Question for the guitarists on here….
Listening to the new Royal Blood album that came out Friday (so far so good). I know that they consist of just a drummer and bass player, yet the sound is pretty full on. I read somewhere mention of the use of an “Octave” pedal ?? to get the sound.
So, in simple layman’s terms (you are talking to someone who’s musical ability is pressing the play button on a CD player), how do they create such a full sound with such a seemingly simple setup ?
Octaver/pitch shifter pedal and a multi-amp setup, I guess. Many Octavers and pitch shifters have a stereo output so you can route the original signal into one set of effects and the shifted signal into another. EQ the split signals differently and send them to different amps and Robert’s yer father’s brother.
The 4-string bass is pitched an octave below (half the frequency of) the lower 4 strings of the guitar. If you put an octave pedal on the bass, it ‘plays’ a harmony part in the guitar range. You can then put guitar effects on that and use, as Bob says, multiple guitar amps and so on to beef up the sound.
And, if what I’ve seen of Royal Blood is anything to go by, lots and lots of distortion and compression on everything.
By the same token, you can get octave pedals for the guitar which put out bass notes an octave below.
Which is what Jack White used for White Stripes live shows.
Studio wise, nasty rumours that he actually used a bass!
Was Meg shouting ‘Judas’ at him?
Probably too busy counting out the beat. And hitting the big round things with her bats.
I think The Edge is behind the scenes with a shedload of amps’n’effects. After all, that’s (allegedly) how U2 get such a big guitar sound on stage.
I read an article in Sound On Sound or similar. The Hedge has a studio’s worth of outboard gear under the stage and a couple of guitar techs, watching their boss on CCTV, to operate it all. How the other half live…
And the pros rarely have a pedalboard these days – they have a load of midi switches which give them preset combinations of different pedals – the pedals themselves being in a rack case off to one side and permanently switched on. So even if the artist formally known as Dave Evans didn’t have the team under the stage, he’d still be able to conjure a vast and complex sound without too much difficulty.
I have to confess a certain grumpy irritation at bands with a key instrument missing which someone else imitates with pedals or other trickery. In the 80s it was drum machines of course, now there’s a missing guitar/bass/keys/whatever missing. Get a guitarist FFS.
Primary reason why I never properly loved The Doors.
No bass player = something to hide.
It’s like a tidy beard.
Keyboard bass – pffffffffft….
Nothing wrong with Jerry Scheff’s bass playing on this:
In much the same way I’m unconvinced by bands which consist of a vocalist, particularly if she’s a wannabe Tina Turner, and a bloke sitting at a table with a laptop. I’m thinking of a particular band here, can’t remember who.
Yazoo. Alf is brilliant. She still is. Has a new album out.
No, would have remembered them. Doesn’t really matter.
Good example. I’m with you. There was a prog band with no bass player as the keyboard player used bass pedals which I never took seriously for similar reasons. Can’t remember their name. …
I think on one of Steve Winwood’s albums, he plays all of the bass parts on the organ pedals. I’ve also seen a couple of Phoenix Nights style pub acts where the singer is accompanied by an organist and drummer, with the organist playing the bass part. In a way, the question might be if you already have an instrument capable of providing the bass, why bother with a second one? Is it only rock that is this conservative in its line ups?
I guess it depends on what you want from the bass. Bass pedals can’t do what a decent bass player can do.
On reflection, was it Barclay James Harvest who didn’t have a bass player?
White Stripes manage without a bass player for a long while.
Get Behind Me Satan (their fifth album) was the first to credit Jack White playing bass
(just checked: Bass isn’t credited on Icky Thump or Under Great White Northern Lights, so apart from one album, they never had a bass guitar)
And a drummer. I’m here all week.
Those guys from Pointless?
Very good. Have an up.
Ben Folds Five always made a virtue of the lack of guitar. Somehow it worked – I find Ben’s solo stuff a bit thin by comparison. Mind, it helps that Robert Sledge overdrive his bass amp like a motherfucker*cker: