Where have all the synth bass lines gone?

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@fluffy
" Just listened to that song on YT, I didn't detect any moment of magic, it is just crap music in my view...
Shannon used a similar bass years before on Let the music play. That song was much more interesting musically."

You took my thoughts about Yazz's "The only way is up"
For me this as a typical late 80´s early 90´s terrible Euro Dance Track whether listening with a Sub or not. For me this has nothing to do with the hundreds of great Basslines of the 80´s listed in this Thread and there are tons of other Songs earlier in the 80´s as you say for Example "Let the music play" that where much more groovy and danceable.

I´m wondering why "The only way is up" is sometimes compared with Early House. I never heard that in any House Club where for example tracks like this taken from the List below where on Heavy Rotation at that time.
http://www.listology.com/list/ultimate- ... -1984-1989

@jupiter8
I like this Röyksopp feat. Robyn - Monument. A cool Bassline that mixes in my opinion today´s Bass sound with a 80´s Style line.

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... mmMm
I see.
There's obviously a perception divide between us here.
///Just clarifying "The only way is up" was only mentioned as an early example of tracks without prominent/groove bassline, that actually worked to me.
The migration from good Basslines into more prominent Beats, started right there (not forgetting that in the 80s Bass also migrated to the middle Freqs by way of Synths).
And yes; I would prefer -even in bassless working tracks- to have had a moving real bassline, but with the listed limitations (some of them technical), I just understand it.
Lets not mistake Rhythm Guitar (and its Synth equivalents) with Bass.

My take of the Röyksopp feat. Robyn - Monument Bassline composition (which mostly supports the melody line and actually has very few singular notes) is to be quite boring, it adds zero groove imho, just melodic support.
These kinds of music seems to have completely forgotten what Herbie Hancok or Billy Cobham teached us, let alone the whole Funk style and its derivations or even more accessible musicians like... Prince?. Wasn't he delivering many small London concerts last year? Wishing more of today's popular musicians would have made the effort to go.
<>Luckily Robin Thicke and Pharrel were on the same train already, saving the year.

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Even with electric bass there seems to have taken place a change. I think there was more growl and less low-end in the past. Today with many songs the electric bass is just very low and slick, with long sustain, hard to tell which bass it is. In the 80s one could often tell which bass it was just from the sound character.

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Another killer synth bassline.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcFFEjq5Ap8


Few years ago with the glo-fi/chillwave trend, some musician has reproduced the 80's typical bass sounds (Toro y Moi, Grimes, Neon Indian/Vega etc.). But yes, like Fluffy said with little results.

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I'm not sure what tone you guys are talking about in particular. I thought all those songs on the radio last year like Iggy Azalea, Big Sean, Kid Ink etc. had pretty generic plucky synth bass as the backbone of those tracks that were def intended to infer a Pleasure Principle-y style.

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Still one bad-ass, aka bass, line there :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9abYzI9ycjk

Now that Moog and all those old synth companies are back, maybe we will hear more of that again :)

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Was just listening to this ancient song, its synth bass line must be among the oldest out there, 40 years old to be precise :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBw25CrUS-o

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Nspace wrote: -Underground innovators (D&B and Psytrance, I am pointing to myself here) forgot they were about exploration and evolution and started to abide by rigid frameworks... where Basslines relevance got behind sound impacting -by perceived SPL- and so every production or perception trick you could get hold of is being used. This way, you come next to the DJ that was rocking the floor, and you Bring IN MORE sound impact, which with the mentioned sound system limitations, meant so far boring one-two notes rolling basses or broadband noise to "fill" the scape.
My thoughs on Psytrance basslines:

If you want your songs to be listened to (or played by DJs) you have to give the people what they want (or better: what most of them want).

A lot of music listeners are very genre-orientated, and as genres evolve people have a rather rigid conception about what elements "have to be there". Like the rolling bassline in Psytrance. It just works on the dancefloor, people can move to it the whole night (given the help of drugs) :wink: Those people don't want intricate, groovy stuff with melodic inventions, they just want to feel the bass energy combined with the kick.

So I do understand that a lot of producers don't want to experiment, they want deliver stuff that works/sells/will be played in mix sets.

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I wonder which synth they used on that classic song, sounds so cool, probably a Moog, right? But it sounds as if it has velocity -> cutoff modulation, which I think the Moog synths did not have...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExJnxkcWJzQ

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I have them as hostages

PM for details, non sequential bills only

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Cool bass line, lots of pitch bending... :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB7L4eZZS7A

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Apart from dance music, I admire Reznor's great big wide bass pads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF6VO4n ... F6VO4nk1Cs

And from the same CD, terrific old-school style sequenced bass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_GqVFa ... F6VO4nk1Cs

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpAA3iVavAo

The System used to have some of the grooviest bass lines around :)

What synth is that?

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