Synth bass help - Ritchie Family

[obi 2 kenobi]

hi, working out the synth bass to this great track.  
 

how do you get the pitch bend slur sound about 15 seconds in? Can’t work out how it is played 

 

thanks 
 

 

[BigRedX]

Pitch-bend wheel on a keyboard synth.

[obi 2 kenobi]

Yes, I know that but how is it played?

[BassTractor]

1 hour ago, obi 2 kenobi said:

Yes, I know that but how is it played?

From hazy memory, several techniques are available (hardware-dependent), and I can't give you the definitive answer, but one trick that many players were very handy with is using the short pause between phrases to push the wheel all the way up  -  to then release it at the same time as the next note is played.
One doesn't then play the key for the tone one hears, but the one for the tone it has to glide to. A whole tone is fairly standard IIRC.

Without remembering exactly, I gather different synths had different wheel return characteristics, so I'm guessing not every synth would do this well in every tempo.
 

[obi 2 kenobi]

Thank you

Its pretty impressive playing and pitch control 

[BigRedX]

Of course it could have been sequenced. That way it would be simple to get all the pitch bends perfect. The weapon of choice at the time would have been the Roland MC4.

[BassTractor]

9 hours ago, obi 2 kenobi said:

Thank you

Its pretty impressive playing and pitch control 

You're welcome. Just remember that other live tricks exist too; it's just that I forgot. One, with a more modern synth could be negative pitch-bend from aftertouch (or even from velocity), but I gather it'd normally sound a bit different.
Yeah, pretty impressive.

My own problem was deliberately hitting the wrong key. I'm not very good at wrong notes, I tells ya! 😐 😉 😁

[BigRedX]

I can't think of any synth I've owned with a dedicated pitch bend wheel that didn't allow both up and down bends.

 

With a suitable modular it would be even easier as you could "program" all the required bends using envelope generators and manually trigger them as required.

[xgsjx]

That would be very easy on a Roli Rise. 

Another option would be to just turn on portamento for that bend/slide & then back off once you hit the last note. 

[Quatschmacher]

Cool track. Going to check out the album. 
 

As mentioned above, sounds like pitch bend up is applied just before the note is played and then released.