Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[Bob_Ross]

i've heard from friends that flute is also necessary.

I don't think they're talking about the soundtrack...

:ducks:

 

[monsterthompson]

I don't think they're talking about the soundtrack...

:ducks:

 

[JES]

Well and just like that I have three Eurorack modules on their way:

Serge Triple Waveshaper
Serge Wave Multipliers
Just Friends

 

[hieronymous]

Quick beat testing out the piccolo bass.
Basse, Piccolo Bass and drum break. No EQ, No master.
Record, bounce, done in about 4 mins. Just to test things out.

Dang, I must not be paying attention - piccolo bass?!!

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Dang, I must not be paying attention - piccolo bass?!!

No new instruments, I just put piccolo strings on my old G&L jazz bass, it sounds amazing but the string spacing is too tight for me now. So with really tiny strings it works out well.

 

[JES]

An old piccolo bass track for you. Ibanez Roadstar II with GHS piccolo set. Bass solo in the middle is a different instrument--probably my old Bassstar.

 

[dukeorock]

Well and just like that I have three Eurorack modules on their way:

Serge Triple Waveshaper
Serge Wave Multipliers
Just Friends

Man, Just Friends is one of my all time favorite modules. I use it mostly for modulation but it’s an awesome VCO as well.

 

[monsterthompson]

Random observation of the day - cable routing and gear organization impacts on workflow.

I just rearranged my living room studio and swapped the location of a few items, allowing my eurorack to sit on the desk my bass pedals used to sit on. This put the rack closer to my OTO desktop effects units (Comp & Dist, Delay, Reverb), but not quite close enough to use the existing short cables I had. A few tweaks later and my line/rack level module was moved to a more convenient position, and now I can easily run my rack through those effects. With this different physical layout I was already finding exciting effects combos on my initial test run. Now I have the Erica Delay and Reverb + Noise Engineering Reverb in the rack and the OTO units at my disposal, which is great since I have three oscillators and a two-channel sampler in my rack.

This whole physical arrangement of the room/gear immediately opened up creative options. I feel like Robin Williams just told me to stand on my desk.
...not to mention the fact that it gave me a reason to dust.

 

[Starthief]

Man, Just Friends is one of my all time favorite modules. I use it mostly for modulation but it’s an awesome VCO as well.

I use it mostly as a VCO but it's an awesome modulator as well

 

[hieronymous]

No new instruments, I just put piccolo strings on my old G&L jazz bass, it sounds amazing but the string spacing is too tight for me now. So with really tiny strings it works out well.

OK, it's coming back to me - I think I even posted in that conversation lol - but I like how something we talked about before manifests again in a new form - especially when it's music and sounds we can listen to...

An old piccolo bass track for you. Ibanez Roadstar II with GHS piccolo set. Bass solo in the middle is a different instrument--probably my old Bassstar.

Nice! You're doing the chords at the beginning? Sounds like with a pick? I like the concept of the group - I have never had a satisfying situation where I got to play with another bassist...

Random observation of the day - cable routing and gear organization impacts on workflow.

I just rearranged my living room studio and swapped the location of a few items, allowing my eurorack to sit on the desk my bass pedals used to sit on. This put the rack closer to my OTO desktop effects units (Comp & Dist, Delay, Reverb), but not quite close enough to use the existing short cables I had. A few tweaks later and my line/rack level module was moved to a more convenient position, and now I can easily run my rack through those effects. With this different physical layout I was already finding exciting effects combos on my initial test run. Now I have the Erica Delay and Reverb + Noise Engineering Reverb in the rack and the OTO units at my disposal, which is great since I have three oscillators and a two-channel sampler in my rack.

This whole physical arrangement of the room/gear immediately opened up creative options. I feel like Robin Williams just told me to stand on my desk.
...not to mention the fact that it gave me a reason to dust.
View attachment 5307243

I'm having interesting distance issues - the Grandmother is in the middle and pushed the DFAM/SubH off to the left - but the wall wart cable isn't long enough to get to the power strip, which I moved further away so the I wasn't putting so much stress on the Blue Box power cable. Fortunately the Sirin wall wart has a longer chord and works for the DFAM. The physicality of gear is interesting - or is annoying a better word? I like your new setup!

Reality for me is that I can only leave a limited amount of stuff out - if I have an idea I have to get stuff out of boxes - like Moogerfoogers, though I got the virtual ones and have been experimenting. I'd prefer to use the real thing though if possible. I'm also getting comfortable with Reaper - recording into the Blue Box, then importing those into Reaper to manipulate, then playing along with it to my iPhone via GO:MIXER PRO-X.

It feels like TMI but here's a shot of my current setup:

Next might be using the Space Echo instead of the Moogerfooger delay...

 

[monsterthompson]

The physicality of gear is interesting - or is annoying a better word? I like your new setup!

When you’re working with 1.5 arms economy of movement gets real quickly. None of us are spiders, even if our music is from mars.

And thanks! I still have a wheeled standing desk I can place the euro on. It’s nice to be able to spin around the room and look out my window at night while I drone.

 

[dukeorock]

I use it mostly as a VCO but it's an awesome modulator as well

Haha!

 

[scott sinner]

As with most of what I do, the whole thing isn't textural. But at the bridge at 4 minutes ish in, enjoyed some granular mangling of the bass via Empress Zoia.

However, I play all the verse parts here with artificial harmonics, which is fun if you never dove in that.

Also love that the Zoia can now play samples for that spoken word part, which was done in VCV Rack. There is actually a lot of subtle VCV Rack granular etc. mess on vocals throughout this.

 

[hieronymous]

When you’re working with 1.5 arms economy of movement gets real quickly. None of us are spiders, even if our music is from mars.

And thanks! I still have a wheeled standing desk I can place the euro on. It’s nice to be able to spin around the room and look out my window at night while I drone.

I love the image of a spider playing a modular! And also of you spinning around in your studio.

It has been interesting thinking of the physicality of physical gear - as bassists, it's about our fingers, the way the bass hangs on our bodies, the weight (!!!) - but when you go beyond that to more electronic stuff, it becomes something else! I guess pedalboards are another thing - I updated mine a little bit, it was tricky getting all the plugs to be lined up and available...

 

[monsterthompson]

It has been interesting thinking of the physicality of physical gear - as bassists, it's about our fingers, the way the bass hangs on our bodies, the weight (!!!) - but when you go beyond that to more electronic stuff, it becomes something else!

I think an interesting reason basses and guitars work for live pop/rock bands is because of how they are physically played. The business ends of the instruments face the audience so they can see what is being played as evidence the musician is actually doing something to generate the sound. Drums also have that movement/sound initiation relationship even if the crowd can't see the drummer as clearly. Pianos have a bit of an obscured view, even when turned 90 degrees to let the crowd see some hand movements, but it is generally clear that a piano noise happens when a pianist's hands make an observable motion.

However modular and synth and DJ performances suffer from a disconnect where the crowd can't easily tell what movements relate to which sounds are being heard. For all they know it is just "fake" movements choreographed to a backing track. Some of this is the obscured view of the tiny moments being made, and some of this is the unusual sounds being produced by mysterious little boxes on a table. The crowd generally doesn't consider that a button push might trigger a sequence, and the pre show crafting of the sequence is where the musicality is.

...enough ramblings. I should hit the gym and burn off this pre workout buzz.

 

[monsterthompson]

Also love that the Zoia can now play samples

I need to test this.

…also, I like the track.

 

[FaithNoMan]

As with most of what I do, the whole thing isn't textural. But at the bridge at 4 minutes ish in, enjoyed some granular mangling of the bass via Empress Zoia.

However, I play all the verse parts here with artificial harmonics, which is fun if you never dove in that.

Also love that the Zoia can now play samples for that spoken word part, which was done in VCV Rack. There is actually a lot of subtle VCV Rack granular etc. mess on vocals throughout this.

Fantastic track, playing, and sounds.

 

[theunknowndude]

I think an interesting reason basses and guitars work for live pop/rock bands is because of how they are physically played. The business ends of the instruments face the audience so they can see what is being played as evidence the musician is actually doing something to generate the sound. Drums also have that movement/sound initiation relationship even if the crowd can't see the drummer as clearly. Pianos have a bit of an obscured view, even when turned 90 degrees to let the crowd see some hand movements, but it is generally clear that a piano noise happens when a pianist's hands make an observable motion.

However modular and synth and DJ performances suffer from a disconnect where the crowd can't easily tell what movements relate to which sounds are being heard. For all they know it is just "fake" movements choreographed to a backing track. Some of this is the obscured view of the tiny moments being made, and some of this is the unusual sounds being produced by mysterious little boxes on a table. The crowd generally doesn't consider that a button push might trigger a sequence, and the pre show crafting of the sequence is where the musicality is.

...enough ramblings. I should hit the gym and burn off this pre workout buzz.

I have to agree with this… it’s like the artist the algorithm… it’s massive drum and bass electronica and the “live” videos are just off… like the whole thing is preprogrammed (although supposedly found a drummer to play live with triggers to play the crazy double bass but I only half believe that as it goes into machine gun bass kicks at times). but yeah him rocking out at a synth to press play for each new “part” doesn’t have the same effect as a band playing crazy parts jumping around - jumping into the crowd whilst playing etc.

I do like the algorithm though…

 

[scott sinner]

Fantastic track, playing, and sounds.

Thank you. Fyi Faith No More is one of my top five favorite bands. So love the username.

 

[hieronymous]

I want to respond to a couple of things, but for now, I have a question for the Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing hivemind:

I've been recording into my 1010music Blue Box, and it's been great (well, I had a couple of glitches last night but I think it's ok) for my synths. Then I take those tracks in import them into Reaper on my Mac laptop. But I don't have an interface so that I can record directly into Reaper. I don't think I would need more than 2 inputs at a time (experimenting again with Rick-O-Sound). Any suggestions? My last interface was a ProTools/Avid MBox from over 10 years ago...