STS9’s Alana Rocklin - GEAR MASTERS Ep. 614

I'm not someone that uses old bass strings, a lot of bass players do. So my bass is actually a MIDI controller as well as just a normal Lakeland bass. Hey, what's up? This is Alana Rockland from STS-9. We're here in the beautiful Roomba Theater in Chicago, Illinois. We're here for STS-9's three-night New Year's Eve run and just want to show you a little bit of my gear and what I've got going on. This is a really special bass. It's a Lakeland 5594 bass, custom-made for me, actually made here in Chicago. So shout-out to Lakeland, they're amazing. And this is a custom bass with Bartolini pickups. We have a BAPS bridge here, which is actually for the fret track system in the bass. So these are normal Lakeland setup, but these two are part of the fret tracks, which triggers my sync back here. So Lee Young from fret tracks came up with this system for triggering MIDI. So my bass is actually a MIDI controller as well as just a normal Lakeland bass. So what he did was we've got MIDI triggers in each fret. And so all of the frets are note-on and note-off information, but they're also CC. So I can really do a multitude of things and can show you all about it. But I have a pedal board, and basically what's going on here is we've got two sides. We've got the normal regular bass tone, and then we've got the fret tracks part of it. The volume only is fret tracks, so that's bringing that in and out. Everything else is Aguilar pedals, really basic. I have this switcher here to get through them, but my pedal board isn't really the thing. The thing is actually how my bass is a MIDI controller, controlling a virus, access virus synth here. And so because I have this fret track system, I'm able to control this just like you would any kind of synth. And I can switch patches by using this button. And then I can do things like this knob. Instead of it being volume, I can actually program it per patch to control whatever I want. For this, I have it as a filter. So it only works with your left hand from the string hitting the fret. And then I can get all kinds of different things in here. So yeah, we get all kinds of fun stuff going. Because I'm up here, if I want to change patches, I can just use this knob and this button and fret to change. And normally I'll have my normal bass sound, which is not on here. So now I have both going. And that can be controlled by this volume pedal here. And you'll see I don't have a bass rig here. Everything's going through these Neve DI's right here. I have both my regular bass sound and the synth going through the Neve DI's. And so that's kind of the basis for the tone, is the Neve DI's. So shout out to them, they make incredible stuff. I have almost, I would say like four main sounds that I'm using that are the basis for the tone. As I said, I can use this knob. So I have one, maybe one, oh let me turn this on. One patch. Using this knob, I can create several from that one. But in a show, I have these quick changes. As I said, usually I have to press a button and press a fret. I have quick changes here on these frets. So I can just... And then I can just kick. And so it really is based on the song. There are parts of the song that require to maybe hit harder, be bigger on the bass side. I want to hit that sub sound. That's usually what I'm going for, is just a big sub. There's a million songs in SCS9. I think we have 200 songs that we're cycling through. Within those, there's quite a bit of space for me to use a synth in really creative ways. And then it'll pop up in various improvisations that we'll do. It's a big part of what I'm doing, for sure. My strings, I use D'Addario strings. I have for many, many years. This is what we got. Yeah, 45 to 130, 5-string, normal tuning, low B, high G. But yeah, these are what I've been using. I actually switched. I really like these. They've been a lot more punchy. I'm trying to definitely get a punchier sound. So I change my strings quite a bit. I'm not someone that uses old bass strings. A lot of bass players do. I find that I like my intonation to be right on. So yeah, I'll go through maybe, I don't know, every 4 or 5 shows, I'll change my strings. Normal bass, 5-string tuning, G, D, A, E, B on 4ths. You know, I tend to... This Bartolini preamp in here is amazing. It's sensitive. I can adjust my tone. I usually have it... This is for the pickup, for this pickup. I usually have this just in the middle. Almost everything is notched except for the mids. I have boosted just a bit. I like to be able to get the attack going. So I generally will boost that. I don't really move them. They stay kind of where they are. I leave my volume where it is. And the only thing that's really coming in and out is the synth. Yeah, so I have a few pedals here. Most of them are Aguilar. At this point, yeah, they are all Aguilar pedals. And I use the filter a lot. So I use that one a lot. The chorus I really like. Let's see, what else we got here? Octave. When I really need to have a sub going, but I need to have a little more articulation than I can do with the fret tracks. Because there's limits. I mean, this is usually straight, just low. For like a really... Yeah, like a drum and bass section that I need to have a little bit more control, I'll use this. What else? Oh, we got some... Some distortion. I don't use that often, but there's a couple songs that have a part in it that have the distortion, so that's what it's there for. Yeah, man, thanks for the interview. Thanks for listening. Checking out my rig today. Really, it's been a labor of love to put it together with a lot of people supporting me through the years. Shout out to Lakeland Basses, Fret Tracks, D'Addario, Virus Access Music. Yeah, Aguilar. Thanks to everybody. Really appreciate it. Hopefully we'll see you on tour. sts9.com, you can check out what we're playing. Lots of shows coming up in 2026.