Bass Pedal Tone Question

[Kaptain K. Rool]

I have a pretty amateurish question about bass pedals. I’ve heard some really great tones using the Tech21 or Sansamp and most recently I played with a Darkglass B7K and it sounded really cool, of course this is outside of a mix. Either way it has me wondering. For bass I have usually 3 sometimes 4 tracks. Low, Clank, Mid and Grit. I do the normative processing. Low is for D.I. low end information, Grit is distorted to shit and so on and so on. I get what I think is great tones with this method, and predominantly rotate between TSE Bod, Protools Sansamp, and use My Triple Rectifier for grit. I’ve mainly found for heavy metal my clank or mid track sounds great with Bod or the Sansamp sometimes even my amp, And the grit, for me at least, only sounds good slammed with distortion (rarely PT Sansamp). It mixes with the guitars so well once I have the bass tracks at good levels. So after hearing some bass D.I. tones with just the pedals I’m wondering how much of a difference it would make in the mix? I would only use it I’m assuming for my grit, mid and clank tracks, but my Low and grit is 90% of my bass tone. Sometimes I get pretty good results with VST’s for my grit track which I rarely do. My bass tracks are so specific and divided I’m really curious because the systematic guide to mixing talks about this approach and I know Brian Hood in his mixing course isn’t that concerned with bass amps and distortion variety when mixing In fact he uses the Vst’s I do but with a different workflow. Any help would be appreciated guys!

 

[egan.]

This is going to be against the grain here, but you should be able to get a great bass tone using just a BDDI or B7k (or many of the other pedals/pres out there). Splitting the bass is definitely useful but I think you need to pick a tone and identify your deficiencies from there rather than picking a technique and trying to make 4 things gel at once. There are certainly guys with a tone in their head and a direct knowledge of how to achieve it but it's important to hear for yourself why and when techniques are applicable.

 

[J.L.BeelerMusic]

I've been saying to my bass guitar clients and friends for a while that it doesn't make sense to treat guitars and basses completely differently. For both I will hyper-compress a low-passed DI and blend it with the main tone. If the guitars are quad tracked then I'll add a third processed bass track thats super saturated. I don't think it matters if the main tone is a vst, pedal or a real mic'd up amp. Just whatever works for the song is fine, same goes for guitars.

 

[Kaptain K. Rool]

This is going to be against the grain here, but you should be able to get a great bass tone using just a BDDI or B7k (or many of the other pedals/pres out there). Splitting the bass is definitely useful but I think you need to pick a tone and identify your deficiencies from there rather than picking a technique and trying to make 4 things gel at once. There are certainly guys with a tone in their head and a direct knowledge of how to achieve it but it's important to hear for yourself why and when techniques are applicable.

You know truth is, I actually agree with you 100% with this statement. I actually used to record bass D.I. and send it to a buss where i'd did general Scoop,HP,LP and cut as needed. It had a better, or if I can say, a much more organic feel to the tone. But after Listening to a few of the guys here on the forum and ultimately reading the systematic guide, I began using the multiple tracks approach and my tone is much more tight and tweak-able. Just not authentic. I can try distorting the grit different ways, try running the D.I. through pedals for a different feel/Tone but it's not the same as listening to a tone just ran through a darkglass or Sansamp etc. I just can't seem to make it work and since I know it's a popular approach to use the multiple bass tracks I asked the question

 

[Kaptain K. Rool]

I've been saying to my bass guitar clients and friends for a while that it doesn't make sense to treat guitars and basses completely differently. For both I will hyper-compress a low-passed DI and blend it with the main tone. If the guitars are quad tracked then I'll add a third processed bass track thats super saturated. I don't think it matters if the main tone is a vst, pedal or a real mic'd up amp. Just whatever works for the song is fine, same goes for guitars.

I've actually never considered LP'ing a Clean GTR D.I. that since I keep hearing about the bass being a bass for a reason. How far do you LP it?

 

[J.L.BeelerMusic]

I've actually never considered LP'ing a Clean GTR D.I. that since I keep hearing about the bass being a bass for a reason. How far do you LP it?

I low-pass down to around 150-130hz, and don't bother with a hi-pass, just make a cut around the kick drums resonant peak. I saw an interview with a mix engineer arguing the importance of not getting rid of all your low frequency information in the sides, saying it's a quick way to neuter the mix. Then I saw the creativelive video of Andrew Wade talking about the low-passed DI trick (which I think he over-does it) and figured I may as well give it a try. Now it's a go-to mix move for me.

That being said, it is nowhere near a replacement for bass guitars. This works best as a subtle move imo.