Walking Bass Lines w/ Chord Changes

If you have a piano loop, delete all of the right hand notes, and change the left hand notes to a bass instrument, and viola, a custom made bass line for THAT loop.

Loops can be transposed to a different key using the slider in the lower left area of the editor window. However, that wouldn't really solve your problem, because (1) you'd need a different basic loop for every chord type (at least for major and minor chords) and (2) it would shift the whole pattern up and down, which is certainly not how a good bass player would do the walk.

I'm afraid you have to create the bass line yourself. Or use a program like Band-In-A-Box, which creates accompaniments for a given chord progression in midi, which you can import into GB.

Or use a program like Band-In-A-Box, which creates
accompaniments for a given chord progression in midi, which
you can import into GB.

I was about to say... Band in a Box is about as good as you can get for walking bass lines or jazz drumming with occasional fills and rolls.

If you use a green software instrument walking bass loop, you can alter the notes to get your chord changes. If you find one that is on electric bass, and you really want upright, you can also change the instrument. To alter the notes, open the region you drag into your timeline in the editor and in that window just grab and drag the notes where you need them to be, in the piano roll view, or if you read music, use the music notation view. This will give more natural sounding results than just using the transposing. Plus if it already has the feel you are after, all you have to do is match up note to your chords.

Would I have to play and record the bass lines myself? Is this the 'best' (simplest) way?

Yes. I am sure there are great loops out there but why not do the lines yourself? You learn more about music this way and build up your own technique.

One of the greatest aspects of MIDI is being able to edit it afterwards and to record at a slower tempo. If you use green loops for the drums they adjust to the tempo change without a hitch. I usually do all MIDI parts first so if there is a hard section I can slow it down.

Because I do not need to record it perfectly I find myself relaxing and having fun with the part. Sections that I really mess up I can do over and cut and paste. I record these on a new track (select the track and press ⌘ + d to duplicate it.) Then I cut the bad section and paste the good into it.

For editing MIDI regions here is a trick I use:
1. Make sure snap to grid is enabled. (Control menu: select snap to grid or press ⌘ + G.)

2. Move the playhead to the section you wish.
3. Split the track on both sides of the bad section in both the old and new tracks. Split the tracks in the same sections on both tracks. Try to find silent areas so no notes are cut off.
4. Delete the bad section on the old track and drag the good section up to it.

Note: The snap to grid helps you to line up the new edit perfectly

After I get something close to what I want, I go into the editor and remove or change wrong notes. I have trained myself to play in rhythm even when I make a mistake...no stopping. It is far easier to adjust the note in MIDI than it is the rhythm.

Kurt

not exactly on the subject but I can't find what I am looking for. I don't even know where on GB2 to find the chords to loop in. Can someone help?

Jane, you'll be more likely to get answers to your question if you start your own thread.

Each loop has a key. There's a pitch transpose function where you can take a loop that is in C and set the pitch transpose to +2 and it'll then be D. There is no function to change from major to minor on a loop.

If that doesn't answer your question, please do start a new thread and I am sure you'll get lots of suggestions.

I've become pretty adept at using loops but I find that matching the bass with the chords to be quite time consuming. The short answer is - record your own bass parts. If you must work exclusively with loops, I suggest cutting up the bass loops and combining the different sections of notes until they match your chord progression. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, depending on your specific chord progression. I've gotten away with it a few times but some songs beg for the real thing. In an ideal world, every guitar or keyboard loop would have a matching bass loop that grooves right along with it. But then life would be too easy!

GENIUS!!

Your on the ball today Scott!

X

If you have a piano loop, delete all of the right hand
notes, and change the left hand notes to a bass instrument, > and viola, a custom made bass line for THAT loop.

For a walking bass line? A walking bass line requires 1 note to each beat with occasional accents on the ands. That requires a rather stiff left hand feel in that loop.

I just got my hands on GB3 so maybe I'll check this out. Still, excepting recording your own lines, nothing beats Band in a Box for this kind of thing.

Well, I was commenting on the guy saying he had trouble finding a bass line to match a loop. Walking bass lines are a different story, unless that piano track has one in there. I do mine with my bass. But there are a few green walking upright bass loops that can be edited to fit another chord. I started dinking around with some of them way back when I first got GB1 and never got back to that song once I started recording my CD. And if you don't want an upright bass, you can play the same loop with a different bass instrument, though you may have to alter it slightly to stay within the range of an electric bass.

Wow! Cool idea, Scott. That only works with "green" instruments, right?
Keep up the good work!

Yeah, I don't use loops "as is" at all. i ALWAYS edit them somehow, but I am basically lazy, and if the loop has a pattern I like, but the wrong notes, I change the darn notes! I rarely use the real instrument loops because I can't edit the notes. Jam Pack 3 has a lot of beat that have corresponding fills. I just did a couple of songs that I started with the basic beat loop, and I put every single fill into a "donor" track. Then I put the fills everywhere I think they a fill should be, and then i edit them all so that none are the same. I do write a ot of beats myself, but as I said, I am lazy, so why spend a lot of time writing a beat when I can find a green loop that close to what I want, and just make a few edits to get it exactly what I want. Plus since all of the green loops will become whatever drum kit you have set, they ALL become THAT KIT when you use them in your track. So you can use ANY green loop drum loop and it will play using the kit of your choice. Of course, some of them have stuff you won't want, so you just change it to what you DO WANT.