Some sick J bass on this tune... is it real?

[EJWW]

Some smashing chunky bass playing on this tune I've been hearing on radio 1 lately. 

 

Sounds like a classic 5 string Jazz tone to me, compressed with a bit of chorus. Lush!

 

But I've been fooled in the past when it's turned out to be laptop software fakery.

 

 

[Linus27]

Wow, what a track. Hard to tell if a real bass as for most it does sound real but at time it does sound processed but there is a synth sub bass running under the whole track so that might be confusing it. Mega track though.

[Mykesbass]

Just looking at the album credits on Wikipedia and it looks like it is all programming and producers.

[BassAgent]

Well, it is not. There are actually two bass players credited, Andrew Wells (who also co-wrote and produced the song) and Matt Kirkwood and I think it is the latter that you hear playing. He uses 5-string Jazzes, according to his Instagram page.

 

EDIT: Just found an old IG story of Matt. It's his Marco bass.

Edited March 2 by BassAgent

[Baloney Balderdash]

It sounds very much like real played bass, but really heavily processed, produced and polished, like the rest of the track, and as is the custom nowadays, and not just with pop and mainstream music.

 

Kind of like in the 80's, were just about everything would be overprocessed, just that production has become much more streamlined and polished, at least when we are talking mainstream music.

 

A lot of of more alternative music will still be overprocessed nowadays, but used in a less streamlined and polished, and more creative way, more as an effect, rather than to create an over polished sound.

 

Well, I suppose except for most modern metal, which tends to be really streamlined and over polished as well, but again I suppose to an effect of sounding cold and mechanical, rather than to be overprocessed for the sake of accessibility and easier digestion. 

 

Standard sampled bass usually does sound somewhat similar to the bass in this track, but is not as dynamically varied and lively.

 

It would be extremely hard to replicate this bass midi programming it from samples and make it sound the same, to the point where it would be much easier to just hire a real bass player.

 

Edited March 16 by Baloney Balderdash