Using the same bass sound in my prods lately. Yay or Nay?

parsons19

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Howdy guys,

In a lot of the stuff I have been fiddling with lately I have been pretty much using the same bass patch non stop! Is just a reece sound that good old Fletch taught me a while back. That was back when I wasn't even sure about putting bass in my tunes! :lol:

It seems perfect for what I am wanting to acheive but I thought listeners may get a little bored of hearing the same patch from me. What can I do to a basic patch to make it that little bit more interesting/varied? :)
 
Why dont you do some automations with resonance and filter cutoff's etc, get a bit of movement going in there? Or change the oscillator waveforms?
 
If you are using a wavetable synth, you can try tweaking a few different knobs and whatnot. Or you could add a light amount of drive. Vibrato. Anything. try changing up the reso. Or adjusting the cutoff slightly. EQ can be a good tool here as well. Also, a good way of varying bass sounds is have the bass sound phase, so that it morphs throughout the line.
However, be aware that you shouldn't just change your bass sound because you feel like it will get boring. Change it to what the music is asking for. And if you are using the same bass patch over and over and over again, that probably means that you should try varying up how you make your songs a little more.
 
I have a bank of bass patches, 2 of them make it into every track i make, half of them are in most of what i make, the others i still use quite allot...nothing wrong with it imo, infact u can tell by listening to a few tracks from ur favorite producer that they do the same, after all Spor, Noisia, Phace, etc etc wouldnt be what they are, without using the sounds that made them famous
 
Cheers for the responses :)

I have done some Cutoff automation before man, good trick that one as long as it is subtle! :D Never thought about automation Reso :P

Cheers to Joe too, good point about not changing it for the point of it! However, using the same patch doesn't mean the songs are bland in my opinion. Think about Rock Bands. The bassist is often using the same/similar tone most of the time and guitarists standard tones are always similar. Its only when the band does like wierd stuff it changes up a bit! :P

But yeah, Electronic Music is a different story so I see what you are saying :D

---------- Post added at 20:11 ---------- Previous post was at 20:10 ----------

Oh cheers miszt too! Yours just popped up as I posted.

I was just thinking about that. I am pretty much a Burial addict right now and his tunes, in my opinion, are sensational :) A lot of the bass sounds are pretty similar in most tracks though...
 
I would change the bass every tune tbh, but as said before you can easily change a bass you have saved as a preset and make it sound different.

you can always split the bass into different channels and process channel them all differently\multi eq each one and see what you come up with, all done very quickly.
 
I think it's entirely up to the artist and the track.

I've actually pondered over this question before and thought to myself about my favorite albums of all time. If you looks at some classics like Metallica's "Kill 'em All," you'll note the guitar, bass, drums, etc. are all essentially the same–as is true with many albums done by many bands. However, it's the actual songwriting and composition that keeps the tunes interesting. If you can use the same bass, synth, etc. to make multiple killer tunes with their own distinct character, I say go for it IMO.
 
I was just thinking about that. I am pretty much a Burial addict right now and his tunes, in my opinion, are sensational :) A lot of the bass sounds are pretty similar in most tracks though...

I'm a huge Burial fan, when it comes down to it though Burial recycles A LOT of his sounds. This isn't an issue, as long as you are using the sounds in new and different ways.

Processing and automation are key to keeping these sounds fresh!

Besides, if producers supposed to use the same sound multiple times then why do we have the ability to save patches in the first place?
 
Id have to say though its when these producers have their individual sounds which they are known for, that they can pull off re-using them. A common bass sound is going to get abit boring if you keep using it.

I do like to change it from the last track even if its only slightly, got to explore new sounds aswell its part of the fun. As every new track improves from the last i find ways to improve the sounds too. I normally start with one of my presets and build off it. Pretty much all of my bass presets have evolved from the same few i made and loved back then.
 
i think you could use the same bass sound in all your tunes, sure, if its a good bass, go for it.
i usually make all the sounds from scratch but recently there is a certain 808 weve been coming back to for a few tunes, same with a double bass sample.
 
Chasing Shadows use the same bass in every tune they make, and they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves.
 
Cheers for all the responses. Its interesting to see what different people think!

I will put some tunes out soon perhaps and see what people think :D I got loads of stuff I am fiddling with so:

A. Could take a while!
B. Some bass sound smight change anyway! :lol:
 
for real no problem using it again, but better keep making new patches aswell , i likes to get lots of different basses in for "call and response" or what not.


Fairplays spor and noisia use the same patches, but they are spor and noisia bass!! and you bet they know their synthesis inside out before they established the best sounding bass on the scene!
 
I have a bank of bass patches I've made in Blue that I use constantly ... I'm always adding 1 or 2 sounds to it with each song cause I always make a few new sounds for each song (that's 1/2 the fun of producing for me) but I don't see why you can't use it as you're "staple' bass as long as each song can stand its own ground ya know.
 
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