Sound Modules

[AFKAR]

Hi

Does anybody know of a good sound module that has really good bass sounds. I had a look at the Roland JV2020 (i think its JV)..... but the sales guy had no idea about it, so i dont think he gave me the best example of what it can do.


What sound modules would you recommend.....nothing TOO expencive...


thanks

Adrian

[Spacehog]

You can usually pick up Novation Bass-stations and A-stations *seriously* cheap that people rave about the bass sounds on. Of course they're mostly synth bass, not real bass. The XV2020 (little silver one?) is very sweet, but it's not particularly easy to work with live without some form of external patch control etc. cos of its cramped user interface. The sounds are very reasonable though. Another alternative would be an E-MU module, what few are left are being blown out by most music stores at the moment, there are some reasonable bass sounds on a few of them.

Martin

[AFKAR]

Well ill give you the plan.....

Ive got a laptop running Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 which im using in a band im setting up. Were playing cover stuff (but with more of a rock edge to it). Since we dont have a bassist, im sequencing all the bass lines but i wand a real sounding bass...

So the laptop will be controlling the sounds etc....come to think of it, the sound module will also need a sequencer wouldnt it? (to play different tracks at once).

[Tusker]

You don't need a second sequencer. You can just send the bass-line from you main sequencer to your module. In fact you don't need a separate bass module if you have a good rom based synth with bass sounds.

Generally, good electric basses will be in the expansion cards or sample libraries. But a lot of what makes a good bass is idiomatic playing (slides, plucks, bends, hammer-ons). I don't think it's cool to have a sequenced electric bass (YMMV). I understand that if you are doing covers, you sometimes need to nail a certain sound, and that's the only way to go. Or you should try harder to find a bassist. If you are playing your own material, let me make two suggestions you didn't ask for.

1) Try to play the part yourself, even if it means using your right hand and mostly doing pads in the left hand. Lots of people do left hand bass on keys and it can sound good.

2) Make up some sounds that fit with your style. If the bouncy rubbery synth basses don't work, try something that fits your music. If you need something to go with distorted guitars ( balls and chunk) try using a piano attack on the bass, or distorting a high hat, or a wood block or something. But keep it keyboardish, so people can get into the fact that you are playing it, and it sounds good.

I sometimes play bass with the left hand, when the bass player is not there. I can play tight, but the real issue is the tonal control and variety. It's not the best thing usually. It helps to have somebody shaping the tone with two hands, whether that is on a synth or acoustic bass or electric.

My best to you,

Jerry

[Over The Edge]

Yeah, check ebay for a Novation A-Station.
Pretty awesome bass and cheap too.


FL
www.franklucas.net

[Kirby]

Fricke MFB Synth / MFB Synth

Real analog Bass Monsters.

Pretty cheap, and phat + a knob for every parameter!

[AFKAR]

Yeah, check ebay for a Novation A-Station.
Pretty awesome bass and cheap too.


isnt that for dance/techno music?

i want a semi real sounding bass. All the bass sounds on my keyboard sound fake because of heavy picking on every note....it makes it sound very mechanical also.

At the moment im layering 3 fretless patches over the top of eachother to
a. get rid of the picking sound
b. fatten the bass sound

[Kirby]

Go MFB Synth!

For $299 new, this baby has a punch like hell and of course real analog with 3 VCOs (Minimoog ;))

http://www.amazona.de/content/musictools/hardware/synthesizer/fricke/riesenfricke.mp3

[AFKAR]

Thanks Kirby,
but im after a real bass guitar sound....not a dance/techno/trance bass.....can it do a stock standard bass sound?

still sounded pretty cool though

[Over The Edge]

If you can find one, Roland had a dedicated drum
and bass module that featured some very realistic
sounds.

I think it was also called the Roland Drum and Bass.


FL
www.franklucas.net

[Over The Edge]

In the event that you really needed to use
a techno synth bass type sound check this out!



http://www.jeffnet.org/~addicott/gear/akai.html



FL
www.franklucas.net

[AFKAR]

Cheers OTE
Looks like ive got some research to do... :)