How to play bass lines on guitar. for loopers.
Depends on which guitar, and what you like.
1) Just play them on guitar. With a single coil neck p/u and sticking
to the very lowest notes it does work quite well. Turn off any fx,
clean sound is best.
May need a bit of thought to get a good sounding line to play in
your chosen key,
probably not much fun in Eb.
Then make sure there's nothing in the mix to destroy the illusion.
e.g. Don't strum a load
of big chords over it, maybe think about switching p/u for the
other layers.
2) Octave dividers. The best I've used is the Electro Harmonix
Octave Multiplexer.
Gives you more controls to focus the sound and the dry signal
part can be
mixed in with a high quality signal.
I'm currently using the EH Bass Microsynth instead, good enough
with
the right settings and produces other useful sounds too.
3) Harmonisers. Electro Harmonix, and I presume the other
manufacturers
who care about such things now make harmonisers which can pitch
downwards
with very little latency. They track sloppy playing better than an
octave divider. Can't say I ever liked the sound much though.
4) Synth fx. Sometimes found on multi-fx units. I include these
because
I've used one on the Vox VDL-1 Dynamic Looper for simple bass
lines
and it seemed to really work ( the actual bass emulations on that
pedal
are truly awful). Maybe the Pigtronix Mothership would work as a
bass line maker??
5) Half Speed playback. Best sound, as long as the playing is twice
as accurate as needed, and
as long as guitar is bassy enough to start with.
6) Midi Guitar. Works for some. Hot tip is to actually play high
notes and
have them transposed down by the synth to avoid latency.
7) Those Roland guitar synths. ( I haven't tried )
More generally.
It really helps to "think bass". (although these days not many bass
guitarists do this)
Concentrate on getting a deep tone, finger style if possible.
Play cleanly.
Be sure to end each note with clean damping to silence (the esoteric
secret which used to be passed on from player to player)
Stay in the low register.
Play only the notes that really need to be there.
It really helps to leave space for the bassline by not putting low
notes
in the other layers, the lowest 2 strings on a guitar will tend to
interfere with it.
Also those guitar chords that start with root and fifth can be
avoided.
Obviously an equivalent use of eq to remove low and low mid is just
as good,.
Out of all the methods, 2) Octave divider would be my favourite,
the 'think bass' tips help the effect to track.
andy
On 11/12/2013 23:25, Marc wrote:
Hi,
On some loops, it can be cool to have a bass part with the drum on
the back,
but switching from guitar to bass and return to guitar can be a
little too
long on stage.
Did you have a solution to play a bass part with your guitar ?
(I've tried with my HOG, and with Octavers/Harmonizers, it is far
from a
bass sound, even a synth bass sound...)
Roland VG ?
Sound to midi interface like http://www.sonuus.com/ G2M, connected
in midi
with a expander ?
All your knowledge is welcome.
Marc