Program a basic bass sound in Sculpture in MainStage

This section covers programming of a basic bass sound which serves as the foundation for a number of different bass sound examples. See Program a picked bass sound in Sculpture, Program a slap bass sound in Sculpture, and Program a fretless bass sound in Sculpture.

Sequentially follow the tasks in this section and Refine the basic Sculpture bass sound to learn how different 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 in Sculpture

In MainStage, 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.
Choose the #default setting from the Settings pop-up menu in Sculpture.

Recreate the sound characteristics of a typical bass instrument in Sculpture

In MainStage, set the Attack value of the amplitude envelope to its minimum value (0.00 ms). The A(ttack) slider is just to the right of the Material Pad.
Shorten the Release time of the amplitude envelope to a value between 4 and 5 ms.
Play a key on your keyboard. The note should stop abruptly when you release the key and should be free of artifacts (a digital crackle or snap). If you encounter any artifacts, carefully increase the Release time.
Play some sustained notes in the range above E 0. These die away too quickly. Correct this quick die-out with the Media Loss parameter by dragging the slider to the left of the Material Pad almost all the way down to the bottom. Note that the low E string on a high-quality bass can sound for over a minute.
Your basic bass should simulate a fingered articulation, which means that the sound is created by striking the strings with fingers.
Choose Pick from the Type pop-up menu of Object 1.
Don’t be confused by the name of the object type; despite the name pick, this model is appropriate for simulating the playing of strings with your fingers.
Play some notes in the lower range. You’ll hear that the sound is very muffled, hollow, and distorted. Before you adjust further parameters in Object 1, you need to set the position of the pickup.
This is accomplished in the Pickup display

MainStage User Guide

Program a basic bass sound in Sculpture in MainStage

Create the proper working environment for design of your own bass sound in Sculpture

Recreate the sound characteristics of a typical bass instrument in Sculpture