Any tips for mixing plucked bass?

[Tesseract]

Yow peeps,

Just wondered if anyone had any tricks for plucked bass? I'm used to bassists using a pic so finding it a little difficult to get some bite out of it. Sounds awesome ...just needs more meat to fit in the mix. Its just a DI track through an avalon and im experimenting with duplicating the track and distorting the dulpicated one with lo & hi shelfs.

Swiiish

 

[punkrockacademyfightsong]

I've had pretty good results using mutliband compression on finger played bass. especially the high mid range can be annoyingly more dynamic than a pick played bass but you'll wat to keep some dynamics in the lower mids to keep the life in the sound so usually I kinda smash the lows and the highmids.

 

[ze kink]

I've had pretty good results using mutliband compression on finger played bass. especially the high mid range can be annoyingly more dynamic than a pick played bass but you'll wat to keep some dynamics in the lower mids to keep the life in the sound so usually I kinda smash the lows and the highmids.

Yeah, I really dig multiband comping on fingered bass as well, it keeps it more lively than ordinary compression. Maybe experiment with a normal comp after the multiband, both with pretty light settings, maybe smashing one or two frequencies a bit more with the multiband.

I really prefer the tone of finger played bass too, bassists who have a style similar to Les Claypool are awesome.

 

[Fragle]

how about pick vs. fingers for fast/technical death metal? I'll be recording some of this stuff in the next few weeks and the bass player is playing finger style, but then again, he's not alex webster if you know what i mean, so the question is, will it still work out in a mix, or should i urge him to play with a pick instead?

 

[punkrockacademyfightsong]

if he hits all the notes right with some power in his fingers you should be safe, if that's the sound he's after, go for it!
but if he can't keep up the pace and looses power in faster parts I'd suggest a pick

 

[beyond dead]

i Usually smash the fuck out of the bass with a compressor anyways, so plucked bass is no big deal. actually it can sound pretty bad assed for fast shit! hopefully the bass player has arranged their parts well so they fit in the mix. that will make a greater difference

 

[JBroll]

If you want fuzz/grit/grind/whatever, get a ProCo RAT. Roughly $40 (USD) used if you look enough, and the circuit distorts highs more than lows so you get more grit without having to use a separate clean track for lows.

Jeff

 

[jesus69lol]

I came in here thinking there would be the answer to my question but you meant plucked like with the fingers. My question is that I have some bass parts that alternate between slap and finger style and the pops and the slaps are almost out of control volume wise, is there an easy way that anyone knows of to control those high mids you get when you slap/pop?

edit: multiband compression thus far i have not had great results with just because I find that on the finger parts the treble gets pressed down too hard so you can only hear the low of the bass.

 

[egan.]

I came in here thinking there would be the answer to my question but you meant plucked like with the fingers. My question is that I have some bass parts that alternate between slap and finger style and the pops and the slaps are almost out of control volume wise, is there an easy way that anyone knows of to control those high mids you get when you slap/pop?

I consider that to be a desirable part of the technique change but if it is problematic I would suggest separating the slap stuff onto it's own track and so you can get the eq how you like it for each technique. You could automate but doing it on a separate track would be simpler.