Do you guys know any good sources for learning bass vocabulary, like a list or something that tells me what sustain and attack are and a bunch of other words I can’t remember?
Not that I know of. It’s a good idea.
For your specific example: Attack and sustain are actually general sound and music terms, not bass terms. For bass, attack maps to the initial pluck (or pick) of a note (and how “snappy” it is), while sustain is letting the note ring out.
More generally, attack and sustain are two of the four parts of a more general way to describe the “envelope” of a sound; attack (as described, the initial part of a sound after the note starts), decay (how the sound falls off after the attack, down to the level of sustain; for bass this is very short); sustain (as described, how the note holds out after plucking or picking on bass), and release (how the note falls off when it finishes sustaining; for bass, this is actually what we call sustain; for bass you can think of the sustain as being the same as a very long release phase).
These are abbreviated as a group as ADSR, and are used a lot as the parameters to envelopes in sound design with synthesizers; however they can describe the “shape” of any sound over time.
Attack for a stringed instrument refers to how a string is plucked (with fingertip, pick/plectrum): softly, forcefully, sharply, dully).
Sustain is the length of time a note sounds after a string is plucked.
There are lots of searchable glossaries of music terms online.
It’s unfortunate the graph says “Delay” - might just add to any potential confusion
It should be “decay” as @howard also points out clearly in the text
They should belay that delay.
good catch, better image found
Obviously that image is focused on synthesizers but the terms apply to most instruments really.
A basic home recording book may help, as will a basic music theory book. Doesn’t need to be crazy deep instruction but will teach you common terms.
I did a quick search on Amazon for “music theory and home recording” and there were a bunch of books.
I’ve had a book called “Garage Band Theory” that I checked out from the local library and I just checked out the first in a series of bass books by Essential Elements. I’ve got to get to reading them though. I needed this reminder, I completely forgot about the first one.
I’m kind of a book nut. When I want to get involved with something the first thing I do is buy a book or two. Always nice to have for reference.
Great idea.
There should be this on the forum.
I’m going to start a thread!
Thanks for the inspiration.
Not sure where you are or what you’re able to do, but some time with a good teacher can be great to feel more comfortable and familiar with the terms.
Also, don’t feel like you have to know what any of it means at the beginning.
I was playing for 10 years before any of those words entered my life.
Sometimes the written/video world of the internet can use way too much jargon for someone starting out.