Ableton Forum

Has anyone come up with a decent solution for getting a good sounding bass on a guitar in real time? Plug-ins? EQ? Compression? What are you using? Settings?

To tell you what I myself am doing right now: Pitchproof to Guitar Rig with a Bass Pro amp, Tube Compressor, and Parametric EQ. Sounds okay, after trying a bunch of other options. Could be better (;

I assume you mean being able to drop the pitch an octave? The problem to my ear (as a bassist who plays a little bit of guitar) is there are no pitch shifting methods that will make a guitar sound like a bass guitar. All have synth-y artifacts.

If it's for recording, skip the amp modeling, most bass you hear is recorded direct anyway. A little bit of compression (2:1 is a good starting ratio, set the threshold for 6 dB below the peak level) and save the EQ for mixdown.

If it's for live performance and you are going through a PA, keep the amp modeling and good luck

If you're going for recording, another option you may want to consider is trilian. Ive heard people get decent results and I'm a bassist, as well. Pitch shifting is never really convincing but can be made to work with some surgery if your mix isn't going to have he bass sound naked.

Thanks for the suggestions BUT "in real time" is to say for performance. If it's for recording I'm obviously using my bass

Looks like somebody is in the market for a double neck

Yeah that could do the job!

yeah, nuh, i don't think you can achieve a realistic bass sound by pitch shifting a guitar down in real time. the timbre is all wrong.

fishmonkey wrote:yeah, nuh, i don't think you can achieve a realistic bass sound by pitch shifting a guitar down in real time. the timbre is all wrong.

agreed.


IMO, at best you can make the manipulated sound part of your sound and always play it like that... or pitch shift other elements of the track to make it sound intentional vs. accidental/crap.

Not saying that this is what the OP is, but I always get a good chuckle when somebody asks “How does [insert EDM artist here] get that real sounding bass?” Um, recording a real bass. A mind blowing conclusion that wasn’t considered.

It'll never pass for realism, but you could make it a stylistic choice, like Royal blood, who dont have a guitar but fill the higher end by pitch shifting and doing all manner of things to the sound of his bass.

Precisionguided wrote:If you're going for recording, another option you may want to consider is trilian. Ive heard people get decent results and I'm a bassist, as well. Pitch shifting is never really convincing but can be made to work with some surgery if your mix isn't going to have he bass sound naked.

100% spot on about Trillian. But OP will need to get a Fishman Triple Play (FTP) Wireless Pickup to use guitar as controller. Or if he has a Roland Hex pickup on his guitar, there is a box that converts signal to be able to control soft synths. Not sure of name this device or how well tracking works. But the FTP is killer.
I hope this helps

Now that's what I'm talking about! Yeah, I've been salivating over the TriplePlay for other reasons,. This might just be the ticket. Trilian sounds sweet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM0HYvtyAzE

before you splash out on the FTP you might wanna give Jam Origin MIDI Guitar a spin:

http://www.jamorigin.com/

I got myself a Squier P-Bass for 180$ Cad, very satisfied. I asked the seller to bring 4 or 5 Squier and I tried each one. I finally found one that was decent.