MarkW Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 Season’s greetings one and all from a new member. After a long hiatus I am just getting back into proper bass playing (i.e. with more than my kids for an audience) and am absolutely loving it. I played my first gig in 20 years on Saturday – four hours solid and still they wanted more! Unbelievable. Gear-wise I have a ’94 Musicman Sterling (my workhorse bass), a Cort A5 and a Guild Pilot of unknown vintage. All go through a Trace Elliot AH1200-12 and 1015H. Anyway, reason for post: Being as out of practice as I am I spend a lot of time jamming along to our set list, and was wondering if there was any electronic gizmo out there that would allow me to change the pitch of my bass without re-tuning. Some recordings are less than a semitone out, and others we do in completely different keys. Re-tuning between every song is a bit of a pain, so if there were some simple way of matching the pitch it would be fantastic. And if there are multiple options, which would you recommend? Many thanks for any suggestions folks. All the best Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaydentaku Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 isnt there a box of tricks that peavey do? I know it is very expensive, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doddy Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 You can alter the pitch of recordings on programs like 'Transcribe'...I'm sure there are others too. It makes more sense to alter the recording pitch and learn that than to mess around with the bass. Just out of interest,why are you re tuning after every song? If you play a song in a different key than the recording,learn it in the required key as well as the original. Transposing is a very important skill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahpook Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 [quote name='Doddy' timestamp='1354660272' post='1888949'] You can alter the pitch of recordings on programs like 'Transcribe'...I'm sure there are others too. [/quote] Audacity's what I use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bremen Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 [quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1354660771' post='1888952'] Audacity's what I use. [/quote] yeah that works nice, you can save the transposed version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Reaper, lets you find the pitch, tune it to the right pitch, change the speed without changing the pitch, filter out the top end to help you hear the bass part, pitch shift the result up an octave to make it even clearer, loop a section, loop a single note (!), record your effort along with it. Anything you like. Costs $60 It is awesome for practicing with as well as being a full blown DAW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 There are multiple options. Changing the pitch of the playback - all the above plus a Winamp plugin called Pacemaker and a standalone player called Best Practice (both freeware), or use one of Tascam's bass trainers (CD-BT2, GB-10, MP-BTsomething). Changing the pitch of the bass - use a whammy effect (dedicated one or part of a multieffects unit with a pedal, eg. the Digitech BP200). Recording the band at a rehearsal and playing along to that. Each method has its pros and cons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkW Posted December 6, 2012 Author Share Posted December 6, 2012 Cheers guys. I hadn’t thought about adjusting the track pitch rather than fiddling with the bass signal – duh! Would Cubase Elements be an option? Only reason I ask is that I know a Cubase user who could give me a crash course when I return from my travels. ATB Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkW Posted December 6, 2012 Author Share Posted December 6, 2012 [quote name='Doddy' timestamp='1354660272' post='1888949']Just out of interest,why are you re tuning after every song? If you play a song in a different key than the recording,learn it in the required key as well as the original. Transposing is a very important skill.[/quote] Just a time issue really - they gave me a list of 46 songs to learn in about six weeks, and I had to try to fit practice in around work. That takes enough of my time as it is, but I’ve been travelling a lot over the last few weeks so it all ended up being a bit hectic! Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 [quote name='MarkW' timestamp='1354823709' post='1890994'] Cheers guys. I hadn’t thought about adjusting the track pitch rather than fiddling with the bass signal – duh! Would Cubase Elements be an option? Only reason I ask is that I know a Cubase user who could give me a crash course when I return from my travels. [/quote] I can give you a crash course in Best Practice - [url="http://bestpractice.sourceforge.net/"]http://bestpractice.sourceforge.net/[/url] - assuming you use Windows [list=1] [*]Choose a track [*]Click play [*]Move the pitch and/or speed slider left or right as required [/list] Not too hard... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musky Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 [quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1354837439' post='1891220'] I can give you a crash course in Best Practice - [url="http://bestpractice.sourceforge.net/"]http://bestpractice.sourceforge.net/[/url] - assuming you use Windows[list=1] [*]Choose a track [*]Click play [*]Move the pitch and/or speed slider left or right as required [/list] Not too hard... [/quote] +1 I was just about to post the same thing. There's nothing wrong with any of the other suggestions and they can all do considerably more, but Best Practice is a simple and lightweight bit of software that is very easy to use without any additional steps. If you're a mac user the Amazing Slow Downer is what BP has evidently based it's GUI on, but you'll have to shell out for that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkW Posted December 7, 2012 Author Share Posted December 7, 2012 Fantastic - BP looks like just what I need for practising. I mentioned Cubase because I've been thinking about investigating a DAW for a while now, and from what I saw it looked pretty good. Cheers guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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