SOUND ON SOUND

[BJG145]

+1 for the legendary Warwick growl. If you have 1500 to 2000 pounds to spend.

I jammed for a short while with a bass player who had a Warwick. It growled like anything. I never saw my Washburn quite the same after that.

Still working on the £2K.

[awjoe]

Not sure if this is the way you'd want to go about it (you mention "recording" as opposed to playing live) but the Izotope Alloy 2 plug-in has a bass setting called "Growling Bass". And it growls.

Well, the reason I asked about pedals was that these days I try to get as close to the sound I want going in, but I guess a plugin would be quieter than a pedal. Izotope don't make Alloy 2 anymore, but I can explore. Thanks for the idea.

[manwilde]

Last mont I purchased Studiodevil´s "Virtual Bass Amp" (see SOS review https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/studio-devil-virtual-bass-amp) directly from their website for something like 60€. While I´m no expert at all, it seems to me like an excellent starting point...

[awjoe]

Good idea. Cheers.

[CS70]

Play the bass line with your electric guitar, with the right amount of crunch, and apply a pitch shifter to bring it an octave lower. LPF to taste.

[adrian_k]

Turns out I can get a bit of a growl going with this thing: Dr J Sparrow bass driver and DI. I guess it's the Joyo version of the SansAmp.

I bought it for a project, delivery was delayed and I completed the project without using it. Your question made me wonder about it, so thanks!

Turn up the Low, Drive almost but not quite to max (most of the effect is in the last 1/4), dial in some harmonics, using the neck pickup on an old Yamaha RBX bass.

Mind you, one man's growl is another's fart (you can get that effect too without too much effort).

[BigRedX]

As a bass player myself, I think "growly" is one of those useless non-adjectives when it comes to describing sounds.

You best bet is to post some sound clips of how your bass sounds now compared with an example of how you would like it to sound off a record or CD.

If I was going to make suggestions blind (deaf?) I'd say you need valve-style distortion and a relative boost of the upper mids. Have a listen to some of the isolated bass tracks that can be found on YouTube and you will be surprised how much distortion is on the bass even when in the mix it sounds "clean". This can be a problem when trying out amps and effects in the shop, as it is almost impossible to make a meaningful decision about how the bass sounds on its own compared with how it's going to sound in the mix.

[SecretSam]

Mind you, one man's growl is another's fart (you can get that effect too without too much effort).

... depending on how carefully you chose your speaker cab.

I find that a happy morning in the store playing loud bottom B sorts out the wheat from the chaff.

And has the advantage of torturing the sales staff: it's irritating, but the prospect of a large sale means they just have to suck it up. Gets revenge for all those times they were snotty to keen teenagers just starting out. Yes, Macaris, I'm looking at you.

[VTypeV4]

+1 on a Warwick - I've had mine for 20 years..

'Growl' is quite a loose term but if I need a bit of 'grit' I've found recording through a valve pre (pick your own flavour - Fender, Ampeg, Mesa etc) then a dose of Sansamp into an hard driven 1176 compressor can work quite well.. :thumbup: :thumbup:

[mellowsouls]

Growl makes me think of pickup placement. P-bass position not so much, but chuck a J/bridge in to the mix and that will get it there. In my opinion. Your “growl” might sound different to my “growl”.

[BillB]

Bass guitar Growl makes me think of Chris Squire's Rickenbacker sound, which basically drove Yes through the decades. I met someone on the train (years ago) who claimed to know him and his sound, and said it wasn't just down to the Rick, but the whole recording/performance chain, which no doubt is true. Having said that, when I think of other Rick players (e.g. Jean-Jacques Burnell, Helmut Hattler) they do have a raunchy sound.

Faced with your ambition, I would be playing with overdrive (dialled back) and EQ pedals to see what comes of it. Even quite cheap gear can make quite a difference. I spent an evening trying to get my (cheap) Peavey bass to sound 'better' through my (very cheap) Behringer Bass V-Amp, and got a result I was happy with. I have yet to do the same with some better Boss and Korg multi-effects that I have acquired more recently, but I am sure that it is there for the asking.

[Sam Spoons]

Bass guitar Growl makes me think of Chris Squire's Rickenbacker sound, which basically drove Yes through the decades. I met someone on the train (years ago) who claimed to know him and his sound, and said it wasn't just down to the Rick, but the whole recording/performance chain, which no doubt is true.

I seem to recall Chris Squire saying in an interview that he could get all the same sounds and more from a Fender Jazz but he the Rick had that look.

[BillB]

...but he the Rick had that look.

Yeah, Ricks just look growly :D

Subject to a pools/lottery win (unlikely as I don't do either) a Rick will probably be one of those unrealised lifelong dreams.

[Sam Spoons]

Well, console yourself with the fact that you can

get all the same sounds and more from a Fender Jazz

:D

[blinddrew]

I actually used my new kit bass the other night and got quite a nice growly sound out of it by just running through an Art pre-amp and then putting it though my usual DAW bass template (which splits the signal at 300Hz and adds a cab sim to the top half).