Robert Deluce

Here is a block diag of what I think my thoughts look like:

Only 300+. I am 74 years young but find requests for obscure little known songs to be occasionally problematic. I am a guitar vocalist, not a karaoke artiste.

Hi. Thanks for your comments. I agree that backing tracks can provide the most professional results for recording purposes but would not be feasible for playing to a live audience in a pub or small club. They cannot respond to ad hoc audience requests for unplanned songs. Perhaps I have not been explaining myself well enough. As I see it the bass line would be one of a multitude of presets, as on an electronic keyboard. Perhaps not a perfect solution but better than no bass at all. I have tried the bass lines from an electronic keyboard by switching the pitch manually and it can be quite effective. The pitch of the changing guitar chord would only perform as a switch to switch in the correctly pitched selected bass line. The “box” could either have a built in drum machine (again with multiple presets) or could be controlled from an external drum machine. I don’t believe that latency during chord changes would be an issue. The bass line would be a preset so there would be no wobble or slew.

Hi. Thanks for your comments. I agree that backing tracks can provide the most professional results for recording purposes but would not be feasible for playing to a live audience in a pub or small club. They cannot respond to ad hoc audience requests for unplanned songs. Perhaps I have not been explaining myself well enough. As I see it the bass line would be one of a multitude of pre-sets, as on an electronic keyboard. Perhaps not a perfect solution but better than no bass at all. I have tried the bass lines from an electronic keyboard by switching the pitch manually and it can be quite effective. The pitch of the changing guitar chord would only perform as a switch to switch in the correctly pitched selected bass line. The “box” could either have a built in drum machine (again with multiple presets) or could be controlled from an external drum machine. I don’t believe that latency during chord changes would be an issue. The bass line would be a preset so there would be no wobble or slew.

Hi, Thanks for the info but I am looking for a very simple solution. For examples the main bass lines I would find useful would consist of a) The root note of each chord played timed with the drum machine. b) The root note followed by its 5th of each chord and again timed with drum machine. c) A walking bass line based on the chord being played and timed again with the drum machine. Electronic keyboards offer a multitude of alternate bass line variations. I have tried these accompanying my guitar and vocals and they work pretty well. All that is needed is a link between the bass line and the pitch of the chord being played to provide an adequate accompaniment. TC Helicon have achieved this kind of link with their vocal harmonizer. In the case of the TCHelicon harmonizer the harmonies are created very effectively in real time.

Hi I have been harassing companies for the same thing for a number of years. Here is my request which has fallen on deaf ears: I am a solo performer. I play guitar and for vocals I use 2 TC Helicon harmoniser G-XT units. I also use 2 microphones and physically move from one to the other for either clean sound or harmonies. It works well and doesn't need any dancing between pedals. My attempts at football have proven me to be chiropidically dyslexic. Is anybody aware of a TC Helicon (or any other company) virtual bass device which provides a range of bass lines (as do many keyboards) controlled by the guitar cords (as in the TC Helicon harmonizer) and controlled e.g. by the midi output of a drum machine. I have identified one which would appear to do the job but is a software based midi system which requires a computer. It also requires an over sensitive Roland Midi pickup and analogue to midi converter unit. I would like one, similar to the harmonizer, in a single box. The technologies already exist in the harmonizer and various keyboards but just need a techno-wizard to re-arrange them into a single "virtual bass" box.