Muse Bass Sound

[The Cooler King]

First post here - so plenty of opinions to share !!

When I've played Muse songs in the past I've found a Woolly Mammoth and an EQ pedal gets me a decent 'live' sound. Plus a trouch of compression really brings out that big Muse bass sound. I find a Fuzz Face type fuzz more accurate than a big muff type fuzz for the bass parts.

I'm guessing the OP is wanting to recreate a Muse sound form playing live with band so I'd look at distortion / fuzz, EQ and compression.

On the recorded albums there is no doubt all sorts of studio trickery going on, a mix of distorted / fuzzed tracks, a clean track and a synth track, plus plenty of EQing and other studio shenanigans.

I read an interview with Matt Bellamy recently where he says a lot of the guitar parts are a mix of distorted guitars and distorted synths.

[Starvolt]

[quote name='The Cooler King' post='367622' date='Jan 1 2009, 12:07 PM']I find a Fuzz Face type fuzz more accurate than a big muff type fuzz for the bass parts.[/quote]

Mmm, not sure I'd agree with you there, seeing as how Chris does actually use a Sovtek Big Muff, though if it works for you, then fair enough!

But yeah, there is quite a bit of fancieness going on with the studio tracks, and there is to some extent with the live aswell.

Nonetheless, I do love his sound!

[Kev]

forget trying to nail his studio sound, its so complex its not worth trying, and i dont think some of his sounds are even possible live. If you wanna sound like he does live, however, then get prowling the net for a human gear animato, he uses that pedal pretty much exclusivly live now

[fretmeister]

To get near I used a EHX Metal Muff and a Digitech Synthbass wah

Usually I split that signal AND use another deep and clean one too, but on this clip:

[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JxU5-Z21P-0"]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JxU5-Z21P-0[/url]

(A jam night)

I only had 1 cab and 1 head with me - So Bass - Boss LS2 - Loop 1 (Metal Muff) - Loop 2 (Digitech) - Compressor - Head.


I think I had the swirly's on a bit too much - but the first 5 seconds or so are bass alone. (Fretless Status - I'm out of shot for the first half until someone moves the camera)


It was an odd night - went from that to doing Horace Silver's 'Song for my father' complete with jazz 4s!

[Ant]

if anyone wants a boxed animato ill be selling one in a week or so

[Starvolt]

[quote name='Ant' post='369403' date='Jan 3 2009, 05:23 PM']if anyone wants a boxed animato ill be selling one in a week or so[/quote]

God, that would be nice. It is however, out of my price range I imagine.

[Finbar]

I read something about a couple of different types of Animato, and only one of them is 'the one'? I'd be interested though. If you let me know on price, I'd like first dibsies?

[Ant]

yeah, it is "the one" as opposed to the forte version; ill have a think about prices and let you know.

[Kev]

you never get round to selling it on ebay??

post it for sale on the muse board and you'll get offers that make the deep impact look a bargain

[cheddatom]

[quote name='Starvolt' post='362738' date='Dec 24 2008, 12:15 PM']I suppose it's cos it's one of the really well known Muse tracks. I'm still trying to figure out how to get the right sound for Muscle Museum.[/quote]

Muscle museum is just plenty of compression and played right by the neck without much force IMHO. On the CD there is a piano doubling the part which makes it sound much more interesting.

I don't know if it's actually a piano, someone disagreed with me on the Muse board about it once, but it sounds just like a piano doubling the part. It would be amazing if it was a pedal though!

[Starvolt]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='370754' date='Jan 5 2009, 11:30 AM']Muscle museum is just plenty of compression and played right by the neck without much force IMHO. On the CD there is a piano doubling the part which makes it sound much more interesting.

I don't know if it's actually a piano, someone disagreed with me on the Muse board about it once, but it sounds just like a piano doubling the part. It would be amazing if it was a pedal though![/quote]

Yeah, I've noticed that Piano part, though as you say it may well not be a Piano!

So many pedals to buy at the mo...

[Kev]

im pretty sure muscle museum is the bass line and a piano, the bassline being heavily compressed as tom said, with a nice bit of overdrive in the chorus

[Finbar]

I always thought it was doubled by a synthesiser. But I never really listened that hard.

[Toasted]

[quote name='Finbar' post='369527' date='Jan 3 2009, 07:39 PM']I read something about a couple of different types of Animato, and only one of them is 'the one'? I'd be interested though. If you let me know on price, I'd like first dibsies?[/quote]

They discontinued the Animato and replaced it with the Animato Forte. Wolstehholme uses the original. It's a pretty sweet pedal, but nothing *that* special.

[vasek666]

im selling one animato: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/299343-human-gear-animato-sn-ad-142-chris-wolstenholme-muse/page__p__3225342__hl__animato__fromsearch__1#entry3225342

[GisserD]

source audio manta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlBbDO4lLcU