Getting Started with EWI Bass

OK, I am definitely not an expert on EWI bass, so this is kind of a blog. Hopefully, it'll get you headed in the right direction with your own experiments.

1. The Goal

I'm interested in getting the best bass sounds possible from the internal synth of the EWI4000s.Yes, I know there are good bass sounds available in many hardware modules and probably software synths, but I don't want to pay for them. (But if you have a great setup, I would like to hear about it for later.) By "best" I mean realistic, not "synthetic." By "realistic" I mean could I be mistaken (at least on a casual listen) for someone playing either an acoustic upright bass or an electric bass guitar. So I'm looking for either bowed or plucked bass. I don't really care about the genre - could be 60's jazz, 70's rock, or 80's metal.

2. The Problems

The first obstacle is that the internal synth is not really made to emulate bowed or plucked strings. Well, so what. Get over it. How close can we get.

Second obstacle: low end output from the EWI is pretty weak relative to output in the "normal" woodwind range.

3. Solutions

Let's take the second obstacle first. The solution for low output volume is to plug the EWI into a bass head/amp or some other kind of amp. One other example mentioned to me is the POD XT Live. I have a Digitech RPx400 that might be similar but I haven't had a chance to try that yet. The point is that you can't use the same signal path for a bass patch that you use for a "normal" EWI patches (saxes, trumpets, etc.) and expect it to sound good.

Now, for problem of the patch itself. I'm going to address this by describing my initial offerings for a bass patch. You can get them here.

Bass_Dry

I don't know if "dry" is the best adjective, but at least it distinguishes it from the "Brite" patch I'll describe next. Here are the components:

OSC1 - sorry, I don't have any theory behind the sawtooth and pulse level/widths used here - they just sound OK to my ears.
Sweep Time/Depth - this is set to quickly sweep from slightly sharp down to normal pitch. Again, I don't have a theoretical basis (bass-is? :-)) for this, but seems like a plucked acoustic bass ought to behave like that.
OSC Filter - just a simple low pass filter to keep things in the low register. I kept the Q Factor low so there would be some upper harmonics available for later (see Brite.)
Formant=String - I debated on this before deciding it really did sound more string-like
Noise Gen/Filter - just a little noise, filtered to be in the low end. This probably could use a lot more work. I was just twiddling knobs here.
Common=Multi - this is critical and opposite what you want for "normal" wind patches. This helps get the "plucked every note" sound.
Delay/Reverb - I dunno, just twiddling knobs here.

Playing style - use "-2" (the lowest roller) for the octave roller and the E will be the low E of an electric bass. You can even emulate a low B string of a 5 string bass guitar. You can go up two octaves like a bass guitar but you don't want to go much more than that. This patch is definitely un-bass-like in the middle and upper registers.

Bass_Brite

This patch is exactly the same as "Dry" except that the OSC Filter has been modified to add a high-pass filter in addition to the low pass filter from Dry. This gives it a little more of an electric, "poppy" sound.

4. How does it sound?

You'll have to be the judge. I have played the Dry patch exactly once through my regular bass player's head/amp at church and it worked well. I haven't actually used the Brite patch yet.

5. What's next?

A lot! The patches can be improved I'm sure. Trying out the RPx400 (instead of the bass head/amp) is another avenue to explore. Also just trying out the factory patches and Patchman patches through either the bass head/amp or the RPx400 is worth a shot.