Bass Playing In Metal.....

[icos]

A great bass player is a wonder to behold. Its too bad most bass players are failed guitarists... or even worse, failed drummers!

The bass player in my old band wasnt that good, but he let me and the guitarist dial in his tone and write some of his lines, so he ended up sounding better than he was.

One of the other bands I was in, the bass player
thought he was the lead guitarist. It varied between hilarious and tragic.....

l

 

[LeSedna]

I don't agree on the fact that pick sounds always better, it's only true if the bassist is not good with his fingers. The Between the buried and me bassist sounds very clear, and the mix still gives him a light-distorted sound sometimes that sounds very sweet. But of course, he's not your average bassist.

About arrangement, there is really no rule. On my EP, there's only like 10 or 20% of bass following the guitars. I mainly do it for heavy parts, when I want a wall of sound, or when it needs to sounds really rock n roll or powerful. Rest of the time, the bass can hold the harmony while the guitars are droning, or they can lead the melody too. Sometimes they follow the guitar harmony by choosing other notes in the chords than the root one, and by going up an octave sometimes to make the bass line more creative, which lets me introduce slides etc. At one "epic" part, the epicness comes only from its notes and its rythm, and without it, the whole part would collapse and be boring. I even wrote two or three bass solos. Bass is a really interesting instrument and it's too bad not using it.

I personnally do the 16th but my tempos are not the fastest, and I'll see when I track the bass if it sounds tight enough after a little editing.

 

[smy1]

Write looong notes. Use Trillian. Be happy.

 

[Donovan S.]

I don't agree on the fact that pick sounds always better, it's only true if the bassist is not good with his fingers. The Between the buried and me bassist sounds very clear, and the mix still gives him a light-distorted sound sometimes that sounds very sweet. But of course, he's not your average bassist.

About arrangement, there is really no rule. On my EP, there's only like 10 or 20% of bass following the guitars. I mainly do it for heavy parts, when I want a wall of sound, or when it needs to sounds really rock n roll or powerful. Rest of the time, the bass can hold the harmony while the guitars are droning, or they can lead the melody too. Sometimes they follow the guitar harmony by choosing other notes in the chords than the root one, and by going up an octave sometimes to make the bass line more creative, which lets me introduce slides etc. At one "epic" part, the epicness comes only from its notes and its rythm, and without it, the whole part would collapse and be boring. I even wrote two or three bass solos. Bass is a really interesting instrument and it's too bad not using it.

I personnally do the 16th but my tempos are not the fastest, and I'll see when I track the bass if it sounds tight enough after a little editing.

Huge +1 to all of this. On my progressive album the bass is literally all over the place. At times it takes the melody while the guitars are doing rhythm and it sounds amazing. Really depends on the skill of the bassist though.

In my opinion, there is a difference between writing GOOD bass parts and writing bass that just follows the guitar.

 

[egan.]

Yeah but the point is he wanted to sound like Rex which is impossible w/o a pick. I'm a finger style player and I think it works for me but if I was tracking a thrashterpiece I'd get my picking skills up to par beforehand. Spending money b/c you don't have your own shit together is an embarrassment for everyone involved.

 

[Styvo]

I was tracking a thrashterpiece I'd get my picking skills up to par beforehand. Spending money b/c you don't have your own shit together is an embarrassment for everyone involved.

And to add takes away from what the engineers job is all about...now he has to toilet train you to make sure your shit don't stink.

 

[lolzgreg]

Oh yea I straight up gave up on that other shit. fuck that noise.

The question is do I take the time to track the guitar player playing a bass, and coach him....OR.....trillian....

Honestly, I'd say go with Trilian. If you have enough time to do the project, I'd say take your time and get paid, but if this guitarist doesn't sound like a good bass player off the bat, you're wasting your time.

I've been blown away by Trilian so far. If you work with those velocities, you can make amazing things happen.

Good luck,

Greg

 

[C_F_H_13]

Ended up tracking the guitar player, and it turned out pretty awesome. His specter bass into his tascam 1641 was 100 times better then the bass we trackced with the bass player in my studio with PT HD and neve/1176/pultec chain hahaha.

Whenever I get it all mixed, I'll do A-B mixes.

 

[Ermz]

In all fairness Neve/1176/Pultec sounds like an incredibly coloured chain. I'd be amazed if anything other than low mids were left in those original DIs!

I love transparent chains for tracking! All the same, I'm glad the new tracks came up well for you guys.

 

[C_F_H_13]

In all fairness Neve/1176/Pultec sounds like an incredibly coloured chain. I'd be amazed if anything other than low mids were left in those original DIs!

I love transparent chains for tracking! All the same, I'm glad the new tracks came up well for you guys.

Yeah I was originally trying to get anything out of his bass that wasn't lifeless shite, so it was turd polishing at its best.

 

[plague_rider]

as a bass player in a metal band myself i try to mix it up.
following the guitar riffs is fine at times, but if the riffs have lots of notes i've found the bass just becomes muddy.
if there is place for the bass to breathe then let it, if there is a lot going on simplify it and hold the groove

This.... all of it...