Bass guitar over tracked synth

[danengland]

Hi Justin

I read an interview were you mentioned recording Bass Guitar and Synth Bass together on tracks. I am playing with an artist whose music has quite a lot of synth bass, some of which I replicate on live bass guitar with effects and some on an actual synth. There are also some tracks were they want specific Synth parts tracked on Ableton so I would only be augmenting the part on bass guitar. I don't necessarily have to play the same part but it can be difficult to cut through as the synth parts tend to involve low subby synth parts.

Do you come across many live scenarios where you are playing bass guitar on top of a tracked bass synth part? Would you normally go for a more guitar-like sound and approach in these situations rather competing with the synth as it were?

Do you have any advice?

Do you approach it in a similar way in the studio?

Thanks

Dan

 

[Dan Bozek]

Another Dan here. I've been in this exact same situation this year. Justin might have some additional advise, but what I've found to be the case is to definitely go for some crunchy tones that exist in a midrange space above the sub parts in our sequences, or to create subby tones with an octave pedal and other effects to replace what was keys on the record. Playing synth bass and then switching to electric bass to bring the "rock attack" in the chorus or whatever is fun too.

I've been really having fun with the energy on stage of not all the low end completely coming from me. A different and fun situation.

 

[jmjbassplayer]

Hi Dan(s),

I think it's all about sounds with "point" or "bite", not very rich in the low end, per se. Plus, there's millions of things you can do to tailor the synth sonics as well: cycle through all oscillator wave shapes, filter cutoffs etc. before committing to anything. It's a two-way street. Synchronicity between the two is crucial, and I can confidently say that I've gotten very good at it with practice, both as a bass player and as a producer.

Live scenarios: sure, with NIN there's been those circumstances, and definitely with Beck as well. Try doing things like palm-muting with a pick on a short/medium scale instrument over synth bass. I find that my Mustang, for instance, marries beautifully out at FOH with synth bass stuff.

Last things I'd say: don't worry too much about "cutting through". It's not necessarily your primary function to do that, particularly when augmenting a crucial and/or specific synth part. Look at your function more as "flavoring" sometimes. Trust me: if you've got the right sound/approach, you'd be missed if you stopped playing, for sure.

Side note: historically, there are some pretty high bars to strive for when it comes to the beautiful co-existence of bass guitar/synth bass. One that comes to mind that is particularly magnificent, if not the pinnacle, is New Order's "Love Vigilantes".

J

 

[danengland]

Thank you for you responses. Much appreciated
Dan