Best Way to Achieve Bass without a Bass?

[MegaMustaine]

Hey guys. I'm currently struggling with the bass tone in some of my mixes simply because i don't own a bass. Are there any decent vst's or any alternatives? Even if i got a bass...not like i can play it.

How do you achieve the bass in your recordings?

-MM

 

[professorlamp]

You could pitch shift the guitar down an octave, I've done that once but it was a pretty shoddy result. Could you not post it on here and someone do it for you?

 

[shred101]

Ugh. Not pitch shifted guitar please! Any cheap crappy bass guitar would be better than that IMHO. You dont have to shell out a fortune you know! Id do as ProfessorLamp said, post a copy on the forum and see if anyone wants to track it for you in the meantime.
Next bess thing is a programmed VST instrument.

 

[egan.]

Make friends with a bass player.

 

[Notuern]

Ugh. Not pitch shifted guitar please! Any cheap crappy bass guitar would be better than that IMHO.

If you run your middle pickup with your bridge pickup(Singlecoils or coiltapped humbuckers.), you can actually get great results by pitching it down.
If you dont have "twang" in your guitar sound, you are pretty screwed though.

 

[Mr.Skull]

I have had lame results with pitch-shifted guitar as well.

Trilian is probably your best bet if you can afford it. I think it's priced at or a little under $300 in most places. However, it requires something like 35 GB of hard drive space.

I use Broomstick Bass, which you can find for under $200. Not nearly as articulate as Trilian, but gets the job done and has several bass guitar models that sound great out of the box.

 

[Harry Hughes]

300 US for Trillian?
I don't see why you'd get Trillian when 300 USD will get you a reasonably good bass on the user market.
Can't play bass? Learn to play it.
It's worth it, because being able to play more instruments really helps you to understand the whole picture better. I have no regrets for learning to play bass

 

[Mr.Skull]

300 US for Trillian?
I don't see why you'd get Trillian when 300 USD will get you a reasonably good bass on the user market.
Can't play bass? Learn to play it.
It's worth it, because being able to play more instruments really helps you to understand the whole picture better. I have no regrets for learning to play bass

I agree that getting a real bass and learning to play it is ideal, and it will yield the best results. But I also find a certain convenience with being able to load up a VST, map out a bass groove, and have it sitting nicely in a mix within a few minutes.

 

[ahjteam]

I have had lame results with pitch-shifted guitar as well.

Well, atleast Sora01 and Behindert have had nice results with pitchshifted guitars You just need to play it like a bass player and process it properly afterwards.

 

[Executioner213]

Buy a fucking $100-$150 bass. Rogue 5-string is your friend. Rondo Music has some too. If you can play a guitar, you can make cheese dick bass tracks for stuff until you get someone else to or get more into it yourself.

 

[MegaMustaine]

I actually have a REALLY crappy bass. The thing is like a starter Ibanez, and it's a piece of crap. Plus all I have is a PODXT Pro. I don't have the bass pack or anything and I suck at bass.

Any particularly good pitch shifters? I've done the pitch shifting thing but usually my results are VERY shoddy. Plus I'm recording the clean tones with an emg 81...not the best of cleans.

edit: hugh is probably right. I just have so many guitar wants...justifying buying a bass is a bit annoying. I want a 7 stringer as well as an Axe FX. Oh well, another thing to add to the list :/ And...learning to play the freakin' thing!

 

[muckypup1]

I might be able to record you the bass track, is it tech death metal or some shit though? I can't like that

 

[Overdosed]

This is the only bass VST that I like.

 

[Brandon E.]

This is the only bass VST that I like.

I'll back this up

 

[MegaMustaine]

I might be able to record you the bass track, is it tech death metal or some shit though? I can't like that

It's not really one track...I'll be working writing and recording a solo album this summer. In the past, the weakest part of my mixes is definitely my lack of bass. Maybe if I get some stuff recorded, I can get hit someone up here. But with my vocals coming along, I want to be able to basically do everything to the finished product.

Just need to learn how to properly scream! I've made like 1230981230 threads on screaming...I literally can't figure out the proper technique.

 

[Wolfeman]

You could always play the bass part on your guitar at like 7000 BPM, then slow it down.

 

[Kadmium]

Scarbee MM bass is $89 and is samples of a finger-plucked Music Man bass with flatwound strings. It can sound pretty intense if you want it to or nice and creamy warm if you like, too. It's pretty much instant Porcupine Tree tone out of the box.

 

[Djabthrash]

I record bass lines with my guitar and using variaudio in cubase then convert it to midi and use trilian. Works great.

Good to hear it works ! That's what i'm gonna do from now on !
For now i write bass lines in Guitar Pro 5 and export the midi in my DAW to have it played by Trilian. Works great.

 

[DigitalMetal]

Get native instruments Kore Player free or Kontakt Player free both of those have Bass guitars in their soundsets and they are free! or Yellow tools independence player free will most likley have a bass in there somewhere too,

Theres loads of perfectly good free vst's out there you dont need to spend a load of money.