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Chapter 13 Sculpture 304
The vibration of the strings is captured by an electromagnetic pickup. When the string is
vibrating, its steel core aects the magnetic eld. The pickups are almost always found some
distance to the side, nearer to the bridge and stop tailpiece. There are dierent pickup concepts
for electric basses, and often two or more pickups are combined to make the sound. To avoid
getting into too much detail at this point, there is a rule of thumb that applies: The farther you
move the pickup toward the middle of the string, the bassier the sound will be and the more
hollow it will sound. The farther you move the pickup toward the end of the string, the more
the sound’s overtone content will increase, becoming more dense and compact. The sound will
have more mid-range frequencies, or buzz, and less bass. If the pickup is positioned at the very
end of the string, the sound becomes very thin. This behavior mirrors the actual playing position
of a real string: If you play more toward the middle of the string, you get a smooth, even, and
powerful sound that contains limited harmonic denseness (overtones). If the string is played at
the bridge, the sound develops a nasal twang and features more buzz and more overtones.
Now to the body of the instrument, and its resonant properties. Almost all electric basses have
a steel rod running through the neck, to strengthen it, and a body made of solid wood. This
construction allows the strings to vibrate relatively freely (sustain), even though very little direct
sound is generated. The pickups and the amplier and speaker systems are responsible for the
actual sound of the instrument.
The acoustic interaction between body, strings, and external sound sources is much less complex
than with pure acoustic instruments.
The vibration of the strings is, of course, naturally hampered by several physical factors: the
radius of motion of the string (the antinode) is impeded by the left bridge or by the rst fret
that’s pressed down upon, and the frets in between. This can lead to the development of
overtones that can take the form of anything from a slight humming or buzzing to a strong
scraping or scratching sound.
In addition, factors such as the material properties of the strings and the instrument, as well as
the softness of your ngertips, also serve to dampen the vibration of the string.
Program a basic bass sound with Sculpture
This section covers programming of a basic bass sound, which will serve as the foundation
for the dierent bass sounds you will create. See Program a picked bass sound with Sculpture,
Program a slap bass sound with Sculpture, and Program a fretless bass sound with Sculpture.
Sequentially follow the tasks in this section and Rene the basic bass sound to learn how
dierent components can be modeled and to gain a fuller understanding of how Sculpture
parameters interact.
Create the proper working environment for design of your own bass sound
1 Make sure the range from C 0 to C 3 is available on your keyboard by either transposing
your master keyboard, or by using the Transpose function in the Region parameters of your
host application.
Note: You can, of course, transpose sounds within Sculpture, but this isn’t the best solution in
this case, for the following reason: Sounds would not be compatible with MIDI regions in which
note number 60 as middle C is considered to be the measure of all things.
2 Choose the #default setting from the Settings pop-up menu in Sculpture.