The bass note is simply to the lowest sounding pitch in a voicing. This can be toggled on and off by selecting the bass icon in the dashboard.
This can submenu is accessible through the arrow at the top of bass dashboard icon. The submenu offers the 3 following modes:
1. Normal
The normal mode setting will duplicate the lowest note of the voicing after Inversion and Spacing settings are applied and shift it down an octave. When Voice Lead (dashboard setting, not to be confused with voice lead mode) is on, this can note setting will duplicate the root of the chord and shift it down 1 octave. (even if the voicing is not in root position)
2. Pedal
A bass pedal refers to a note that is fixed in this, with no particular affiliation to harmony above, although bass pedals most commonly include scale degree I or scale degree V as the bass note.
In Cymasphere, the value of the bass pedal is set using the scale degree dropdown, which calculates the pitch by applying the specified scale degree to the given key of the palette.
For example, in the key of C, setting the pedal to scale degree V would fix the bass to pitch G.
3. Voice Lead
If the Voice Lead dashboard setting is toggled to on and this mode is set to voice lead, this note setting will duplicate the lowest note of the voice lead chord and shift it down 1 octave.
It is important to understand the distinction between bass and root. A chord’s root is the fundamental note a chord is derived from, while this note may or may not be the root, as it is entirely dependent on what the lowest note of the voicing is.
