Its just not working

[wolfduke]

The performance I've achieved so far is dismal and I know something is amiss as the video demos are great. Ive got a b2m plugged into ableton live via an MBox. I've tried all the tips//boosting mids...different neck positions... changing technique...muting strings...checked the tuning ....i even put on new strings but all I'm getting is the midi signal jumping octaves, poor tracking and constant random notes and essentially an unusable device which is driving me nuts! I'm guessing there must be something in the midi settings that needs addressing but I cant figure it. I'm an experienced player of 20 yrs

[wolfduke]

i'VE CHECKED THE g2m FORUMS AND INSTALLED asio4all with no discernible difference. Also the built in tuner doesn't seem to reference very well to my Petersen Tuner which is the best one on the market. Close..but not perfect. In fact I find it impossible to get the green light solid with my nice Warwick bass, We are tuning to 440 hz yes? I'll try adjusting the midi channels when I get home but I would appreciate any other tips. Is there a way to check my unit isn't faulty?

[james]

Sorry to hear you are having problems.

Firstly, to address the tuning issues. You should be able to get close to the Peterson tuner. The Peterson tuner is certainly better than the B2M built-in tuner, but using the built-in tuner you should still get you close to the Peterson tuner -- closer than you can get with most other tuners. The tuning LED works as a strobe, so it stops pulsing when you are in tune. This means the LED could be on, or off, or somewhere in between. You do not want to try and get the LED fully-on. It's not the intensity you need to watch, but the speed of the intensity changing (the pulsing). And, yes, we are using 440Hz as the tuning reference.

The other thing that can complicate tuning is that the B2M may track a strong harmonic and tune to that, whereas the Peterson tuner will always follow the fundamental. On heavy bass strings the fundamental and harmonics won't be in tune with each other, so you will get some difference. The advantage of using the B2M tuner is that you know the MIDI notes will be correctly in tune.

Onto your stability issues... If you are using an MBox you don't need to use ASIO4All. I have an MBox (first generation with no MIDI) that I use on a laptop for demos and the ASIO drivers on it work very well and give really low latency. I suggest if you are only using ASIO4All for the MBox, to remove it and use the MBox ASIO drivers -- it will work much better. I've not used the new MBox with MIDI, so not sure how the ASIO drivers work with that.

What happens when you play single sustained notes? You should be able to play a note on 1 string and the B2M should track that for a long time and be very stable. If that works, try pitch bending a sustained note to see if it follows the bends. If you can do this well, the B2M unit should be working correctly.

Of course, it is possible you have a defective unit, but hopefully it's just a setup issue we can help you resolve.

[wolfduke]

Thanks for the reply. I do use heavy strings as I play live mostly and like the higher output so that may well explain the tuning disparities which leads me to a thought I had last night. The video demos do appear to be with basses on light gauge strings. From what I understand about the unit I think this would be a significant advantage. What do you think?
As for holding one note on the b2m it is inconsistent also. It actually sounds like the pitch is wavering slightly when I'm just on one note and the tuning looks correct.
Are there any particular type of patches that work better? Someone suggested that but I couldn't see the logic. Thx for the assist

[james]

Lighter strings have a definite advantage in that it's easier to stop them them from vibrating, so when playing across different strings it's easier to stop the non-playing strings from vibrating. There's also less energy in a vibrating light string compared to a heavy string so it won't cause the other strings to vibrate in sympathy quite so much as heavy strings will.

You said a single note was wavering slightly. How much, and which note? The lowest notes can waver slightly, but should be less than 10 cents or so. Usually it's much lower than this (<1c), otherwise you wouldn't be able to tune with the B2M. If the variation is larger than this it usually means there is another note playing which is interacting with the main note. Even small vibrations of other strings can cause this, depending on which note you are playing.

Even so, if the note is wavering slightly, it should still sustain that note for a long time until the signal vanishes. If this is happening, it sounds like the B2M is working correctly.

As for patches, it is true that some patches "appear" to give better tracking. The issue is that some patches don't respond well to fast playing, or have the wrong pitch-bend range configured, so it appears that the B2M isn't tracking well. In fact, the B2M is tracking correctly, but the synth patch isn't converting the MIDI into what you expect!

[wolfduke]

Okay...I'll keep at it and put my other bass together again with light strings. I'll let you know how I go, cheers

[SteveB]

Hey, just wondering what the status was on your B2M. I just got mine in the mail today. Plugged it up and got the same results. Nothing useable at least. I'm trying to use it with Reason. I was hoping to trigger bass patches in the Electric Bass Refill. It would only trigger about half the notes correctly. But even then it would octave up and down randomly.
keep me posted. Thanks.
Steve

[wolfduke]

Hey Steve...i havn't got it useable yet but I'm hoping to getting a better result with light guage. I just have to organize putting my other bass together again to experiment on as I gig with the heavy gauge. what sort of wood do you have on yours? I'm also thinking that light fretboards like maple would work better. I have a dense Warwick all hard wood but its just a guess. I'll let you know how I go. Cheers

[johnmc]

Hi guys,

Given your comments, I was playing with the B2M over the last few days and I'm not able to reproduce your problems. I'm using a Musicman Stingray 5. Are you able to record the audio from a riff that causes problems to send us so we can attempt to determine what is wrong?

John.

[wolfduke]

I tried attaching it here bit got message "extension mid is not allowed". Whats your email?