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Synthesizer technique questions

T

TOHARROV

Feb 17, 2017
63
37
Deep Ellum Texas
#1
Hey there! Intermediate 5-string player here - not familiar with bass synthesizers.
On this old recording of Nana Mouskouri's, "Even Now", there is what I believe to be a synthesized bass line from what must have been the earliest years of the technology. What I hear suggests to me that it is in the hands of a master. If you know about such things and would care to chat about it, would you please check it out on YouTube and respond?
Thanks!
Tom
 
#5
Okay, thanks, Abner ~ that's 2 - 0 and I have to pay attention even though I still wonder.
So - if it is a fretless stringed instrument, that in itself would not account for the tonal qualities (effects) that we hear. That bass sound is being manipulated in some way, either at its origin (a flanger?) or at the board.
Again, my thanks!
 
#10
Maybe some could clue us both in: Guitar synth have gotten so much better, but I'm not sure one could pass all the subtleties of tracking a fretless like a shadow.

It's certainly fretless with some effect(s), and remember you hear frets. Fretless basses are far more transparent and you can hear an individual's technique far more easily.
 
#11
Hey, J ~ thanks for your reply! Having listened to it again after the initial responses here, it was easy to recognize those hammer-on and pull-off techniques. It was when the player was ranging up into those upper registers and the flanging (or whatever effect it is) got really pronounced that misled me to believing that it was a synth. I also went back and Googled flangers, because I was thinking that they would still have been quite new back in 79 - and of course, they weren't at all. Anyway, again, thanks to all!!
 
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#12
TOHARROV said:
Hey, J ~ thanks for your reply! Having listened to it again after the initial responses here, it was easy to recognize those hammer-on and pull-off techniques. It was when the player was ranging up into those upper registers and the flanging (or whatever effect it is) got really pronounced that misled me to believing that it was a synth. I also went back and Googled flangers, because I was thinking that they would still have been quite new back in 79 - and of course, they weren't at all. Anyway, again, thanks to all!!
Click to expand...

I don't hear flanger on it. Maybe some chorus or a widening effect of some sort. You might just be hearing the vibrato of the player on those higher notes.
 
#15
Hey, Groove Doc ~ that was a wonderfully thoughtful thing for you to do - thanks!!

N4860 and Pauly 4001 ~ My thanks! I do try always to defer to knowledge and experience, but in this case the mule in me is rearing its head: I am convinced that I am hearing more than strings and fingers and an amp (i.e., 'effect') on that track.
 
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#16
You are hearing "mwah" from low action on a fretless. Consider it a sort of envelope/bloom that occurs. I set my fretless 6 up low enough that I can get "mwah" with a bit more right hand attack, but avoid it with a light touch. I think there can be too much and cross into obnoxious. The setup of the bass determines the amount of mwah available.
 
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