one string midi bass user from london

[slatepipe-fgn]

hi

i already registered on the vguitar forum and through one thing and another i found this one so i thought i'd start using this too, it seems pretty friendly and useful


anyway, i live in london and am just getting started out on the world of midi guitar

the other year i did a degree in sound art and since then i have been slowly making different artworks and have been trying to get them into galleries, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

i am not a guitar player though i do have quite a few of them in various shapes and sizes. back in december i had an idea for a guitar instrument/artwork and i commissioned bailey guitars (http://news.baileyguitars.co.uk/) to make me a custom bass guitar with only one string. while going through the design process they came up with the idea of making it midi compatible, which hadn't occurred to me. it seemed pretty feasible so i went with their idea. 

there are some photos of the finished guitar and its construction process on my website here : http://slatepipe.co.uk/index.php/2011/04/21/one-is-more-not-four/

it is fitted with a graphtech ghost pickup, acoustiphonic pre amp and hexpander midi interface

i have also bought a roland gr30 and a gk cable and have just got it working and am now fiddling about with the onboard effects and i have been sending it into ableton live to play synths within it

it seems to work remarkably well within ableton live.  i have been reading another thread about pitch bend settings and i need to adjust them a bit as some vst synths seem to pitch bend quite well and some dont.  but playing samples on ableton's drum racks is amazing

im looking at suitable pedal boards as im setting up a template to record into midi clips and overdub them and i need to switch between tracks without using my hands - does anyone have any recommendations for a simple pedal board that i can assign with midi to switch between tracks?

if anyone lives in london and fancies meeting up to swap ideas and have a few beers just let me know

thanks

[Brent Flash-fgn]

Welcome to the group slatepipe! 

[Elantric-fgn]

Welcome - thanks for joining us over here at FGN!

[warmingtone-fgn]

I'm not sure if slate is around still, but when I read this I wondered what one might do with such an instrument...but then I recalled the hypnotising music of zoe keating and her looping chello...




Layering with loops may well be the direction for this kind of thing and investigating the kinds of thing she uses might be beneficial. I think i'd miss the harmony of a guitar, but when working with loops, the key seems to be to keep things simple and layer those things up in interesting ways.