Well, bass players are not immune to the ole 'less is more' philosophy.
And, I know, the new toys are hard not to use.
I came to the realization of tonal interaction when after the I turned the bass guitar up, the vocal sounded fatter. I think our brains assume there is some masking going on.
In the same respect, just a couple of 16th notes makes the brain use that as a reference, even if hardly any more get played.
I'm just getting started with Sonar; coming up on a year. So, I am still guessing at a lot.
But, I've played more than 10,000 gigs. I hear everything everyone plays all the time. And busy usually marks the death of the groove.
To quote the Duke - "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing." Doo-wop optional.
Looking forward to hearing more.