Bass Guitar

[xsane]

I'm interested in learning how to play the bass for some of my recordings but strickly for the Hip Hop genre... What type of bass does Mike Elazondo (the guy who does all the basslines in Dr. Dre's music) use? There are all types, 4,5,6, 7-12, strings fretted, fretless, etc... I'm lost already. Any help would be appreciated.

[jeffwuollet]

Just buy what you can afford. Don't spend alot of money on a bass where the style of music isn't going to distinguish one from another. Meaning, the only sound you SHOULD express would be the fundamental Q's of the bass ie 100-300Hz.

I would suggest getting a bass with a low B string, but that doesn't mean you have to get a five string. I think ESP makes a bass with a BEAD setup, but you can do that on any bass. I would also suggest finding some good vintage or modern bass synths(Moog-Novation-Roland-etc.). Most basses in Hip hop today are either sampled or synthesized(And there's nothing wrong with that).

I might also suggest checking out some of those bass samples as well. They're just recorded basses for the electric bass-ignorant.

I made tons of bass sounds out of regular everyday sounds as well. Take a dog for example: "Ruff'" or "Woof"(Or whatever is poular these days in Hip hop(Don't want to know why...). By running 30-55% of the sound effect into a vocoder and recording the bark in Hi-Middle-and low C, you can now place the sounds in a sampler and have a Dog Bass. I would suggest the Digitech talker for that purpose, but if you've got the cash to spend on a Roland Vocoder, knock yourself out, home-slice-izzle.