7

Chapter 24 Sculpture 437
Harmonics
Harmonics are single partials (overtones) of the overall sound. They can be heard by
damping certain points along the string. This is done by lightly laying the fingers of the
left hand (assuming a right-handed bass player) on the string (not pressing down)
before the note is articulated. The first overtone, the octave, is achieved by placing your
finger at the exact middle of the string, in effect separating the string into two halves.
The next overtone is the fifth above the octave and the position of your finger should
divide the string into a ratio of one-third to two-thirds. The next highest overtone
separates the string into proportions of one-quarter to three-quarters and so on.
To simulate fingers lightly touching the strings:
1 Object 3 is used as a damper. Select the Damp Type.
2 Adjust Object 3’s Timbre parameter to its maximum value of 1.00.
3 Variation must be set to its initial value of 0.00. Simply click on the slider while holding
down the Option key to do so.
4 Move Object 3 to the exact middle (0.50) of the Pickup window. Play the keyboard, and
you’ll hear the first overtone as a harmonic.
5 While playing, very slowly move Object 3 towards the left of the Pickup window. In
doing this, you are effectively “scrolling” through the overtone series, so to speak.
6 Save this setting as “Flageolet Xmple”.
Vintage Flat Wound Pick Bass
Now, in just a few easy steps, we would like to transform our pick bass into a vintage
pick bass with flat wound strings. This bass sound is typical for the funk and soul music
of the 70’s, but you’ll also find it in many easy listening arrangements.
Proceed as follows:
1 First load the “Pick Bass Half muted” Setting.
2 Drag the Material Pad ball upwards and the sound becomes more muffled. Here are the
values we recommend:
3 Increase the Object 3 Strength parameter to 0.70. The result is a muted pick bass with
flat wound strings.