Listen to the audio only:

Notes

I have been wanting to record a loop jam on my Ibanez semi-hollow bass for a while. It is a fantastic instrument with a great feel and wonderful tone. My only complaint is that the neck is a little long, so if I play on the lower frets for a while my left arm gets tired, but it is perfect for the style of playing in this song. The tune is one I wrote about 20 years ago but have never recorded more than a sketch of. Unfortunately I forgot to tune my guitar before laying down the tracks on the sketch, which mars the recording a bit, but I pulled it out of the archive in case any of you are interested:

I imagined the original two voices as being played on the bass even back then, but for some reason I recorded the whole sketch on my Telecaster. (Probably laziness or sloppiness, as also evidenced by the poor tuning.)

The MOD Dwarf Founders Edition did a few glitchy things again during this session. I still think that Sooper Looper is probably to blame, so on my next loop jam I will try a different looper plugin. Overall I still really like this hardware, and I dig the sounds I can get out of it. It turns out that a shimmer reverb is a great way to fill up the treble range in an all-bass loop jam.

The sound of this jam is an homage to the post-punk bands I used to listen to when I was a teenager. I don’t listen to these bands very much any more, but I still love the thick sound of a bass guitar played as a lead instrument and have used it on a few songs over the years.

Info and Stats

• Production Dates: November – December 2023
• Equipment:
  • Interfaces: MOD Dwarf Founders Edition, Behringer Xenyx 1204USB, Behringer Ultra-DI DI400P
  • Instruments: Ibanez ASB140 Artcore Bass
• Software:
  • Linux Mint 20.2
  • Ardour 7.3.0
  • Kdenlive 19.12.3
  • Plugins: Shiroverb, setBfree Whirl, TAP Stereo Echo, Sooper Looper, TAP Stereo Dynamics, CAPS Stereo Plate Reverb, Guitarix Supersonic, x42 Parametric Equalizer. MOD Switchbox, MOD High-Pass Filter