Here's my dilemna:
I've dabbled in and out of midi bass for about a year now, and I had mounted a Roland GK3B PUP to my Carvin to experiment with. The results were never spectacular, as nobody's really figured out how to track bass quick enough yet, but I finally reached success when I slapped a set of D'Addario piccolo strings on the Carvin. The tracking's near perfect now, and I'm having a ball playing flutes, organs, pianos, etc. on my bass via the Roland PUP. My sound module is a Roland GR-33, which isn't supposed to work well with bass, but with the piccolo strings it's fine. It's also an excellent tool for inputting midi notes in my computer programs, i.e. Encore, Finale, etc. The only problem with piccolo strings, however, aside from the lighter feel that takes some getting used to is the fact that you're playing everything an octave higher, which is not really bass-like when you want to output the true sound of the bass vs. the midi sounds you're triggering. The temporary solution I'm using right now is I'm running the bass 1/4" out into an octaver (in my case, an EH POG) and using only the sub-octave setting (standard bass range) on the POG. The result is reminiscent of a bright grinding Rick tone and it's very cool sounding, though definitely wouldn't be mistaken for the real deal. So the only other option I can think of is the Roland V-Bass, which samples about 20 or so basses.
Anyone own or use one? I hear an updated version's coming soon.
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