BAES - a Bass Augmentation and Enhancement System: Expanding the Possibilities and Roles for the Double Bass

Damgård, Mathias Lyneborg ; Gomez, Peter Flemming

4. Term

Sound and Music Computing

2017

2017-05-20

122 pages

Through interviews with a student at the Royal Academy of Music in Aalborg, it was discussed that the double bass is traditionally found in jazz, folk and classic where it is part of the rhythm group in a musical constellation. The student, who became our collaborator, wished to change this and challenge the conservative roles through the use of audio effects. Five effects were chosen to give a mixture of common effects such as reverb and delay but they also included more electronically inspired sounds through the combination of the beat repeat effect, convolution and pitch-shifting. The project resulted in the Bass Augmentation and Enhancement System (BAES). A controller was created to house these and in order to fit full parameter control into a relatively small box, motorised faders were used to be able to go back to a previous fader position, thus enabling the use of the same three faders for all five effects. The collaborator used the second iteration of the BAES over a long test period (about a month and a half). During this time, it was used for two different performances. The last interview was made to evaluate the BAES. In this interview, it was made clear that our collaborator could go beyond the traditional role of the double bass and express himself in new ways.

Augmentation ; Audio Effects ; Prototyping ; NIME ; Double Bass

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