Make a guitar sound like a bass guitar
 

I'm a bit surprised I haven't found any threads discussing this subject matter. It's pretty self-explanatory. I don't have a bass, and would like to use my electric guitar to write some bass lines. I use an Mbox2 on a MacBook Pro w/ Pro Tools LE 8, and I have just about the minimum amount of plugins one can have. Thanks!

Re: Make a guitar sound like a bass guitar
 

You're surprised?
Why not just get an inexpensive bass guitar?
No plug-in is going to effectively make a guitar sound lik a bass.
An octave down box would probably be the thing to look at.
You can probably get one for around the same price as an inexpensive bass guitar.

Look in your local second hand dealer as well. You can pick up some bargains. I have a cheap as chips bass guitar I think I paid $199 for. Does the job for me. Personally I don't ever think a guitar will ever sound like a bass, much like a bass will never sound like a guitar


Win 7, PT 9, 11 rack, superior drummer 2.2, Gibson guitars, yamaha bass, Dimebag washburn

Re: Make a guitar sound like a bass guitar
 

Exactly.
If one MUST use something other than a bass to do bass parts, there are several VIs that do a nice job.

Re: Make a guitar sound like a bass guitar
 

Check out Trililan.

Re: Make a guitar sound like a bass guitar
 

You can also try a pitch-shifter plugin. I think PT comes with a couple of them standard.

But as mentioned, it won't sound very good.

Xpand 2, which comes with PT, has a selection of bass guitar sounds. They would probably sound better than pitch shifting.

Re: Make a guitar sound like a bass guitar
 

In the long run picking up a cheap bass really is the best choice. ....... But for the sake of argument this is what I have done in the past for a quick "Bass Sound"

Record the guitar direct in. Pitch shift the guitar down an octave. Then run that into an Bass amp simulator. I got surprisingly decent results with simple picked bass lines on the E and A string.


cheers
Kevin

Re: Make a guitar sound like a bass guitar
 

If it's simply for writing purposes, I used to play the bass line with a clean guitar tone, and then double it with a MIDI instrument. Try to avoid actual bass tones... Depending on the style, I used a Rhodes sound, or B3.
It fills up the spectrum enough to keep creating over top of it.

But you'll definitely want to buy a cheap bass. Nothing comes close enough... at least not for me.
Good luck!

Re: Make a guitar sound like a bass guitar
 

So far, the consensus is to buck up and buy a bass. Whenever I get the expendable funds for that, I will :) Until then, I used the pitch shifting method, and it seems to actually sound pretty decent (this is all just for a cheap demo to hand out at gigs), but I am getting a lot of weird buzzing from god-knows-where at the tail end of a note when I pull my finger off the string/fretboard. Any thoughts on why? I really appreciate everybody's help!

Re: Make a guitar sound like a bass guitar
 

My first guess would be your guitar is picking up electrical interference. When you fingers touch the strings your body acts as a ground for your guitar and neutralizes the noise, lift them and the noise comes through. Single coil guitars are pron to this. Btw, computers with old crt monitors (like mine!!) put out a lot of electrical noise.