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I come from a jazz background where the notes of the bass lead into the chord changes.
I know sub bass is supposed to be pretty simple but can it play notes that aren't in the chord that's playing.

Ex: Guitars play e minor to g major
Bass plays E F G
It walks up to the note.

Noob question. but I'm new to EDM

do what sounds right to your ears man. honestly best advice i was given.
music doesn't always have to follow a strict code.

I was asking because I don't have a good sub monitoring system at the moment so it's hard to tell whether it will sound good with a sub bumping versus my headphones which don't give an accurate depiction.

from my experience when you play chord for bass it looses its bassy-ness and has like a lfo'd vibrato effect. id stick to playing single notes

dubesteppe wrote:from my experience when you play chord for bass it looses its bassy-ness and has like a lfo'd vibrato effect. id stick to playing single notes

depends on how close the notes are together. i use this all the time for a nice pumping sub.

dubesteppe wrote:from my experience when you play chord for bass it looses its bassy-ness and has like a lfo'd vibrato effect. id stick to playing single notes

He talking about harmonizing the basswith the chords, not playing chords with the bass.

You can play notes outside the chord, you can even get away playing a note that's not even in the key with sub bass since it's harder to discern pitch at low frequencies, although I wouldn't.

Yeah I don't usually use chords for sub, in my short experience it brings a lot of mud.

Mammoth wrote: I know sub bass is supposed to be pretty simple but can it play notes that aren't in the chord that's playing.

honestly if you come from jazz background, you have a serious advantage in that you know a lot of musical theory, AND that in music like dubstep you can throw the rules out the window. You get the best of both worlds!

Basically what I am saying is you don't have to worry about that kind of stuff - lots of people on here (and a lot of more famous producers too) have little to no knowledge of music theory but still make good tracks.

Yo. I'm coming from a long background of instrumental practice and was totally going up the jazz alley as well. The advantage with electronic music is you can play back what you record and make changes, you don't necessarily have to play everything on the spot, and improvisation is totally optional. I know a big handful of theory and I must admit, I hardly think back to much of it when recording electronic stuff. I just use my ear (though it's always fun to think and see how out there or simple your chords are) for the most part. On the improv front, however, I'm looking into a long-term midi guitar project that works real smooth when once I'm done with it.

If you can't hear it on your system, just play it at a higher octave then if it sounds good just transpose it down.

justanotherdj wrote:If you can't hear it on your system, just play it at a higher octave then if it sounds good just transpose it down.

That's what I did. worked like a dream

@blazinaidan thanks I personally enjoy listening to other music besides jazz more but god it's fun to play.
What instrument do you play?

yes yes yes!!! i would love to hear more harmonies in this music, by way of subbass roots creating interesting voicings in the upper register

The only thing i'd recommend is if youre doing bass layering (one or more bass patches in unison with the sub), then keep all the layers playing the same root, and play the upper extensions with higher instruments.

also a lot of times i do the octave thing as well, or if i can't hear my sub on my monitors, i change it to a saw wave while composing.. then back to a sine when i'm done. The added harmonics give me insight as to how its gonna work with the rest of the track

There's no reason why you can't do that really, works the same way as live music does, if you kind of imagine your pads and your sub are just different strings on the guitar it helps, like if you play a G note in your sub and the notes A-D-F# up top it's kind of like playing a G/Dmajor on guitar. So yea, no reason why you can't play different sub notes from those which are contained in your chord, just make sure you're doing it effectively and not just for the sake of it. Also no reason why you can't have a sort of walking bass line or chromatic notes or blue notes or accidentals in your base, again, just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons and it sounds the way you wanted it to sound rather than just doing it for the sake of it.