Shouldn't we give the poor bassist something to do?

[thejimmy]

No offense to the HMX guys (game looks amazing), but it seems like there are very few songs that give the bassist something difficult or interesting to play. There are already songs by bands with legendary bassists in the game (The Who, for example), but the bass in those songs is not very amazing from the footage shown so far. Maybe something from Pink Floyd or Primus? I know you guys already have a finalized song list for the game, but it would be nice even as DLC to be able to play an interesting bass song. And yes, I know that bass does not even have a single player mode... but that doesn't mean that the bassist has to suffer through nothing but boring (for bass) songs. Again, no offense to the good people of HMX, I just thought this should be brought up.

[Quastor]

I think HMX knows what they're doing. Have faith, my brother.

[TheRocker]

Bass is fine as it is , if you just listen closely you can hear Bass in every of the so far announce songs and playing Bass isn't boring.

[thejimmy]

Bass is fine as it is , if you just listen closely you can hear Bass in every of the so far announce songs and playing Bass isn't boring.

Yes it is in every one, just like guitar and vocals and drums are in every one. But guitar and vocals and drums all have their harder songs, right? Bass does not have any difficult songs.

[gh2masterwellalmost]

What do you call someone who hangs around with musicians?

A bassist

---------------------------------

How many bass players does it take to change a lightbulb?

One, but the guitarist has to show him first

---------------------------------

How many bass players does it take to change a lightbulb?

One. Five. One. Five.

--------------------------------

What's the definition of a bass player?

Halfway between a drummer and a musician.

THANK YOU THANK YOU I'M HERE ALL WEEK :p

[IbanezBassist_v2]

I'll kill all of you!

[TK-757]

How many bass players does it take to change a lightbulb?

One. Five. One. Five.

Awesome... *laugh*

[rockst01]

Tom Sawyer is gonna be a good bass song, so is Wont Get Fooled Again and I bet there'll be more announced.

[MartyMcFly]

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure they stated that there will be instrument specific DLC as well, which would include the bass.

[Bakkster]

I think the bassists will have plenty to do. Between the songs that have hooks and being the member of the band with the highest score (maintaining a 6x multiplier should keep everyone busy), I don't think you'll run out of things to do. Think of it like playing the medic in an FPS: you may not have the most glamorous task, but without you the group is hosed. Just wait until the bassist fails out and see how horrible the song sounds.

And for a little equality:

Q - What's the difference between a guitarist and a mutual fund?
A - One matures.

Q - How do you make a guitarist play quieter?
A - Put sheet music in front of him.

Q - How do you make him stop?
A - Put notes on it.
:D

[SmokaCola]

Q - How do you get the peanut butter smell of you... woah wait... wrong section.


Anyways, if the bassist had something hard to play he couldn't play hacky sack. and what's a bassist without his hacky? NOTHING.

[peltzie]

What do you call a bassist without a girlfriend?

HOMELESS!
;)

[MartyMcFly]

What do you call a bassist without a girlfriend?

HOMELESS!
;)

0/10
:rolleyes:

[Rock_Starman]

Not even yet....

How many drummers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
10,1 to hold the lightbulb and 9 to get drunk and make the room spin

What do Ginger Baker and black coffe have in common?
They both suck without CREAM.

[mhg420]

I'm not worried about the bass. Entwistle is the greatest of all time, and Who's Next is going to kick ass. I know I'm gonna get the Who's Next DLC. The Who has the best rhythm section of any band ever. Playing Entwistle's and Moon's parts are going to be amazing.

[thejimmy]

I think the bassists will have plenty to do. Between the songs that have hooks and being the member of the band with the highest score (maintaining a 6x multiplier should keep everyone busy), I don't think you'll run out of things to do. Think of it like playing the medic in an FPS: you may not have the most glamorous task, but without you the group is hosed. Just wait until the bassist fails out and see how horrible the song sounds.

And for a little equality:

Q - What's the difference between a guitarist and a mutual fund?
A - One matures.

Q - How do you make a guitarist play quieter?
A - Put sheet music in front of him.

Q - How do you make him stop?
A - Put notes on it.
:D

I suppose you have a point, but I still wish there was some challenging bass. Tom sawyer is going to be impossible on drums, so I hear, and Epic will probably be very hard for vocals. There will be a hard guitar song (obviously), even though one hasn't really been announced yet. But I don't see anything like that for bass, which kind of disappoints me, considering all the songs they could use for that. Basically any Primus song and most Pink floyd songs would be harder for the bassist than any one of the songs in Rock Band. I understand that finger-bleeding challenge is not really the point of this game, but it would still be nice to have at least one bass song that you can brag about 100%'ing, so to speak.

[Axel32]

Well this is where things jump from the reality, or lack in some cases, of video games to real music. The bass is an overshadowed instrument, yes. But does that make it dumb or stupid or lame to plaY? No. Why? The bass acts as the foundation of the song, it sets an undertone for the singer and guitarist to play over. Without it, the songs wouldn't have the same harmonic tone they have. Almost all songs for both drum, guitar, and bass all play the same thing over and over. The only thing that makes bass diferent is the part the bass loops normally isn't as exciting as the drums or guitar might play. Why? I said this already. The Bass is the melodic foundation to the songs. I could name a few songs the bass will be interesting, like: Won't Get Fooled Again, Are You Gonna Be My Girl, Dani California, Stufferge City, And a quiet a few more.

In summary, if you wanna be up on stage making rocking it out hard. Stick away from the bass, it's a great instrument and all, but the bass isn't there to be the one up there shredding. And for clarification, I myself play Bass.

[gobacktogo]

I'm not a kiss fan but "detriot rock city" has one of the best bass hooks ever.

that "bum-duh-duh-dah-bum-bum"

(...hopefully that worked)

I'm sure bass will be the instrument that it most avoided during playing regardless of the songs, it's just a fact that it is less dramatic and diverse as it's keeping the rhythm and beat of the song, thus this will show through in the game.

[Cr4zyBr4dy]

When I go to play Rockband at the upcoming Portland tour, the first instrument I'm going to play is bass.

[CaptainHowdy101]

I'm not a kiss fan but "detriot rock city" has one of the best bass hooks ever.

that "bum-duh-duh-dah-bum-bum"

(...hopefully that worked)

I'm sure bass will be the instrument that it most avoided during playing regardless of the songs, it's just a fact that it is less dramatic and diverse as it's keeping the rhythm and beat of the song, thus this will show through in the game.


The bass in that song is so great. Its not going to be overly difficult, but it just sounds so awesome

[icantwaitforrockband]

Q - How do you get the peanut butter smell of you... woah wait... wrong section.


Anyways, if the bassist had something hard to play he couldn't play hacky sack. and what's a bassist without his hacky? NOTHING.

That's funny, 'cause I'm a bassist and I hacky sack...

[Symphonite]

Some of the bass parts that I played on the Rock Band tour are actually a lot of fun. Epic, while simple for the first half of the song, has an awesome bass section later on. Dani California is fun, Tom Sawyer is enjoyable, In Bloom is surprisingly fun. I'm not too worried about boring bass parts.

Won't get fooled again looks to be insane. Here's the isolated bass part to it:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IfDE-ZvfOwU

[AlterEgo]

Yeah, but "Won't Get Fooled Again" is nothing when compared to 5:15. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=meu9rERnTf8)

Man, reading this thread, it hurts to be a bassist in a band.

[kickin]

The WHO's John Entwistle is one of the best bassists ever if not THE best rock bassist to've ever existed. Even better than Les Claypool (for some of you out there).

I got the great opportunity to see The Who once again tour (with Townshend once again playing the electric guitar) in Chicago I believe in 2000 when Entwistle was still alive. It was friggin' phenomenal.

So glad I got to see them perform. Zak Starkey was even incridible in playing the Keith Moon style fills for the songs. Great stuff.

[DShiz1029]

No offense to the HMX guys (game looks amazing), but it seems like there are very few songs that give the bassist something difficult or interesting to play. There are already songs by bands with legendary bassists in the game (The Who, for example), but the bass in those songs is not very amazing from the footage shown so far. Maybe something from Pink Floyd or Primus? I know you guys already have a finalized song list for the game, but it would be nice even as DLC to be able to play an interesting bass song. And yes, I know that bass does not even have a single player mode... but that doesn't mean that the bassist has to suffer through nothing but boring (for bass) songs. Again, no offense to the good people of HMX, I just thought this should be brought up.

Bass takes the spotlight in The Hand That Feeds.

[Ardius]

IMO, the best bands have good bassists, mostly because, the best bands have good members on all instruments, not just guitar or singing.
E.g.
Iron Maiden - Steve Harris (the guy essentially plays bass like a lead guitarist)
In fact, I can think of no better band for Rock Band as a final tier song than Iron Maiden, excellent and difficult bass, drums, guitars and singing.....and even keyboards and synth for those extra additions!
Rush - Geddy Lee (pretty much the same as Steve, but more technical and more solos)
Black Sabbath - Geezer Butler (another great pioneer of bass, along with John Entwistle)
etc etc

Bands with great bass lines:
UFO
Thin lizzy
Van Halen (being overshadowed by Eddie obviously)
....pretty much all good bands from the 70s.....

There are songs out there with hard bass lines, however, bass being hard is more on the rythmn side and the continuous notes, rather than technical difficulty.
I actually find songs with rubbish bass unbearable sometimes, purely because they dont sound any different to the rest of the mainstream crap. (another reason to hate Jordan on GH2, the bassist for Buckethead completely sucks).

[Simonious]

<--- Bassist. I wants me some Cure, Simon Gallup's not half bad.

[blue_dragonzero]

Yes it is in every one, just like guitar and vocals and drums are in every one. But guitar and vocals and drums all have their harder songs, right? Bass does not have any difficult songs.

Highway star

[tf5_bassist]

In summary, if you wanna be up on stage making rocking it out hard. Stick away from the bass, it's a great instrument and all, but the bass isn't there to be the one up there shredding.

In my old band, we had at least as many bass solos as guitar solos. Probably more. Including some long guitar-solo-style solos, not just little sh!t.

But that was probably due to the fact that I could solo better than our guitarist(s), sadly. :/

[tf5_bassist]

I actually find songs with rubbish bass unbearable sometimes, purely because they dont sound any different to the rest of the mainstream crap. (another reason to hate Jordan on GH2, the bassist for Buckethead completely sucks).

The drums and bass were programmed on that song (I'm pretty sure they were), all emphasis was on the guitar, the bass part is incredibly boring and easy to play. I only bring this up because I don't think that this was with Buckethead's bassist or drummer involved, he probably programmed it all himself.

I agree with everything else you said in your post, though. :)