KVR Audio

Arglebargle · Post by **Arglebargle** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 7:12 pm

Bought a bass guitar last week. I probably should've waited longer than a couple days before attempting to use it in a song, but hindsight 20-20, y'know?

Anyhoo, here it is... kind of breakbeat, but with live bass. Has a sort of funky, jazzy feel. A lot of people have told me it sounds like it's from an action movie like the Matrix or something.

Playing is kinda sloppy... sorry 'bout that. I AM a complete n00b.

Polarity

Armadillo · Post by **Armadillo** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 9:54 pm

Quite Propellerheads-ish. Take a listen to "Spy break"

Bass do seem very sloppy in the intro but once it gets going it's not bad at all tbh. Quite groovy. After the intro I certainly can't tell you've only played bass for 1 week. Quite impressed actually. Did you just do 46 takes and quantized the most decent one

I suppose you already play guitar?
It got the right amount of variation. I would perhaps have liked something a bit more lead-ish, but overall it's a pretty good tune.

Nice beats and the bass gives it that organic vibe.

Arglebargle · Post by **Arglebargle** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 12:37 am

Hey friend, thanks for responding. I did do A LOT of takes, but of course I couldn't quantize the recording (that'd be really cool if you could do that though!). You are correct, I do... er, "play" the guitar. Been playing for about a year, but I have pretty much never practiced. Infact the only time it gets used is when I use it in a song, and then I just write the line and keep doing takes until I get something that doesn't completely suck.

But I suppose even such minimal guitar experience will help me with the bass.

Yeah, the beginning bass riff is easily the sloppiest. I think it's cuz the bass is primarily a rhythmic instrument, so even slight timing indiscretions sound bad, and without any other rhythmic backdrop you really focus in on those imperfections.

It was actually my intention to do something a lot more minimal than this... just the drums and bass. But my "usual style" got the better of me.

ouroboros · Post by **ouroboros** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 12:41 am

fun tune.
very cool groove. I like the arps, pacing, bassline.
My only critique might be about the tone:I can't decide whether the bass tone or the drums sound a little hollow? (mids?-are the drums phasing?) Nice run though. Def. an action movie/vid. game soundtrack in sound and composition!

Arglebargle · Post by **Arglebargle** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 1:16 am

ouroboros wrote:: (mids?-are the drums phasing?)

Yes... yes, I think you are right. I noticed that myself, though I hoped it was just my imagination.

I think I know the exact loops in question that are causing it, too. What method should I take to alleviate the phasing? Maybe just offset one of the loops <x> amount of milliseconds..?

rockstar_not · Post by **rockstar_not** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:29 am

Arglebargle, are you stretching the loops? It sounds like a poor time stretching algo on the drums to me. Not your fault, but the drums sound like they maybe were time stretched in Tracktion, which although I love the program, it's time stretch stinks royally.

-Scott

Arglebargle · Post by **Arglebargle** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 5:04 pm

hmm, no, nothing's been timestretched. The modus operendi for the drums in this song was... I created the base loop, and then created a few copies and processed them with Metallurgy to make 'em a lot weirder. then I layered the dry loop with one or two fx'd loops. I figured the loops I processed were different enough from the original to avoid phasing, but maybe not?

bsp - "Polarity" (breakbeat-ish)