MODO BASS: Get ready for a new level of realism (1.5 update available now)

[Jace-BeOS]

I always build my own systems so I'm generally pretty good at troubleshooting.

Yeah, that was me, too. I swore off ever building one again. Because:

Although sometimes computers have a mind of their own which can indeed be very stressful.

Asus Striker Extreme. Enough said on that.

I ditched that bastard (that "highly recommended" bastard, in my pre-build research, which, after my purchase, morphed into universal hatred for the thing) after two or three warranty replacements. Someone actually bought the final warranty replacement board from me, even with my honest listing, so that was lucky. Changing boards required me to buy new RAM, too. It was impossible to purchase the 8GB RAM config listed in their "guaranteed compatibile chart", so this element couldn't be struck from the list of hundreds of possible "subtle incompatibilities". Why market it as supporting 8GB of RAM if no such configuration is actually possible with their "compatibility" chart??? AND I had ALSO bought a new PSU, under the advise that my existing one might be "unstable" (did I mention I am living in poverty and cannot afford to throw money at parts until finding a combination that works together?).

Oh and that brand new replacement board (from another "respected" brand) was DOA on my initial purchase. The warranty replacement for that was literally physically bent so badly on one corner that it could not even be mounted. What kind of support employee mails a physically bent board to a customer as a warranty fulfillment?? The third one worked, but inconsistently enough that I tried to sell the entire build (including expensive case) on eBay (no one bought it).

SBLive spontaneously kept the machine from booting after months of this not being a problem. Etc.

I eventually got it working enough for oldish games (it wont run the RAM at advertized speeds, so I underclock it for reliability), and I hate the thing with a burning passion (Windows' behaviors are the bulk of the remaining problems now that it's underclocked).

I built systems since I was 18 years old. I always hated the voodoo of "configuration" and "compatibility", but this was the absolute freaking end of it all. NEVER AGAIN.

Especially if you hit a wall when it comes to reactivating software. The feeling of being punished as a paying customer is certainly a reality during these times of stress. I respect your opinion of course.

Cheers

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

1) What's the copy protection of IK products? How many activation and is it possible to de-authorize? (when reformat or new PC). What happen if no activation available?

IK Multimedia I always been extremely generous with the amount of activation's you can have. Although not sure it's possible to de-authorise. I have like 9 out of 10 authorizations left for my Amplitude 4. So I presume MODO will allow a similar amount. Although Peter would need to confirm this.

Just to reiterate this, and yes MODO BASS will authorize in the same way as other IK products that many thousands are using without any issues. It is rare that people run out of authorizations and if they are reaching the limit and contact support, the team is - to borrow a phrase from the quote above - extremely generous as well with taking care of your issue.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Will there be an (stripped down?) iOS version?

At this time, I have no news of a version for iOS but if there is news I will surely share it when I have that information. Thanks for your interest.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

The custom shop thing turned me off of IK products years ago.
Just too annoying for me... I didn't even grab the recent freebies
because of it.

This looks interesting though. Anyway, my problem with their system
is strictly a personal opinion.

For everyone else, it definitely looks like fun.

I will keep my eye on it.

-Cheers

Thank you for keeping your eye on MODO BASS. MODO BASS is not a Custom Shop product, I wanted to be sure I clarified that per your feeling about Custom Shop above. Thanks again.

[m3adi3c]

I may have missed the information, but what is the actual note range covered (without 'artificially' changing pitch and claiming that 'any note is attainable' as Trilian does)?

I always have this problem with virtual basses, as I play a downtuned baritone 7 string, sometimes tuned to 8 string standard. I know most of the basses are just a muddy rumble in this area, but still, I would like to know how low is it meant to go.

Thanks, congrats, looks really promising!

[progtronic]

I may have missed the information, but what is the actual note range covered (without 'artificially' changing pitch and claiming that 'any note is attainable' as Trilian does)?

I always have this problem with virtual basses, as I play a downtuned baritone 7 string, sometimes tuned to 8 string standard. I know most of the basses are just a muddy rumble in this area, but still, I would like to know how low is it meant to go.

Thanks, congrats, looks really promising!

Would like to know as well... (read my earlier post).

[EvilDragon]

Peter@IK: How about groundwound strings? Support for 6-string bass? I'm not seeing that anywhere mentioned, or in any videos...

[m3adi3c]

Peter@IK: Support for 6-string bass? I'm not seeing that anywhere mentioned, or in any videos...

It's written in the specs on the official page (see the Strings section):

First, you can choose the actual number of strings (4 or 5) to determine the note scale range of the bass.

[Burillo]

@Peter, just in case you didn't see this...

i second the request for sound examples of fast repetitions and (possibly low tuned and distorted) rock/metal sound in general. the sounds from the demo are already pretty well covered by SampleTank 3, it's what ST3 can't do that i'm interested in.

also, will the preorder be available with retailers?

[biomuse]

@Peter, just in case you didn't see this...

i second the request for sound examples of fast repetitions and (possibly low tuned and distorted) rock/metal sound in general. the sounds from the demo are already pretty well covered by SampleTank 3, it's what ST3 can't do that i'm interested in.

Watch the videos. It's all there. Play Styles vid is nothing but fast short notes, expressive as heck.

There will be no machine gunning here. This is not sample retriggering. Downtuning should be great too because, again, this is modeling, not sampling.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

@Peter, just in case you didn't see this...

i second the request for sound examples of fast repetitions and (possibly low tuned and distorted) rock/metal sound in general. the sounds from the demo are already pretty well covered by SampleTank 3, it's what ST3 can't do that i'm interested in.

also, will the preorder be available with retailers?

Yes, I did see that sorry that in the flurry I did not acknowledge it!

I see the preorder is currently available at Sweetwater but I'm not sure if other retailers are going to follow. I'll check with the sales team.

[EvilDragon]

Peter@IK: Support for 6-string bass? I'm not seeing that anywhere mentioned, or in any videos...

It's written in the specs on the official page (see the Strings section):

First, you can choose the actual number of strings (4 or 5) to determine the note scale range of the bass.

Yes, I noticed that. Hence my question about supporting 6-string basses and groundwounds at a later date, in an update.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Peter@IK: Support for 6-string bass? I'm not seeing that anywhere mentioned, or in any videos...

It's written in the specs on the official page (see the Strings section):

First, you can choose the actual number of strings (4 or 5) to determine the note scale range of the bass.

Yes, I noticed that. Hence my question about supporting 6-string basses and groundwounds at a later date, in an update.

Suggestions taken, thank you.

[Burillo]

Watch the videos. It's all there. Play Styles vid is nothing but fast short notes, expressive as heck.

There will be no machine gunning here. This is not sample retriggering. Downtuning should be great too because, again, this is modeling, not sampling.

that's not really the kind of repetitions i'm talking about. i'm familiar with what "physical modeling" means, so i'm not worried about machine gun effect. i want to hear thrash metal-esque bass shredding, not just a bunch of short notes played in a quick succession. this has been a really weak point for pretty much all sampled basses so far (in contrast, they do this "quick succession of short notes" pretty well if you try hard enough), so i'm wondering if MODO to sampled basses is what Pianoteq is to sampled pianos.

@Peter, will this be available for purchase with Gear Credits?

[Compyfox]

Watch the videos. It's all there. Play Styles vid is nothing but fast short notes, expressive as heck.

There will be no machine gunning here. This is not sample retriggering. Downtuning should be great too because, again, this is modeling, not sampling.

that's not really the kind of repetitions i'm talking about. i'm familiar with what "physical modeling" means, so i'm not worried about machine gun effect. i want to hear thrash metal-esque bass shredding, not just a bunch of short notes played in a quick succession. this has been a really weak point for pretty much all sampled basses so far (in contrast, they do this "quick succession of short notes" pretty well if you try hard enough), so i'm wondering if MODO to sampled basses is what Pianoteq is to sampled pianos.

biomuse:
The video and audio demos are mainly focused on "fingered play", not slapped/picked. And it's mostly jazz/funk as well.

The video with Stephan DeReine is also not what I'd call "realistic playing". This is what really annoys me with audio/videos. It's keyboard "noodling" (dare I even say "keyboard wanking"), you can clearly hear that this was by a keyboarder rather than by a bassist or somebody trying to emulate the same.

Then half of these basses are typical rock/metal basses. Yet there is no real hard rock/metal demo. The audio demos are also tame, and just the bass (no guitar as complementary - read: nacked/dressed, solo/in the mix). This gives the wrong impression IMO.


So expressional or not, I'm not a jazz musician or the next Jordan Rudess that likes to abuse the whole keyboard range with an instrument, so that you as listener can go apesh*t during a progressive mix.

Yes, I noticed that. Hence my question about supporting 6-string basses and groundwounds at a later date, in an update.

I think a 6-string would break backwards compatibility due to the "fixed keyswitches" on the left hand side of the keyboard.

Ground-Wound strings are something new on the other hand. Didn't hear of these type of strings so far - guess you can always learn something new in the audio realm.