Jazz Moog Bass?

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PHC
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Jazz Moog Bass?

Post by PHC » Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:25 pm

I'm into jazz lately, wanting to learn some standards and some modern stuff and it got me thinking,
since I mainly play bass parts on my LP with my friends (guitar, keyboards - piano, rhodes, organ),
how to use Moog LP to play bass that would fit jazz tunes?
Sure, Moogs exist in jazz, but from what I've heard more as lead instruments, but how does one make it sound good as a bass instrument?

I managed to get a decent upright bass sound out of my LP,
i'm trying to get close to fingerstyle electric bass sound (any ideas?),
but I want something more then an imitation of something I can get out of a digital piano/keyboard.

But from what I've figured the only sound in a jazz setting that would fit in the bass department would be a deep bass with few harmonics.
Anyone use their Moog for jazz playing?

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Re: Jazz Moog Bass?

Post by EMwhite » Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:40 pm

I'm not expert but a good place to start would be to take one of the existing Bass presets that sound like the base sound of what you are after and tweak from there. You can certainly adjust keyboard velocity to Envelope (in advanced preset menu) to be able to be add some texture/control to the playing and I would bind modwheel to Wave to see what sort of additional inflection you might be able to add on top.

Then the trick is to get really good at playing with the added tools in your hands. Once of the things I learned from the Jordan Rudess Little Phatty videos was that using modulation for pitch (vibrato) is a bit of a waste of a control since you can do the same with adept control of the pitch wheel (depending on musical style); So wee what you can do with other modulation; there are some very good examples of unusual and varied modulation in the 2-300 patches that are out there. Something subtle but noticeable would add some nice color.

Just some thoughts.
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PHC
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Re: Jazz Moog Bass?

Post by PHC » Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:03 pm

I didn't really mean "how to get certain sounds", I get my way around synthesis.
My question was rather of "what kind of Moog bass goes well with jazz" kind?
Any good tracks to listen to?

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hieronymous
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Re: Jazz Moog Bass?

Post by hieronymous » Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:34 pm

How about some of the jazz organ trios? Drums organ & guitar, the organist is often playing the bass line, often with bass pedals.

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MC
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Re: Jazz Moog Bass?

Post by MC » Sun Jan 29, 2012 8:02 pm

Our bass player couldn't make a jazz gig so I subbed LH bass using the Voyager. I used an electric bass patch I wrote. Have been trying to patch up an acoustic bass patch but not much luck, they pale compared to the acoustic bass sample in my Kurzweil.
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stiiiiiiive
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Re: Jazz Moog Bass?

Post by stiiiiiiive » Mon Jan 30, 2012 6:36 am

MC wrote:Our bass player couldn't make a jazz gig so I subbed LH bass using the Voyager. I used an electric bass patch I wrote. Have been trying to patch up an acoustic bass patch but not much luck, they pale compared to the acoustic bass sample in my Kurzweil.
Sometimes it feels better to use a sound that is not trying to imitate a proper bass sound but to use a undoubtedly synthy sound that fills the bass gap...
PHC wrote:My question was rather of "what kind of Moog bass goes well with jazz" kind?
I would say: the ones you like... or I didn't get it, maybe...?
Or you just want some tracks to lieten to?... Sorry, I'd really like to help here :roll:

PHC
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Re: Jazz Moog Bass?

Post by PHC » Mon Jan 30, 2012 11:18 am

If You can think of some tracks I can listen to, it would be great.

I agree on the imitation thing, but most of the time synth sounding basss (especially resonance) sounds cheesy in a jazz environment with acoustic instruments. That's why I've used deep bass sounds that don't sound "like a keyboard" from the first note.

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stiiiiiiive
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Re: Jazz Moog Bass?

Post by stiiiiiiive » Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:47 pm

Ok, resonance may not fit. However, with zero resonance, opening the filter can be cool to add some grain.
Either via velocity (through soft menu) or modulation wheel.

I have no idea of a track right now, but be sure I'll remeber to stop by if one comes back to my mind :)

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Re: Jazz Moog Bass?

Post by PHC » Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:56 pm

I just wanted to share a short clip of me playing along to St Thomas comp via iReal b iphone app (very cool app for practicing playing over chords - and I mean COOL - also for Mac, PC, iPad, whatever, look it up). I exported two loops of StThomas chords to Amplitube and played my LP via iRig and recorded it and mixed in Amplitube. Very cool app too.

Let me know what You think, playing is nothing fancy, although I like the groove I managed to get, I'm a beginner at playing walking bass.

I'm posting this mainly to share my Upright Bass patch on the Little Phatty.

http://knobz.pl/StThomas.m4a

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