Bass line
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- Krassy11
- shapesalad8
the best:
- Krassy7
- YesssssContinuity
- Krassy
- I thought I was SO Goth for having this tape in 1988.fooler
- Haha, right?Continuity
- section_0144
- Anything with Joe Dart really.mandomafioso
- +1BaskerviIle
- yesPonyBoy
- my teacher tried to get me on that - its just too damn fastwoowahesque
- & yeah @mando, youre right.
https://www.youtube.…woowahesque - blows my mind how tight this isinteliboy
- Wolfboy4
I read The Manual by The KLF many years ago and one of the tips I'll always remember (to have a number 1 hit record) is essentially to steal a killer bass line. The reason being is that people will sue at the first sniff of similarity in a melody, but bass lines largely get ignored when reused. This is a snippet of that part of the book:
'There are plenty of monster bass lines out there to try. You will know them, they are the ones that you can almost hum. The great thing about bass lines is that they are in public domain. Nobody, even if they do recognise it, will seriously accuse you of ripping somebody else’s bass line off.
Michael Jackson, who we cited earlier on for not being that adept at coming up with the killer Number One hit choruses, CAN come up with the bass lines. “Billy Jean” was the turning point in Jackson’s career. That song, on his own admission, took him into the mega strataspheres where his myth now reigns. The fact is, “Billy Jean” would be nothing without that lynx-on-the-prowl bass line; but he wasn’t the first to use it.'
If you've never read it, it's a great book:
- Interesting, but nothing about the instrument removes it from copyright law! That's just ridiculous.monospaced
- I can think of several cases where bass lines specifically were ripped off. They are not in public domain by default.monospaced
- Maybe the use of 'public domain' is a bit misleading in that paragraph. They don't claim it's a copyright free aspect of music, but they say it's very rare...Wolfboy
- ...anyone sues for a bass line. The key to the book is it's not about the purity of songwriting, it's about having a number 1 hit. So there are loads of...Wolfboy
- ...shortcut tips for writing and producing the track.Wolfboy
- basslines are not melodies pitched down (well most of the time) they have more rhythmic obligation. you can change almost all the notes in a bassline andkingsteven
- in the KLF sense its 'the same' but in a musical (or legal sense) passes. ie. i've heard daft punk's around the world and chic's good times referred to as thekingsteven
- same bassline... but they're musically nothing alike.kingsteven
- That’s true in a lot of songs, especially rooted in jazz blues. But as he says, some bass lines ARE the melody.monospaced
- I’m pretty sure any unauthorized use of MJs bass line from Billy Jean in a major track would bring swift attentionmonospaced
- billy jean is almost what i call the kim deal where is my mind effect - there's more notes to the bassline in your head than in the songkingsteven
- ie. there's a semitone run at the end thats not played. living on a prayer is the same bassline and drums and the vocal starts on the same notekingsteven
- but you wouldn't draw a comparison between the two as bassline is heard over multiple bars based on repetition of other melodic elementskingsteven
- Understood. And then there’s The Wailers. Lots of good bass carrying the songs.monospaced
- Krassy4
- I used to run a club night when I was at Uni and when we opened up, while the club was still empty, we'd have a few songs that we'd play first...Wolfboy
- ...all of which had fairly long, atmospheric intros. This was one, Breaking into Heaven by The Stone Roses, Leave Them All Behind by Ride...Wolfboy
- ...just to get to hear them on a big club sound system.Wolfboy
- ^ awesome!!Krassy
- Wolfboy3
- pretty much taught myself bass listening to vanishing point. still fall back on mani lickskingsteven
- ^ +1Krassy
- I met Mani some years back in LA. Hero.Krassy
- nice one. supported them a few times post-mani but not gonna grumble about meeting simone :)kingsteven
- Gnash5
A million years ago, whenever any a-list bands came to town they would often stay at the hotel down the street from the club where I worked as a busboy. invariably the bands would come hang at the club I\after the shows. This was a well-know ‘secret’ so those nights were often filled with people hoping to catch a glimpse of the stars.
I was working the night The Who came by after their show in town. Being a bass player myself, I approached Entwistle and asked for his autograph. He took the piece of paper I handed him and he proceeded to write out the bass-line for Boris the Spider.
I’ve been trying to find that fucking thing so I could post it in this bass-line thread. No luck yet, but when I do find it I’ll post.
- Hayzilla1
Anything to be said for this sort of bassline?
- Yes it's boring. Sounds like a didgeridoo player using a broken vacuum cleaner.shapesalad
- fuck yeah is what I sayProjectile
- LOL Shapesalad, You sound like an old woman that's just heard D&B for the first time.Hayzilla