Hey all,

I've been into producing music for quite a while, and never ventured into the area of House. I have a greater understanding for DnB, and downtempo type production.. However lately I've been really interested in house as its a genre Ive always loved.

Most of the production isn't a problem, except for the basslines. I guess in short, my question is how to produce a bass similar to this..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqmbknkrd2Q

2 more GREAT examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daVWtw9PjdU
(wait for the bass to kick in around 45 seconds)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjHp0W5eAHw

I love the funk sounding bass of many tracks, and this is a great example. I realize alot of the time its probably recorded on a live bass, then looped.. but is it possible to get a bass that sounds like this, along with the ability to slide up and down notes like the song in the video using reason?

The first two basses sound to me like a normal bass guitar with some distorion and pitch bends. the third one is actually a synth... but it sounds like a bass guitar with a waveform i can't put my finger on. I'll try to send you some patches later?

So would the first 2 bass guitars be able to be replicated on a synth? Im assuming also the pitch bend would be the way of simulating a slide on the bass guitar also?

Yes there's a Bass Guitar patch for the Subtractor that just needs to be modified a bit, and the pitch bend would be like a guitar slide, but without the sound of fingers moving down the neck.

personally, I like using the matrix to create basslines, just thought id throw that option at you, thor i reckon has some good house bass sounds, I know the feeling when u want to make music you hear but it just seems so hard to find the right blend of sounds.

good luck!

Hi mate aside from technical issues mentioned to create a funky sound if you are not already doing so as most music stays in the A minor scale you need to learn about thwe magical notes called accidentals.

Here is how to create a funk bassline from a normal techno one

Bass notes assuming each note is one crotchet and time signature is 4/4

Bar 1 A G G D Bar 2 A A D D

Funk conversion

Bar 1 A F# G D Bar 2 A A C# D

Basicly accidentals are notes from other keys and for funk the most useful ones are the ones a semitone before or after a note from the scale. It is always important to finish follow the note out of the scale with the equivalent in the scale though.

for example F# is "equal" to G as it is G flattened
and C# is "equal" to D as it is D flattened

If you already knew this music theory I apologise, otherwise I hope I helped.

See you Nigel

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You can get just about any bass sound you want in Reason. It's only limited to your imagination and talent/skills. And of course, your time.

Joe