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Chapter 13 Sculpture 303
Advanced Sculpture tutorial: electric bass
Electric bass programming overview
This section concentrates on a single instrument type—the electric bass, including all of its
important variations and articulations. The physical nature of electric basses is not as complex
as their acoustic counterparts. This instrument is therefore an excellent choice for the sound
programming tutorials, the goal of which is to acquaint you with the art of using Sculpture to
accurately reproduce detailed sounds.
Note: To see the settings for these tutorials in the Sculpture window, choose Tutorial Settings
from the Settings pop-up menu.
To build a bass and all its components in Sculpture, you need to understand the basic, physical
process of sound production within the instrument. In general, the electric bass has four strings.
The lowest string is usually tuned to E 0 or E (MIDI note number 28). The strings above the low
E are tuned in fourths—thus A, D, and G. There are basses that have ve, six, or more strings, but
because Sculpture has no tonal limits, this is unimportant.
What is much more important for sound programming is the overtone content of the bass
sound, which depends primarily on the qualities of the strings.
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Round wound strings: A very ne wire is wound around a steel cable core, which results in a
metallic sound that’s full of overtones.
•
Flat wound strings: The ne wire wrapping is ground down or polished smooth, and the sound
has far fewer overtones in comparison. (These are much less popular today.)
In contrast to guitar strings, the structure and workmanship are the same for all strings in a set.
Sets combining wound and nonwound strings do not exist.
The relationship between string length and string tension has a signicant impact on the
overtone content. Disregarding basses that can be adjusted to dierent scale lengths (dierent
vibrating string lengths), the actual playing position that is used plays an important role. When
you play D at the tenth fret on the low E string, it sounds more mued than the same pitch
played on the open D string.
The number of frets diers from bass to bass and depends on the scale length. Don’t worry
about pitches higher than a single ledger line C; the actual functional range of this instrument is
primarily in its two lower octaves—between E 0 and E 2.
Also worth mentioning is the fretless electric bass. Like all instruments of this type, it is freely
tunable and possesses a distinctive, individual sound. See Program a fretless bass sound
with Sculpture.
There are three types of articulations that are discussed:
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Fingered: The strings are played with the alternating index and middle ngers.
•
Picked: The strings are played with a pick. See Program a picked bass sound with Sculpture.
•
Thumbed/Slapped: The strings are either played with the side of the thumb on the ngerboard
or plucked strongly with the ngers. See Program a slap bass sound with Sculpture.