Hello, Ujiie here.
Well?
The IK Multimedia MODOBASS!
Man, the sound is SO realistic!
Just fantastic!
I mean, every little thing here, uh, just playing it normally,
I'm sure you can hear how REAL it sounds.
If you're wondering how it's all put together,
well, take a look at this screen here.
Check this out!
We are Musictrack after all, but this is a Jazz Bass!
There's a number of dfiferent models to choose from.
Right? For instance, a 1960s P-Bass.
The P there stands for Precision. Precision Bass.
Man does that sound good!
Here's a 1970s P-Bass. Another Precision.
Sounds good! Back to the 1970s J-Bass.
A Jazz Bass, yeah?
Modern Jazz Bass.
A newer one.
Devil Bass! This is a Gibson SG Bass.
And, uhh, next is Bass Man. This is a Music Man model.
They've captured the qualities of each guitar well.
Ah, Rickenbacker!
Studio Bass, uh, a newer one.
（Studio Bass Yamaha® TRB5P）
Violin Bass.
Ah, wow, delicate. Paul McCartney!
Thunderbird Bass.
Very well done. Japan Bass.
Right? Made in Japan. Yamaha maybe?
[ ※Ibanez® Soundgear ]
Flame Bass.
Maybe a Warwick?
There are twelve different basses in all.
Incidentally, uh,
these are NOT samples!
Physical modeling!
Ok? Physical modeling, uh,
which IK Multimedia calls Modal Synthesis.
Because it uses physical modeling, you can do TONS of things!
Like this.
Adjust the playing position.
Wow, that's spot on.
You can even move the pickups!
This kind of stuff.
Wow, huh?
Yeah, wow. Right.
There are also a number of different preset sounds,
accessible through this drop down here.
Like this 70s bass sound.
Kind of an ideal sound there.
Well, first of all,
something we need to look at is Play Style.
What this does,
see here? You've got Finger, Pick and Slap.
This selection simulates fingered playing.
Pick, well it's obvious, right?
Ok? And Slap.
Slap Bass! Perfect!
You've also got Mute control here.
Right? It determines how much the strings get muted.
Next is Stroke. When you play the same string repeatedly,
uh, you sorta alternate fingers as you play, right?
You can change it to just one finger.
There's a setting for just the middle finger too.
Touch. You can set it to heavy or light.
Normal too.
You can set it to let the sound ring out.
Like a sustained note.
When you use this with the Pick setting, un-muted?
One interesting thing about this, look here.
Uh, when you play a low G for example, the bottom string
3rd fret sorta lights up. Play a C,
and the indicated fret changes.
When you play a new note, the previous one is cut off.
This is nicely done.
Uhh, back to Finger.
A number of different options there.
Next, Open String.
Good variety.
And this is a big point here,
Detach Noise.
When a string is released.
I mean, uh, when a string is released, it uh,
well it's vibrating, right? So when you take your finger off,
there's some noise there with the fretboard.
You following me?
That right there.
THAT!
Last, Slide Noise.
Now, Slide Noise is
uh, when you go to a different note.
Oh! When you use a sustain pedal,
something neat happens.
When you play a note on the same string,
if you step on the pedal...
...it's like sliding up or down.
No pedal.
Nothing special.
Step on the pedal.
That's SUPER realistic!
There's another big point here,
uh, this right here. Well obviously it's a bass so,
uh, Jazz Bass now, but there are four strings. BUT!
I'm playing a G, with the bottom string.
But with the same string, uh, here, Open String.
Turn that off.
So, with the same string,
you can only play one note.
I mean, you can't play two notes at the same time on one string.
However!
You CAN if it's with two strings.
Four strings, so four voice polyphony.
Four notes here.
Even so, in this range here,
you can only play one note.
No chords here.
You know, that right there, well,
it perfectly matches what's possible with a real bass.
That's excellent.
Uh, String next.
So you can decide if you want string four
to go up to D?
Or use five strings.
Go all the way to B.
In either case, four strings or five, because there are strings,
the resonance is different!
Even when playing the same note on both.
Here's an E on a five string.
Back to a four string.
Different sound, right?
Good job with this.
Action next.
This sets the string height.
Low, high or standard.
You also can set the Type: Round Wound,
or Flat Wound.
Bass guitar strings, yeah? Flat, wide ones,
or round ones.
You can set the Gauge too. Heavy, Medium or Light.
Age too.
What they mean by age here is uh,
how old the strings are.
Obviously new ones sound a bit nicer.
Broken In means they're at just about the best condition.
Let's go with Electronics next.
So with the Jazz Bass here we have two pickups.
You can change them aorund though!
For example.
You can use pickups from a Precision Bass.
Or ones from an SG Bass.
You can change the neck pickups too.
It's like you can completely customize the guitar!
There's a Piezo control too.
Piezo is uh, not the pickups, the bridge here,
like putting a mic on the bridge.
You can change the circuit type too, Passive
or Active. This basically deals with the internal circuit itself
and how you can control the tone.
Internal pre-amp, yes or no? That.
Amp next.
Use this one here?
Or this one?
A tube amp.
Or a solid state one.
Limiter on/off settings.
Very nicely done!
Tube amp has a Punch control.
Harmonics too.
Is that like a compressor?
Right. In this section over here,
people who record bass will get this right away.
How much of the direct sound from the amp do you want?
100% amp.
Like putting a mic in front of the speaker, ok?
Another control here is DI, which is a direct signal
straight from the guitar itself.
Just the signal.
Quite clear, that sound.
You can mix the DI and amp signals though.
Get the sound exactly how you want it.
That's a really nice feature. Master volume here too.
Right, that's the amp then.
Tube or solid state.
There are effects too! Four of them. See?
Let's turn one on. Chorus.
Hm? Ah, Octave.
Ok, Octave, how about Distortion?
Chorus.
Oh that's quite nice.
Compressor.
That's a widely used one, compressor.
Delay.
Oh, that's good for solos.
Ah! A filter! The 'wow' sound.
Yeah that's really good.
There's also a graphic EQ over here.
A total of four effects in all that you can use.
They're connected in series.
Fantastic!
Control next. This is cool.
I showed you a glimpse of this already, actually.
This is the octave to the left of this here.
You can turn on things here. Finger.
Or turn on picking.
Or slap, for slap bass.
This kind of thing.
The 'Ghost Note'...
Excellent. Harmonics too.
Ah, this one here is really neat, hold it down,
and all notes will be played on the lowest string only.
With nothing held...
You see it moving up and down on the different strings?
Lots of fun things you can do here.
You get the general idea?
THIS is MODOBASS.
What can I say?
I'm sure you understand how good it is, just from listening.
And not to mention the uh,
the huge number of preset sounds included.
I mean, look at all of these!
There are various types, like fingered and whatever,
"Boomy"
Ah nice, "Boomy Groove."
Or this, "90s Funk."
Nice, right?
And as far as pitch bend goes, of course you can use the wheel.
It works like a slide.
SO realistic!
Ok then. Let's take this one.
I'm using it in Cubase at the moment.
Uh, take SampleTank bass sounds for example.
Let's A and B them.
Same company makes both by the way.
Sample-based sounds.
"P-Bass Finger."
Now, this is a sound that I myself use quite often actually.
SampleTank is sample-based, obviously.
Quite realistic, right?
The reason it's so realistic,
is that different velocities, light for example,
or heavy touch,
trigger different sounds. The string makes noise with the latter.
"Booiinng" right?
It doesn't do that when played lightly.
Another point is when you release a key.
Hear the little noise there?
This is a separate sample, different from the sample of the fingers
letting go, or the string vibrating against the frets.
It's very realistic, and I USED to use it. Past tense, ok?
But now that there's MODOBASS...
Listen to the difference.
This is all physical modeling, so basically ANYTHING
that occurs when you play a bass guitar,
ALL of that is modeled.
There's just no comparison. ULTRA realistic.
I mean, just playing a G here, nothing special.
Just a normal phrase. But played on SampleTank...
Well, this is pretty realistic too.
Back to MODOBASS.
The liveliness there though, or how the notes
interact and connect with each other? Completely different!
Different ingredients!
I mean, as a bass?
How can I say it? The density is different.
SampleTank again.
Same sound over & over.
If the velocity is the same, the sound is the same.
But with MODOBASS, there is a subtle difference.
This is a difference I really want you to experience for yourself!
Excellent! MODOBASS. Actually, I'm already addicted.
Seriously, I can't live without it.
Almost all of the electric bass sounds I use now,
electric bass guitar sounds, I'm changing over to this, as we speak.
Well, that's about it. For real though,
MODOBASS. It's physical modeling, NOT sampled,
so it doesn't take up much hard drive space at all!
Compared to a sample library anyway. MUCH smaller.
And SO realistic!
You've gotta check it out. Yes, there are lots of settings,
but even just playing the preset sounds...
...the phrases you program yourself,
they're like, reborn as "live" bass sounds.
It's like, now I have a whole new world at my fingertips with this.
You really gotta check this out!
That's it for the MODOBASS!
Thanks!!
Translation & Captions by:
SWCreativeJapan.
