Reprinted with the permission of Bass Frontiers Magazine

Kick MIDI Bass.

There are a lot of MIDI devices on the market these days designed to make the bass sound like anything but a bass. Within the last decade, the bass has gone through a rapid rebirth with many variations on a theme: 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, (7 & 11? Yea, go to a NAMM show someday. It's a real eye-opening experience.) and 12 string basses, short scale, long scale, extra long scale, massive improvements in the quality of amplification, and playing styles go beyond where no bassist (or guitarist for that matter) has ever gone before. It was only a matter of time before MIDI plugs started showing up on a lot of modern bass gear. Look around! You have Peavey's MIDI Cyber Bass, ADA's MB-1 MIDI programmable Preamp, ART's Nightbass, the Rocktron Basis Preamp and a whole host of other products featuring those pesky MIDI plugs. The bass has only just begun to really step into the limelight, that for many years was dominated by those damned guitarists and singers. "Stand back - I'm a bassist and I'm digital!" could be the cry of the 21st century bassist.

To me, the bass never sounded better than when the instrument's signal was going direct into the amp and the pure and natural sound of the guitar was coming out of the speakers. When I performed with different groups, the bass was always a stand-alone instrument whose sound was never colored by effects and signal processing. I always liked to add an extra layer of "synth bass" to fatten up the bottom end, but I never did so at the expense of the sound of my bass guitar. To add this extra layer of synth bass, I utilized a Moog Taurus II pedal synthesizer to many of my rhythm parts.

Don't try looking for a Moog Taurus or Taurus II pedal synth in any music store. Moog went out of business ages ago and the Taurus synths that are still out there are hardly ever resold. A lot of people these days know to hang onto a good thing. If you find one, buy it. The analog Moog Taurus pedal synth had a warmth, character and - shall we say - "oomph" that is unmatched in any of today's sterile digital synths. Just listen to 2112, A Farewell to Kings and any other Rush album for that matter, and you'll hear the Moog Taurus pedal synth laying down a deep, almost pulsating bass tone that is very characteristic of Geddy Lee's overall bass and rhythm performances. Other bassists to add the "Taurus sound" to their 'rhythm method' (I couldn't avoid using that pun - sorry!) was John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Chris Squire of Yes and Adam Clayton of U2 to name but a few.

For those of you that want to add this extra dimension and depth to your low end without compromising the sound of your bass guitar, some really interesting MIDI bass products have hit the market recently to help you obtain what you could be looking for. They are the Novation Bass Station (model BS-1 and BSR-1) and the FATAR MP-1 MIDI Pedal Controller.

The Novation Bass Station Model BS-1 is a 26 note full size key, two oscillator MIDI compatible keyboard that can generate all of those great analog bass sounds you've always wanted. Unlike the old Moog Taurus, with the Novation Bass Station BS-1 you can preset the unit instantly and recall sounds, or recall the factory preset sounds, with 100% accuracy. You can write and store seven different synth bass sounds and with the transpose feature, change those sounds over an eight octave range. The older analog synths of yesteryear, that preceded the Bass Station, always suffered from unstable tuning, "setting drift", unreliable circuitry and bulky heavy casings. The BS-1 features accurate digital tuning, requires no warm-up time or loathsome mid-performance re-adjustments.

You're probably asking yourself, "A keyboard? What are you smoking? Aren't you supposed to be writing for a bass guitar magazine?" Yes, but check this out. The BS-1 is also very compact, it measures 18.75 inches X 8.25 inches X 2 inches and weighs only 5.5 pounds. Plus, it comes with two strap buttons so you can attach a strap to it and wear the keyboard like a guitar. Since it's also MIDI compatible you can interface it with the FATAR MP-1 pedal controller and, as the guys in my old Brooklyn based band used to say, "Kick some bass." (I'm going to get to the FATAR MP-1 a little later in this article.) The BS-1 can be a fun, entertaining and an expressive little toy for your rig with or without a pedal controller.

The next item is a variation on a theme. It's the Novation Bass Station Rack, model BSR-1. The BSR-1 is a rack mountable version of the BS-1 Bass Station keyboard. It's all brains of the BS-1, and more, in a one rack space module unit. The BSR-1 also doesn't suffer from that nasty after-taste of "synthesizer" for all of you traditionalists. The major difference between the Bass Station units is the BSR-1 has 99 memories (64 user and 35 factory preset) as opposed to the 7 memories in the BS-1. Again, you can create every imaginable analog synth sound. You can add texture, warmth or just fatten-up the rhythm section during those annoying guitar leads, add more emotion to ballads (instead of just normally standing there like a wooden indian) with long sweeping, multi-layered bass and synth tones and so on.

The BSR-1 is designed to work with a MIDI controller keyboard or a pedal controller like the FATAR MP-1. If you have to have a keyboard to perform your licks and runs, or if you like the idea of strapping on a drastically different instrument to break up the monotony of the performance, then the Bass Station BS-1 is for you. Since the BS-1 is MIDI compatible, it can be MIDIed with the FATAR MP-1 pedal controller. Utilizing the BS-1 with the MP-1 gives you more flexibility at the expense of memory presets. If you're more of a straight ahead "pedal kicker", and you absolutely need the extra memory because you play in a Rush or Yes tribute band, then the convenience of the rack mountable BSR-1 MIDIed with the MP-1 might be the way to go. As usual, what you gain with one instrument, you lose with the other.

The FATAR MP-1 MIDI Pedal Controller is just a very big version of one full octave of keys from a piano. The notes run from C to C and, yes Dorothy, the black keys are there, too. The MP-1 alone does not generate any sounds. The MP-1 is designed to trigger or control (hence the name "Controller") the sounds in one or more MIDI sound modules. The MP-1 needs to be MIDIed to a sound module, like either of the Bass Station units, in order for it to work. While you play your bass guitar, you can "kick bass" (as the guys from Brooklyn would say) on the MP-1. If you're very creative, the MP-1 can allow you to trigger MIDI percussion, pre-programmed samplers, even MIDI lighting or "show controller" units with your feet. For those of you that just want to play bass notes, the FATAR MP-1 allows the flexibility of a five octave pitch change, program change and channel assignment. You can pre-arrange the sounds in your Bass Station's memory according to your band's song set. With the "kick" of a channel select or program change button on the MP-1, you can bring up your synth sounds as you need them.

The Bass Station BS-1 keyboard version has been on the market since early 1994 and the Bass Station Rack BSR-1 module was introduced in early 1995. I know the Bass Stations are used a lot these days for the composition of dance and rap music. Since the aforementioned styles of music are so bass heavy, many of these composers have told me, there is no other sound module or synth on the market that can even remotely come close to generating the bass tones that come out of either of the Bass Station models. The Bass Stations and the FATAR MP-1 Pedal Controller are great tools for those of you expanding into MIDI and believe there is more you can add to your musical situation.

For information about the Novation Bass Stations and the FATAR MP-1 Pedal Controller, contact Music Industries Corp. 99 Tulip Ave, Floral Park, NY 11001. Tel: 516-352-4110 or fax: 516-352-0754