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I may be kicking a hornets' nest here, but...


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Since many here would agree, I'll just throw this out there;

 

With the exception of slap bass, the Minimoog does bass better than a bass guitar! :wave:

 

Disclaimer; Although there is no substitute for a live fluent and skilled bassist, for my one man recording projects nothing out-basses the Mini.

 

There, I said it. :/ Feel free to agree or discuss at will. :cool:

><>

Steve

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I would argue that this is exactly the place to make such an assertion. I love kicking left hand bass, whether its piano, EPs, synth, etc. I've been playing with a really decent bass player for the last year, and while I love playing LH bass, I have to admit that the bass player is much better and more consistent than I am at playing bass. Personally, I love having two bass parts, he plays the more fluid and deeper bass, and I play a higher bass that adds to his playing.

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They are different. When I covered the bass parts in Mojo Filter I played keys probably 85% of the time. I carried my old Fender P-Bass I would use on some things where the Fender had better articulations. Like Free's All Right Now.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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I generally use my Traveler TB-4P for LH bass while using my NE4D for keys........

 

Jake

1967 B-3 w/(2) 122's, Nord C1w/Leslie 2101 top, Nord PedalKeys 27, Nord Electro 4D, IK B3X, QSC K12.2, Yamaha reface YC+CS+CP

 

"It needs a Hammond"

 

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One of the things I love about playing both bass guitar and keyboards is being able to really choose the right approach for the feel, groove, and tone of a song's bassline. John Paul Jones was a huge early influence of mine, but it was probably Stevie Wonder who really made it clear to me how expressive a synth can be as a bass (I guess if you grow up hanging around James Jamerson, the bar is set a little high).

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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I love it for bass. It sounds great and it's so fast to dial in what I want. I've noticed over the years that I'll use the mini a lot of the time for bass and then over the course of 4 or 5 months I'll start using it less and going for bass guitar samples and I'm not even aware of it. Then one day I'll see it and decide it's time for a tune up. Right after that it's back in most mixes again and the cycle continues.
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A little ridiculous to make this assertion don't you think? Wouldn't it depend on the genre of music you're playing? Not saying you can't put a new spin on older styles by using a MMoog bass to substitute for the real thing, but better?

 

I have a certain interest in this as I'm on a quick tour right now and our bass player had a temporary emergency and can't play. We were set to cancel the remaining gigs and go home, but decided to finish the dates with me playing key bass. I can assure you that a Minimoog bass would NOT be the preferred bass sound, it's a regular electric bass patch I'm using.

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A little ridiculous to make this assertion don't you think?

 

Not IMO. In a supportive role in original music, it will lay down the bottom end as well as any bass guitar. :cool:

 

Wouldn't it depend on the genre of music you're playing?

 

To some extent. But since the Minimoog is a synthesizer, it's capable of a wide range of bass tones, not just the cliche synth bass you may be thinking of.

 

 

Not saying you can't put a new spin on older styles by using a MMoog bass to substitute for the real thing, but better?

 

You could reasonably argue that, hence my opening post. ;) I remember back when Gary Wright used Minimoog bass on his Dream Weaver album, and was grilled by numerous bass guitarists asking how he got such a full, round sound. Again, it's not a substitute for a skilled bass guitarist on a tune that more or less features the bass guitar. But nothing beats it for fat low end, IMO. :cool:

 

 

I can assure you that a Minimoog bass would NOT be the preferred bass sound, it's a regular electric bass patch I'm using.

 

You might be surprised how well the Mini can emulate a bread & butter finger picked bass guitar sound if that's what you want. Check out Steve Winwood's Roll With It for an example of this. :)

 

><>

Steve

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With the exception of slap bass, the Minimoog does bass better than a bass guitar!

 

A rhodes does better than acoustic piano.

 

A B3 does better than a pipe organ.

 

An EWI does better than a tenor sax.

 

There are contexts where this may be true, and there are certainly contexts where this is not true. While there is Venn diagram overlap between each of the two choices (yours, and the 3 I suggested), there are lots of areas and applications where each can do things the other can't. This is especially true when the instrument in question is in the hands of an accomplished player.

 

my 0.02

 

..
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With the exception of slap bass, the Minimoog does bass better than a bass guitar! :wave:

I might concur if the Minimoog had velocity sensitivity and aftertouch. I use those (and the squishy bar) all the time when I play keytar (ROMpler) bass. Without those articulations, it seems to me that a MM's timbre might be nice, but articulated musicality would be seriously (um, irredeemably) hampered.

 

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I have nothing against a MM bass at all, but your post is trolling plain & simple. Enjoy, I have to practice some LH bass lines for a pretty big show in Burbank tomorrow night!

 

If that's what you want to call it, go ahead. :idk My intention was to initiate intelligent discussion and/or debate about a subject we can all relate to. Knock 'em dead at your show tomorrow night! :keys:

><>

Steve

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Why minimoog, or any keyboard/synth, for that matter? Success or failure depends on the player. I used to love that seminal (for me, anyway) Rudess Morgenstein Project recording from the late 90"s. So friggin" good. I began to take any chance to jam without a bassist just for the freedom of jumping through changes as they occurred to me. With a perceptive drummer, it can be a blast.

Yamaha P515 & CK88, Pianoteq, Mainstage, iOS, assorted other stuff.

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I think a lot of it is that a minimoog under the fingers will feel like a "real instrument" where as if I'm playing bass samples I might not feel as connected but I can still play an ok bass line. Same goes for playing samples of analog basses. The mini still feels the best and the easiest to program to get the job done. Either that or I'm full of it. lol
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I personally prefer DX7 BASS 1 from ROM 1A and 3A (patch 15 on 1A and 12 on 3A).

Maybe because I like DX7 and D-50 and M1 and SY-77 sounds. As well as 90"s ROMplers.

Yamaha MX49, Casio SK1/WK-7600, Korg Minilogue, Alesis SR-16, Casio CT-X3000, FL Studio, many VSTs, percussion, woodwinds, strings, and sound effects.
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Remember the Solid Bass patch on the 81z? That was a money maker.

 

I toy with the idea of putting 2600 filters in my OM8 when I can but this looks like a good way to for another bass voice in here...

 

[video:youtube]

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I agree that for a lot of situations, other instruments can fill for electric bass quite nicely. I use low Rhodes and Hammond. Only bass I really love and don't ever want to substitute is upright bass by a skilled player.
Trumpet player by trade, but fell in love with keys too.
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It would be helpful to hear examples of the OPs tracks with MM bass.

 

To each their own. I wouldn't use any of the sounds in the video Linwood posted, for the bass part or any part for that matter. I have the iOS Syntronik, but on average there's 1 sound in 30 that I like. It's kinda challenging to audition synth sounds for me, being that I have such a limited range of synth sounds I like, and the ones I don't like, I don't know how to play them for maximum effect, so they don't have a proper audition.

 

I remember hearing the demo songs on my Motif XS, the way they were able to really bring the sounds to life amply demonstrated that I didn't know how good those sounds could be 'cause I didn't have the chops to bring them to life.

 

I don't consider the OP as being a troll, more discussion around LH bass is, as Theo might say, tres cool.

 

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

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Not me...at least for the pop and rock covers we play. I've had the pleasure of playing with a couple of very good bassists (among a lot of ok ones) and it really makes a huge difference. Just "frees" the whole band when a good drummer and bassist go to town....by "frees" I mean that you don't feel like you need play all the time if they sound that good on their own....I'd rather leave out the guitar than the bassist frankly, and I have no urge to ever play bass myself, but different strokes!
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Well, despite our attraction to gear, I would say that concept is most important. I'm sure that this is not an original claim, but I have a friend who always sounds like himself on guitar, no matter what gear he uses. (Maybe because he plays as LAF. :)) It is remarkable. A Minimoog in the wrong hands can sound a bit wussy. In the the right hands, it can be deadly. If you are a preset jockey and you pick the wrong presets, or if you are a programmer who cannot conceive and program the right sounds, any particular instrument is not going to help much. However, if you have a great concept and only have a POS like a Rhodes bass, then you are sunk too.

 

Steve Vai has an anecdote about Zappa and the importance of one's concept of tone over the equipment that you use to achieve the tone:

 

"There"s a story that he once told you your tone was like a ham sandwich."

 

"That was after the first gig I ever did with him. We were having breakfast, and I said, 'How was the gig last night? What did you think?' I was looking for advice and criticism. He said, 'You know what, I think you"re a pretty good guitar player.' That, right there, was an amazing statement to hear

from him. But then he said, 'But your tone sounds like an electric ham sandwich.' That was just Frank"s way of saying I had to work on my tone. By that, he meant that the way you hear yourself, imagine yourself, is the way you"re going to sound. The way you think about the way you play is

going to be represented in what comes out of the amp. It"s not in the gear, it"s in the way you hear yourself."

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There are definitely times when a fat synth bass played with funk and feeling really feels good.

 

But there are times where a synth bass is just not going to cut it -- Geddy, Flea, P-Nut, Stu Zender... Even songs where pick bass really matters to the song, like in Gimme Three Steps and any punk song.

 

As both a keyboardist and a bass player, on any given day, I prefer to groove hard with a drummer while I lay it down with the bass guitar.

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I'm on a quick tour right now and our bass player had a temporary emergency and can't play. We were set to cancel the remaining gigs and go home, but decided to finish the dates with me playing key bass.

 

Rob - is this with AWB? Are you using your little 5-octave controller with a split for LHB and RH keys?

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

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Yea, AWB. I did use my little Roland 61-key guy by itself for the first of the three gigs with me doing key bass. It was a challenge â but I only had three hours notice (and no sound check) to pull it off. At our next gig we rented a Motif for the bass and put it on the lower tier of an Apex stand. That worked a lot better as I had the "full range" of my 5 octave board on top, lol. In a few hours we have our final gig of this tour where I'll have a Motif again.
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You should listen to that filter again. lol

OK, re-watched and listened. I saw you? change the VCF filter and resonance quite a bit, but I don't have the experience to know when I'm hearing a good filter without having side-by-side comparisons. I'd be curious to hear your description of that filter.

 

I'd still be curious to hear the OPs tracks he plays MM bass on.

 

@ Piktor,

That was an interesting point you made. Some people are so profoundly musical they can make practically anything sound good. But it's also true that most beginners are working with a primitive sound pallette, it know it has taken me a long time to 'hear' the quality and capability of the many sounds available to us as keyboardists, and I would argue that good quality instruments make a HUGE difference. After playing a mediocre flute in Europe for 5 years as I traveled around, I was shocked at how magnificent a really good flute sounded. Same with literally any instrument. Personally I'm always driven by the sound, and when I think back on the incredibly bad sounds of my Kawai K1 (2?) back in 1988, I'm thankful for having a NS.

 

By the way, what does LAF stand for? Looked it up, there are literally 53 possibilities. I'm guessing you meant Like A Fox.

 

 

 

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

Win10 laptop i7 8GB // iPad Pro 9.7" 32GB

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