs with one bass. I thought it sounded too good to be true but boy was I wrong. Months and months later and after a lot of tweaking and playing, I am confident that the sound is incredibly accurate and the jazz bass for example is the best I have ever personally had, and I get the feel and playability of my #1 bass!!

I know I probably go on about it all the time and bore other people, but it really has opened a whole new world for me! And at the end of the day, the 'clean' bass, or the sound of my ACTUAL bass pickups, sounds better than I have heard so far (I was a pod XT user for a while, tried various other preamps but tended to go direct to desk before that)

I haven't really researched the GR20, not sure what it offers that the vbass does not, but I know a few Vbassers with them, so there must be something. Richard Bona has both and uses them a lot..

Cheers
ped