Dua Lipa Don't Start Now bass sound

[Owen]

Before we begin, I know it is a sample.

 

However, it is rubbery and squelchy and all sorts of things I like. What is going on in the processing? Any ideas?

 

 

[chris_b]

There's a bass guitar line in there.

 

Some sections are doubled up with keys/synth.

[Owen]

Yep, it is the section between 0:13 and 0:28 ish which is doing it for me. It seems to Mr NoFX here that there is quite a lot of saturation going amongst other things, and I fancy that sound. I acknowledge the articualtion and damping but there is more than that.

[Reggaebass]

I saw this quite a while back, it’s a great cover 

 

[lowdown]

That 'Bass Guitar' line is programmed. It's a Kontak VSTi by Native Instruments and it's called 'Scarbee MM-Bass'.

I have it and to me. it does sound like the OP sound.

 

 

 

[Owen]

Aha! We have that at work, I shall go and look at it. Ta.

[drTStingray]

Before I saw that explanation I’d thought of it as a Bernard Edwards Stingray sound - it seems the sample is based on that sort of sound. Something similar on quite a few tracks in the last couple of years including the latest single from Calvin Harris plus various others including Pharell - also Justin Timberlake. That sound works well on dance orientated music. 

[Crawford13]

Yup no real bass on the recording at all. Still a super cool bass line.

 

If anyone manages to put together a pedal signal chain sounding like that synth bass sound it goes to later in the song it would be awesome if they shared it.

[MacDaddy]

4 hours ago, Owen said:

Before we begin, I know it is a sample.

 

However, it is rubbery and squelchy and all sorts of things I like. What is going on in the processing? Any ideas?

 

 

 

I saw a review on the internet, of one of her songs. It said there was a really great bit towards the end, when she shut the feck up! 😖

[Bolo]

Try it live:

 

[YouMa]

It's a VCF a filter that gives it the squelch a bit like a roland tb303 filter the one that started acid house. I should imagine its a vst put on the sample signature chain although there are a multitude of different ones out there.

[StickyDBRmf]

"No real instruments were harmed in the making of this recording."

[miles'tone]

On 29/08/2022 at 16:12, Reggaebass said:

I saw this quite a while back, it’s a great cover 

 

Julia does indeed play Groove!👏

[Chaddy]

Hardly notice the bass when she is on screen 😛 Phoowwwaarrr 

[lowdown]

On 29/08/2022 at 16:07, Owen said:

Yep, it is the section between 0:13 and 0:28 ish which is doing it for me. It seems to Mr NoFX here that there is quite a lot of saturation going amongst other things, and I fancy that sound. I acknowledge the articualtion and damping but there is more than that.

 

 I've just seen this Wiki page breakdown of the tune. If you read through, someone has gone into some very fine detail about the track. It looks like there were a couple of VSTi's for the Bass.

 

Don't Start Now - Wikipedia

[YouMa]

if you want this sound live you need an LPF pedal. A lot of the impact of the track has to do with bass filter and a dry sound interspaced with effects on chorus lines etc. A sequencer would help as well as machines quantize better than humans. I would like to think there is some actual bass doubled here, if their isn't the guy who produced it had a very good knowledge/manipulation of ADSR . Breakbeat has a lot to do with this track. The production is very very good and was probably expensive unless you area naughty torrent user with lots of RAM and a Ferrari of a laptop its difficult to replicate. The reason i think we all like it is because its basically disco and some of the finest blokes we admire were in that era. People like Bernard Edwards could play like a machine before they were invented. There are a lot of flourishes with strings and stabs,lots of delay, reverb then back to dry filtered bass. A lot of the guys who produced and played disco also knew a lot of electronic and studio knowledge. This is why i have never shied away from electronic music.

Edited September 3, 2022 by YouMa

[SumOne]

Similar to Daft Punk 'Voyager' which was probably made digitally but they are trying to sound like 70s Disco with a bass guitar. I find that a Jazz bass with more of the bridge pickup, compressed, and a mid EQ boost gets pretty close with the right technique.