The notion that one can add more realism to a MIDI track by overlapping notes may be junk science.

Here's why:

MIDI synths and samples are dependent upon a fixed Attack.

The Bass, as in this example, has an Attack to it for each note sample that is either going to be the pluck of a finger, thumb, or plectrum.

That Attack will always be there at the beginning of each note played, regardless of how long the duration of the previous note is extended.

While some mistakenly believe that the overlap can MASK the articulation of the Attack, and it may do so for lesser ears, the fact remains that the Attacks will always still be there.

As for the notion that a Bass player will let a previous note ring longer when moving to a note on a different string, well, that would be the exception case and certainly not the rule. I would place such more into the realm of an effect than something used consistently in practice.

A walking or otherwise quick transitioning bass part in which a previous note that is likely adjacent by either a whole step or half step that has that previous note sustained well into the succeeding note is also a recipe for enharmonic clash down at the fundamental, it would also serve to add unnecessary muddiness to a recording. The Bass is the last place we need to impose that kind of smearing, simply due to the long wavelengths involved. Cancellations, reinforcements, the fact that the two adjacent frequencies will create a rather stout beat note at low freq because the combination of the two will generate two other frequencies at half the amplitude of the original, one the sum of the two frequencies and the other the difference, I would avoid doing that to my recording.

But by all means experiment.

Experimenting, though, also often means being selective as to whether or not to incorporate the results of each experiment or not, and I encourage those who do so to "listen through" and listen well before the rush to acceptance, along with listening to one's own work with the mindset of harsh judgement, often hard to do.

Given the amount of time and work necessary to edit all the notes in a given bassline, it would likely be a much better situation to look into better MIDI patches, better sounding MIDI synths to include the top end hardware synths as well as software, and just learn your personal arsenal well enough to be able to make good decisions as to which will fill the requirement of the project at hand.

You might find that judicious use of the spatial effects, such as reverb, especially reverb in which you can select the frequency bands being affected, would work better than note overlapping.


--Mac

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