Chords for How To Make The Synth Bass from "Da Funk" by Daft Punk

_ _ _ Hi, I'm Anthony Marinelli.
I program synthesizers for seven songs on Michael Jackson's Thriller
album.
Today, I'm looking forward to showing you how to program the bass sound for Daft
Punk's Da Funk.
_ I'm using the MS-20 and I'm using my Boss Superdrive.
It's a 1985 pedal.
Actually September 1985.
I like to keep [G] track of the dates on these pedals.
So, let's jump
in. _ _
_ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ [G] _ _ _ [Gm] _ [D] _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ [A] _ [Bb] [N] So, that's my close approximation.
I'm pretty sure the sound was made on the MS-20
because when I listen to a sound, as we've discussed in the past, I listen for pitch,
I listen for waveform, I listen for filter characteristics, I listen for envelope generators.
So basically, I like to break the sound down into pitch, timbre, duration, and amplitude.
Pitch has to do with oscillators, timbre has to do with filters, duration has to do with
envelope generators, and amplitude has to do with how loud is the sound.
And one of
the things about how loud the sound is, it's kind of a distorted sound too.
So, it has
like an overdrive sound to it.
And that's why I'm using the Boss Super Overdrive because
it gives a gentle distortion to the sound [G] and _ kind of makes it rip.
Here it is without
the Boss. _ _ _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ You hear it mostly at [C] the tail of the sound.
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _
Kind of [A] [Gb] shreds a little bit in
there.
So, going to pitch.
_ Oscillators.
I hear complexity.
[F] So, I started with a pulse
waveform from oscillator 1 at 32 feet, which means it's the lowest octave that I can get
this synthesizer to play.
And a sawtooth waveform from oscillator 2 at 8 foot, which means it's
an octave above.
The filter cutoff frequency, let's start with a low pass filter because
that's a little more common.
This synthesizer happens to have a high pass filter and a low
pass filter in series, so you're going through both of them.
So, let's start with the low
pass filter and I'll show you those characteristics and then I'll show you the high pass filter
characteristics.
The low pass filter characteristics are modulation by this envelope generator
and I have kind of a [G] medium length decay.
_ _ _ This would be a fast decay.
_ Long decay. _ _
So,
it makes a difference in terms of the articulation of the sound, how musical it is.
And a little
bit of slow attack. _
_ _ _ You hear how it goes wow a little bit?
So, the beginning of the sound
talks. _ _
Wow.
That's without it.
A little bit of it.
_ _ [Db] And a little bit of [G] release time.
So,
when I release my hand, it's [Ab] not _ [B] _ _ [G] _ _
giving me a little bit of play.
So, _ [A] _ _
[Bb] _ [N] see how when I release
my hand, without it, _ _ [Bb] kind of quacky.
_ [G] _
_ _ [D] _ _ And the modulation amount to this low [A] pass filter
_ is kind of wide open.
Here's less.
_ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [Bb] Adding more.
_ [G] _ _
So, we get it to a place where it talks
_ _ [D] _
_ _ and growls.
[G] And then the last part of it is the high pass filter.
And the high pass
filter is basically rolling off low frequency.
It's only letting highs pass.
That's where
the name comes from.
You [D] hear the lows?
_ [Bb] _
_ _ _ [C] _ [Bb] _ _ [G] _ _
Now I'll take [A] them off.
_ [G] _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _
_ [G] _ Almost no [A] lows now.
_ [G] _ _
_ So I found a good spot. _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ [B] That high pass filter.
_ So, it's basically the [C] middle of the sound.
So, you're really focusing on the middle of the sound.
Not a lot of lows.
Not a lot of
highs.
Kind of a good amount of resonance. _
And the decay time is sort of sweeping through
that filter.
And then when you bring it all up in level, just having middle frequencies,
you get that middle shred without the pumping bass part.
And then in the song, if you listen
to the original song, this song stops [A] after _ [Eb] _ drum beat and then a bass comes in.
That's
just a low pumping bass.
And this is a great example of what you do musically.
You have
a bass sound that doesn't have a lot of bass, but it gives you character and gives you sort
of this melody that you can [D] sing.
But _ _ Daft Punk is still reserving a space in the song
to have a real bass come in that has some low thump.
And then this sound can come back
in again, bring the character in, so you're kind of getting the best of both worlds.
And
there are two bass sounds in the song.
So, it's a pretty simple breakdown.
To review
quickly, oscillator 1, pulse wave at the lowest octave.
Oscillator 2, sawtooth an octave above.
[Eb] _ A low pass filter that's closed and it's fully being swept by an envelope generator with
a medium length decay time and a little bit of slow attack time.
And then going through
a high pass filter where you just roll off a little bit of the lows and a little bit
of modulation with the same envelope generator.
And then the final touch, this Boss 1985, _
September 1985, super overdrive that gives it just a little bit of overdrive distortion,
not heavy distortion, but makes the sound shred.
So, here it is one more time.
_ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ [Eb] _ Daft Punk The Funk.
Thank you for following me on social media.
I love synthesizers so much, so it's my pleasure
to make these videos for you.
If you'd like more of these videos, please like and