When it comes to songwriters getting ideas for instrument parts across to others, up until recently the options have been limited. For many, meaningful bass parts are especially hard to convey… Unless you have the right tool for the job.
Conveying An Idea
For a lot of songwriters, the success of any idea relies on making a decent demo conveying not only the song, but also its arrangement of constituent parts. This can be invaluable for those making production music, or the band writer who needs players to get behind an idea and play the important elements beyond ‘just’ the changes. Many would agree that being able to sell a song convincingly at an early stage to, for example, libraries and/or other band members comes from them being able to share in the writer’s vision. This ultimately comes down to the writer having a way to create convincing ‘placeholder’ parts in a demo, or even to create the finished article right there in their DAW.
Playing The Bass Yourself
Bass, along with drums can be the biggest sticking point for writers who know what they want want but don’t know how to get it! While it’s not unusual for the writing guitarist or pianist to own or have access to a bass guitar, the instrument is surprisingly far removed from guitar as well as from piano. Indeed, guitarists and keyboard players frequently have a better working relationship with each other’s instrument, and while many can get by on bass, the results can fall short of marking out a part that the bass player can develop.
Many writers will collaborate with others, and often this second person will have better chops on the bass than the first. Even with the right technical skill, this second pair of ears might not be in the same space as the writer regarding what is working for the song.
Using A Synth
In the absence of a real bass, parts played on synths or samplers can plague demos with sounds that fail to inspire. It’s true to say that while things are a very long way along from the days of general MIDI, it’s still entirely possible for the composer to find themself lumbered with unconvincing, sterile pastiches of a real bass guitar, and that’s just on the sounds front. Even with passable sounds, the physicality of the real thing means that even in the most skilled hands, bass parts played in on a keybed will fall in an entirely different way to those played on a stringed instrument.
Using A VI
Using a modern, dedicated VI such as Virtual Bassist Slap solves the problem of how to get parts down from the writer’s mind that also sound like they were played by the bass player ’in their head’. Watch in the video how we replace a pedestrian placeholder part with something that has the energy, vitality, and precision of something that was played on a bass in the right hands.
By using a bass virtual instrument alongside any keyboard controller, the songwriter has an incredibly authentic tool available to them to convey the part in their head. The alternative of getting a session player in for demos is an extravagance for all but the highest of budget situations. For the everyday working writer, or band singer/songwriter looking to create full demos or productions, making do with a synth or getting by on a bass does not have to be the only way forward. With an instrument like Virtual Bassist Slap in your plugin folder, your low end can now enjoy the same attention to quality afforded to the rest of the arrangement. In the absence of the real thing, this makes a quality bass VI the best way forward.