Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[JES]

There's not often a perceptible line between "taste" and "can't pull off the shredder licks."

This morning I installed a Nordstrand Power Blade (their blade style P pickup) in my Lull, which I've got set up like the bottom 5 strings of a touch guitar. Sounds amazing. Less "hi fi" than the Zen Blade in my MF. That's what will go in my Martin Keith build. I might even get a 6-string version for the MF. We'll see.

 

[monsterthompson]

My Miezo neck pickup is being problematic again. I just had it fixed. I’m pretty sure the electronics are cursed.

I find it oddly poetic as I do have an actual broken neck. Though I could live without this metaphor.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

26469614[/URL], member: 37282"]There's not often a perceptible line between "taste" and "can't pull off the shredder licks."

This morning I installed a Nordstrand Power Blade (their blade style P pickup) in my Lull, which I've got set up like the bottom 5 strings of a touch guitar. Sounds amazing. Less "hi fi" than the Zen Blade in my MF. That's what will go in my Martin Keith build. I might even get a 6-string version for the MF. We'll see.

that reminds me that I would like to contact MF to have basically a vintage pbass but headless. but also have some upgrades to make it a gig tank, man stuff gets beat up on the road
unless the prices have gone crazy like everything else
when can we all hear the stuff you recorded?

 

[monsterthompson]

In the middle of a running drone. It’s so good but I’m not sure I can stop, record, and get back to this.

 

[JES]

when can we all hear the stuff you recorded?

hahahaha. All the touch guitar clips on SoundCloud (so anything in my music that sounds like bass or guitar) since the fall 2021 are the MF. As for the rest, I gotta be satisfied first with my process before I make a record. Also: whether I make on that is somehow both synth and touch guitar, or if that’s two separate things. Or somehow I make diptychs, which was something I was exploring before.

edit: that’s not to say I think everything I done so far is crap, just that I’m still getting there.

also, I play most days but don’t always record, so some of my best stuff is lost. I’m ok with that.

 

[JES]

In the middle of a running drone. It’s so good but I’m not sure I can stop, record, and get back to this.

don’t stop, just record.

 

[lucas303]

Sending my finished mix off to be mastered as I type this. Feels good man.

 

[lordradish]

I'm sending it out for mastering because my ears are also damaged and I am definitely don't have the EQ and compression skills to even come close to doing a reasonable job of it.

I've thought about it, but I keep coming back to 'who knows how to master ambient (in the more old school sense). I'd likely end up with a bunch of compressed tracks, with the quiet parts too loud.

My prob is I don't know anyone around here who both knows this kind of music well and also has fully-functioning ears.

 

[monsterthompson]

don’t stop, just record.

 

[lucas303]

Really great stuff. I paused Earth 2 to listen to this and it meshed nicely.

What gear did you use?

 

[monsterthompson]

26471632[/URL], member: 340182"]Really great stuff. I paused Earth 2 to listen to this and it meshed nicely.

What gear did you use?

Thanks!

It was the Qu-Bit Bloom sequencing an Erica Black VCO into an Erica Polivoks VCF. The signal was split to a Noise Engineering Desmodus Versio reverb for a pad and shimmer effect (I know how much people here love shimmer reverb). The signal also went external to my dirt pedal collection. The main effect was a BSRI FZZ, but I had a DSM OCSD, and a Hilbish Sol pre. All of that hit the mixer with the OTO BIM and BAM.

I added a mastering plugin on the bounce to compress a little and give some additional stereo spread.

Edit - For @steubig I used the WMD Javelin here. There’s some modulation on the attack time and the accent by Pam’s.

 

[Spectrum]

Cool

 

[JES]

That was GOOD.

 

[monsterthompson]

That was GOOD.

Thanks!

It's funny to think it was one take, with a four note sequence, with only one oscillator. Granted the Bloom fractal patterns expand the original four notes, and there were some octave shifts, but still, I only programmed four notes evenly spaced in time. The rest was timbre and delay adjustments. It ran a bit longer than I hoped for (for sharing purposes), but I'm generally satisfied with how it turned out.

 

[JES]

Here's today's noodle with intentionally less playing. This one was played on the Lull with the Nordstand Power Blade (P-style blade). Fingerstyle until about 3:15, then touch style. The difference is pretty subtle. I did add some compression with a little harmonic distortion in Logic because I felt like it, but it's going in clean. Reverb is Neunaber wet. As with @monsterthompson 's, I didn't mean for it to run to 12 minutes, but it did.

 

[Bob_Ross]

This one was played on the Lull with the Nordstand Power Blade (P-style blade).

How is that Lull tuned, and what gauges of strings are you using? It sounds wonderfully crystalline, a sound I normally associate with higher pitched/thinner gauged strings than a typical bass guitar sports.

 

[monsterthompson]

Here's today's noodle with intentionally less playing. This one was played on the Lull with the Nordstand Power Blade (P-style blade). Fingerstyle until about 3:15, then touch style. The difference is pretty subtle. I did add some compression with a little harmonic distortion in Logic because I felt like it, but it's going in clean. Reverb is Neunaber wet. As with @monsterthompson 's, I didn't mean for it to run to 12 minutes, but it did.

 

[hieronymous]

I haven't been able to listen to what people have been posting, but I have been experimenting myself. Three live jams with Subharmonicon, DFAM & Sirin - then borrowed a mixer (for that stereo spread), added bass, and voila - what I've been wanting to do for so long:



Still hoping to score an analog mixer, but also thinking about the 1010 Music Bluebox, so I can do live to iPhone but also have the ability to manipulate the tracks later...

 

[lucas303]

Great stuff @JES and @hieronymous (and I thought the video was awesome too)!

 

[JES]

How is that Lull tuned, and what gauges of strings are you using? It sounds wonderfully crystalline, a sound I normally associate with higher pitched/thinner gauged strings than a typical bass guitar sports.

Good ear! I have it set up as the bottom 5 strings of a touch guitar. It’s also 35” scale and ash/maple so tends to bright. Open tuning is BbFCGD, .95, .75, .55, .30, .017. Cobalt flats for the lowest 3 strings, a Sunbeam for the .30 and the .017 is plain steel. The steel should probably be a bit thinner because it’s a bit loud and bright compared to the others, but I got .017s accidentally sent to me so I put it on. The ceramic blade pickup helps too.