Is it possible to use pitch shift to replace a bass player?

[bendagostino8]

I know everyone is going to advise against it and tell me that its going to sound horrible but i just want to know if its possible. I want to send one output to my guitar amp and the other stereo output to a bass amp with the pitch shift lowered an octave. Has anyone tried this, is it possible and how would I do it?

[Schmalle]

***Q. How do you get pitch shift off your doorstep?
A. Pay for the pizza. ***

 

***Q. What do you call pitch shift with a beeper?
A. An optimist.***

 

***Q. What does pitch shift say when he gets to his gig?
A. "Would you like fries with that?"***

 

Conclusion: using 'pitch shift' to replace 'a bass player' doesn't work...

[HonestOpinion]

On 2/17/2021 at 6:00 PM, bendagostino8 said:

I know everyone is going to advise against it and tell me that its going to sound horrible but i just want to know if its possible. I want to send one output to my guitar amp and the other stereo output to a bass amp with the pitch shift lowered an octave. Has anyone tried this, is it possible and how would I do it?

 

First off I have to say there is rarely a decent replacement for a good bass player IMHO. However you could do this by routing for example one path to your bass amp and another path to your guitar amp. There are multiple routing options for doing this in mono or stereo that can include using the loop(s) I/O jacks. For simplicity's sake you could also just use one of the harmony or pitch shift blocks but that will limit what you can do as far as processing the bass tone through separate amp/cab and effects. Doing it this way without routing to a bass amp or PA could also could put more strain on an old guitar cab speaker being forced to process bass frequencies.

 

Are you are doing one of those 'alt' stripped down band things where you have no bass player(saw a fairly innovative band like this about a year and a half ago with only guitar and drums, similar to a White Stripes approach but with much more intricate material)? The only other purpose that jumps out at me for doing this would be when you play a riff on the guitar that you want transposed to a lower octave or lower harmony. I personally would just send the bass directly to the PA/monitor rather than a bass amp for those infrequent occasions unless this is a regular occurrence for you. You might also want to consider incorporating the looper to enable more complex bass lines that aren't limited to shadowing the guitar.

[PierM]

It will work only if you're playing ...And Justice For All.

[brue58ski]

There are people who have done this and there are recordings to listen to. I just listened to one two days ago but could not find it. It was definitely passable BUT I would never use it for a final version of a song. Unless it's for a particular effect. But to just lay down some ideas, it's definitely useable. All you can do is try. Use a bass amp and some EQ.

[PierM]

On a serious note, this would be the right technology;

 

http://www.polybass.com/

[spikey]

Depends...

 

How much of a douchebag is your Bass player?

 

 

 

 

; )

[zappazapper]

I think the only way it works is to go the other way, like that band Royal Blood, which is a bassist who shifts his signal up an octave and then puts it in a guitar amp (I think?). That works I think because bass is generally a single note instrument and shifting that up an octave gives you single note guitar lines, which is not typically what a guitar is limited to but in the context of that band it doesn't sound out of place.  They make it work. Unless you were playing exclusively single note lines on your guitar, now all of a sudden your "virtual bassist" is playing full chords. The reason that bass is generally a single note instrument is mostly because of how chords work - when two or more notes are played there are resulting overtones from constructive and destructive interference, and the lower you go the lower those overtones are and the end result is just a huge mess of flub. So putting a pitch shifter on your guitar doesn't result in a "virtual bassist", it just results in a mess of low end frequency that will most likely not compliment what you're doing on guitar. Of course, that all depends on what you're playing. You could make that work for you with a combination of effect tweaking and careful playing. But IMHO, that seems like even more work than tolerating a real human bassist (trust me, I know the struggle).

[themetallikid]

On 2/18/2021 at 6:47 AM, PierM said:

It will work only if you're playing ...And Justice For All.

as a huge Metallica fan, this hurts to laugh at, lol

[amsdenj]

I've done it when traveling with just a guitar and needed something capture ideas or loops for practicing on my phone. But I don't think I'd ever do it live or in a recording except for maybe an odd effect. 

[TLF2007]

I play guitar and bass in bands. So I'll be subjective that while its difficult to replace a bass player,  I've done the Local H / Japandroids thing in a couple side projects for that kind of effect.  I send my signal to a path and pitch shift down and EQ out as much high end needed to eliminate the transients. Here is a template I did: https://line6.com/customtone/tone/3047449/. I've also gone in other direction, as others have, making pseudo power chords up an octave from a bass line, which is more fun than I can effectively communicate.