This is the sound of the passive pbass with the heavy flats strings and low action to play fast with fingers and clank and a fully open tone. I regularly practice all 8 first maiden albums with the same setup and I can't make it sound much better. Turning the tone down sort of helps make it cleaner, and hides what call slopiness, but that wouldn't sound as well in the mix, with saturated guitars. In motown and funk this is what they do to sound clean on the pbass.
This wasn't isolated using software. There was a Rock Band game (Can't remember which one) that had a bunch of iron maiden tracks in it, and they used the original masters from the studio. Someone managed to extract the files and uploaded them. There's a bunch of them here: www.mediafire.com/?cbcll86bi57ig. The Wickerman and some live versions of Aces High, Hallowed and Fear of the Dark are around the internet somewhere as well.
Wow that is so cool, all this new fandangled technology is crazy, definitely didn't have that in the 80's when I was learning this shit, but I did have an amazing Bass teacher that could figure out anything I threw at him. Gonna check out these backing tracks
Gotta remember, the majority if not all recordings back then were all done in analogue, on a budget and a strict time frame. Basically, all of the instruments were recorded as they would be playing live, all together at the same time. Guitars, bass and drums. Vocals and guitar solos/leads were usually dubbed (individually) over the music after everything else is recorded. Of course there are going to be small mistakes here and there and not always enough time to constantly re take the entire song. There was no copy and paste back then. There were similar remedies but it took too much time. The sound engineer's job was to mix everything to such a degree that the small mistakes are basically covered up after everything is mixed properly at the "correct" levels.
I have finished my theory for why Steve is so good on bass... It goes like this: "Recent studies have confirmed that nobody told Harris there was a difference between an electric guitar and bass guitar, therefore leading to Harris being such a good bassist"... What say you?
+Beto Ramirez The technique he uses here has absolutely nothing in common with guitar playing. Neither does the note choices, the rhythms and the voice leading. People (or mainly limited rock musicians) don't understand bass when it plays more than roots, so they equate the "more notes" as being closer to guitar playing. And by the way, Harris shows his utter command on the instrument on this track. His control, timing and the tone he extracts are masterful.
I've had my doubts about whether this is really Steve Harris playing but from what I've read and heard, they like to play live as possible in the studio e.g. no endless overdubbing or "cleaning up" tracks.. That said, Steve does have an aggressive style and usually plays bone stock Fender Precision bass guitars. His plucking style is not "light on the strings".
First time hearing these isolated bass tracks, I too thought about the same thing as you. If this was me playing, then yes, for I am quite a perfectionist when it comes to playing instruments. But it's Steve, the rawness of his playing style is an important part of his sound, and you never hear the sloppiness in the actual songs. So it is definitely not too sloppy for a record track in my opinion. It's more than enough.
Yep, this is just the way Steve does it. Listen to “Number of the beast”, he hits a sour note that I’ve always heard on the original album, but hey it’s amazing!
This is Harris' way of playing. No endless re-makes. Compare the isolated tracks to the full recordings and you hear it's the same. The brilliance is the productions. Very well balanced between the different instruments sothat he doesn't have to be flawless in the recording for the songs to still sound great.
@@NexterZulu this is the sound of the passive pbass with the heavy flats strings and low action to play fast with fingers and clank and a fully open tone. I regularly practice all 8 first maiden albums with a passive pbass, his signature strings, and I can't make it sound much better than this. The recording could be a bit tighter here and there but the only way to make it sound better is to turn the tone knob down, but that wouldn't sound has metallic, which would be less metal then 😂 If you use an active bass then yeah the sound is instantly cleaner, but it would not sound as great in the mix as you say. The idea is really how it sounds in the final mix.
Words cannot begin to express just how supremely overrated Steve Harris is as a bassist, and this is coming from someone who is a MAJOR fan of Maiden, and who has seen them live 3 times. What Harris fails to realize is that the role of the bassist is to provide strong, thick, heavy support underneath the guitar riffs. He is a great band leader and songwriter, but he really isn't a good man for the role of playing BASS in a band. He obviously wants to lead the melody of the band but he forgets that the bass is NOT supposed to be used that way. If he wanted so badly to be the melodic leader of the band then why he took up playing bass is beyond me.
last first Again. This is your idea of what a bassist should be. A bass guitar is an instrument just like any other. Who are you to say what it's "supposed" to be used for? How many of these videos did you post this on?
Bass can be a great lead instrument. Bass is most definitely in charge in Funk. Go listen to Mr Gone by Mr Big which has a beautiful slow melodic lead bass opening solo the tone is amazing and you wouldn't be able to get that on a guitar. Also Blink 182 who I don't care for but have great lead bass playing and use of bass power chords which have such a great punch to them. Also Alison Hell by Annihilator where the guitar and bass are switched with the guitar playing at the low end of the fretboard and the bass at the high end of the fretboard and it sounds killer.
![Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (Bass Only) [Studio Version]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/owK2lWvw-Sw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (Bass Only) [Studio Version]](/img/tr.png)
![Iron Maiden - Infinite Dreams (Instrumental) [Studio Version]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hWnAgVOggio/mqdefault.jpg)
My god, that TONE! And the evenness of all the notes! What a wonderful player.
Underrated? How many times has Steve been voted the #1 bassist in the world in various publications during his career? More than I can remember.
Best bassline by the best bassist.... I'm working on it for a few days, so hard but so good! :-)
This is awesome. Every note is clear.
Master piece !!!...
I learned this recently and actually feel so relieved after hearing this…I’m not all that far off on the notes.
I am learning this one. You helped me a lot, thank you!
The Number of the Beast is whatever Steve Harris' phone number is.
I have no words... very good and super wow💪
He must have six fingers on each hand!
"Nah it's just the 2" - Steve Harris.
He's not from Salford.
Great find, thanks for uploading!
0:43 1:03 1:22 Different phrases. I don't know if he did it purposely or if he invented that during the record, it only fucks me when I try to play!!
Maybe it compliments what the guitar's doing better?
It's composed.
Now I have no idea how far ahead he invents, if it's the same day or weeks ahead, but that's not improvised.
What's funny is that his E string was sounding a bit dead, but it's nonetheless one of my favourite bass line ever! I love it so much
sweet!
Do you have anymore of these? Noticed a load have gone missing.
Smashin' it ffs ha
This is the sound of the passive pbass with the heavy flats strings and low action to play fast with fingers and clank and a fully open tone.
I regularly practice all 8 first maiden albums with the same setup and I can't make it sound much better.
Turning the tone down sort of helps make it cleaner, and hides what call slopiness, but that wouldn't sound as well in the mix, with saturated guitars.
In motown and funk this is what they do to sound clean on the pbass.
What software do you use to isolate tracks?
This wasn't isolated using software. There was a Rock Band game (Can't remember which one) that had a bunch of iron maiden tracks in it, and they used the original masters from the studio. Someone managed to extract the files and uploaded them. There's a bunch of them here: www.mediafire.com/?cbcll86bi57ig. The Wickerman and some live versions of Aces High, Hallowed and Fear of the Dark are around the internet somewhere as well.
matthew scoles You're clueless.
Wow that is so cool, all this new fandangled technology is crazy, definitely didn't have that in the 80's when I was learning this shit, but I did have an amazing Bass teacher that could figure out anything I threw at him.
Gonna check out these backing tracks
Hardest part of the song is at 4:40
not that hard if u practice. hard bass parts are for sure on powerslave
Quite surprised how sloppy the playing is 😳
Gotta remember, the majority if not all recordings back then were all done in analogue, on a budget and a strict time frame. Basically, all of the instruments were recorded as they would be playing live, all together at the same time. Guitars, bass and drums. Vocals and guitar solos/leads were usually dubbed (individually) over the music after everything else is recorded. Of course there are going to be small mistakes here and there and not always enough time to constantly re take the entire song. There was no copy and paste back then. There were similar remedies but it took too much time. The sound engineer's job was to mix everything to such a degree that the small mistakes are basically covered up after everything is mixed properly at the "correct" levels.
I have finished my theory for why Steve is so good on bass... It goes like this: "Recent studies have confirmed that nobody told Harris there was a difference between an electric guitar and bass guitar, therefore leading to Harris being such a good bassist"... What say you?
In my opinion he is such a great bass player because he knows the differences between bass and guitars
And Janick was right: he plays bass like it were a damn guitar, real hard and really good
+Beto Ramirez The technique he uses here has absolutely nothing in common with guitar playing. Neither does the note choices, the rhythms and the voice leading. People (or mainly limited rock musicians) don't understand bass when it plays more than roots, so they equate the "more notes" as being closer to guitar playing.
And by the way, Harris shows his utter command on the instrument on this track. His control, timing and the tone he extracts are masterful.
That'd be describing Cliff Burton, not Steve.
you could say this about shavo odadjian from soad, but not about harris
The red and the black (Guitar only) please 🙂
Is it just me or it sounds way to sloppy to be a record track ?
I've had my doubts about whether this is really Steve Harris playing but from what I've read and heard, they like to play live as possible in the studio e.g. no endless overdubbing or "cleaning up" tracks.. That said, Steve does have an aggressive style and usually plays bone stock Fender Precision bass guitars. His plucking style is not "light on the strings".
First time hearing these isolated bass tracks, I too thought about the same thing as you. If this was me playing, then yes, for I am quite a perfectionist when it comes to playing instruments. But it's Steve, the rawness of his playing style is an important part of his sound, and you never hear the sloppiness in the actual songs. So it is definitely not too sloppy for a record track in my opinion. It's more than enough.
Yep, this is just the way Steve does it.
Listen to “Number of the beast”, he hits a sour note that I’ve always heard on the original album, but hey it’s amazing!
This is Harris' way of playing. No endless re-makes. Compare the isolated tracks to the full recordings and you hear it's the same. The brilliance is the productions. Very well balanced between the different instruments sothat he doesn't have to be flawless in the recording for the songs to still sound great.
@@NexterZulu this is the sound of the passive pbass with the heavy flats strings and low action to play fast with fingers and clank and a fully open tone.
I regularly practice all 8 first maiden albums with a passive pbass, his signature strings, and I can't make it sound much better than this.
The recording could be a bit tighter here and there but the only way to make it sound better is to turn the tone knob down, but that wouldn't sound has metallic, which would be less metal then 😂
If you use an active bass then yeah the sound is instantly cleaner, but it would not sound as great in the mix as you say.
The idea is really how it sounds in the final mix.
Words cannot begin to express just how supremely overrated Steve Harris is as a bassist, and this is coming from someone who is a MAJOR fan of Maiden, and who has seen them live 3 times. What Harris fails to realize is that the role of the bassist is to provide strong, thick, heavy support underneath the guitar riffs. He is a great band leader and songwriter, but he really isn't a good man for the role of playing BASS in a band. He obviously wants to lead the melody of the band but he forgets that the bass is NOT supposed to be used that way. If he wanted so badly to be the melodic leader of the band then why he took up playing bass is beyond me.
last first Again. This is your idea of what a bassist should be. A bass guitar is an instrument just like any other. Who are you to say what it's "supposed" to be used for?
How many of these videos did you post this on?
Tell Beckham footballs are not supposed to bend mid air and freak people !
Bass can be a great lead instrument. Bass is most definitely in charge in Funk. Go listen to Mr Gone by Mr Big which has a beautiful slow melodic lead bass opening solo the tone is amazing and you wouldn't be able to get that on a guitar. Also Blink 182 who I don't care for but have great lead bass playing and use of bass power chords which have such a great punch to them. Also Alison Hell by Annihilator where the guitar and bass are switched with the guitar playing at the low end of the fretboard and the bass at the high end of the fretboard and it sounds killer.
Oh man, you really don’t know what you’re talking about.
He's bass playing is perfect for me. It suits Iron Maiden better than anything.