how do i get pumpin electro bass live

[mrslunk]

So i'm getting an electro project on the roll, and i'm trying to work out how to get that pumpin electro bass sound

In the studio it's done via sidechained compressor fed from a 4 on the floor kick, but i'd like to be able to pull it off live

Since most compressor pedals don't take side chain (and even if they did, i'd have to feed it with something, and though we're prolly gonna run a lappy)

I was thinking a tremelo of some form might be able to do it?
Looking around i haven't see anything appropriate.

Anyone know of how to do this live?
Especially syncing to midi? (though that's prolly a stretch)

[bongomania]

There are many, many compressor plugins available, and a few are designed specifically for techno music, so just run your bass channel through one channel of the laptop's signal processing, using one of those plugins sidechained off the kick drum track.

Otherwise, the FEA Opti-FET pedal has a sidechain, and you could trigger it off an output of the kick drum track. And since you've got computer gear on a tabletop anyway, there's no reason you couldn't use a rack unit instead of a pedal--and there are many rack comps with sidechain inputs. Again, just use a beat track to trigger it. Easy.

[Jacob J]

I want to achieve the same as mrslunk. But since I´ve read another thread on this topic, I really thinking about getting FEA Opti-FET comp. I want to get sound similiar to the pumping bass like in this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9yGcKlYAiw&ob=av2e ( verse and refrain parts ). I think that Zvex Mastotron and FEA Opti-FET could do the work. What you guys think ?

[mrslunk]

Bass into lappyis what i do in the studio, but latency issues put me off doing that live.
My usual chain is bass->Ohmicide distortion->sidechained compressor.

FEA opti-fet sounds interesting. I could definately feed a trigger track to that.
I still wonder if there is a way to manage it without feeding a beat track to the pedal board.
Like if a trem with the right kind of waveshape would get close.
I guess i'm harping on about that cos i'd be nice if i could tap-tempo my whole board, synch my delay and whatever other tap tempo stuff ends up being on there. (trem, phaser, lfo's etc)

[bongomania]

Yeah, I guess if you took a Y-split off your bass, and ran one leg into a tap-tempo tremolo, and the other leg into a compressor, and sidechained the comp off the trem, then that should work!

[JohnDavisNYC]

it's hard, but try playing your lines delaying every note that lands with the kick by a 16th or 32nd note!

technique party to make the electronic sounds happen.

john

[gastric]

Sounds to me like software would be your most viable solution. If you have latency issues it's whatever hardware you're using. With a professional ASIO interface and a decent computer you should have 7ms latency with no audio issues. Nice thing about software is you should be able to provide an all-in-one BPM to all VST. I was using Bidule when exploring software solutions and there was a tap tempo module for it that would modify the master clock in Bidule so everything would be synced off the same tap tempo, assuming you don't have some master sequencer supplying everyone a clock to begin with.

[mrslunk]

Bongo: i'll try that, sounds like it'll work to me...

John: i'll give it a crack, but mostly i'm looking for that 'held pumping squarewave' sorta sound, like the chorus in the link Jacob J posted

Gastric:
Yeah, software is probably the most viable solution. And i may give up on trying a non-software solution at some point; but for the time being i'd like to avoid sending my bass through the lappy. With my current laptop setup (Dell xps-M1330 and M-Audio fasttrack ultra), the latency is still not good enough to perform live through. It's great for sequencing + abelton live....
We don't run master clock right now, maybe in the future but i'll cross that when i get there.
Did you ever explore any of the 'hardware' software solutions? like the Soundart Chameleon?