About This Blog

I am a musician living in Cape Town, South Africa and this blog is intended to document various musical projects I'm working on ... mostly after the fact, when I remember.

Unless otherwise stated the bass line (and quite often the mix) is my work.



Tuesday, February 26, 2008

lil loop

On http://www.guitarforum.co.za they are running a little competition for a theme tune and yesterday Sepheritoh came up with a cool idea around the South Africa Guitar Forum.

So building on this I spent a loopy afternoon recycling a drum loop to 110bpm.
Then a clean dry bass line, it will be nice if someone uses this, it's played a bit off the beat but is split on the beat so it can be worked easily.
Then lastly the sketch.

If you're interested the posting is here.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Bettina

Ok, here's an oldish one (circa '94) called Bettina, it's pretty much a bass solo at the moment and started out as a tapping exercise, tho' it did come up as an intro for a tune called "Vibe" from one of my previous bands, so anything is possible.

For now I just did a quick take from memory... and then found that the tabbed version is not quite the same... but anyways...As with most of the stuff on this blog it's the ideas that count, polish can happen later if there's interest.

After my last attempt at formatting, the TAB it's now a plain text file, this can be opened with any word processor.
Bettina.tab

For the samplers out there this is a clean chorused bass at 120bpm.
Bettina.mp3

Lastly I've included the GT-Pro patch I used for this tune, after my last blog this now includes the loudness patch (FM curve) on FX1 which is set to off as default.
I use a Behringer FCB1010 midi foot pedal to change patches and such. For simplicitys' sake I currently use it on it's default V-Amp setting (1+6), if you have one of these also then rocking Expression Pedal A will bring up a dirtier/dryer tone with a Wha on Expression Pedal B.
Bettina.gtl

Thursday, February 14, 2008

GT-Pro Setup and patches

Just recently I got a Boss GT-Pro fx-rack to work with which is what I'm using ATM to record (via USB) my sketches.
This is unit has some great guitar sounds but not much for a bassist, it is however very configurable if a little noisy.
This page has some good advice which now makes the GT-Pro much quieter.

I was going to include a couple of my bass patches but after reading about the Fletcher Munson curve (the difference in tone at different volumes) originally here for the line6 pod and then here for the GT-Pro.

Basically the frequencies are :

Low cut filter 55hz
Low Eq +12
Low Mid Eq Center 4khz, Q8, -4
High Mid Eq Center 8khz, Q16, +8
High Eq +12
High Cut Filter 11khz

This has given me pause to revisit my patches so I will post them at another time.


Thursday, February 7, 2008

A bit with a Bass

Right Oh,
After doing the A Study thing, I decided to try a bass line for it, so here it is complete with the drumbeat that I used for a metronome.

A Study with bass


If you would like the bass tab or solo'd mp3 leave a comment.

Monday, February 4, 2008

A study

Ok, to kick things off here is a kinda study in A major.

Right click here to download.

For anyone wanting to use the sample it's a clean(ish) guitar at 100 bpm.

For guitarists here's the TAB, once you get the idea, feel free to play around your own self. I find using a half barre (chord) most of the time make it easier.

Phrase 1
E||------------------------|----------------------|------------------------|
B||--10----10----9----9----|--7----7----9----9----|--10----10----9----9----|
G||---9-----9----9----9----|--7----7----9----9----|---9-----9----9----9----|
D||--11----11----9----9----|--7----7----9----9----|--11----11----9----9----|
A||---0--------------------|--0-------------------|---0--------------------|
E||------------------------|----------------------|------------------------|

E Change A Change
---------------------|----------------4----|----------------5----|
--7----7----5--------|--5-------------5----|--5-------------5----|
--7----7----6--------|--4-------------4----|--6-------------6----|
--7----7----7--------|--6------------------|--7------------------|
--0------------------|-----------7---------|--0--------0---------|
---------------------|--0------------------|---------------------|

Phrase 2 Nice Open Chord
----------------------|-----------------------|--------------0-----------|
--2---------3----5----|-------5----3--3--2----|-----------3-----3--------|
--2---------2----4----|-------4----2--2--2----|--------0-----------0-----|
--2---------4----6----|-------6----4--4--2----|-----4-----------------4--|
--0----0--------------|--0--------------------|--0-----------------------|
----------------------|-----------------------|--------------------------|

A to End
--------------------------|--5----------------||
-----------2--3--5--3--2--|--2----------------||
--------2-----------------|--2----------------||
-----2--------------------|-------------------||
--0-----------------------|--0----------------||
--------------------------|-------------------||


Sunday, February 3, 2008

A bit about

This blog is an experiment on a number of levels.

I am a bassist based in Cape Town South Africa, I recorded with a couple of bands in the mid '90s.
A few older mp3s.


My main instrument is an Ibanez Musician/Roadster which is a four string bass with 24 frets, and passive pickups but active electronics and so can be played either way. I mostly play passive but find the active useful if the sound dudes is having trouble.




This blog, TABs mixes etc. are, unless otherwise mentioned, licensed under Creative Commons SA. which means that you may use them in anyway you like, but you must credit its origins, ie you put a link to your site in the mp3 comment field and on your site you place a link to this page. I think that’s how it works. It is also share alike so others can do the same with your work based or borrowed from this.

Please If i have misinterpreted or left something out post a comment, but if nothing else the above should state the intent.

Also should you want higher quality samples, other mixes, or something else similar to what is here, by all means ask.