make a guitar sound like a bass?

[blackdognove]

Hi, is there any filter i can add to my guitar track to give it the deeper, lower sound of a bass? I've try this impressive tut for logic. Anyone can help me with protools 8 step by step? Thanks

[albee1952]

None that I am aware of, but there are still ways to make a bass track happen. Assuming you played single notes, you could feed the track into Melodyne, save it as a midi file, export that and import the mid back into the session(to an instrument track) and insert a VI with a bass patch. I just did something similar as I needed an upright bass sound, but only have an electric bass. I imported the midi file and sent it to my Motif es8 that was set to an upright bass patch. Another option to consider, there is a new cheap midi "guitar" could can feed midi for your playing right into the session. Can't remember what its called but its under $200(or maybe just buy a cheap electric bass).

[nst7]

You could also experiment with a pitch shifter plugin. I believe there's one built in to Protools. It may not sound very natural this way, though.

[sunburst79]

You can try all sorts of kludgy work arounds but a guitar is a guitar and a bass is a bass. it's like trying to make a trumpet sound like a tuba. My advice is to borrow a Bass or buy one. Squire has some surprisingly nice stuff for right around 200.00

[stickboymusic]

Plus 1 on the pitch shift plug in (try lowering by an octave, may not sound natural)

Also when recording guitar make sure you are selecting the beefiest pickup and turning the tone knob to bassy as possible

The real answer is to either get a bass or do a bass part using midi and a fake bass.

[Stiff]

Originally Posted by blackdognove

Hi, is there any filter i can add to my guitar track to give it the deeper, lower sound of a bass? I've try this impressive tut for logic. Anyone can help me with protools 8 step by step? Thanks

Not exactly bass, no. But a bass-like sound can be achieved by detuning the audio an entire octave (12 semitones). You might want to mess around with an EQ as well, maybe boost some lows, roll off some highs, whatever floats your boat.

Good luck.

[chrisdee]

Originally Posted by blackdognove

Hi, is there any filter i can add to my guitar track to give it the deeper, lower sound of a bass? I've try this impressive tut for logic. Anyone can help me with protools 8 step by step? Thanks

I have two tips.

One is already mentioned. Try using the Time Shift or Pitch Shift Audio Suite plugin and pitch 12 semitones or 1 octave. The higher sampling rate you record your guitar the better pitch shift result you get.

The other is to detune your guitar either 1 octave or maby just 6 semitones. If you detune 6 semitones and use the pitch shift audio suite plugin to detune the rest it wont sound that artificial as pitch shifting a entire octave.

Actually pulling down some semitones with the time shift audio suite plugin can yield some nice and unique bass sounds.
Also try messing around with the formant.

[chrisdee]

Originally Posted by stickboymusic

The real answer is to either get a bass or do a bass part using midi and a fake bass.

You could also rent/borrow a good bass and sample it in Structure.

Use alternate playing techniques when you record the bass and use round robin in structure.
Round robin will make it sound much more natural.

Im not 100% shure but I think you need structure full to access round robin in Structure.

[sunburst79]

Also theres a bass plugin called Trillian that has a lot of great sounds in it. If your looking for a realistic bass it may sound better than a pitch shifted guitar.

The comment about detuning the guitar as much as possible is a good one and should give better results than just pitch shifting it an octave.

I would try it with the guitars tone control both ways. Unless you actually have some type of onboard parametric EQ (or a stomp box) that will boost the bass frequency. Bass actually has a decent amount of high end (relative to the fundamental) in its tone and thats where the definition and complex timbre comes from. So recording it with the tone control up or set to the setting that gives you the best tone may help.

Octave dividers....Something like the Boss Octave pedal may help. Its been my experience they dont track well and that you need to play very precisely. However hey may have improved since I last tried one in the eighties.

Hit a Guitar Center and try a Morheous Droptune. Its a pedal for detuning guitar and may come close to what you want. For the money you could probably buy a bass though.

[chrisdee]

+1 for Trilian. Also check out some of the ministry of rock basses.