Fingered bass chords...

[Twigman]

I play bass myself and we are recording an album at the moment...however....

I am struggling to record a certain piece which uses a lot of bass chords where I pluck (with thumb and finger) 2 strings simultaneously (not strummed like a picked bass might be) but I don't want it to sound pulled like a slapped bass might....

the difficulty I'm having recording is achieving the tone I have at rehearsals.
Due to limitations of where I am recording I am being forced to DI the bass. I am passing through a compressor before DIing to get some gain in my passive signal and some consistency to my playing. I was kind of hoping using a decent amp sim would get me back some of the tone I seem to lose by not having a miked cabinet at source......but it doesn't seem to be working....then I thought of using a sample library and Kontakt instead of the actual playing.

Being a bass player I don't actually have any bass guitar sample libraries apart from the Cakewalk Studio instruments that comes with X1 which I really don't like as there is no control over the release and the tone is generally very thin.

Is there anything in the OT bass libraries which will let finger plucked chords ring (and the associated harmonics ring that one gets when plucks 2 strings at the same time on a bass)? - I don't really want to drop any cash without hearing an example of a sample library playing plucked fingered chords........

[Gregjazz]

The trick to playing double and triple stops on bass is to use free strokes instead of rest strokes when plucking the strings. Also, move your hand toward the bridge to give yourself more control, and to prevent the strings from hitting the last fret, causing that pop/slap sound.

You also have to adopt a Gary Willis style of playing to get the clarity necessary for bass chords. Watch some videos of him playing to get an idea of hand position and his per-string finger usage.

Here's something I whipped up using CoreBass Cherry: http://www.box.net/shared/f5da2napy9uvaz5g1mt1

I added a little compressor and reverb to it--other than that it's straight out of the box.

[Twigman]

I think my live playing technique is fine. I actually analysed what I really do last night and I use 2 fingers; index on the D and middle on the G strings........it's just when I record it it doesn't sound as it does in rehearsals....there's also some tricky timing in it.


I think, having heard Core Bass Cherry playing the kind of chords I was thinking of, for the sake of $50 I may as well give it a try.....likely to buy and DL later when i get to my DAW.

Thanks for the demo

[Twigman]

***edit

scratch that got link

[Twigman]

tried it on the track I'm working on....it's better but not quite there....playing with Guitar Rig now to try and thicken things up but keeping them clean..


THANKS - it'll definitely come in handy

[Gregjazz]

Ah, great! Let me know if you need any help sequencing that chordal bass part.

[EvilDragon]

If you have any other ampsims, try them too. Guitar Rig is certainly not the best of the lot.

[Twigman]

If you have any other ampsims, try them too. Guitar Rig is certainly not the best of the lot.

I know....

i'm looking to get IK Ampeg SVX too any day now

[Gregjazz]

I think the other problem is that many of those amp/cab sims are geared for guitar and don't include many good bass presets.

[EvilDragon]

I would suggest Softube Bass Amp Room. And for freebies, AcmeBarGig BIG.

[standalone]

If you have any other ampsims, try them too. Guitar Rig is certainly not the best of the lot.

I know....

i'm looking to get IK Ampeg SVX too any day now

I got it and I like the bass amps in Amplitude Fender more. Also those in Amplitude 3.

You can check Pod Farm too, it's cheap but comes with some interesting modules for bass.