Bass Keyboard?

[joenobody]

Hey everyone, long time lurker, infrequent poster.

I play in a Hip-Hop/RnB band, and am thinking of adding a keyboard that would be dedicated to playing bass on. It's hard to keep good bass players around here in an original band that doesn't make any money, so we've been thinking about trying this out. I really like the sounds that Neal Evans uses, like in this video.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXq81mvDoT0

 

He brings in the bass around the 1:40 mark. I read that he uses a Roland XV-5080 and B3 for bass parts (I'm assuming he was using the XV-5080 in the video. Is that correct?). So the Roland might be an option, although I'm hoping that I could get away with just 1 keyboard without having to buy a controller and a rack. Right now I'm using a Nord Stage Compact, but would want a keyboard focused on the bass (and maybe running through a bass amp). I was looking at the PC3LE6, but am not sure if that would be overkill, and it's also at the top of my price range ($1,500). I'm also aware of the Scarbee and Spectrasonic samples, but then I'd need to get a laptop. I'm trying to keep this really simple right now.

 

So, what keyboards/synths would you guys recommend I take a look at?

 

Thanks.

[Joe P]

Joe,

This comes up every once in a while. Here are some threads that may be of interest to you:

 

Thread 1

 

Thread 2

 

Thread 3

 

Good luck!

 

Regards,

Joe

[joenobody]

That's great, thanks. I'll read those over.

[Ian Benhamou]

For hip-hop/r&b synth bass I suggest:

 

V-Synth

I have the xt and have used it often in cover bands on MJ, madonna and rhianna numbers and got great rubber bass results. There's an elasticity to soe of the patches as well for that great worm bass sound.

 

Minimoog Voyager

Classic moog bass sound. Very retro, but if you want that P-Funk/Stevie Wonder bass sound of the 70's this is your machine.

 

Studio Electronics SE-1

This is the DE FACTO module for r&b/hip hop synth bass and leads from the nineties to today. It's expensive though. But fully analog, has THAT sound you're looking for. Killer machine.

[tarkus]

Joe,

This comes up every once in a while. Here are some threads that may be of interest to you:

 

Thread 1

 

Thread 2

 

You forgot So Ya Wanna Be A Keyboard Bass Player...

 

Thread 3

 

Good luck!

 

Regards,

Joe

[joenobody]

Thanks for the replys.

I'm going to take a look at the SE-1. There's some used ones for under $1,000. There's also some used Roland XV-5080s too. Looks like there may be a module and controller in my future.

The Voyager and V-Synth are out of my price range, but there's a Little Phatty Stage II, so I'll try and track one down in a store and try one out.

 

Thanks again.

[ProfD]

My recommendation would be a Korg R3 for KB bass. It can be bought brand new for less than $600.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Neal Evans switched to it at some point in the future.

[bhodaway10]

I saw them a few months ago at Yoshis in Oakland. I even got to meet Neil, Alan Evans, and even the singer Toussaint backstage, talk to them about their upcoming tour, and even got some pics with them. Great guys!

 

Anyways, back to Neil's rig : He had his clav, B3, a leslie, and I believe he was running mainstage through a pretty substantial Mesa Boogie amp. He was using another Mesa Boogie amp I think for the clav.

 

Why don't you just try using organ bass?

 

Check out the song "flurries" on my page :

 

http://brianho.net/music.html

 

I'm using organ bass only. It was recorded pretty roughly but you can get a picture of what organ bass might sound like in the mix.

 

 

 

 

[joenobody]

That sounded really good, bhodaway.

I was thinking of using a mixture of the organ on the Nord, and a second board, for some variety in sounds. What settings were you using on "flurries" for the bass sound?

[bhodaway10]

I'm using just 808 in the lower register with some accents w/ the Hammond pedals.

 

 

When Neal first started, he used only organ BTW (check out their first few records).

 

 

[MusicaL]

FWIW, I've been tinkering with the bass setting on my nord stage as well, and recently read on the Nord Stage Yahoo list that somebody was using the electric grand for bass. I tried it and it works fairly well. You have to roll off the mids and highs and it gives a very punchy bass sound. The jury is still out on whether that would be something I'd got to regularly, but, I am playing around with that as I am trying to get my rig reconfigured.

 

aL

[joenobody]

FWIW, I've been tinkering with the bass setting on my nord stage as well, and recently read on the Nord Stage Yahoo list that somebody was using the electric grand for bass. I tried it and it works fairly well. You have to roll off the mids and highs and it gives a very punchy bass sound. The jury is still out on whether that would be something I'd got to regularly, but, I am playing around with that as I am trying to get my rig reconfigured.

 

aL

 

That's actually what I've been doing right now. I've got the bottom half of the keyboard using a Rhodes sound with the mids and highs rolled off, and layered it with a softer synth sound to give it some legato. It sounds okay, I just don't like how much real estate I'm giving up on the keyboard for it.