Anybody have some really good bass response in electronic music?
I was impressed with Kraftwerk's robots (originally posted on first page), even by today's standards sounds great.
I also like Boom Boom Pow's bass response (sure the song is a bit overdone/not that great, but the breakdown starting at about 2 minutes is very impressive. The other thing I like about this song is it let's the bass breath a little... isn't always booming, but has it's quite parts. I remember Flea saying something like, the notes you don't play are just as important as the ones you do.
first thing that comes to mind is the aforementioned Squarepusher, who utilizes heavy bass both in the form of samples and his own virtuosic bass playing, and then on the same note you have the whole genres of drum'n'bass and drill'n'bass at your disposal (as well as jungle and related). Just as notable is the vast history of dance music utilizing heavy bass, found arguably most predominantly in disco (see: everything Nile Rodgers touches) but Chicago House, Acid House, and certain brands of techno and electro are hardly lacking in the bass department. Also early disco-rap tends to make heavy use of disco samples and other bass-heavy sources, so you'll find tons there.
Basically bass is all over electronic music. Would highly recommend this as an entry point into d'n'b et al
also worth checking out is the entirety of Trax Records' discography (ultimate Chicago House purveyors) and then the closely-related genre of Acid House, much of which also exists within the Trax/Chicago paradigm (check out Fingers Inc./Mr. Fingers), but also with some UK proponents, probably the most notable being 808 State, so get yerself a copy of this as well
Was going to write a massive list of JA bassists and essential dub but I've got a chart in the works for that kind of thing and not going to steal its thunder, but suffice it to say if you play/love bass and haven't given 'reggae' a try you're seriously missing out BIG time (ironically enough as a bassist myself it's partly how I got so deep into the genre in the first place).
JA? I do like Reggae, but not crazy about it. It has good bass response, good bass lines, the bass style is a bit boomy for my taste (meaning little mid definition). You'll probably hate me for saying this, but Sublime has a great Reggae-like bass tone.
noWaxJim wrote:
And I'm not going to lie, this thread has really irked me, in so far as some of the bassists/basslines mentioned aren't anything but bass players that just happen to be in a popular band (i.e. no discernible talent or individuality). Can't be arsed to elaborate - but will do soon. Although glad to see a couple of kindred spirits have chipped in with valuable contributions.
Hmm... yes very interested to hear what you mean by this as I kinda strongly disagree with the bolded statement... I mean to each their own opinion, but John Paul Jones and Paul McCartney are just amazing bassists, regardless what band they were in. Same with Flea. Now if you are talking about strictly technical bassists then we definitely have a differing opinion on what a "good" bassist is... there's a million musicians that are techinically good, but nobody cares they partially because they fail to connect to humans (capitalism and record companies play a big role in this too)... in other words 99% of people don't give a shit what a Gmin9th diminished chord or 13b5b9 chord is, they care about if the music connects with them.
noWaxJim wrote:
And why the fuck hasn't Mike Watt been mentioned yet? Shame on the lot of you...
Very good bass lines from Mr. Watt... dig his fIREHOSE work too.
[quote="noWaxJim"]Seeing as we're talking gear...
Basses:
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Gibson SG bass
Very cool... know what year it is? I love the "mudbucker" sound it gives... nice and deep on that neck pickup. You feel the bridge pickup gives enough definition (I've only played one a couple times, can't remember)?
I always liked the first bass they did (Jack Bruce played one). This only had the mudbucker pickup.
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Last edited by RoundTheBend on 04/01/2016 22:54; edited 1 time in total
@dividesbyzero very cool... will have a bunch to listen to.
Some electronic music does better at bass response. I like it because it doesn't need the compression/dynamic toying that an electric bass needs... it's just bass in it's purest form (in my opinion).
It just needs the right programming. I almost feel that the best bass response in electronic music, somebody spent hours finding the right tone... and as a tone geek, I love it.
Also the motor city track is a killer bass line and tone.
@dividesbyzero very cool... will have a bunch to listen to.
Some electronic music does better at bass response. I like it because it doesn't need the compression/dynamic toying that an electric bass needs... it's just bass in it's purest form (in my opinion).
It just needs the right programming. I almost feel that the best bass response in electronic music, somebody spent hours finding the right tone... and as a tone geek, I love it.
yeah electronic music bass can be some of the coolest shit ever. Though it should be noted that some of the stuff I mentioned isn't technically a bass tone in the most literal sense, but rather some other electronic tone within the bass frequency that heavily emulates the timbre of a bass whilst kinda being its own thing (and still functioning much in the same way as a bass)
@dividesbyzero very cool... will have a bunch to listen to.
Some electronic music does better at bass response. I like it because it doesn't need the compression/dynamic toying that an electric bass needs... it's just bass in it's purest form (in my opinion).
It just needs the right programming. I almost feel that the best bass response in electronic music, somebody spent hours finding the right tone... and as a tone geek, I love it.
yeah electronic music bass can be some of the coolest shit ever. Though it should be noted that some of the stuff I mentioned isn't technically a bass tone in the most literal sense, but rather some other electronic tone within the bass frequency that heavily emulates the timbre of a bass whilst kinda being its own thing (and still functioning much in the same way as a bass)
Hmmm... you bring up a good point.
What is bass? The first post I put in a video that goes through the history of bass (from baroque until today) and at about 5:54 they talk about electronic bass.
Then there's this guy that kinda bends the two together (at about 2:27 he goes into debstep, but not programmed, playing with a Hot Hand Wireless Adapter):
Frequency Range Frequency Values
Bass 60 to 250 Hz
well there's a distinction to be made between bass the frequency and bass the various forms of instrument. What I was getting at is some of electronic music bass occupies the frequency whilst partially emulating the timbre (thereby effectively functioning as the bass much in the same way a standard bass guitar would) of the instrument even if not being a direct sample or recording of it
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