| Yes, I've been hired to play bass on (and also produce myself) various dance music styles, from deep house, to broken beat, to tech-house, downtempo, nu-school breaks, you-name-it. More and more producers in these genres want real bass. And, therefore, what they usually want is a great classic bass guitar sound--otherwise a synth can often work better.
There's so many ways it can go--sometimes a really organic, even retro classic bass sound and style is what's best (I do tons of dance music with a p-bass w/flats and a very 70's soul/funk sensibility). Othertimes, something more modern, minimal, abstract. Sometimes a sparse dub bassline juxtaposed against a house beat is killer (you'll hear ALOT of synth bass doing essentially that in house music).
Whatever vibe you try, the key thing is doing it with killer time, and a part good enough to stand up to that kinda repetition. But, producers in these genres will often find the one 4 bar thing you play that just nails it for them and then loop it for that ultimate locked down groove, and then introduce cool little fills you did here and there, often NOT where you put them! it can be very cool, to take something a bass player played with the "bass guitar hat" on, and shift it over a beat or or two or lop of a few notes and scoot them over or whatever and suddenly you've created a whole new thing you never woulda landed on otherwise(I do it to my own bass tracks all the time for fresh ideas). So, I usually get asked to lay down a variety of ideas, even some seriously crazy fills, to have a palette of bass to pull from when the slicing and dicing starts. See if they really want a "live performance" and don't intend to edit it much, or if they want you to experiment and give them a grab bag of lines and fills.
Just see what fits the tune and really drives it and makes the vibe jump out--maybe play a seriously disco-fied retro part? Maybe the main part is simply one or two fat notes on beats that aren't typically expected, but the repetition of that particular syncopation makes an intoxicating groove. Think BIG. Big holes are great and create drama--your spaces between notes and note length are as important as what the notes are. I've learned that the hard way a few times myself, when I'd hear something I tracked bass on in a dance club over a giant system and the bass was too busy and it hurt the overall groove and accessibility. Imagine how your bass part will sound in that setting.
For house with great bass guitar(but listen to synth bass too!), check out stuff by Masters at Work, Tortured Soul ( a LIVE bass/drums/keys house trio--great bass player),
some Miguel Migs, and don't forget to dig on some classic soul, funk and disco.
Last edited by pbass2 : 10-16-2007 at 02:31 PM.
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