Music making discussion: Bass

[Cupz]

I am exually thinking about getting a bass-guitar

Excellent! What are you thinking about getting?

I'm thinking about the Spector NS-4 30KBC. (look it up, you'll see I'm kidding)

My uncle's brother plays bass, and he could give me a very fender-like (looks,plays and sounds) bass for 175 bucks. That's without amp,snares and effects (but I don't care).
First I'm going to buy a goooood mic though.

[Skytree]

In my opinion, no soft-synth or VST can match a good bass guitar, well played. There's no substitute for the level of versatility, subtelty and flow. Almost any other type of desired bass tones/effects can be derived from a P Bass with the right processing, in my experience. Just make sure it's well tuned!

That aside, I prefer a real bass mostly because I have more fun with it than a step-sequencer or MIDI keyboard. It gets my head out of the computer for a little while, which always helps. I still use VSTs/softsynths occasionally, but mostly when I'm not in the studio.

For the first few years of making music, I hardly touched bass at all...it left a lot of my earlier stuff feeling kind of empty, in my opinion. It's one of those elements that you don't really notice until it's gone, and the bottom drops out of the track. If you want to make some solid tunes, knowing how to lay down a proper bassline is essential.

P.S. EQing is the toughest bit, so more on that later. For now though, my personal test is to make sure the bassline is audible and clear through crappy laptop speakers, or earbuds, and then do a cross-check on a good system to make sure it still shines. You'll find that too much EQing can make your bass sound detuned, though, so careful of that...cutting out some frequencies will eliminate the harmonics in that range, and confuse the ear.

[turquoise70]

I agree that "our type" of music (using this term as loosely as imaginable) can use and should use (when applicable) bass and sub-bass. I didn't realize it at all until a good friend of mine who worked at the radio station and really liked my stuff mentioned that one element he felt it might be missing was bass - he said something like - the music seems to sort of 'float' over the beat, and needed something to anchor it. After that I started trying to get used to using more bass.

For a good smooth sub-bass i mostly use a single sinewave with some filters and compressors as needed, or a sinewave with a square wave for some interesting chippy sounds. Square waves are lots of fun. Besides that, some presets for the VSTs I use have good bass sounds up to a point - VSTs tend to get distorted faster as you go lower and lower in the bass range.

[nurthice]

For a good smooth sub-bass i mostly use a single sinewave with some filters and compressors as needed

why would you filter a sinewave - it's just the fundamental frequency? doesn't make sense.
minimoog V has some nice bass sound possibilities, i don't like the presets, but it's nice to tweak.
i agree with skytree, a bassguitar is a lot of fun, nice to play with. when i first got mine years ago, though, i'd put it too loud in the mix - after all, it was brand new...

[Skytree]

For a good smooth sub-bass i mostly use a single sinewave with some filters and compressors as needed

why would you filter a sinewave - it's just the fundamental frequency? doesn't make sense.
minimoog V has some nice bass sound possibilities, i don't like the presets, but it's nice to tweak.
i agree with skytree, a bassguitar is a lot of fun, nice to play with. when i first got mine years ago, though, i'd put it too loud in the mix - after all, it was brand new...

The sine wave is just the basic waveform of the oscillator; you also need to consider the notes being played. The combination of these two elements generally results in a tone that is extremely rich in harmonics. Each harmonic is associated with its own frequency range, which can then be filtered to produce a specific sound.

That's a pretty basic explanation for purposes of this thread, but if anyone is up for something a bit more deep, I'd recommend reading this:
http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/synth1.html

[nurthice]

The sine wave is just the basic waveform of the oscillator; you also need to consider the notes being played. The combination of these two elements generally results in a tone that is extremely rich in harmonics. Each harmonic is associated with its own frequency range, which can then be filtered to produce a specific sound.

thanks for the remark. yes, the sinewave is just the basic wavefom. not sure what you mean after that, however.
if you use a sinewave oscillator, then your harmonic content is by no means very rich - no harmonics at all with sinewaves actually. if you want harmonics, you use sawooth, square, etc.
the tones you play have nothing to do with harmonics.

[turquoise70]

nurthice, the main reason i filter a sinewave for bass is because at the lower range they start to take up a lot more of the spectrum at once, you know, and i try to cut off the higher end... hope that helps explain what i mean!

[Skytree]

The sine wave is just the basic waveform of the oscillator; you also need to consider the notes being played. The combination of these two elements generally results in a tone that is extremely rich in harmonics. Each harmonic is associated with its own frequency range, which can then be filtered to produce a specific sound.

thanks for the remark. yes, the sinewave is just the basic wavefom. not sure what you mean after that, however.
if you use a sinewave oscillator, then your harmonic content is by no means very rich - no harmonics at all with sinewaves actually. if you want harmonics, you use sawooth, square, etc.
the tones you play have nothing to do with harmonics.

Ah, I see what happened here. I've had my head/thoughts in additive synthesis recently. You're thinking in terms of subtractive, which actually makes a lot more sense given the subject matter.

In other words:
- Subtractive synthesis: one sine wave, just the fundamental/first harmonic
- Additive synthesis: multiple sine waves (usually 32+ actually), each with a different fundamental, creating a harmonic range

Duh, my apologies!

[nurthice]

Ah, I see what happened here. I've had my head/thoughts in additive synthesis recently. You're thinking in terms of subtractive, which actually makes a lot more sense given the subject matter.

In other words:
- Subtractive synthesis: one sine wave, just the fundamental/first harmonic
- Additive synthesis: multiple sine waves (usually 32+ actually), each with a different fundamental, creating a harmonic range

Duh, my apologies!

nice, i should have thouht you meant additive synthesis - i've never tried that for bass actually!
have you done it in this context, maybe it's not a bad idea at all?

edit: turquoise70, do you mean additive sythesis as well?