Brian’s Bedroom

That’s an interesting question. I’ve never actually thought of trying that.

The first thing to note is that a bass guitar is a couple of octaves lower than a guitar. Therefore it might help to find an effect which plays the same note as the guitar but a couple of octaves lower.

Then you need to give the lowest frequency (i.e. the one that’s a couple octaves lower) the most volume whilst reducing the original guitar sound. This could possibly be done with the octave effect settings or with a low-pass filter (i.e. bass booster).

From this point, you have basically recreated the bass note. Now you need to make it sound better. So use some EQ - drop the mids, up the bass and add a peak around 3-5 kHz for definition. Then play around with other effects like compression, reverb and chorus.

The method above is really just a guess - I’ve never tried it and it might sound horrible. But give it a go and let me know what you come up with.

Later,
Brian

This might not be the most ideal or inexpensive solution for everyone, but a couple of months ago I bought myself a Roland GR-20 guitar synth. It has some pretty good bass sounds (fretless, slap, etc.) that can be sequenced or played live on the guitar.

If you have a music store nearby that sells them it might be worthwhile to stop by and try one out. Keep in mind, though, that not every guitar has enough space between the bridge and bridge pickup to install the GK-3 pickup.

Here’s a link:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=gr-20

They go for about 700 USD with the pickup and 550 USD with just the floor unit (pickup is around 200 by itself).

I wouldn’t look at it as a substitute for a real bass or synthesizer, but it is convenient for people like me who can’t play keyboards. An added bonus is that it does midi out, so you can play your Linux based synths (zynaddsubfx or whatever) from your guitar.

Actually I’m recording the bass track with the standard e-guitar (complete clean amp-model, neck-pickup) and then I apply the AM Pitchshift LADSPA effect. Since the bass is one octave lower than the standard guitar tuning I use the pitch-shift with the value 0.5.

Unfortunately I’m not 100% satisfied with the result. The sound is imho not really “clean”. It sounds a bit odd but it’s hard to discribe.

Some time ago I used the pitchshifter from Audacity which sounded better but since I use ardour I tried to stick with it as much as possible.

If somebody knows some good alternatives please let me/us know!

regards! :)

maybe i’m biased since i am a bass player, but i doubt you would ever be satisfied with anything but the real deal (i know i wouldn’t). physically a bass is all around different than a guitar and intended to do different things and sound distinguishable, at least imho.

i would suggest buying a cheaper bass (the SX from rondo are fine after a setup), or soliciting the help of an actual bass player and benefit from a collaboration. or play it on a keyboard.

my 2 pennies