Hello everyone, and welcome to Danny Stewart's workshop on recreating the Peter Howell Doctor Who bassline. I'm posting this mainly for Rat Souffle's benefit, but rather than contact him privately and share these with him, I figured that there may be more people than just him that could benefit from knowledge of the inner workings of the Howell bassline, so here goes.
The Howell bassline, like any good bassline (i.e. the Derbyshire bassline), is made up of two parts. I have come to refer to them as the "first layer" and the "second layer," and so have most of my friends. In the original Derbyshire theme, the first layer is the most familiar and recognizable. This is the one that goes "dum-de-dum, dum-de-dum, dum-de-dum." The second layer is behind it, and sadly, most people do not even know of its existence. This is the more square wave like sound that starts just before each "dum-de-dum" (or what have you) in the first layer, and leads into it by bending up from two semitones below (usually but not always) to the root note of the bassline's first layer.
For Peter Howell's version of the theme, the second layer is much more powerful and pronounced, but, like the original, still fills out the sound of the bassline when combined with the first layer. Additionally, the first layer has a new layer of complexity added in the Howell theme. Peter Howell decided to play the first layer using so-called "bass notes." This provides a steady pulse behind the main "dum-de-dums" an octave down, in addition to actually providing the final "dum" sound itself. I may not be explaining this well enough to a first-time reader -- it makes sense to me, but it's possible that it only does because I am already familiar with the material. For that reason, I have included several demonstration files, which I have outlined below.
Demonstration Files
layer1a.mp3 -- This file shows the bass notes contained within the first layer of the Howell bassline.
layer1b.mp3 -- This file shows the main notes contained within the first layer of the Howell bassline, an octave above the bass notes.
layer1.mp3 -- This file shows a complete first layer of the Howell bassline, with layers 1a and 1b combined.
layer2.mp3 -- This file shows the second layer of the Howell bassline.
fullbassline.mp3 -- This file shows a final mix of my complete Howell bassline with both layers, sans effects.
I hope this has been helpful. Feel free to provide feedback or ask questions within this thread.
References
- Common sense
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDxFqw36KQ0