paradis Polybass User Manual

User Manual for Polybass-P + Shield
(version for any instrument)
V 2.2 April 2020

Why do we make such an effort?

Bass is fundamental

working as a sound engineer, playing in bands, studying the history of instrument making
and analog electronics, the feeling became stronger every year that bass is much more
important than it seems. it's unfair that the bass player is in the background, but it also fits
to his fundamental task of stability and coordination for all other musicians.
Harmonies are built from harmonics of the fundamental tone. on primitive instruments like
the fanfare its only possible to play those notes, and hearing the bass tone, we feel why
all other notes belong together and why the notes that are not directly in the scale create
an interesting tension...
more so, I feel that the vibrations resonate in our bodies and a concert or dance night is
not just a social and cultural event but also a therapy... short:
IF I COME HOME FROM A SHOW AND DID NOT FEEL SOME LOW BASS, I AM NOT SATISIFIED !!

How to create the bass in a small ensemble

unfortunately not in every combo there is space for a bass player. there are probably more
duos and trios of voice, guitar and percussion or harmonica and clarinet and so on where
one of those instruments takes the musical task of the bass player, yet on an instrument
which does not have the size to create a real low bass.
BUT:
we are lucky that engineers of the last decades created portable woofers that fill a big
room with solid and profound bass! so one of the band can play a bass pedal and its done.
how clumsy and synthetic! we have a better solution: we divide the lowest notes of the
guitar so that they turn into bass notes! the guitar plays as usual, maybe a bit more aware
of its function, and the bass comes out for free, low and alive, discrete and present, but
not calling attention or pretending to be another instrument: everyone can see who plays
those notes, no one cares why they sound so low, but they feel satisfied

The physics of intervals

since the scales are made of harmonics which are multiples of the bass note, the higher
climb in the scale, the more notes we get, the closer the intervals are. and also: the high-
er the frequency, the shorter the wave, the quicker we identify notes. so an interval that
sounds good on the guitar can sound wobbly one octave lower!