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how do you make your basslines?

usually i just draw notes C in the lenght it fits the track, then i play around in the piano roll, while beat and some lead is playing.

and so i just alter it and alter it til i find something that sounds special and suits the track.

erase one here, one there, transpose, dunno, it comes while the track plays.

automation i do live with midi controller.

repeating automation i just draw aswell.

 

how do you go on this challenge, with music theory?

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It all depends what I write, how I write my basslines... sometimes its just a BxbxBxbxBxbxBxbx (Where B is bassdrum and b basssound), and on top I can write another bass sound coming in every 16th note, but more sharp, or more subby... its hard to say really :)

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when I make a bass in C it stands out quite a bit more than other notes, louder and more forceful. could be what I use to make the bass (303 sample).

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The basslines appear magically in my head, and my fingers plunk them out as best I can on the keyboard. If it's too fast or difficult for me to play properly, I do what I can and then fix with the mouse. I try to get at least two or four repetitions of a pattern down live (sometimes more if it's an expressive sound), then repeat the pattern as is fitting with the repeat function.

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Just make sure that the kick is not hitting at the same time as the bass.

 

basic bassline: (K=kick B=bass)

 

K-bbK-bbK-bbK-bb (galloping doof doodoo doof doodoo)

 

KbbbKbbbKbbbKbbb (OMFG killargh fullon bass, also the same for darkpsy)

 

others, mainly found in prog:

 

K--bK-b-K--bK-b- (doof badoof ba doof badoof ba)

 

Kb-bK-b-Kb-bK-b- (dodoot dadoof doot dodoot dadoof doot)

 

hope this helps, hope you can understand what Im gettin at... :rolleyes::blink::D

-

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Just make sure that the kick is not hitting at the same time as the bass.

656998[/snapback]

never understood why ppl say so.

you can get some pretty nice result this way.

decent eqing needed of course :)

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Its all math to me me. I look at my lead melody, and instantly know what the bass will be. [most of the time anyways]

 

so u make melody first?. after getting a good melody u start the track?. i make kick n bassline from the bassline i get tha feel of tha track then make the remaining. this is may be dark progressive is coming in my head. may be for melodic psy ur method will be nice i think. right?
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I guess its a matter of preference if you have the bass and kick at the same time. When Ive tried it it didnt quite sound right, bass and kick mashing together... it was a while ago though, been avoiding it, maybe I need to try it again... But if your making fullon killargghghghg...

 

It also depends on what kind of bass sound you use, if its pretty similar to the kick it may do the whole too-much-bass-in-one-hit sorta thing, adding a ton of distortion. In my experience, at least. But, also in my experience, a sine kick with a saw or pulse bass, or a saw or pulse LFO, sounds fine. And again its also a matter of what sound you want. In my experience yet again, for "dark"psy, it sounds mashed up if you have the bass hitting on the kick. But a bass note sustaining over the kick sounds fine.

 

 

Kalki: usually I do the same as you do, make a bass and rhythm then kinda jam over it til I find something I like.

 

But Im still very unhappy with my results, so maybe you shouldnt listen to me! :P

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Most of my music is made the same way...I build a complex melody on my keyboard. After perfection, i put it on fruityloops for further complexsion. Then, I do this thing which is kinda hard to expline..i find the 3 common notes in my melody..for instance, if i have a melody which is A-B-D-F A-B-F-C B-A-F-E..the three most common notes are A b F, i will form a new bass from those notes, which also generally followers the same [up-down] pattern of the melody, for instance, if my main melody starts with notes decending down the keyboard, then back up, my bass will also find a similar pattern [lol, confused yet?]

 

Now i have 3 melodies, the original, the complex, and the basic. To me, the bass is best when its basic, so my basses are almost always less notes, and sometimes half the speed as the main lead, or the original. [my basses useual sound slow and boding, can't stand fast thumping basses lol]

 

I make my music diffrent than most, i build the melody first because i am trying to convey emotion, rather than making the track danceable, which is why one would make the bass/percs first.

 

Pads etc are useual made up of the original melody or variations oif it, and the lead is always the complexer melody. I hardly ever hold chords [which is what alot of trance does, holds a chord while playing a simple melody]

 

In short, i try to build melodic harmony, not chord harmony.

 

But yeah, theres a run down of my little system there.

 

 

example:

Posted Image

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It always comes together with the music ideas...

 

i rarely get that really powerful inspiration boost, but when it hits me, it's a full song, everything in the right place. I just need to make it real, using the tools avaiable, and the knowledge i have.

 

to be more technical: 90% of the times V-station, a very clean deep sound, and then distortion on it, of course fine tuning it to get the right "fat vs. crunch" ratio :P

 

i'm a bass addict though, so i tend to make the kick and bassline a bit too dominant... so i usually have to double check everything on speakers, headphones, friends, neighbors, my place's windows, before i know they're right :P

 

edit: btw seawasp... amazing avatar picture :o:))

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well... for me, whats worked recently, Ill play one random monotonous note throughout the whole pattern, then, change each note for some neat variation, some slides and stuff (keep in mind, this is for minimal). add a bit of echo delay (if needed), EQing out the harsh freqs and boosting alot of the <90hz. I do not use alot of compression on it, maybe alittle on the percs, and maybe the kick... phasers can be fun too...

 

also, there is a lot of kick, and bass hits at the same time... if the bass ducks out from the kick (in FL, peak controllers and such)... but usually, its just a matter of EQing the kick and bass properly...

 

To make my other leads, I build from the bass up... :P

 

thanks 11:11.... ;) (its an Alex Gray painting, he paints alot of this stuff: http://alexgrey.com/)

 

BASSJUNKIES ALL THE WAY!!!!!! -_-:):ph34r:

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BASSJUNKIES ALL THE WAY!!!!!! -_-:):ph34r:

 

:ph34r::D:lol:B):P:P

 

One more thing i noticed.... in fruity.

 

if i set the kick and bassline in the mixer to around -8, -10 dB (full scale), then i always have enough headroom for everything else, synths, pads, lots of drums.. (im also into minimalprogressiveelectrogoawhatever... style)

 

oh yeah, and i recommend the waves Lin-MB. IT ROX!!! i'm not using anything else on the master channel and the sound that comes out just owns.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

It all depends what I write, how I write my basslines... sometimes its just a BxbxBxbxBxbxBxbx (Where B is bassdrum and b basssound), and on top I can write another bass sound coming in every 16th note, but more sharp, or more subby... its hard to say really :)

That sounds damn repretive. I right my basslines just from my head to the pianoroll, i try to make them sound similar to astral projection basslines according to the notes.

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so u make melody first?. after getting a good melody u start the track?. i make kick n bassline from the bassline i get tha feel of tha track then make the remaining. this is may be dark progressive is coming in my head. may be for melodic psy ur method will be nice i think. right?

A song can start from anywhere, any piece of the song. Basslines may be common places to start from, but it's not always the case. Look at other styles of music: Drum & Bass probably usually starts with a beat, rock and metal usually with a chord riff, pop perhaps starts with a melody. Sometimes I get a melody or chord progression in my mind, and I put a simple one or two note bassline to it just for working purposes, before I flesh out the bassline later on.

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look for his remix of Fluoro Neuro Sponge, its around here somewhere...

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