Bass pedals

mart

I've been wondering about getting some bass pedals for a while, but put off by the asking price, since this would only be a minor sideline for me.

Today I noticed my local crack-converters has a Roland PK5 pedal board for just over £200. Are these any good? And what else do I need? Some kind of synth I'm guessing, but I'm completely clueless about midi. Any advice gratefully received!

rpr

You'll need either a MIDI keyboard or sound module and MIDI cable. Older MIDI stuff loses it's value pretty quickly so you should be able to pick something up quite cheaply. For instance i had a yamaha sampler which cost £1300 when it was released, I paid £100 for it and struggled to sell it (with extra memory ) for £70. Not sure about the Roland, it sort of depends on whether there's demand for it.

 

mart

Ta. eBay prices for the PK5 seem to vary between £100 and £250, so I'd need them to lower the price a bit before buying. 

Any recommendations on a cheapish sound module to get? I don't fancy lugging a keyboard around if I'm triggering the sounds from pedals.

johnnyurq

@mart

I have tinkered with one and it is pretty decent for the money.

As @rpr said any standard GM/GM2 module will work well because it has a good MIDI implementation. 

But be aware that Roland kit has a thing called system exclusive (sysex) which enhances the communication between the modules.

A good option is a JV series module which can be had for £60 or so for A JV-1010 and up to a few hundred for its higher spec big brothers. Maybe even an XV module.

I have a JV-1010 which has served me well and can be enhanced with one extra JV series sound cards. It has as standard 1024 onboard PCM tones with an extra 256 on the session board included, add the extra JV card and you have a fair few sounds.

PC editing via SoundDiver or similar makes tweaking the parameters easier. It also has several modes from GM module to performances for live. It is nice and small too at half a rack space size.

If it is just to be used for bass then a dedicated bass module may be better, but most modules have fair few bass and bass synth tones.

mart

Many thanks! I'll see if I can track down a JV module.

johnnyurq

No worries and I love my JV-1010 loads of good sounds and so small and light.

These links will give you more info.

http://www.roland.com/products/en/JV-1010/

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun99/articles/rolandjv1010.htm

Of course if your budget allows the JV-1080 is even better or a entry level XV series module. They are newer and have more sounds and upgrade options but more cost and full rack size.