Bass guitar "blending" into the mix...?

[AndrewB]

I've been listening to a lot of Bullet For My Valentine, and one of the main things I love about their mixes is that the bass seems to almost "blend" into the mix, making the guitars sound really huge, but at the same time I can't really pick out the bass.

What is making the mix sound like this? Is the bass just compressed to hell? And maybe some of the highs are EQ'ed out?

 

[Trevoire520]

Yeah that's alot down to Colins mixing style. He doesn't tend to mix the bass very prominent but if you muted it you'd REALLY miss it in the mix. FFAF's Casually Dressed and Deep In Conversation is another good example of this. Adds loads of beef but never attracts attention to itself.

 

[AndrewB]

But what is he doing to "not attract attention to itself"? Is he turning down the mid-range and high frequencies?

 

[Morgan C]

But what is he doing to "not attract attention to itself"? Is he turning down the mid-range and high frequencies?

Distortion and compression and limiting to keep it flatlined, so that you get a solid noise under the guitars rather than something that pokes up every time a note is hit. From there its just EQing it around the guitars.

 

[Ermz]

When you can feel the bass but can't really hear it present as an instrument it generally means that the 160 to 300hz range has been pretty heavily subdued. This is generally where you get the clarity of the note, but also where the bass is prone to conflict with the guitars. It's also usually slammed to hell and back, but this is common across almost all modern metal mixes, so nothing new there.

As long as the crux of the bass tone is concentrated between the 80 to 130hz region you're generally set for a 'blended' tone. The rest is just interlocking the guitars with the bass via EQ, multiband and whatever else you have on top.

Also in Colin's mixes the bass rarely ever really touches the subs, so you'd be filtering quite high and making sure it doesn't conflict with the kick whatsoever, as that's where the low punch in the mixes appears to come from. Listening to Bullet for My Valentine now, and it seems there's a bit of farting in the bass. Means he hasn't quite subdued the 160 to 300hz region as much as I thought... but it's still fairly under control. Since the guitars are so thin, the bass is allowed to fit a bit more content up in there.

 

[theforgotten]

When you limit the bass how much GR you usually have?

 

[Morgan C]

When you limit the bass how much GR you usually have?

All of it.

Watch the release time and make sure it's not pumping, but I try and flatline the lowend (literally no movement), higher frequencies its up to you, sometimes you want something that occassionally pokes its head out of the mix, sometimes you want something that just stays out of the way.

 

[olif8]

I'd like to add one thing that hasn't been mentioned yet.


Mechanically tight playing.

 

[Ermz]

When you limit the bass how much GR you usually have?

It's not that simple. Usually it relates to how much you've compressed before the limiter, how tight the playing was to start with, how you're trying to mix it etc.

I try to use only as much compression as it needs (which is usually still a lot) because the more you compress the more junk you bring up in the spectrum, and the more your grit tends to go to shit, especially if you're using high gain in there.

For most metal stuff though I'll limit it until the meter is barely moving on the heavier sections.

 

[ttrentt]

As long as the crux of the bass tone is concentrated between the 80 to 130hz region you're generally set for a 'blended' tone. The rest is just interlocking the guitars with the bass via EQ, multiband and whatever else you have on top.

Also in Colin's mixes the bass rarely ever really touches the subs...

What is considered subs? <100?

 

[kernelxsanders]

sub is more like <60Hz

 

[codeman]

Colin's bass mix on the last Kreator was horrible. I have to turn down the bass on my stereo when i listen to that record. Andy's bass tone mix on all exodus lps is phenomenal.

 

[ndrewoods]

Colin's bass guitar lessons mix on the last Kreator was horrible. I have to turn down the bass on my stereo when i listen to that record. Andy's bass tone mix on all exodus lps is phenomenal.

I've got to agree on that one. When listening to that record, I usually turn down the volume on my headset, if I can't turn down on the bass.