Pitch shifting...want to use guitar as a bass

I just want to shift my guitar's pitch down an octave to use it to input bass lines.

Yes, I'm a complete noob. 

I have a feeling this is easy to do, but I haven't found it yet.

Thanks.

> Buddie that does guitars for me tunes his Strat down 1
    octave, its understood you better be a realy good player
    but the results here are deadly..and the bass is tripple
    track'd..

ges - in my humble opinion, you'd be much better off writing your bass line in one of the excellent synths that come with X1

Pentagon, Dim Pro, Rapture etc.

You won't like the result you get from dropping a guitar down an octave.

In my humble opinion

And get Scotts book anyway - it's probably one of the most well thumbed books I own.

I use an excellent plug-in by Waves: it called SoundShifter. It does a great job in realtime pitch shifting.
Here's another trick in using your guitar for bass lines and still retaining good sound quality:
Double the tempo of your song and record your guitar track as the bass part.
Return your project to the original tempo.
Next, you'll want to change the pitch of the guitar track down an octave by using the type pitch shifting plug-in that when you lower the pitch it also slows down the speed of the audio. When you change the pitch down an octave it will also slow down the guitar track to the correct tempo of your song project. Sony Pitch Shift works great for that
To do it:
Insert the pitch shifter into the track effects bin.
Make the pitch adjustment to the plug-in.
Select the audio file.
Go to the file menu and select Process.
Choose Audio Effects from the dropdown menu and select Audio Effects on the right.
In the Apply Audio Effects window you can just hit OK - OR - uncheck: 'Delete the effects from the track effects bin'. That way you can keep the pitch shift plug-in for the track if you want to use it again. Simply turn off/bypass the plug-in so it's not effecting the audio track.

True go with the synth!

It depends on what you're going for. I've done it with great success, and it sounds just a little bit off to be cool.

The White Stripes did it on "Seven Nation Army". The main bass line is actually a guitar shifted down, and it sounds fantastic.

Try using SONAR's transpose, but also try V-Vocal to see if you like it better. 

This is usually a case where I bang the part out to, gasp, Reaper and use it's varispeed to shift it down. Sure, you gotta deal with playing it in at a different tempo but the achieved effect sounds very cool.

...wicked


It depends on what you're going for. I've done it with great success, and it sounds just a little bit off to be cool.

The White Stripes did it on "Seven Nation Army". The main bass line is actually a guitar shifted down, and it sounds fantastic.

Try using SONAR's transpose, but also try V-Vocal to see if you like it better. 

This is usually a case where I bang the part out to, gasp, Reaper and use it's varispeed to shift it down. Sure, you gotta deal with playing it in at a different tempo but the achieved effect sounds very cool.

AFAIK he was using a guitar FX pedal to get that sound. He'd split the signal off his guitar, 1 went to his fuzz boxes and guitar amp. and then the 2nd would go to a EHX Pog or something to the effect. That's going to sound better than using one of the pitch shifter plugins.

You can do bass on a strat very easily depending on how complex your bass part is.

I use the low E and A on my strat and turn the bass tone control up. It takes some EQ'ing and compressing but it works. Unless you're doing solo's, bass isn't really that important since it's more felt than heard so to speak.

Sijel


I requested this be made available in Kindle so I can read it on my iPad 2 which becomes available just around the time your book arrives! ;-)

Hi Sijel... yes, the SONAR X1 Power book will definitely be available in Kindle format. The Kindle page on Amazon should be up soon. I'll be updating my site as soon as Amazon get the page up... http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks

Thanks!
Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series. Get Sonar X1 Power - Today! Go to: http://www.garrigus.com/

Publisher of DigiFreq - free music technology newsletter. Win a free SoundTech Vocal Trainer Package, go to: http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/

Publisher of NewTechReview - free consumer technology newsletter. Win a free i2i Stream Wireless Music Pack, go to: http://www.newtechreview.com/newtechreview/

BEATZM1D10T
AFAIK he was using a guitar FX pedal to get that sound. He'd split the signal off his guitar, 1 went to his fuzz boxes and guitar amp. and then the 2nd would go to a EHX Pog or something to the effect. That's going to sound better than using one of the pitch shifter plugins. 

Hey I didn't say HOW he shifted it down. 

 
I'd recommend just getting a cheapo bass guitar - it will sound much better than any synth or any transposed audio in the hands of someone who can already play guitar.
 
 

im sure someones mentioned this but seriously..the S.I.bass is a really good synth and sounds just like a bass..i bought an akia controller for 65.00 to use the synths and it perfect..i dont use the bass one much because i have a P- and a jazz.
something to think about

chuckebaby
im sure someones mentioned this but seriously..the S.I.bass is a really good synth and sounds just like a bass..

Agreed. The whole SI series is actually quite good. I nearly always sequence bass but if you DO know how to play guitar I could see wanting to capture the nuances of a part played in the "old fashioned" way. 

there's nothing like the real thing. 

I used to do this too, before my son loaned me one of his extra basses (which I now prefer). I recorded two tracks. My first take used a Strat thru a POD X3, using the bender tone to down-shift it an octave. I then recorded a second take normal (no down-shifting), using one of the POD's bass amps. Finally, I blended the two together and compressed. I liked it.