Using FX to force imitation VS 'stylistic abstraction'

[BenTunnicliffe]

Hi guys,

Can't be sorry enough for how ridiculously pretentious the title sounds but I've been trying to find where i personally stand on the above issue and where I'm going to direct my own playing style.

In regards to the quickly developing scene of performing heavily electronic-based music live on instruments OTHER than those it was originally sequenced with I was wondering where you, as bass players (particularly if you're interested in electronic music scenes) stand on taking the route of either forcing your bass guitar/upright to emulate the sound of say a sub, sinewave synth line or similar vibe with a mid-synth sound or actually building up an internal library of how this music SOUNDS and is phrased etc and then taking on the chin how an electric bass sounds and that what you might create will just be a new branch of that music that doesn't actually sound all too similar but is structured the same etc?

Obviously I see benefits and issues in both approaches such as the initial cost of racking up lines of pedals, dealing with tracking issues etc when absolutely trying to copy a synth sound or what have you and on the other hand stylistically you could find your music not having as easily marketable a place in the industry or it not sounding/having the same affect on audiences that those original records had on you.

I was checking out what it is I want to personally achieve in that respect after hearing Jojo Mayer talk about how he has no illusion that he can't actually play like a machine but he said that his aim with 'reverse engineering' drum and bass was to simply take away enough stylistic abstraction to be able to create the illusion that he sounded like a machine.

For all I know this might be a dead-ended discussion seeing as I don't know where I stand on the issue myself.

Interested to hear people's thoughts.... B

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited February 16, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[mike257]

I think there's a fair few on here who'll go for the "just play it on a synth" option - I know Doddy (and a fair few other working pros on BC) are strong advocates of playing synth as part of your bass-playing armoury rather than struggling with the complexities of emulating that sound with an instrument that isn't really built to do it.

[BenTunnicliffe]

I don't find myself losing any sleep over the matter in the slightest nor do I think that anyone should say to themselves 'i'm only going to try and do this thing with this equipment/i'm strictly against using certain kinds of equipment to make music' but I just wondered what people prefer to do themselves in terms of how they perform electronic music.

I totally agree that people should experiment and plenty of styles of music have been born out of people trying to perform music on instruments that aren't 'authentic' or whatever.

That said though there's definitely a certain cost attached to getting involved with fx chains or working with midi/audio converters and a DAW and on the other hand emulating an instrument that isn't your own could take a lot of time to nail if you really did want to nail a feel (can't stand people turning up to michael jackson charts and overlooking the difference in phrasing that comes with synth bass players).

I have a fair bit of effect knocking about AND a couple of synths that I can play fairly well so I don't limit myself to one or the other but given the pros and cons of both I just wondered what people like to do in terms of preference.

[cheddatom]

I just prefer to use one instrument, so if I want a synthy sound I use pedals to approximate it. I use a lot of pedals anyway so taking a synth along would just take up more room.