Instruments and Effects

Chapter 28 Sculpture 537
Damping
Playing with a pick is often combined with a damping technique that employs the ball
of the thumb. The right hand, which also holds the pick, should physically lay on top of
the strings at the bridge. This technique results in the sound having less overtone
content but become more percussive and punchy at the same time. You can variably
control the timbre of the sound through the angle and pressure of your hand while
playing.
Object 3 will be used to emulate the virtual ball of the thumb in this example. The
Timbre parameter determines the kind of damping that occurs. Variation dictates the
length of the string section that is being dampened.
To achieve this effect, proceed as follows:
1 Set the Object 3 type to Damp.
2 Set Object 3’s Strength parameter to 0.50.
3 Move Object 3 a little bit to the right in the Pickup display (to position 0.95) to simulate
the width and position of the ball of the thumb lying on the bridge.
4 Set Timbre to its minimum value (–1.00) to achieve a very soft damping effect.
5 Set the Variation parameter to its maximum value of 1.00.
You’ll note a metallic ringing that occurs during the attack phase still can be heard in
the octave above E0.
6 To suppress it the ringing, Move the small green diamond on the Material Pad to a
position directly under the ball. In doing so, you’ve just increased the Inner Loss value
for the low key range.
Note: In order to place the diamond exactly under the ball, you can also click it while
pressing the Option key.
7 Save this setting as Pick Bass Half muted.
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.