Bass Question

[nonie]

I was just wondering if you guys just use the same bass patch over and over for all your beats unless your doing something out of the ordinary or do you pick a certain bass for each beat you create? Cuz I was listening to LB's "The Minstrel Show" and wow, 9th is dope on the album and it seems like he uses the same bass patch, tweaks it a lil, and still has those amazing basslines.

 

[DAVE-ILL]

I layer a lot of basslines. I probably use the same ingredents from time to time just cook them differently. Once you have it good it's hard not to use it again but different concepts calls for different bass sounds

 

[classic]

you can only have so many bass sounds, just like you can have only so many piano sounds... If you got a good bass sound its the melody the counts...

 

[sYgMa]

if your beats are always on the same style, I guess you can stick with one bass sound (tweeked), but even then it's interesting to change sounds once in a while... for your enjoyment.

Having a set of sounds can be a trademark, but it's nice sometimes to start from scratch and do a beat with different sounds.

 

[Honesty]

... I use the same few bass sounds alot... well... I have a set I use w/ my MPC and a set I use w/ FL

But like someone above me said, it's more the notes, it's only so many different ways you can use a bass sound...

 

[nonie]

Alright thanks. I got it now, it's just hard sometimes to find good Hip-Hop bass that suits a track well, ya know? Cuz a lot of the bass sounds have that real audible pluck so it's hard to find that one bass that suits the track and doesn't have that pluck.

 

[Hypnotist]

Yea, I agree. The bass sounds are the ones that always get me; especially if I save the bassline for last.

I usually use the same bass patch and tweak it, but when it really matters, and everything else in the beat is real real simple, then I carefully layer my bass patches, either with the same exact midi notes, or SLIGHTLY different timing. (As you know, you can't really play chords with bass notes, or they'll clash and your speakers'll fart.)

But if you take a deep sub-bass sound, and throw your lighter basses on top, and mix em REALLY low, then you get a much fuller sound. Also, try to transpose the notes on the other samples, and have different bass ranges at different octaves over each other.

And last but not least, take the bass sounds with the hard attacks and twangs, and filter them. Nothing sounds as good as a real bass guitar in the studio with the right compression and EQ, so if you filter some regular bass samples straight from the guitar, you can get some funky ass sounds.

 

[Vince]

It depends, sometimes I like to sample to the bass. But otherwise I've kinda got stuck to this one patch. But I'd like to switch.

 

[andreas]

I use my MicroKorg tp make all my basslines. But since the microkorg is an analog synth that you just tweek the sounds with the knobs I can't use the same sound twice even if I wanted to, cuz getting the same sound to appear twice is an imposibility with it. And that's what I like about it. The sounds are characteristicly the same but their not at the same time if you get me.

 

[JPeg]

b4 i used to try and get different bass for most tracks but now im blatantly re-using good sounds and just mixing em/tweaking them different.

I just focus on finding notes that complement the beat using a combo of bass sampled from my korg prophecy and shit found off records/sample cds.