Night Shift by the Commodores

[cazksbass]

Lately I've rediscovered this song - very open uncluttered arrangement, great vocals and a bassline that carries the song beautifully.
Listening to the song, though, it seems the bass player plays a note and it seems to ring for several measures. Man, you can really hear the "mwah" singing on this song.....so how the heck does he get that kind of sustain?

[TonyFranklinFan]

It's a keyboard snyth from what I remember someone saying...I always thought a fretless bass too {even though the music video shows him hold a bass} i don't think it was.

[PJSShearer]

I was in a band called "Nightshift" once and we used to play that song a lot (obviously!). I used a fretless, some heavy compression (to help the sustain), finger vibrato (to help the sustain) and a touch of chorus (you guessed it) to get that sound.

I actually learned the song from the Pop Plan chart as I'd never heard it before I joined the band - I'd been away on a cruise ship for a year and had missed it, along with a bunch of other songs we played as well (Call me by Go West ~ Que?). The chart said "synth" on it, but the line is so obviously "under the fingers" - especially the run/fill back in to the last chorus - it must have been played on a Bass Guitar with some fx ...

[cazksbass]

Synth bass ?? Hmm, well I suppose it's possible but I really don't think so. With headphones you can really hear some "under the fingers" random stuff going on as well as some slide in a couple of places.
Mainly I just admire the musicality of the song as a whole, and the way the bass supports it so seemingly effortlessly.

One vote for synth, one vote for real fretless...anyone else?

[DWBass]

It's probably a mix of both but that tune came out during the heyday of the synths so it wouldn't surprise me if it is synth! It's probably more sample based as opposed to a synth created fake fretless sound!

Edit: Just listened to it. It's definitely synth. You can tell by the initial attack and volume of the sound. It's pretty even across all the notes! You'd be surprised what some synth players can play. Hawk Wolinski, Jeff Lorber, Tom Schuman and Mark Portmann all play some killer synth basslines!

[JimK]

Originally Posted by DWBass

It's probably a mix of both but that tune came out during the heyday of the synths so it wouldn't surprise me if it is synth! It's probably more sample based as opposed to a synth created fake fretless sound!

IIRC, the Ensoniq Mirage was popular back then (was new & revolutionary, IIRC).
One of the best fretless tones I have heard was from my friend's Mirage...the slapped tone was pretty impressive, too.
After showing me all of this...my friend said, "See, you can be replaced".
What my myopic friend did not realize was this: Eventually, WE were all replaced.

[cazksbass]

Yikes.....synths suck puppy pink things. Oh well, all I know is that to my ears at least, Night Shift is a pretty darned cool tune and is assuredly doable with a fretless bass. The key, having listened to it myself about a dozen times in a row, would be nailing the vocals! It's the harmonies that seem to impart an angelic feel to the tune - appropriately enough, given the song's subject matter.

Thanks buds.