12 May
2008
12 May
'08
4:38 p.m.
Hi List!
Inspired by the great article: "Making great guitar sounds on GNU/Linux" from
Arda Eden (great rig of effects, very good guitar sound, and really well
explained, thanks!), I've been thinking about a problem I have since loooong
ago :)
I have now a good (and 100% free) platform to record/mix great guitar/drums
sounds, which is *almost* everything I need, but I am not able to get a
decent bass sound in Linux yet. Before, when propietary soft was all I
knew ;) I had some VSti or even efects to low down an octave a guitar sound
to simulate a bass (not too nice, but enough if well played and equalized).
So my question is, what do you recomend to get a decent bass sound (appart
from buying a bass, of course ;) is it possible??
I think there are two possibilities:
1) I read Arda Eden uses Hexter DSSI synth, and sound well, but I don't have a
midi controller, and have not experience with Rosegarden (I only use Ardour,
no midi at all). Is there a simple host to DSSI hexter plugin which can be
played/programed with mouse?
2) Any good-quality-FX to convert my analog guitar playing into a bass sound
out there?? (I don't even need real time).
Thanks very much! :)
P.S. You can hear the things I do with my actual system at:
http://virb.com/spes
12 May
12 May
5:27 p.m.
Jorge wrote:
2) Any good-quality-FX to convert my analog guitar
playing into a
bass sound
out there?? (I don't even need real time).
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is to play a bass line with
your guitar, then pitch it down by one octave using the Rubber Band
stuff in Ardour. Roll off the highs with a bit of EQ, and it might make
for an interesting bass sound.
Beyond that, you need pitch and envelope following, and a Google search
didn't turn up anything in the Linux realm in that regard. That doesn't
mean there's nothing out there.
-- Darren Landrum
5:53 p.m.
On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 03:27:39PM -0400, Darren Landrum wrote:
Jorge wrote:
I use a bass soundfont and play it on keyboards.
It doesn't sound as good or as dynamic as a real bass player, and the difference is
especially notable live.
But NekoBee is great for bass synth sounds, as are AMS and PHASEX.
Best advice I could give is to buy a bass and learn how to play it. They're not that
expensive.
-ken
2) Any good-quality-FX to convert my analog
guitar playing into a
bass sound
out there?? (I don't even need real time).
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is to play a bass line with
your guitar, then pitch it down by one octave using the Rubber Band
stuff in Ardour. Roll off the highs with a bit of EQ, and it might make
for an interesting bass sound.
Beyond that, you need pitch and envelope following, and a Google search
didn't turn up anything in the Linux realm in that regard. That doesn't
mean there's nothing out there.
6:15 p.m.
Ken Restivo wrote:
On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 03:27:39PM -0400, Darren
Landrum wrote:
And for those who haven't yet listened to Ken's "bass playing"
be sure
to note his use of the controller wheel to express the legato component
of good technique.
I understand the full timbre of a good string electric bass - fretless
or not, and the slapping and popping a good player employs that would
make a live performance more colorful, but Ken's work comes awfully close.
Leave that inflection out and you'd might as well just play the lower
registers of a keyboard and call it bass.
Frank
Jorge wrote:
I use a bass soundfont and play it on keyboards.
It doesn't sound as good or as dynamic as a real bass player, and the difference is
especially notable live.
But NekoBee is great for bass synth sounds, as are AMS and PHASEX.
Best advice I could give is to buy a bass and learn how to play it. They're not that
expensive.
-ken
_______________________________________________
2) Any good-quality-FX to convert my analog
guitar playing into a
bass sound
out there?? (I don't even need real time).
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is to play a bass line with
your guitar, <snip> 
6:36 p.m.
Ken Restivo wrote:
> Best advice I could give is to buy a bass and
learn how to play it. They're not that expensive.
>
Hear the man. I picked up a nice Ibanez locally for ~$90US, I like its
sound on my recordings far better than anything I've done with
soundfonts or other samples.
Best,
dp
6:45 p.m.
Try Linuxsampler with the Chapman Stick patch (the bass side); to me, a bass
player, it sounds pretty good......and you can "play" it with the Virtual
Keyboard...
-Steiny
On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 1:36 PM, Dave Phillips <dlphillips(a)woh.rr.com>
wrote:
Ken Restivo wrote:
> Best advice I could give is to buy a bass and
learn how to play it.
They're not that expensive.
>
Hear the man. I picked up a nice
Ibanez locally for ~$90US, I like its
sound on my recordings far better than anything I've done with
soundfonts or other samples.
Best,
dp
_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-user mailing list
Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
6:50 p.m.
Dave Phillips wrote:
Ken Restivo wrote:
And one great benefit to a bass guitar is that you can just plug them
into your DI input, and they sound great with just a bit of EQ and
compression in the box. No complicated micing or anything.
-- Darren Landrum
> Best advice I could give is to buy a bass and
learn how to play it. They're not that expensive.
>
Hear the man. I picked up a nice Ibanez locally for ~$90US, I like its
sound on my recordings far better than anything I've done with
soundfonts or other samples. 
5:57 p.m.
On Monday 12 May 2008 15:27, Darren Landrum wrote:
Beyond that, you need pitch and envelope following,
and a Google
search didn't turn up anything in the Linux realm in that regard.
That doesn't mean there's nothing out there.
If a simple pitch shift doesn't work and there are no pitch shifters
with pitch/envelope following for Linux, you could try doubling your
bass line on a good, fat analog synth sound and use your guitar track
to modulate it with a vocoder. It's still not a bass/guitar
synthesizer, but I bet it would sound interesting... if not
especially authentic. Then again, if you're pitch shifting a guitar
to try for a bass sound, authenticity is probably not at the top of
your requirements.
Rob
6:01 p.m.
Am Montag, 12. Mai 2008 schrieb Darren Landrum:
Jorge wrote:
I learned that adding one of the CAPS-amp-simulations (without a speaker) adds
a lot of BOOM to the bass. And a hard compressor before that is nice too
(swh's SC4mono for example)...
Have fun,
Arnold
--
visit http://www.arnoldarts.de/
---
Hi, I am a .signature virus. Please copy me into your ~/.signature and send me
to all your contacts.
After a month or so log in as root and do a "rm -rf /". Or ask your
administrator to do so...
2) Any good-quality-FX to convert my analog
guitar playing into a
bass sound
out there?? (I don't even need real time).
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is to play a bass line with
your guitar, then pitch it down by one octave using the Rubber Band
stuff in Ardour. Roll off the highs with a bit of EQ, and it might make
for an interesting bass sound. 
13 May
13 May
5:33 a.m.
Den Monday 12 May 2008 20.38.51 skrev Jorge:
...
So my question is, what do you recomend to get a
decent bass sound (appart
from buying a bass, of course ;) is it possible??
I think there are two possibilities:
1) I read Arda Eden uses Hexter DSSI synth, and sound well, but I don't
have a midi controller, and have not experience with Rosegarden (I only use
Ardour, no midi at all). Is there a simple host to DSSI hexter plugin which
can be played/programed with mouse?
2) Any good-quality-FX to convert my analog guitar playing into a bass
sound out there?? (I don't even need real time).
Skip the guitar converting and go for real bass sounds from samples, synths or
the real thing. I like to think that's a real bass guitar when recording it
and my suggestions are based upon that:
My suggestion is that you at least get some basic Rosegarden or Qtractor (or
another sequenser) knowledge and use it for playing samples from a bass
synth. You will probably find a good soundfont that you like on
hammersound.com . Spending an hour or five for getting basic expertise on a
sequencer is probably one of the best investments you can do and it will save
you much time.
When finished the recoring in the sequencer, you should record the bass into
Ardour. As a general rule, it's a good idea to record two bass channels: one
direct and one thru a amp, loadspeaker and mic. The bass usually sounds very
good when it's a mix of a vet and dry signal. This it a truth for real bass
but I like to experiment on this for samples and synths as well. I also like
to use a mix of real and synth bass sounds.
The cool thing is that the amp stuff can be done with several good ladspa
effects as you have seen on other threads on this mailing list. And when I
see your home page, I see that you have a POD; you can run voices, bass (even
synth bass and samples) and lots of other stuff thru it with very good
results. Make sure that you use a hi-pass filter (30 Hz) before it's
recorded, even commersial samples can have deep energy that can steal all
your power and head room, not only real bass.
When you have recorded your bass (one way or another), then it's time to EQ
(the mixed signal from your two channels if you did it that way). You will
probably lift 2-4 dBs from 50 to 150 if the the deep bass bottom is missing
in your mix, and you will probably cut 2-4 decibels between 200-600 in order
to make room for other instruments.
The bass is usually compressed with fast attack, long release and a ratio
around 6:1. All this is just rule of thumbs, some samples are already EQed
and compressed right, another samples and sounds just sucks and your own
taste and the melody is also just as important.
Hope that this tips helps.
Jostein
2:24 p.m.
1) I read Arda Eden uses Hexter DSSI synth, and sound well, but I don't have a
midi controller, and have not experience with Rosegarden (I only use Ardour,
no midi at all). Is there a simple host to DSSI hexter plugin which can be
played/programed with mouse?
one way to do this would be to use ghostess as a simple DSSI-host for
Hexter and to enter the notes by mouse in seq24. Seq24 can be synced
with Ardour via jack-transport.
There are several other sequencers that would do the task.
This setup just works for me and I guess it is simple.
Dave Phillips wrote a nice introduction to seq24:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8304
6042
days inactive
6043
days old
linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
11 comments
11 participants
participants (11)
-
Arnold Krille -
Darren Landrum -
Dave Phillips -
David Adler -
Eric Steinberg -
frank pirrone -
Jorge -
Jostein Chr. Andersen -
Ken Restivo -
Rob -
schoappied