Live dance style music with bass guitar

[ThomBassmonkey]

Has anyone ever done it?

Not something I'm seriously contemplating doing at the moment (don't know anyone that'd be interested for a start, would be fun to try out though) but just wondering if people have done it (I assume there's someone somewhere that has), what kind of FX would be used etc?

I'd assume synth and over-heavy compression would be needed, plus a good tremelo for stuff like dubstep.

Anyone got any experiences or links to videos of it being done?

[AndyTravis]

A bloody good drummer...

tried this about 8 years ago, bad drummer = failed.

[thisnameistaken]

Look up Nerve on Youtube, and scan the Effects forum there's a lot of discussion of this sort of thing.

At the most basic all you need is either an octaver and/or a fuzz and a low-pass filter. Beyond that, you might want to add chorus, trem, phaser, anything to thicken things up and add some movement. Replacing the fuzz and octaver with oscillators (square waves and sawtooths) can give a more authentic sound but it will be harder to control from a bass guitar.

Also fretless bass is useful for portamento / pitch vibrato / unstable tuning effects.

[BigRedX]

If you're using MIDI clock for other stuff just get a Linn Adrenalinn.

[urb]

Now Vs Now = [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYSXVPYwGnI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYSXVPYwGnI[/url]

Squarepusher live = [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWb-3mX0eVk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWb-3mX0eVk[/url]

[Twigman]

The gutarist in my band is a member of Above & Beyond.....the trance artists...they played one proper live show [rather than just DJing] in Beirut in 2009 in which he played bass and guitar.
I went to the show rehearsal in Wandsworht the week before and they really were playing live!!
He used a MM Stingray 4 3EQ with just a bit of compression[when playing bass] and a Jazzmaster guitar with his usual array of effects.
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NjmAFli6bo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NjmAFli6bo[/url]

the drummer is amazing..the camera work is appalling but it's the only footage of them actually playing and not just DJing

[risingson]

Most dance purists (especially the tech and house variety) aren't interested in performing in a live context, they're much happier behind decks because that's how their music is best relayed to the general public. That's my opinion also. Mixing dance music with live instrumentation doesn't work for me and I haven't seen a successful undertaking of it that has made me think otherwise. Just my opinion.

[steve]

we do a cover of 'I gotta feeling' by Black Eyed Peas if that counts, seems to go down OK

used a chorus and IIRC an auto-volume delay on two parallel channels of my M13 for the synth part at the beginning

Edited October 26, 2010 by steve

[Huw Foster]

Synthy tones! I've depped a couple of times for [url="http://www.blackdiamondbay.co.uk"]Black Diamond Bay[/url], who dub themselves as electro-folk. I made heavy use of my OC-2, and my q-tron and micro-synth (when they worked!). Their usual bassist also predominantly uses an OC-2 as well as a MoogerFooger low pass filter. Sounds great!