How to keep basslines interesting!?

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parsons19

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Hey guys,

I got this tune I am playing with, wanna drop a bassline on it but it just sounds a bit to similar to other basslines. What can I do to the bass (ignore the actual bass sound) to make it interesting? Should I throw in like pauses or what? Hope that makes sense :lol:

Cheers!
 
filter and pitch modulations. Modulate other effects youve got on youre bass...you can get some nice movement just using phasers and shit. What kind of bass are you working on, just one/a couple of notes, or a bassline that moves about a lot?
 
Put a envelope or lfo on the filter cutoff so it opens up every now and then. Or split the mids from the lows and process them differently then get the mids to come in at certain times, could be at the end of every 4 bars or something
 
parsons19 said:
Hey guys,

I got this tune I am playing with, wanna drop a bassline on it but it just sounds a bit to similar to other basslines. What can I do to the bass (ignore the actual bass sound) to make it interesting? Should I throw in like pauses or what? Hope that makes sense :lol:

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Select your current bass track (we'll call it Track A) and duplicate it (Track B). Now change up the bass a bit on Track B. Once you've found a sound you like, go into the MIDI arrangement of Track A and mute some of the notes. Then go to the MIDI arrangement of Track B and do the opposite–Mute the notes that are still active in Track A, but keep active the notes that you muted in Track A. Now you essentially have the same sequence being played by two bass sounds, though each bass sound will only play the MIDI notes you have enabled on the respective track.

The additional bass noise will help push the interest a bit. Hope that didn't sound too confusing.

Cheers!
 
lostnthesound said:
Select your current bass track (we'll call it Track A) and duplicate it (Track B). Now change up the bass a bit on Track B. Once you've found a sound you like, go into the MIDI arrangement of Track A and mute some of the notes. Then go to the MIDI arrangement of Track B and do the opposite–Mute the notes that are still active in Track A, but keep active the notes that you muted in Track A. Now you essentially have the same sequence being played by two bass sounds, though each bass sound will only play the MIDI notes you have enabled on the respective track.

The additional bass noise will help push the interest a bit. Hope that didn't sound too confusing.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Very good tip !
 
yeah thats a nice idea lost!

I know about opening up the filters and that :)

I was more thinking what could I do when playing the bassline to make it interesting if you know what I mean? Like now its just, a note, then a note, then a note to flow inbetween the next note. Know what I mean? :lol:
 
Often the reason the bass is becoming boring might not only lie in the sound of the bass being the same but also the notation!!!!! Have you checked carefully that your notation is sick enough?
 
underspawn said:
Very good tip !
Click to expand...

Thank you kindly!

parsons19 said:
yeah thats a nice idea lost!

I know about opening up the filters and that :)

I was more thinking what could I do when playing the bassline to make it interesting if you know what I mean? Like now its just, a note, then a note, then a note to flow inbetween the next note. Know what I mean? :lol:
Click to expand...

LoL, yeah I actually know what you mean. Don't forget about velocity and aftertouch (you can automate aftertouch if your MIDI keys don't support it). Many synth sounds will add some extra "umph" when they are programmed to do as such. Rob Papen's Predator and Albino have a large majority of presets that have some bells and whistles mapped to aftertouch and velocity if you're looking for some inspiration.

Cheers.
 
Over your longer notes put a higher/lower short midi note. Set the portamento up a bit to taste. Set to mono. Long note should then bend up/down to second note then back. On mid-rangy sounds you can get some really interesting effects this way.

Or render to audio and chop up, reverse, add fx etc etc. Resample.
 
Try attaching filter envelopes to dials you wouldnt normally associate movement with....Resonance / wavetable / chorus modulation / phaser / distortion etc and automate the movement of those filters differently for each frequency band of the bass! Might not work, but you never know until you try!
 
lostnthesound said:
Select your current bass track (we'll call it Track A) and duplicate it (Track B). Now change up the bass a bit on Track B. Once you've found a sound you like, go into the MIDI arrangement of Track A and mute some of the notes. Then go to the MIDI arrangement of Track B and do the opposite–Mute the notes that are still active in Track A, but keep active the notes that you muted in Track A. Now you essentially have the same sequence being played by two bass sounds, though each bass sound will only play the MIDI notes you have enabled on the respective track.

The additional bass noise will help push the interest a bit. Hope that didn't sound too confusing.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

This is the best tip so far. You can also just leave the midi notes as they are after duplicating and using volume automation to switch between the basslines, that way you could also morph from bassline A to bassline B for some more possibilities. Great for creating morphing basslines.
 
ARTFX said:
This is the best tip so far. You can also just leave the midi notes as they are after duplicating and using volume automation to switch between the basslines, that way you could also morph from bassline A to bassline B for some more possibilities. Great for creating morphing basslines.
Click to expand...

Oh wow nice man, thanks! Thats actually a really sick idea to automate the volume :)
 
ARTFX said:
This is the best tip so far. You can also just leave the midi notes as they are after duplicating and using volume automation to switch between the basslines, that way you could also morph from bassline A to bassline B for some more possibilities. Great for creating morphing basslines.
Click to expand...

Great idea! I never thought of throwing in some volume automation between the two basslines.

Cheers!
 
If anyone uses FM8, it has a xy pad built in and you can assign each corner of the square pad to one of your (already made) bass patches. You can then automate the position of that xy node on the pad I believe.
So you can morph up to 4 bass sounds together. Octane DLR use this apparently.
 
Hi dude, do you know if the bass patch has to be made within FM8?

Cause you can also apply FM8 as an insert :) So I wonder if I could take a sound from another plugin then use the xy pad as an insert to make it do crazzzzy stuff!

That might be something to try :D
 
Hmmm, well i just tried to load a massive patch in fm8 and I had no luck. I have a newish version of fm8 though and it only wants (.nfm8) files. But im lead to believe that older versions used the .ksd file format? Like massive?
Hmmmm, ive had too much stella right now!

It switched from using .ksd to using .nfm8, im almost certain. (cant be 100% like).

To sum up... doesn't look like you can. I may have a play around with it tomorrow when im a bit more sober. If I find any tricks to doing that ill let you know!
 
Salvus said:
Hmmm, well i just tried to load a massive patch in fm8 and I had no luck. I have a newish version of fm8 though and it only wants (.nfm8) files. But im lead to believe that older versions used the .ksd file format? Like massive?
Hmmmm, ive had too much stella right now!

It switched from using .ksd to using .nfm8, im almost certain. (cant be 100% like).

To sum up... doesn't look like you can. I may have a play around with it tomorrow when im a bit more sober. If I find any tricks to doing that ill let you know!
Click to expand...

You cant open massive patches in fm8 :D but its a good idea, the morph thing. Maybe try putting it on your fx chain and automate/morph between 4 fx patches?
 
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