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Bootsy Collins on Jaco Pastorius

#181
A bass line that I never tire of. Funny hearing it isolated as (much like countless other bass tracks) it really doesn't sound all that impressive (playing or tone-wise) by itself. My introduction to "Good Times" was via Grandmaster Flash's "Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel". That's the only hip-hop track I can think of that used Chic's actual recording in the creation of a new piece. I think that "Rapper's Delight" was so iconic that it kind of branded "Good Times" in a way that made other hip-hop artists not want to touch it. But who knows. Maybe it's been sampled a bunch of times and I'm just not aware of those records. But yeah, it certainly inspired its fair share of other bass lines (one not already mentioned would be Spoonie Gee and The Sequence's "Monster Jam").
 
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#182
Wood and Wire said:
The StingRay has bass & treble turned up full, which creates a pretty scooped tone (a graphic representation could be the letter u)

The Alembic is more mid focused, with less extreme high, and low frequency content (a graphic representation could be the letter n)

The two combine nicely, with the StingRay surrounding the Alembic (the n sits inside the u).

In the final mix, it seems like the Alembic is slightly more present during the chorus - creating a chorus effect, and the StingRay is more dominant in the verse, or the treble is restored on the console / less treble is lost to compression with less of the Alembic in the mix.
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Ya, something home recoding fans should take note of. Lots of studio work at times to get it to sound right on a record. Not that he needs any help with his playing, one of my all time favorites. Most don’t realize the engineers part in a good recording. The player is the biggest factor but wether the bass is just DI, DI & mic, doubled along with another bass, and the room the cab is recorded in makes a big difference. One reason why I’m gonna make a single 10” box just for playing around with mic’d ( for recording ). There is a dirt that you can get from an overdriven speaker that I feel a program cannot replicate.
 
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#183
Man, I had to go through this line a LOT to make sure I got the nuances right. You can be close and sound convincing but there's something about just nailing it.

The funniest thing to me... and I hope I have the story right (or close enough) is that Bernard showed up and Nile showed him the song real fast. And Bernard was playing it pretty straight. And Nile said "Just walk it, man!" and boom... history.
 
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#188
LBS-bass said:
I'm sure the engineers recording Michael Jackson had no idea what they were doing. </sarcasm>

Seems like they got it right in the final mix. Listening to this through earbuds.



This seems like a pretty good example of how bedroom tone doesn't equate to good mix tone. You can always add bottom to a bass track during mixing; it's much harder to selectively remove what you don't need when the bass is too boomy. Too much boom on this would have made it harder to get that punchiness in the sweet spot, IMO. What they ended up with had plenty of punch for the genre.

What's more remarkable to me is the precision with which he played both lines, when they're layered on top of each other. Not a note out of place!
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I find this tone too punchy, really gets in the way of the vocals, especially because it's so loud. The whole instrumentation is very bright, I think it could use some dark, fat bass. Personal taste and all.
 
#192
That was quite good.

One thing I have always battled with is the use of ghost notes. I used to use them everywhere and it really helps me feel the groove and keep time, it's part of the way I naturally started playing . When I hear isolated bass parts from top players, I don't hear so many of them. And I've heard some good instructors saying not to use them too much, as it can interfere with the feel of the drums. I'm not sure, but these days I'm coming down on the side of doing less of that. Or at least being very conscious and deliberate about doing it.

I think the ghost notes work in a very sparse context, like the groove section of a Prince song. But your rhythm has to be dead on. Especially if there is a swing to the groove, you need to be feeling the swing the same as the drummer.
 
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#194
bass12 said:
A bass line that I never tire of. Funny hearing it isolated as (much like countless other bass tracks) it really doesn't sound all that impressive (playing or tone-wise) by itself. My introduction to "Good Times" was via Grandmaster Flash's "Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel". That's the only hip-hop track I can think of that used Chic's actual recording in the creation of a new piece. I think that "Rapper's Delight" was so iconic that it kind of branded "Good Times" in a way that made other hip-hop artists not want to touch it. But who knows. Maybe it's been sampled a bunch of times and I'm just not aware of those records. But yeah, it certainly inspired its fair share of other bass lines (one not already mentioned would be Spoonie Gee and The Sequence's "Monster Jam").
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Here's a fun one you don't hear much that takes a section of the bassline...sampled or not, who knows. A fun dance song.

 
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#196
ElectroVibe said:
My favorite of his was always "I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross. He and Niles played on that.

Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out - YouTube
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That’s a great track for sure. I think that Diana was the last really solid album that Chic made. After that things just seemed to go downhill - although both Nile and Bernard separately went on to produce some stellar work with other artists.
 
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