Recording bass with a guitar and Cubase

[Darcy Hoover]

This may be a silly question but is it plausable to record bass lines with a guitar and drop them an octave with Cubase? Does it sound OK?

I'm farely new to recording and would like to add some bass lines but not sure I want to go out and buy a bass and amp.

[mudbean]

Originally Posted by Darcy Hoover

This may be a silly question but is it plausable to record bass lines with a guitar and drop them an octave with Cubase? Does it sound OK?

I'm farely new to recording and would like to add some bass lines but not sure I want to go out and buy a bass and amp.

Dunno, never tried it ... let us know how it works. BTW, you don't need an amp to record bass.

mud

[tweeet]

You could try it ......it depends on what plugins you have.Guitar rig has got some octave effects in it and you could also use a voice plug in eg. dropping the tone down -12....and so on....I've recorded a few guitar lines using these effects.....only problem is that it doesn't really sound like a bass......only a bass will give you the proper bottom end.

[tweeet]

Yeah ..by the way you could buy a bass and just DI it into your PC....wouldn't need an amp as said in a previous reply.

[mudbean]

Originally Posted by tweeet

Yeah ..by the way you could buy a bass and just DI it into your PC....wouldn't need an amp as said in a previous reply.

Exactly - Hop on the CraigsList and grab a Squire for under $100.

mud

[pengipete]

I tried the pitch shift trick - it sounded lousy whatever I did. I also tried an external pitch-shift effect pedal - just as bad. Bought a bass guitar and a zoom bass pedal - perfect and loads of fun learning to play.

[tweeet]

Yeah...I agree..... I've been playing guitar for 30 years....only over the last 5 years I've been playing live bass instead of quantizing keyboard bass lines for backing tracks and my CD tracks......and it is great fun.I picked up a great new Fender Jazz Bass (mexican) for £200....I bought a sax too to learn........but that's another story !!

[Dave_O]

Hey mate.

You can... but whether you should is another matter. You get all manner of tracking problems and "artifacts" when you do it. I did it once when I had no bass around, but I wiped it ASAP. Sounded like crap...

[Darcy Hoover]

Guess I'm going bass shopping! Thanks guys!

I was actually at the guitar shop yesterday, pricing various levels of Fender's Jazz bass. I'm sure a Squire would suit but it won't be for a month or two.

[getbent]

hey, the squier will be great.. you can always swap pickups... I use a squier pbass with some fancier pickups... a pretty famous bass player friend of mine used it with me on a corporate thing and he made a point to tell me how good it sounded and played....

thump thump!

[Tim Armstrong]

Many years ago, in messing around with cassette 4-track portastudios, I used to just record the bass parts with my Telecaster's neck pickup, playing down low on the guitar. Sure, it's not as low as a real bass, but it worked considerably better than you'd think!

Cheers, Tim

[wnorcott]

It sounds totally fake. Bass sound is not just the sound of a 6-string guitar dropped down an octave lower. Bass is a completely different tonal quality.

The way you play bass is also very different stylistically.

I would recommend buy a used bass for $200 or under and get used to playing that, if you are serious about recording and want to play all the parts yourself that is the way to go.

[Lerb21]

I've found that if you dime the bass, take away all treble and mids, and play the bass part 2 octaves above the actual part, then drop it 2 octaves, it works very well.

[Anchoret]

Originally Posted by mudbean

BTW, you don't need an amp to record bass.

In fact, it just complicates things.

Cheapest popular DI solution, and a good one.

Other solutions are to do it with a keyboard MIDI controller and some better VSTi bass synth -- freeware, warez, whatever. Truthfully, the best bass stuff I hear today in hi-buck commercial recording isn't from an actual bass anymore.