ACID BASS-LINE or Bass-lines general

Questions and Answers
10

I made a set called flbass New sample set: fretless electric bass (flbass)

I like them a lot (not that that matters), but I've seen them used quite a bit by others, so you may find that useful. flbass is just using notes tuned to c - it's not single notes like that double bass pack (thanks for sharing by the way) :slight_smile:

@Soldug I've been intending to answer this for a while, but I think jwaldmann has done a pretty good job. Maybe some extra breakdown and a sound example could help -

The way I'm building bass lines at the moment is:

  • separate notes from rhythm
  • build the foundation harmonic part
  • add harmonic variation
  • add rhythmic variation
  • add timbre variation

example:

-- first pass, struct defines rhythm, foundational harmonic line defined by note
struct "t*16" $ note "[7 0 0 0 5 0 3 5 0 7 0 0 0 1 0 3 5 ]" 
# s "bass1:0" # cut 1

-- add harmonic variation
sometimes (off 0.125 (|+ up "[7|12]")) $ 
struct "t*16" $ note "[7 0 0 0 5 0 3 5 0 7 0 0 0 1 0 3 5 ]" 
# s "bass1:0" # cut 1

-- add rhythmic variation
sometimes (off 0.125 (|+ up "[7|12]")) $ 
someCyclesBy 0.2 (mask (binary 200)) $ 
struct "t*16" $ note "[7 0 0 0 5 0 3 5 0 7 0 0 0 1 0 3 5 ]" 
# s "bass1:0" # cut 1

-- add timbre variation
sometimes (off 0.125 (|+ up "[7|12]")) $ 
someCyclesBy 0.2 (mask (binary 200)) $ 
struct "t*16" $ note "[7 0 0 0 5 0 3 5 0 7 0 0 0 1 0 3 5 ]" 
# s "<bass1:2!4 bass1:0!4>" # cut 1 
# coarse 5

-- more rhythmic mods/final line
swingBy 0.2 16 $
whenmod 18 17 (#silence) $ 
someCyclesBy 0.1 (linger "s") $
sometimes (off 0.125 (|+ up "[7|12]")) $ 
slow 2 $ 
someCyclesBy 0.2 (mask (binary 200)) $ 
struct "t*16" $ note "[7 0 0 0 5 0 3 5 0 7 0 0 0 1 0 3 5 ]" 
# s "<bass1:2!4 bass1:0!4>" # cut 1 
# coarse 5

where you can modify any of those parameters live and switch up the line significantly

how it sounds:

side note, I'm doing this in estuary which I need to use for a workshop performance - one of the things that has been left out here is "attack variation" - there are heaps of options with legato (which I'd usually use, but is not available in estuary), begin, end, alternating gain patterns, speed etc

TBH though, all of this will still not necessarily make a good sounding line - understanding the line your trying to create at a harmonic level (eg I'm leaning on the phrygian mode heavily, and making some safe off |+ up notes with the 5th and octave), as well as at a rhythmic level (using swing, 8th/16th note rhythms) will help a lot ... having a sound in your head you want to get out helps as well - maybe you can kickstart some ideas from here though.

PS one of my favourite basslines I've written is in the second half of my solstice set ...

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