The BRASH B@SS ghost-note groove

bass-mid · dirty · 104 BPM (96–112) · G minor · 4 bars · 64 steps

BRASH B@SS1.04Two hard strikes a bar and six ghosted, most of them the same note

Every patch on the Moog Subsequent 37

The technique

Eight strikes a bar and only two of them are played hard: the bar head, and the sixteenth before beat four. The other six are ghosts, struck at about a third of the weight.

Most of those eight are the same note. Bars one and two are the key’s root, bars three and four are its fourth, and the only pitches that move are the two sixteenths at the end of bar two and bar four.

Bar two ends on the third then the second, walking up into the fourth. Bar four ends on the second then the seventh below the root, walking back up a tone to the root. Those four notes are the whole melodic content of the figure.

Play the ghosts with the same finger and the same motion as the accents, just lighter. A ghost played as a shorter note is a different articulation; what is wanted is the same note quieter.

Keep every strike short. The gap between a ghost and the next strike is what makes the accent land, and a bass held through the gaps sounds like one long note with bumps in it.

Never raise the sixth. The raised sixth belongs to the major key, and one of them in a groove this repetitive is the only thing anyone will hear.

Keep the line inside the fifth it is written in, from the seventh below the root up to the fourth. The figure is a groove at the bottom of the track and nothing in it needs to climb.

The chords

2 chords over 4 bars, in G minor.

DegreeChordNotesBarsUnder the figure
iGmG · Bb · D1–2●
ivCmC · Eb · G3–4●

The figure is played over these chords; supply them separately if your rig allows.

The rules

  • Never the raised 6th, on any chord — over i, the raised sixth turns a minor groove major, and this one repeats too much to hide it.

The notes

4 bars in G minor. Each note is in force across the steps shown.

  • steps 1–16·over i Gm·G2·degree 1·MIDI 43
  • steps 17–30·over i Gm·G2·degree 1·MIDI 43
  • step 31·over i Gm·Bb2·degree 3·MIDI 46
  • step 32·over i Gm·A2·degree 2·MIDI 45
  • steps 33–48·over iv Cm·C3·degree 4·MIDI 48
  • steps 49–62·over iv Cm·C3·degree 4·MIDI 48
  • step 63·over iv Cm·A2·degree 2·MIDI 45
  • step 64·over iv Cm·F2·degree 7·MIDI 41

The grid

Every step below strikes the note in force at that point. The grid is where the figure is played.

  • —1, 12, 17, 28, 33, 44, 49, 60 (all vel 120)
  • —4, 6, 8, 14, 15, 16, 20, 22, 24, 30, 31, 32, 36, 38, 40, 46, 47, 48, 52, 54, 56, 62, 63, 64 (all vel 38)

On the Moog Subsequent 37

Subsequent 37 · Voice

Settings for this voice

Settings for a bass-mid · dirty voice on this box, written here. They are not the preset’s own values: load the preset to hear it as it ships.

Settings

  • SWING50%(0…100 %)

    50 is straight; it swings the onboard arpeggiator and sequencer, nothing played from elsewhere

    PRESET EDIT, ARPEGGIATOR, SWING

GLIDE

  • ONOFF

    Must be lit for any glide at all

OSCILLATORS

  • OSC 1 · OCTAVE16'
  • OSC 1 · WAVESAWTOOTH

    The knob is continuous; these are its four named points

  • OSC 2 · OCTAVE16'
  • OSC 2 · WAVENARROW PULSE

    The knob is continuous; these are its four named points

  • OSC · HARD SYNCOFF

    Keep OSC 2 at or above OSC 1 or it barely sounds

  • OSC · KB RESETOFF

    A defined leading edge, at the cost of a click on hard attacks

  • OSC · DUO MODEOFF

    Off: one note at a time, both oscillators on the same key

  • OSC · KB CTRLHI

    Inert while DUO MODE is off; set so FREQUENCY keeps its semitone scale

  • OSC 2 · FREQUENCY-0.5st(-7…7 st)

    Centre is unison with OSC 1; fully clockwise is a fifth

  • OSC 2 · BEAT FREQ1Hz(-3.5…3.5 Hz)

    A constant beat rate at every pitch, unlike FREQUENCY

MIXER

  • OSC 18.5(0…10)
  • SUB 17.5(0…10)

    Always a square, always an octave below OSC 1

  • OSC 28(0…10)
  • NOISE1.5(0…10)

    Pink, not white

  • FDBK / EXT IN3(0…10)

    With nothing in EXT IN this feeds the mixer output back into itself

FILTER

  • CUTOFF260Hz(20…20000 Hz)

    Fully down closes the filter completely

  • RESONANCE6.5(0…10)

    Above 7 the filter sings by itself

  • MULTIDRIVE7.5(0…10)

    Tube-like warmth at the bottom, hard clipping at the top

  • SLOPE24

    dB per octave: one, two, three or four poles

  • EG AMT2.5(-5…5)

    Bipolar: below centre the envelope pulls the cutoff down

  • KB TRACK0.5(0…2)

    1.0 is 1:1 tracking centred on C3; 2.0 is 2:1

ENVELOPE GENERATORS

  • ENV · KNOB SHIFTOFF

    Unlit, or the eight knobs below are DELAY, HOLD, VEL AMT and KB TRACK instead

  • FILTER EG · ATTACK2ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · DECAY260ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · SUSTAIN2(0…10)

    0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10

  • FILTER EG · RELEASE200ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · LOOPOFF

    On, the envelope repeats for as long as a note is held — a multistage LFO

  • AMP EG · ATTACK2ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • AMP EG · DECAY500ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • AMP EG · SUSTAIN6.5(0…10)

    0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10

  • AMP EG · RELEASE180ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • AMP EG · MULTI TRIGON

    On, every note re-attacks even when you play legato

  • AMP EG · LOOPOFF

    Off on everything but a bed: looping the amplitude re-articulates a held note

MOD 1

  • SOURCESaw
  • HI RANGEOFF

    On, the LFO runs ten times faster

  • SYNCOFF

    Off, so RATE is in hertz rather than clock divisions

  • LFO RATE5.5Hz(0.1…100 Hz)
  • KB RESETOFF

    On, the LFO restarts at zero on every note

  • PITCH AMT0(-5…5)
  • OSCBOTH

    Which oscillator PITCH AMT reaches

  • FILTER AMT0(-5…5)
  • DESTOSC 2 WAVE
  • MOD AMT1(-5…5)

This block draws on the Subsequent 37 User's Manual, pp.21-61; its values are starting points.