Instrument Sound Mangling

Warwick Bassmonkey

Warwick Bassmonkey

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Right... need to make a bass guitar, wots been played quite high up the neck, sound like an Indian twangy thing.

Obviously the source sound will be nice and wobbly in pitch, but the tone will be all wrong.

Can it be done with a plugin, or have I got to go out and buy an Indian twangy thing?

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to this sort of thing.

Reward Offered.
 
realistically, you're not gonna get a clear step-by-step guide on the internets, that'll get you where you want to be, with only words to help us explain (in both directions)

but at a guess...er... highpass filter (and/or no-holds-barred eq'ing) to make it sound thinner and higher...maybe envelope filtering to add "twang", lots of chorus/flange probably wont go amiss...
 
an interesting challenge indeed :Smile3: i agree soliptic.

maybe try to automate the flange rate - or level - in time with the notes you're playing, but not too closely in time, to give it the feel of a natural modulation that comes from lifting fingers from the strings & replacing them...

i'd also think about some pitch modding, unless your fingers are REALLY strong, because the sitar (is that what you want?) uses far looser strings & thus minor bending is part & parcel of the expressive potential of the instrument...

what about pitching the whole thing an octave higher as well? could help 'thin out' the sound even more & accentuate the bends/shifts between notes.
 
Warwick Bassmonkey said:
Right... need to make a bass guitar, wots been played quite high up the neck, sound like an Indian twangy thing.

Obviously the source sound will be nice and wobbly in pitch, but the tone will be all wrong.

Can it be done with a plugin, or have I got to go out and buy an Indian twangy thing?

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to this sort of thing.

Reward Offered.
Click to expand...


Well, if it's a sitar you're looking for then you'll want a lot of resonating frequencies to go with it.

To the best of my knowledge a sitar has a lot of extra strings which are not played but simply resonate with the played notes. You might want to have a go at Waves' Ultrapitch (maybe automating the pitch at a regular interval) to get that nice rolling 'brawwwwwoooorrrrwwwaaaa' sound (I'm sure you know what I mean). I'd throw in a lot of points in ultrapitch, the more the merrier.

I'd be interested in having a go at it if you feel like tossing me a snip of the bassline. Sounds like a fun challenge. :Smile3:

Hope you're well!

-Alex
 
...can i sugest u buy a really shit old bass guitar and play it high up the neck.....use a microphone and dig all those groovy organic harmonics....there is no substitute
 
or buy a sitar*!






*actually make that 2 sitars, i'll send you my addres...

:Wink3:
 
fuzzikitten said:
To the best of my knowledge a sitar has a lot of extra strings which are not played but simply resonate with the played notes.
Click to expand...

He's not wrong you know....

There are usually seven main playing strings above the arched frets, and eleven sympathetic strings below the frets. These sympathetic strings give a magical shimmer to the melody when they resonate in tune with the main playing strings. There are two separate bridges on the sitar. A large bridge is for the main strings, while a smaller bridge is for the sympathetics. These special flat bridges, usually made of bone, are what give the sitar that exhilarating buzz.
Click to expand...

I've picked up a few interesting suggestions from this thread tho', so maybe it wasn't a pointless question after all. I'm gonna try all of 'em and see what comes out. :Grin:

Trouble with getting a Sitar, aside from the cash... I can't actually play one. But then I suppose that doesn't stop anyone from buying their first instrument... or even their 7th.
 
Could you not play the bass in as per usual but also record it as midi?
You would have your bass sound but you could simultaneously trigger virtual sitar and somehow bounce down the tracks to audio using the correct mix of the two for the sound you want?


Sorry.
I'll get my coat and hat. :runsmile:
 
I've seen this done!! on a Bill Baily routine, he uses his guitar going thru some sort of box that then creates a completly diffrent sound, theres no reason at all why it cant be done, simply pick up the frequencies being played, match them to the freq'z on a keyboard, pass them out as middi signals into a synth :Smile3:

Therez at least one device that does this! I've seen it! dunno what itz called tho lol.....keep googling!!!
 
Eek. Sorry Warwick, I was so sure a mate of mine had done something like this with guitar because I remember having an idea for it myself a while back (which I never got round to trying with him in the end) - hence the reason I mentioned it, but you're absolutely asking the wrong person as to how it was done. :lol:

Anyway I couldn't remember what it was called so I've just asked him and he reckons it's something called a midifier - bit of software, I don't think he has a 'legal' copy himself to be honest but I'm sure he said it wasn't all that expensive - but it might be worth looking into? May prove a better option than buying a sitar in the short term?? I probably shouldn't have said anything as I'm not even sure if it's any good and/or it's suitable.


:unsure:
 
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