The Big Gundown cover - first bass track

If you haven't read the other posts :
Making Of : The Big Gundown - Ennio Morricone Tribute
The Big Gundown Cover : Guitar Track
The Big Gundown cover - opening piano


The main guitar and the piano are now recorded. I will introduce the electric bass that overtake after the piano and complete the opening sequence. Later we're going to add the drums and some other overdubs.
But what about the bass in this song ? Well apparently there is no electric bass, but if you pay attention you can ear what seems to be cellos in the background, but you really need to listen carefully.

*TIPS - If you're looking to identify a particular instrument in a busy mix, you can try to do some equalisation filtering to isolate the instrument. Althought in those days there is advanced software that can litteraly remove vocal track or grab a string line out of a song, EQ filtering is a quick and easy way that can help. In this case, I'm looking to identify the cellos' part, a low frequency instrument, so I have put a low pass filter over the song to get rid of all high frequency instruments. This will help me to focus on the low end only. Then it's easier to listen and pick out the line.

If I trust my ears, here is what the cellos (or is it a double bass ?) does after the piano, starting at measure 12 :

|----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-------------|
|----------|-----------|-----------|-5------7--|-------------|
|-7--------|-3------5--|-7----3----|-----------|-7--5--3--7--|
|----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-------------|

|--------------|-------------|--------------|--------------|-------------|
|--------------|-3--3--3-----|--------3--3--|--------------|----5--------|
|-0--0--0--0-0-|----------5--|-0--0-0-------|-3--3-3-3--5--|-7-----3--5--|
|--------------|-------------|--------------|--------------|-------------|

|--------------|-------------|---------------|-------------|
|--------------|-------------|---------------|-5--5-5------|
|-7--7--7--7-7-|-3--3--3--5--|-7--7-7-3--3-3-|--------0----|
|--------------|-------------|---------------|-------------|

Now watch the video to see what it gives with the electric bass :

 

OK, I'm not very happy with this audio recording. I will do some other takes for the bass part and choose a better one later. This is time to say you always have to look for a good performance and do multiple takes for a given part. I always do 5 to 10 takes before reaching the G spot with a performance. Patience is what you need and don't be satisfied with a recording that is 1. not sounding good and is badly recorded and 2. is not as tight as you'd wish. Although we will see later how to correct some of these issues in the mix, always try to have the best out of your recording sessions.

As you can see, all my recording are concentring on the opening sequence only. Don't worry, I will work the other parts of the song later. The next post will actually be about the drums tracks and I will write down a drums track that will help as a reference from the start to the end of the song.

NEXT POST : drums track for the whole song.

Please note that I don't have any real musical scholarship and that english is not my first langage. Please, kindly indicate me the mistakes I could have made, especially the ones that prevent you from sleeping. :)