Monday, October 20, 2008

Bass Lines



A bass line is the low sounding part of a song that works with the drums to create a rhythmic pulse. Before people started using electronic instruments (like Reason) to make music, the bass line was usually played on a bass guitar:
So to get a clearer idea, let's listen to the following song, "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye for a minute. Try to focus on the low-pitched part of the song.

Now let's listen to what just the bass line alone sounds like from that same song...

It used to be that the bass line was just a supporting part of the song, not the main thing that people were listening to. But then in the 70's when music styles like soul, funk and reggae started becoming popular, the bass started to play a bigger role. Then by the time hip hop became really big in the 1980's, artists started putting a LOT of bass in their songs so that sometimes it was the main part of the music that people were listening to.

So, to get a better understanding of what bass lines do and how we can use them in our own music, we are going to remake the bass line from Too Short's single "Blow the Whistle" then recreate the drum beat. Default-tiny Too Short- Blow The Whistle (instrumental) uploaded by 2104-tiny beanycastillo
  1. Create a new Reason file.
  2. Set Tempo at 100 bpm
  3. Create a Subtractor
  4. On The Subtractor, click on the folder in the upper left hand corner.
  5. Go to Reason Factory Sound Bank>Subtractor Patches> Bass>Dodger Bass.zyp
  6. Now let's add the Bass line from Blow the Whistle, which is in Eb Minor!
  7. Move your Right Marker to Bar 3.
  8. I'll show you how to play the bass line. You will be playing the following keys: C, Eb and Gb.
  9. After you feel like you have the part under your fingers, record it and quantize it.

  10. Create a Redrum.
  11. Listen to the Instrumental of Blow the Whistle.

  12. What sounds do they use?
  13. What boxes do you think they go on?
  14. Recreate the drum beat from Blow the Whistle.
  15. Copy Pattern To Track.
  16. Save as "(Your Name)_Blow the Whistle.rns".
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