Banging one out - Tuesday (Day)

Well, work is doing what it's supposed to do ..... keep you away from all the fun stuff :-P Seeing that I have got my tracks in my DAW etc .... there isn't much I can do here anyway. BUT ..... I took along my printed Bass lead sheet/score to get familiar with it before I record the bass this evening. This way I can get all the 'thinking' out of the way already ...

What I noticed is that the bass lines are very simple. I shouldn't really have much problem playing it. Also, I identified 3 seperate 'patterns' in the track. The verse has it's little run, the chorus is very similar and then there is a different variation for the bridge. Doable!

The song structure is as follows ...

• Intro
• Verse I
• Chorus I
• Verse II
• Chorus II
• Bridge
• Verse III
• Chorus III
• Outro

The bass doesn't start from the beginning but comes in only at Chorus I. I know many like playing in a track 'in-one-go' ... and this is certainly easy enough to do it ..... but I'll start off concentrating on playing in a verse, a chorus and then the bridge and see if I can re-use those parts in the song. I think it's OK for a track that is NOT that prominent in a song to do that. Vocals or Lead Guitar ...... is trickier, because people pick up on that quickly and it sounds 'boring'.

According to the chords, tabs etc ... all the guitars are tuned ½ step down. So I tuned my Bass accordingly last night already. My Fender Squier 70's Vint. Mod. Jazz Bass is awesome! GREAT tone, plays nicely and stays in tune forever. VERY happy with it!

What sound? What Amp Sim? I dunno yet. At the moment I'm still thinking it should be a nice deep, but clean bass tone. I mostly prefer those. But luckily, I can change all that later. The priotity is to play in a decent and solid track.

Ok, anything else I gotta think about before this evening? Hmmm..... don't think so. I have a Bass VSTi on the bass MIDI track .... that I'll play against. The best is to create a new track, put some (temporary) bass amp sim ..... like Studio Devils Virtual Bass Amp Pro .... on the track. Then arm and switch monitor ON so I can hear myself. Then I need to play some to check the levels. Not too soft, but as I always call it .... it should make a nice roundish, healthy-looking wave 'blob' on the track. Nowhere near touching the top.

Then, propbably I'll set the recording to 'Record mode: Time selected auto punch' and then just select the verse. I put my 'play head' a bar or two BEFORE this selection and then just hit RECORD. This way it'll ONLY record during that 'verse' part. I guess it'll take a few takes ...... but we'll see how it goes. I'll report back after that is all done (hopefully) :-)

Side Note : I just realized that Saturday is my Anniversary. And that means going out with my girls for a meal. Ok ..... a little MORE pressure to finish the track won't make a difference anymore, will it? ;-) LOL

J