Michael Jackson - “Black & White” bass sound

[Pea Turgh]

Hello.  The guitarist started playing this at last rehearsal, and I started playing along from memory.  Quite fancy gigging it!

 

I appreciate the part was originally played on a Moog, but any pointers on what sort of effects I could utilize to approximate with a 4 string?  Preferably on the Zoom effects list too 😂

[NikNik]

You need this thing, or something similar. I think the bassist in Disclosure uses one.

[BigRedX]

1 minute ago, NikNik said:

You need this thing, or something similar. I think the bassist in Disclosure uses one.

 

Bear in mind that the latency on any pitch MIDI device is dependant both upon the pitch of the note being played (the lower the note the greater the latency) and the accuracy of the device being used. The very best pitch detection systems (which this is not) require a MINIMUM of 1½ cycles of the waveform to successfully detect the pitch. For the E string on a bass this is 36ms and very noticeable. Even the G string is 15ms which is still noticeable. Expect the latency of this device to be close to double that! And that's before you figure in the additional latency due to producing the correct MIDI data from the detected pitch and you'll see/hear why these systems are no good for the bass guitar.

[Pea Turgh]

16 minutes ago, NikNik said:

You need this thing, or something similar. I think the bassist in Disclosure uses one.

That, and then a Moog 😂

 

Thats a bit beyond my current needs.  Just after some effects that might get me close to an approximation.  Octaver and….. ???

[chris_b]

Alex Al, Jackson's bassist towards the end of his life, used a Jazz bass,  synths and keyboards, probably with a lot of processing. 

 

I wouldn't be buying all that stuff for one song, so if I was playing this I'd use my Jazz bass. The important thing here is how you play the line.

[Pea Turgh]

It was a combination of bass and Moog apparently.  I can play it straight, but just wanted some ideas on making an appropriate representation of the synth sound with effects.

Edited January 11, 2023 by Pea Turgh

[SamIAm]

Not a full answer, but perhaps an approach?

In this Dan H video he is getting a moog like sound using a Zoom B3N

 

I'm not sure if this is a built in patch or one that he crafted, but some further googling should be able to locate that info.

Depending on the Zoom unit you have, it may already have the patch/effects loaded ... or you can load effects from other units in the same "generation" ... this site has details.

 

S'manth x

[ordep]

just had a quick listen to it and I assume that a combination of an octaver, a bit of toned off fuzz and a hint of chorus can approximate it. 

[TheGreek]

Here's the track for those who didn't know the track intimately

 

 

[bassfan]

Get yourself a C4 and download the moog patch. What I do for PYT. 👍🏻