Achieving good distorted bass (ala cloud connected, in flames)

[LeSedna]

There is a sort of bass tones I really don't know how to achieve, if it's possible, in a DAW.

This is the round full tone of a bass sort of distorted, but a soft way. Listen to Cloud Connected from In Flames, especially around 0:57 when guitars disappear and the bass is alone behind the voice. I really dig that tone for that sort of moments, but I just don't know how to do it. Do you ?

 

[Morgan C]

Juicy77.

 

[Ermz]

The best way is to run it out to a rectifier and mic it up. Either that or run it through something like a sansamp or OD pedal and mix it with the original tone. Bass distortion is the same story as guitar distortion. The soft sims suck, so use real analogue whenever possible.

That said, I've used everything in the software realm from guitar rig to guitar suite to kombinat to trash and I've yet to settle on a 'go-to'. None of it is a fix for all solutions. Many times different bass tones demand different approaches.

 

[XnaySaturo]

I heard someone say that running a bass through a guitar amp could potentially be bad. Unless that's not what you're talking about when you say "rectifier".

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

I heard someone say that running a bass through a guitar amp could potentially be bad. Unless that's not what you're talking about when you say "rectifier".

Won't be a problem, worst it will do is suck up some low-end from the bass tone. Lemmy runs his bass through old Marshal heads, don't forget.

I believe guitars through bass cabs could fuckup the tweets though.

 

[lordtech]

Devil bass amp

 

[AllanD]

Won't be a problem, worst it will do is suck up some low-end from the bass tone. Lemmy runs his bass through old Marshal heads, don't forget.

I believe guitars through bass cabs could fuckup the tweets though.

Yeah, Heads. He didn't make it clear that you should be using a bass cab, NOT A GUITAR CAB.

 

[Nebulous]

I've heard that a bass through a guitar cab can stuff up the driver due to the very low freqs and the driver not being able to exert them past a certain volume. Could work with the bass knob very minimal and volume at bedroom levels, or jsut a line out of the head.

 

[Ermz]

Or you could just run the guitar head into a bass cab

 

[crosstalk]

Or you could throw a hipass on the DI track before sending out to be ramped through a guitar amp. Keep the 350hz and below from hitting the amp and speakers.

 

[Nebulous]

When I get a chance I really want to have a go at reamping bass through a TS.

 

[Ermz]

It's pretty cool. You get a nice mid-range grit out of it. It doesn't really grind but it can add something useful to the midrange of the bass.

 

[DevilJaw]

i like RAT pedal through svt head.

ive had good results with rat pedal through ampeg svt vst on a clean setting.

 

[Full_Tilt]

I managed to get a really valvey bass tone just a few days ago through one of my valve compressors .
The thing is its not Ideal for bass as even the eq section is valved and sometimes spits out a nasty clip if not set up just right still it was the best valve tone I managed to date. Kinda reminded of Altars of madness ampeg sound.
It was a TLA 5051

 

[Ben Johnson]

DI blended with PSA-1 works great for me.

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

I believe guitars through bass cabs could fuckup the tweets though.

I used to play in a band where one of the guitarists played through a bass amp and cab for years, and it was absolutely fine.

There are lots of bands that use bass cabs with their guitar amp - Scott Hull springs to mind, but I have a feeling Stephen Carpenter has done too.

Steve

 

[Razorjack]

Peter Iwers has a multi channel rig and to get the best distorted bass tone that's what you'll want to do.

First run the DI clean, compress the hell out of it and roll off around 200Hz.

Then run a RAT into an SVT (or a screamer if there's no RAT pedal), set the SVT's EQ dull so that it isn't too harsh when the OD/Dist is turned on. Leave compression off this for now.

Bus the two together, run about 25% DI track into the sound (usually just enough to give a solid low end) and EQ to taste. Compress to living hell and back again using any optical compression plug-in/unit you can, LA2A is my preffered (from my liquid mix normally).

Iwers has a pretty scooped tone but there is always a ton of drive on the mid range that is there and a clear solid low end. The RAT will get the tone better than a Screamer.