And another thing you could try is running whatever you decide on through TH2, GR5 or another guitar sim to get more crispness/gain. That could draw the attack out as well and give you more options to get a P-bass + gainy bass head sound.
 
I actually kind of like GR5 for bass a little better than TH2. Which reminds me... there is also the trick of triple cloning your bass track and having a clean sound, a sub bass sound and a fuzz sound then blending them all together. Works great.
 
With this method you could use the clean or probably more preferably the fuzz sound to EQ in more of the attack which could mimic the clicking.
 
To take that even further you could use the VS-64 Multiband Compressor (or whatever it is called) to block out all frequencies except the attack so that way you have a track dedicated just to the clicks. In theory (because I am kind of pulling this one out of my arse) the compressor itself can get the attack sounding a little sharper.
 
Basically you need a realistic clean electric bass sound with a bit of click on the attack. From there you hone in on that attack and manipulate with whatever tools you have to get it to stand out the way you want. Tons of options for this.
 
aaaaand one more thing to toss into the mix is the Saturation Knob. If you set it to Keep Low (which leaves the low end untouched but adds saturation to the high end) it should make the click more pronounced as well.
 
These are all just things to try. Some of it may not work at all but if I was attempting something like this these are the things I would play with. I'm about to fire up the DAW so I'll check on the Alembic path for you. Cheers.

The thing with all of these suggestions is that you'd end up with it on every note.
 
Is that what you want? Because in my opinion, it would sound horribly faked and wouldn't sit in a song very well.
 
This needs to done sporadically at the beginning of a phrase, or on certain notes for emphasis.
 
 
I'd try finding a very short percussive sample which approximates what you want and layer it in on top of the bass
You could use all sorts of processing on the sample - EQ, compression, Transient Shaper etc to help blending it in with the bass.
 
Just throwing ideas out there.
 

i skipped X1. i go back to cakewalk 1, skipped a few like 4, 6 , 7 idk. I have sonar 8.5.3 and x2 and now x3. But i don't see z3ta 2 on my hard drive??
 
thanks KPerry. I'm curious why or what you do like about his sound. I saw Maiden on their first tour at Long Beach Arena in 1981 and was blown away by their tightness and sound. I've been hooked since, although their latest studio album seemed kinda pieced together in spots, a bit chaotic?? For me 'Somewhere in Time' and 'Live After Death' are their best.  I'm also a big Geddy Lee fan! The thing about Steve Harris' "clicks" that I like is the way it interacts with the drums while at same time punching up the low end under the guitars. I don't know if that makes sense. For me describing music is like talking about colors  

Bristol_Jonesey
The thing with all of these suggestions is that you'd end up with it on every note.
 
Is that what you want? Because in my opinion, it would sound horribly faked and wouldn't sit in a song very well.
 
This needs to done sporadically at the beginning of a phrase, or on certain notes for emphasis.
 
 
I'd try finding a very short percussive sample which approximates what you want and layer it in on top of the bass
You could use all sorts of processing on the sample - EQ, compression, Transient Shaper etc to help blending it in with the bass.
 
Just throwing ideas out there.
 

This could be dealt with with manipulating velocity on the Alembic patch (and other patches I'm assuming). The attack on the Alembic patch has a serious downward curve (probably wrong terminology but hopefully it's clear) so all he would have to do is make sure the notes he wants the click sound more pronounced on have a higher velocity than the rest. It's a useful bass sound. Like I said it's my go to now.
 

bruckner2
i skipped X1. i go back to cakewalk 1, skipped a few like 4, 6 , 7 idk. I have sonar 8.5.3 and x2 and now x3. But i don't see z3ta 2 on my hard drive??
 

I think you need to install and register it separately. If you can't find the EXE you can do a custom install and just pull the Zeta stuff out. It may also be in your store account. Zeta did definitely come with X2 though. What version exactly I am not sure because as I said I got a fancier version with the Production Suite but I was under the impression that that version got included with X2 AND I think got an update/upgrade as well.

Okay, I just looked at my X2 startup menu folder and Zeta isn't in there but in my X1 startup folder  Zeta + 2 is. I'm not sure if that means I got Zeta + 2 with the Production Suite or whether it was indeed included with X2. You should have at least one version of Zeta though. Which version IDK. If it is the older Zeta I just looked through all the patches and didn't see the Alembic patch in any of them and due to the path in Zeta + 2 I'm assuming it came with that synth.
 
So if you DO happen to have Zeta + 2 the path is: Factory Content > Bass 1 > Picked Alembic BT.
 
Sorry if I sent you on a wild goose chase. I could have sworn they had tossed the fancier Zeta in with X2. They did SOMETHING to update/upgrade it though. Just not sure what.
 
Cheers.

Yeah I was thinking about velocity as well. Ramp it up where you want.
 
I've got Z3ta+2 and I'm sure I didn't pay for it, so it was included at some point, unless my fading memory is fading even further.

Bristol_Jonesey
Yeah I was thinking about velocity as well. Ramp it up where you want.
 
I've got Z3ta+2 and I'm sure I didn't pay for it, so it was included at some point, unless my fading memory is fading even further.

Well maybe we are both going insane. ;-p
 
As far as velocity check out that patch if you get a chance and you'll see what I mean as far as the attacks getting much more pronounced at higher velocities. Like if I hit my keys more softly the attack is greatly reduce but in the upper 10-15% on the aggression scale (a scale I just made up... lol) the attack increases sharply while the tone itself follows a seemingly more subdued velocity curve. Kind of like what would happen on a real bass.
 
It's a little weird though because although most of the time it sound perfectly natural I find that if I play a certain way somehow it all of a sudden sounds unnatural. Hard to explain but it's like if I play awkwardly or don't treat it exactly like a bass it gets that very noticeable MIDI quality to it. I'm not sure if this would happen with quick/complicated runs.
 
One cool thing I did with this patch was I wrote a bass line that used this in conjunction with one of the buzzier, more robotic bass sounds sounding simultaneously. Best of both worlds. Real bass and synth bass working together. Once I cranked on some heavily distorted crunch rhythm it was brutal sounding. Very modern sounding but still metal.

I will try this out Beep, whenever I get a bit of "free" time

From a synthesis point of view, you might be able to do simulate like this with FM (frequency modulation). When I build analog brass patches on my Kronos, I always have a switch that turns on FM @ 24 steps, which adds quite a bit of high end bite to the attack. You could add 2 additional oscillators to the patch referenced above (maybe a pair of detuned saws) with short decays and apply FM between them.
 
I don't remember if Z3ta (either 1 or 2) has the ability to FM 2 oscillators against each other, but it might be worth a shot. You just have to make sure that the ratio is at a step which creates a modulated pitch which is the same note - otherwise it'll create a really nasty distorted harmonic. Actually, if you modulate it on the 4th or 5th, there might be enough metallic grit added to the sound to give you what you want - it's then just a matter of controlling the shape of it with an envelope.
 
If I get a chance, I'll play with Z3ta tonight (I've only been using Z3ta2 recently) to see if I can approximate that sort of sound.

Bristol_Jonesey
I will try this out Beep, whenever I get a bit of "free" time

I hear ya. I can't ever seem to get down to work and I don't even have a freaking day job. lulz