This is basically all post-punk and goth basslines. Hooky is the patron saint of this.
Simple, effective, driving basslines. Post-punk in a nutshell.
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Great job fennario! You’re on your way with the challenge!
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You look so chill 
I’m working on this one as well at the moment. I might get brave enough to post a cover if I can work out the recording aspects once I stop tripping over a couple bits.
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Thanks @JerryP !
Thanks @Morkai! Looking forward to your cover - you got this!
Let us know if you need any help with the recording stuff, there’s some really good info floating around here. @John_E and @PamPurrs put some videos together that are super helpful!
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Most important thing in my opinion (thanks @howard ): play and record it clean and use a compressor on the recording!
You could let a cat play with the strings on your bass and it still sounds kind of wonderful. Compressors are magic
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I’m sure you know @sunDOG this but you don’t have to record the bass again to double track and ‘thicken’ the sound.
You can copy / paste your original track and create two identical tracks.
You could then pan those tracks left and right respectively to achieve a stereo feel.
Or you could add an effect (chorus / tape delay etc) to one track. Then blend in the level of the original track to the effected track.
Whatever DAW you use (I use GarageBand and am happy to give pointers if that’s your DAW) you should be able to achieve these things.
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yeah generally you want to utilize stereo panning and also other subtle differences between the tracks. Phase delay works well, as does slight detuning. Really fattens up the track and can sound better than physical replay double tracking unless your timing is really on point.
One time I even just zoomed way in and physically dragged the second track
a few milliseconds late and it worked surprisingly well (which is more or less a Haas effect).
You could also just buy MDoubleTracker 
For this technique to work the key is in addition to panning, the tracks have to be slightly different for this to work best. There’s lots of ways to get that slight difference, but both elements are important - the two tracks should come from different places in the stereo field, and the two tracks should be slightly different somehow.
Very slight differences are the key, and even better than just simple Haas-like delay. And like the Haas effect, best not to go too far (like he does in this vid):
Good explanation of using slight differences and panning in here in terms of being better than the Hass approach:
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The Haas effect included in the free Kilohearts set is dead nuts simple and works great:
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Yep for sure! Kilohearts is basically my Yamaha of sound design, love their stuff
Really high quality plugins.
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Where’s the fun in that, @Barney? 
As I mentioned in the post for the cover, part of the challenge in playing the line twice was playing them in sync, which means being on top of the beat. While I would love to be able to play uber-complex stuff (one day, I will master JT / Duran2’s Rio bassline ) my current ambition is to be able to play ‘in the pocket’. In doubling the bass line through laying down multiple tracks of the same thing, I’m practicing this… I know it’s a bit obsessive as there are simpler ways to achieve that widening effect, but it’s about the ultimate goal…
The videos are interesting, @howard. The second is a bit longwinded - he makes the same points, again and again, which is a tedious, but the takeaway is that just sticking a delay on a copy of a track can have unintended consequences, so better to have two similar, but different tracks, i.e. record the track twice. I recently watched another video about this - some long haired sweary bloke , who I think is a music producer - he was saying the same thing.
Anyway, I double tracked another one this morning which, was pretty difficult as it’s just voice and bass. I think it worked quite well. Now just got to sort the video…my daughter needs to get her inspirational thinking cap on (oh, the pressure, the poor girl isn’t even 10)!
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yes
No. This is one method, is the most common method, but is not the only or IMO the best method.
I have seen Glenn Fricker’s video (thats who I think you mean by “long hair sweaty bloke”) and agree with his overall takes (just duplicating the tracks and panning is not enough, etc) but do not agree with the conclusion that the only choice is to play it twice.
I think it’s a choice, and not a terrible one, but I prefer other means of providing differences between them. Very slight Haas effect works ok, slight detuning works better (unison effect, also very common in synthesis to make sounds “bigger”), slight effecting on one can work, etc.
The key is to not overdo it or you end up with phase issues and sounding too “wet”. Slight panning, slight detuning, maybe very slight phase delay has worked well for me; YMMV.
, specifically phase issues (either in stereo or when mixed to or heard in relative mono). Absolutely true with Haas effect.
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I think it also depends on your goals…
I am not trying to “produce”, but trying to perfect my timing, in combination with a desire to play a line in one continuous take. I recognise that there are other methods to fatten the sound, plus I recoignise that the ‘one take’ goal does not necessarily translate to a live / band situation (where if you make a mistake, you just have to keep on going), but hey, them’s my goals
I also welcome and enjoy the counterpoints and comments that you (@howard), @Barney and others put up. After all, this a journey and I’m only just learning how to read the map!
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Absolutely! There are also no wrong answers here, we are simply discussing different workflows.
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I love doing that. It’s like a natural chorus. Pretty popular method of recording back in the day.
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Still is!
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BOB MARLEY - STIR IT UP https://youtu.be/Bi4TDP_9H7w?si=36vaACtUtkNfitHM As always, thanks for watching and the feedback. I appreciate it! Have a great weekend
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I like me a bit of Bob!
Also 
on YouTube!
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Thanks buddy!! You da bomb 
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Primal Scream’s Swastika Eyes was a request from one of my longest standing, and closest friends. He’s been encouraging the bass journey with suggestions of songs I should cover! And this song’s groove is simply fantastic!
The bass line was played on the Ibanez EHB1000S, via the Ampero One, into GarageBand. Initially, I used a lot of effects for the bass tone, but ended up not really liking the result, so I re-recorded it with a clean tone, three times - panned left, panned right and one straight down the middle.
The video was shot by my daughter.
If you’re triggered by the challenging title, please remember that it is about governments and multinationals companies. “If you look at their eyes,” said bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield, “you’d think you’re gazing at a great white shark in the middle of a feeding frenzy. There’s no humanity there with people anymore. All those multi-national corps that are just raping the f***in’ planet, man. Just eliminating people.”
Primal Scream - Swastika Eyes
Warning: lots of flashing lights!
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Primal Scream was so good, great choice.
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