effecting BASS LINE

[stefancrs]

Orbitule: I usually do that within the patch, by adding a peaking filter with high resonance, following the pitch.

[s7a5]

it depends what kind of bass you want to achieve
donno how about a real bass guitar, but when workin with synths u need to slightly cut frequencies below 40 hz (just a lil hi pass filter) and cut hi frequencies using (hi pass filter). When cutting hi freqs, it depends from you and whethjer it conflicts with other instruments playing on hi feq range.
Effecting your bass
well basiclly there are no rules, but dont do a lot of effecting on bass cuz it will lose it power.
You may add some delay, make sure feedback is set on 0 or close to it. Use some reverb to make it sound more clean, dont overuse it and u always have a slider wet and dry make sure wet is set about 20 %
I usually dont use chorus on bass but if i do i use it only at some parts of my tracks to give a bass some character.

[greendoor]

how would you approach bass lines that span over an octave and therefore don't have the same definition on every tone?

I mean, imagine a real bass guitar, it sounds really cool on the fifth string but kind of weak on the first two (generally speaking, vic wooten excluded)

I've spent a lot of time with keyboard and real bass guitars over this issue. With a real bass, the choice of strings is crucial, second only to the choice of bass & pickups. Some strings and basses are simply faulty and not suitable for recording.

Even with the best bass guitar, there will be significant differences between the same noted fretted on different strings.

Here are two solutions:
1 - sample every possible note, and map different parts of the keyboard so you can play all notes on any string. Then choose carefully when playing - trying to stay on the same string as much as possible.

2 - often with bass a single great sample can stretch well enough over the range required. I find a single high note can stretch down better than trying to speed a low note up. Careful use of a filter assigned to follow keyboard range (stronger filter on the high notes) can yield a very playable bass. Because the sampler filter is best able to filter based on keyboard note, it's better to fix it in the sampler than with an effect later on.

I like to get a pure bass note right from the source - I don't like using effects or layering if possible. But if all else fails, some compression and filtering can work. Supercamelphat has rescued the odd bass line for me - but I'm getting much better at getting it right at the source.

[AndrewSimon]

Trilogy is all that you need.
But remember Trilogy is all dry samples recorded directly from a real bass.
To dress it up you want to consider the traditional FX like chorus, flanger a little distortion then if you wish (I never do) use some amp simulation like Amplitube.
And last but not least use final polishing tools like a good compressor (a must for any strong bass) EQ and some room resonance (I don't like reverb or delay on bass but if you do use just a little)
Never pan bass, bass is non directional and it's best to be left in the center thou you could experiment with 180 degree phase shifts.

[greendoor]

An 180 degree phase shift should effectively give you complete cancellation

Before compressing any VSTi audio, compress the midi data first. Generally, there should be no reason to compress a VSTi audio, unless you want to deform the sound as an effect. But if some notes are louder than others, check the midi velocity data first. For bass, you can often just set all velocities at the same level. Then, if some notes are louder than others, that would be a problem in the sampler, so try to fix it there first.

If using modulation effects, consider bass-specific ones, or at least use a send with the lows rolled off, so you don't muddy up the low end.

Never say never about panning bass. I've heard some great stuff with delays or doubled up parts. But remember low end needs power, and it's a lot easier to get power from two speakers than from one. Our ears are less directional with bass, so feel free to pan if you want to Checkout old Beatles records ...