The Ibanez Bass Guitar is not dying

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I play bass with strings but I also play synth bass on keys. I've borrowed and sampled several Gibson basses--the Les Paul, Midtown, Thunderbird, and EB - and they all have a distinctive sound and because they're sampled, those sounds are available even though all the basses aren't. As a result I have about 15 "go-to" bass sounds, and it's much faster to call them up in a sampler than deal with physical instruments.

 

Another aspect is that I really worked on those samples - I mean, REALLY worked on them for consistent tone. Also, the notes are not multisampled - I use the audio engine in Rapture Pro to add levels of expressiveness you normally don't get with sampled bass (e.g., tying parameters like brightness, not just dynamics, to velocity). Over the years, I found myself playing bass less, and playing keys more because I could get the sound of physical bass but the feel of playing synth bass. I also sample slides and such, which adds to the realism, and do editing to make sure that (for example) there's a space between hitting notes, like with a real bass.

 

As you may know if you've read a lot of my stuff I have this fascination with the audio equivalent of CGI - e.g., making "idealized" guitar amp sounds instead of trying to replicate a Marshall or whatever. The keyboard bass helps toward that goal. If you listen to my music, it sounds like someone is indeed playing bass - but playing an ideal bass, recorded in an ideal manner. Here are two examples.

 

[video=youtube;pNEGfXp_7eY]

 

[video=youtube;upUZz1zxB1s]

 

 

 

This post and all the discussions here have certainty changed my prospective on bass.

 

Craig: Have you played around or heard the Roland Integra 7? The realism is out of this world, at least based on the demo I saw.

 

The bass on both songs are great but the second song is totally wicked and being from West Africa, having lived in the Ivory Coast, that song took me straight back to the continent.

 

Great production and I have to ask in the most Western way, why make a french version, what are the inspirations?

 

We have to get you to the Continent, you will love Ghana, very friendly people, extremely modern but with strong cultural practices.

 

[Anderton]

Craig: Have you played around or heard the Roland Integra 7? The realism is out of this world, at least based on the demo I saw.

 

Sorry, haven't played with it.

 

The bass on both songs are great but the second song is totally wicked and being from West Africa, having lived in the Ivory Coast, that song took me straight back to the continent.

 

Great production and I have to ask in the most Western way, why make a french version, what are the inspirations?

 

There's a group called Zouk Soucous with the Haitian record company R. Francis Entertainment. Their songs are in French and in one of them, they used the line "maladie d'amour." I thought that if changed to "maladie du coeur," it could be the hook and bring in the concept of the doctor saying there's nothing wrong with the singer, just an "illness of the heart." I speak French; I'm proud of that song because I wrote it in French, not in English and translated.

 

The music is a combination of twin guitars like High Life and other African pop music, with a sorta "Kassav" vibe on the side and of course, my rock/DJ combination.

 

We have to get you to the Continent, you will love Ghana, very friendly people, extremely modern but with strong cultural practices.

 

I've done a lot of research on Ghana, and want to plan a vacation soon to check it out,.