Ableton Forum

Hi,

I don't have a bass guitar and so want to try getting a bass sound using my 6-string and transposing it down an octave.

I'm finding that while I do this the result passable at best and there is some distortion in the transposed sound.

Has anyone any tips for doing this? Effects to use, what type of guitar sound etc.

Any help would be appreciated.

I haven't tried this yet, but try also detuning your guitar.

If you want to do a lot of bass tracks I would seriously recommend getting a bass. Even a bad one can sound more passable than a guitar probably would. Some of my first recordings were done with a rather poor quality bass, but especially with effects and stuff it sounded OK.

Transpose down -12 and use the texture warp setting, EQ and compress to taste.

This is OK for demo tracking to get an idea down, but I recommend getting a real bass to do the job.

.02c

yea use an eq to filter out the highs

Thanks, I'll try the EQ and compression.

But what exactly is the texture warp setting? An option in the clip view somewhere?

I am using it only for demoing purposes so it's fine for the moment if I can get it to sound someway decent.

themire wrote:Thanks, I'll try the EQ and compression.

But what exactly is the texture warp setting? An option in the clip view somewhere?

I am using it only for demoing purposes so it's fine for the moment if I can get it to sound someway decent.

Its in the clip properties...
You need to change it from BEATS to TONES or TEXTURES.

The beats setting isn't really all that great for anything other than solid percussion. You could use it to get an unnatural effect if you want though.

Trilogy (the vsti) is nice for this http://www.spectrasonics.net/instruments/trilogy.html

You'd have to use midi, but if it's just a standard bass line it's going to sound better than a transposed guitar.

Guitar Rig has a nice module which transposes the guitar an octave down. Worth a try.