Best way to add bass

W

wooster

New member
Hi. A total newbie to home recording here. I'm using Garageband but I'm struggling to find a way of adding bass - I don't have one. I tried recording my guitar and transposing the track down 12 semitones but it sounded really weird and swirly. It also affected the timing in some strange way

Is there another way or something I'm doing wrong? Should it be possible or do I need to suck it up and buy a bass?

Would using loops and transposing for chord changes work.

Sorry but I'm really new :)
 
If you're serious, suck it up and buy a bass. Oh, and get a real daw instead of grage band.
:D

Other than that there are probably lots of synth bass pgms that might work with garage band.
 
Or you could ask someone to play bass for you. Find a collaborator.

and yeah, don't use garageband. It's a toy.
 
Thanks guys. I'm just starting but if I bought something other than garageband would it allow me to add the bass? Any recommendations to look at? Maybe Logic?
 
I suggest looking at VSTi's or softsynths that have basses. Try this one....

E-MU Systems - Proteus VX

Logic would be a good choice to move up to from garageband. But there are many others, some free. Check out Reaper. Excellent demo license and great price when you decide to keep it.
 
Do you have an interface? We know you have an ipad. But any daw needs a way to input the musical source into the computer, hence an interface
Most interfaces come with some kind of daw program.
 
Hi. Thanks Logic appeals for the reasons you suggest, Chili. It's in my price range too. Proteus I'm not sure about what it does. Hmm. Lots to learn. But it doesn't seem to be available for Mac as far as I can make out.

I am using a mac with Focusrite 2i2 interface which came with a stripped down version of Ableton. I'm not sure it's worth learning as the Live software is out of my budget hence my Garageband use.
 
Ok, in your case logic is an excellent choice.
Also you can grow into it. Many pros use a mac and logic.
 
No. :D
The only things that will solve your bass problem are;
Buy a bass, get a bass player or do midi bass.
All of which mean getting something you currently don't have.
 
Use REAPER, use it for free until you decide it's great and pay the small price they ask. The Focusrite interface will do fine with almost everything. LOTS of soft synths, free ones too, will give you some bass BUT save a little and buy a cheap bass along with a Behringer BDI21 and you'll be set for years, (or borrow one).
 
wooster said:
Thank you. I'm likely to order Logic. Will it solve my bass issue though ?
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Good on you for upgrading to a real DAW. It will pay off in the long run. There is a steep learning curve associated with DAWs, but don't let that dissuade you. Get through the technical hurdles so you can concentrate on being creative.

As for basses, my first bass was a yamaha low end RBX-something. I paid $150 for it. It was P/J config and very versatile for all the different tones I could get from it. For the money, I don't think there's a better bass. You can plug the bass directly into the 2i2 and record it that way.
 
Like some people have already said, you'll probably have to get a bass, a bass player friend or use midi bass. I use Logic and usually record midi bass tracks (which sound pretty good) until I can get my bass player to record. The tones in Logic are pretty good and it would be a good step up if you use garageband. I'd say look into reaper as well too.
 
Well, actually, as a cubase user, and I'm sure logic is the same, some of the add on vsts have pretty good bass samples. Depends on the song style but I've a couple of jazz bass samples that I can play in from the keyboard, but you could buy a bass for the price of the sampler!
 
Righty ho! A bass it is. I know a few players so I'm going to scadge one for the time being and use the 2i2 with it.

Thanks for all the excellent advice guys :)
 
Thanks. The midi thing interests me. Prepare for another couple of really naive newbie questions.

I can read and write music. If I buy Logic is there a way of me writing a midi bass part in notation and adding it to an effect in Logic which would get round this issue?

Alternatively, i have a Roland electric piano which I believe can record midi files ( though I've never even tried this ) and I'm wondering if it would be easy to play the bass on that, and record as a midi track, put it into Logic and then use whatever bass amp sound I want. What do you say?

I know how to play a bass but I have hand issues which flare up and Im concerned the bass might aggravate this, hence me showing apprehension around the bass thing.
 
wooster said:
Alternatively, i have a Roland electric piano which I believe can record midi files ( though I've never even tried this ) and I'm wondering if it would be easy to play the bass on that, and record as a midi track, put it into Logic and then use whatever bass amp sound I want. What do you say?
Click to expand...

I don't know Logic at all, so don't know if you can write midi out in notation. You can in Cubase.

If youre keyboard has a midi out port, then you can use it to drive a VSTi. Some keyboards have midi ports, others have USB ports for midi over USB. Either will work, you just need to determine if your particular keyboard has that function.
 
Right chaps. I've bought Logic X. Bit of a learning curve so I've subscribed to Lynda.com and going through some tutorials there. First impressions are that I can write MIDI stuff from notation. Thank you all for your help :)
 
This thread got me thinking (dangerous). I use Studio One as my DAW but started on garage band. I just opened it (GB) up and was able to generate a bass guitar track fairly easily despite never trying it. New track (software instrument), select the guitar sound you want from all of the basses. Enable recording on that track. Using piano roll in the editor, hit record and some random notes. Stop the recording switch to score in the editor and go to work. Edit the notes in a bar or too, copy and paste, a little more editing and in minutes a bass track.

Thanks for the motivation!!!
 
A quick update to all interested. I'm battling on with Logic Pro X and getting there slowly buy hopefully surely. I haven't solved my bass problem yet but I might get my friend to lend me one in a couple of weeks. Alternatively, I might write the midi parts out. Another option is to use something I've found called "Midi guitar" by Jam Origin which apparently will let me record MIDI with my guitar and put it down an octave. I don't know yet. Too many things at once :)

I also need to look at my computing situation so one thing at a time
 
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