LinuxMusicians

Looking for your favorite plugins to shape bass sound. Also looking for some hints on how to make a guitar sound like a bass. I know that a bass guitar would probably be the best solution but let's just say that isn't an option.

I've had some success using GxDetune to shift the guitar down an octave, followed by GxVBassPreAmp and optionally some fuzz like the GxMuff/GxBigMuffPi. Sounds usable to my ears until a real bass comes along. However, the big downside is that GxDetune adds significant latency. There's settings to reduce that but it sounds pretty bad once it's usable for live play. So that seems to be recordings only.

Main ingredient would probably be an octaver with low latency and still good sound. But I am also interested in other plugin suggestions to shape a bass sound.

ponygol wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2020 11:47 pm Main ingredient would probably be an octaver with low latency and still good sound. But I am also interested in other plugin suggestions to shape a bass sound.

Auburn Sounds Graillon has a setting for Octaver. It sounds ok. https://www.auburnsounds.com/products/Graillon.html The free edition has the setting enabled. I don't know about the latency.
Probably the least latent solution is something from Rubber Band Library. https://breakfastquay.com/rubberband/

Hi
Rakarrack has a preset, excellent sound, but has some delay

Bass player here. Absolutely go for the octaver approach for fun and experimentation, but also consider just using a synth or sampler for your bass sounds if you don't have access to a bass. You can definitely fill low end space with the guitar + octaver approach, but it's unlikely to sound very convincing and the latency may be frustrating unless you are just doing pads.

I usually process bass through a calf mono compressor, and sometimes use a tube amp plugin for some grit; though for my latest song I've gotten an outboard fx unit.

Depending on the kind of bass part that you're after, you may be better off finding a good sound font and sequencing the parts. Hard to get that low-end beef in there with a pitch-shifted or octave-divided guitar.

Or just use something like Calf monosynth to do synth bass and totally own the fact that you don't have a bass guitar.

Thanks for the suggestions!

This is really about having an impromptu bass when jamming. When working in the DAW, there's a lot more possibilities. Still, since guitar is the only instrument I can somewhat play, it's good to use it for initially messing around. Latency is less of an issue when recording, too.

I recorded some dry guitar and then post-processed it with GxDetune and Graillon. See attachment.

The first result is with GxDetune in HQ settings. On my workstation, latency is actually pretty decent compared to the older Laptop I use to jam. Maybe that is because I have double the samplerate here, still it feels like it is way less than half the latency. To my ears, this sounds quite pleasant for further processing.

The Graillon recording sounds quite harsh, distorted, and not very pleasant. On the plus side, the latency is excellent here. Still, this is barely usable IMHO.

I also took a quick look at Rakarrack but could not find that setting. Could you possibly elaborate which setting you meant?

Feel free to use the dry signal and do more stuff with it. Just post the results .

ufug wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2020 4:49 pm Bass player here. Absolutely go for the octaver approach for fun and experimentation, but also consider just using a synth or sampler for your bass sounds if you don't have access to a bass. You can definitely fill low end space with the guitar + octaver approach, but it's unlikely to sound very convincing and the latency may be frustrating unless you are just doing pads.

I agree! People who are into bass can definitely tell if a real bass is played or not. Synth bass in the 80s was played even when talented bassists were available, it's pretty much universally accepted for basslines.

I just play a real bass through Audio Assault's Duality Bass Studio, if a real thing isn't around. Massive tone, lots of tweakable stuff.