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What is "the double bass sound"? Ray Brown doesn't sound anything like John Patitucci and neither sound like Gary Karr. An electric bass will never sound anything like an upright IMO. This has been discussed in tons of threads btw.
Yes, @mexMan, there are pedals that are meant to emulate the double-bass sound; You will find them mentioned in similar threads to this one. The ones that I've been told do it best are locked in with a bunch of other effects, ie a Multi-FX pedal – I don't recall which brand or model, so you'll have to do some hunting of your own in that regard.
However... Don't overlook technique!
You will also be able to make your bass sound more like a double-bass through simple changes in technique. You will also find these techniques described in those very same threads I've alluded to.
Check this post of mine for some suggestions: #14
To repeat myself further:
Best way to get upright sound?
Upright bass tone on fretted bass?
Rockabilly, Country. Emulating Double Bass with Bass Guitar?
Best wishes with your endeavour!
FF
However... Don't overlook technique!
You will also be able to make your bass sound more like a double-bass through simple changes in technique. You will also find these techniques described in those very same threads I've alluded to.
Check this post of mine for some suggestions: #14
To repeat myself further:
NOTE CHOICE!
Gotta think like an upright player, so it helps if you play upright but for whatever reason can't play your upright on that song/gig. Even if you don't play upright, listen to upright players and for the most part, simplify!
All the foam and fancy technique in the world isn't going to help you sound like an upright player if you make poor note choices; You're not going to sound like an upright player if you're pumping out reams and streams of 16ths like Rocco Prestia.
I think it's been well-established in this thread and so many other threads (ad nauseam) that you can get close, but you're never going to get exactly the sound of an upright unless you use an upright – well no ship sherloch!
You can make a Nissan go very fast by souping up the engine with higher compression, big bore cylinders, turbo; add a suspension kit, better after-market brakes etc etc. and it will go as fast as a Ferrari if you throw enough money/time/talent at it.
But it won't be a Ferrari. Ever.
Well some of us don't need/want/have the dosh for a Ferrari and you can only go so fast on public roads...
SO, I'm all for approximating the sound of an upright if that's what you need/want/can afford to do. It gets close enough.
I play upright, not very well, but I play it.
Best way to get upright sound?
Upright bass tone on fretted bass?
Rockabilly, Country. Emulating Double Bass with Bass Guitar?
Best wishes with your endeavour!
FF
The best I have discovered is using my Zoom R24.
In the "Insert Effects" there is an Algorithm called "dual mic" and in there, is a Patch named "No.7 FatDrum"
This setting, and of course, a fretless with flatwounds, is the closest thing to a double bass as I have discovered. And I discovered it quite by luck. LOL
When the power goes out and comes back on... the insert effects is turned to "ON" by default.
While playing bass one evening, the power went out, and came back on... when I got everything back up and running... this Insert Effects setting comes up by default. Lo and behold, a very good sounding double bass effect is discovered.
The gain is a little hot, so you have to edit the volume on the patch.... that's about it. LOL
So again, my recipe for a reasonable sounding double bass effect is.....
Fretless bass
flatwound strings
then add......
Zoom R24
Insert Effect
- Algorithm - -----Dual Mic
- Patch -- --------- No.7 FatDrum
In the "Insert Effects" there is an Algorithm called "dual mic" and in there, is a Patch named "No.7 FatDrum"
This setting, and of course, a fretless with flatwounds, is the closest thing to a double bass as I have discovered. And I discovered it quite by luck. LOL
When the power goes out and comes back on... the insert effects is turned to "ON" by default. While playing bass one evening, the power went out, and came back on... when I got everything back up and running... this Insert Effects setting comes up by default. Lo and behold, a very good sounding double bass effect is discovered.
The gain is a little hot, so you have to edit the volume on the patch.... that's about it. LOL
So again, my recipe for a reasonable sounding double bass effect is.....
Fretless bass
flatwound strings
then add......
Zoom R24
Insert Effect
- Algorithm - -----Dual Mic
- Patch -- --------- No.7 FatDrum
best double bass simulator is to palm mute and have a hofner full hollowbody bass,
If you want to do pizzicato style of play instead of using palm mute, go get a Gruv Gear Fump
GRUV GEAR · Fump - Bridge Muter/Dampener for Bass Guitar · MAKE LIFE GRUV
If you want to do pizzicato style of play instead of using palm mute, go get a Gruv Gear Fump
GRUV GEAR · Fump - Bridge Muter/Dampener for Bass Guitar · MAKE LIFE GRUV
The sound a double bass makes, I don't want to sound like any of them, I want to know if it's possible to simulate an upright bass with a pedal, or a certain equalization, like those guitar effect pedals that sound like acoustic guitars, or like organ, or even like piano, you know, being this 2016, it might not even be possible, I'm pretty sure it exists already, I just want to know if anyone around here knows the way, because I don't.
But I believe we all know it doesn't really sound like that, again, I believe, but unless I get a P-Bass I'll never be certain of that.
Thanks! I'll look into all that information!
Oh, but you can! Let me give you this examples of how some little tech pieces called effects can make an instrument sound like a totally different one!
#14
Best way to get upright sound?
Upright bass tone on fretted bass?
And these are the ones from the top of my head, but if this is possible, getting an upright bass like sound with an electric bass is pretty much possible too. Anyway, if I find a way I'll let you guys know.
I've been using effects on bass for 32 years. But I realized that upright bass and electric bass are entirely different instruments as EB evolved, and the only way to sound like an upright was to learn how to play one.
Today, I use an NS Designs NXT 4 string which I've found to be a fair compromise. It doesn't sound exactly like an upright, but it's close enough using a Zoom A3 pedal.
You will hear all sorts of advice about using foam mutes, and playing over the fingerboard, which you'll be told perfectly gives you an upright sound. It doesn't. A 41" scale allows the notes to bloom in a way that can't be simulated. The mutes and techniques eliminate the midrange, which is where the beautiful, woody tone develops.
Realize that you are playing an electric bass, and that nowadays, the relationship between the 2 instruments is miles apart.
Yes, today's p-basses don't really sound like this at all. The early p-basses had mutes built into the bridge cover, strings that I'm pretty sure you can't get anywhere today and different pickups, so even if you get a vintage instrument or a "reissue" you won't be getting the same sound.
Heard last spring a Kayla U-Bass at a weekly Bluegrass jam. Owner told me it was the cost of two pedals. It sounded very much like an upright bass. I think there is a forum on TB for owners if you do a search.
okcrum
in your chest
Not any pedal. But if you watch previous old post by me and the nick Wizmoon, he's on to something in the pickups on a bass. He's developing something in the lines of endless sustainer pickups...but... in reverse. In order to get an upright sound convincingly, you must stop the decay/sustain from the electric strings. You have to have flatwounds and fretless though. The idea is stolen from the hugely expensive Moog Guitar which had infinite sustain on all strings, magnets that set them in motion, polyphonically. Now, there was a phase switch on that guitar, that reversed the sustain, so the guitar sounded - instantly - like a banjo. There was NO SAMPLING or reverb or IIR impulse responses, it just sounded like that because the strings turned dead within a split second. The magnetism in this endless sustainer pickup system, was reversed to produce as short sustain as possible. In reverse.
Now, think of that on any electric bass, but remove the polyphony. As you go up the neck, the strings decay becomes considerably shorter, so the system senses that. Now this ain't enough. But it's the 80 percent there. At least compared to pedals. On top of that you really need something "roomy" reverb or impulse samples a la Fishman Aura (for acoustic guitar) but made from upright basses. At the moment this is very hard to produce or mimick, otherwise Fishman Aura would've done it by now, because mr Fishman is an accomplished upright player himself and longs for this too. You have to have some added resonance and body "percussive thump" when you are whacking the strings. Cunning programming of a high-end reverb may be able to mimick that upright box somewhat, but then we're out there, removing it from any pedal.
- - - - -
Other than that, that Zoom R24 thing might be the closest one so far. Would love to see a YT vid of that...
Some vids comparing technique approaches:
Somebody could do what comes up in the comments, and repeat some of the samples on a fretless. There are times in the p-bass vid where the guy gets impressively close.
I remember asking a guitar shop guy about this when I was in high school and getting the condescending "no. why would anyone want to do that?" lol
Somebody could do what comes up in the comments, and repeat some of the samples on a fretless. There are times in the p-bass vid where the guy gets impressively close.
I remember asking a guitar shop guy about this when I was in high school and getting the condescending "no. why would anyone want to do that?" lol
Had to add this, in a live setting:
It really does sound impressive for a tiny thing!
But why can someone coax a fairly good bagpipe sound out of an electric guitar then? .... so ... here you go (yes, lots of effects pedal, maybe only one mulitFX):
Remember we're talking about electric instruments here. Xylophone is not even remotely in the family of a grand piano. But the bass is... plucked strings.
The best imitations I've ever heard without taking playing style into it are a Line 6 Variax bass and my late 60's Realistic violin bass. But I can get a fairly good imitation from any electric simply by thinking like an upright player. Still, none of it is a direct substitute for a real upright.
I had an Ashbory (the Kala U-bass was inspired by this), that had an amazing faux-upright tone. So close you'd do a double-take. But the 18" scale was impossible for me to play in tune, so I sold it.
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It's all pizzicato if you aren't using a bow.
I don't understand why people think upright basses have no sustain. There's a very different attack/decay envelope, but there's plenty of sustain while playing upright.
I went to a clinic with an old school jazz upright player once. He asked people how long they thought an audible note lasted on upright. People said one, two seconds. He had a guy get out a stopwatch, played one note, let it ring...15 seconds. Now half that time might not have been at a musically useful volume, but there is a hell of a lot more sustain than most people seem to think.
The closest sound to an upright I've ever gotten on electric is right hand at the end of the neck and a bit of short reverb. The rest is all technique.
