Bass Tone Help (In Flames/Dark Tranquillity/Soilwork)

wishtheend

wishtheend

clip the apex
Dec 29, 2005
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SL, UT
Yes, I know - the uber trendy bass tone, but it's really what I think will work best for this project I'm working on. So any tips on the best way to get that IF/DT/SW type of bass tone. Any specific outboard pedal that will get you close in that type of gain?

I've tried using a bunch of bass overdrive pedals, but none of them got me to that sound (Boss OBD-3, MXR M-80+ DI and MXR Blowtorch). I haven't had any personal use with the Sansamp Bass driver, was thinking maybe that.

The problem is I have an Ampeg SVT4Pro which pretty much has no internal overdrive. It's just clean no matter what, and I'm looking to ge that grind out of it.
 
Seizure. said:
I easily get that sound with a odb-3 and a sansamp.
Click to expand...
Would you care to share any tips with the ODB3? Even with the smallest amount of gain, I find the distortion to be really fizzy and overbearing. If I get the gain character right - it seems I can't keep it reall defined and kicking back the blend really makes it dull.

I got an offer to trade the SVT4 straight across for the SVT2 which is all tube and has OD - which I'm thinking might be the best bet.
 
Svt2 is better anyhoo.
Allthough i prefer svt4 live.

Anyway!
you can get a pretty cool inflames type basstone by using the sansamp with everything on 12, then pulling back some highs on the odb3, because those indeed are way to fizzy, and setting the gain at allmost full on and then using the blend knob slightly in.

Maybe use the lows from the clean d.i.

I often use a darkish 70's kinda overdrive infront of my odb3 to pull back some highs and allready adding a bit more overdrive before the distortion, works realy well for me.
 
MXR M80 is very good to get brutal metal sounds. I use it all the time (bass=>MXR=>Ampeg SVT is a great chain).
If I want something sounding like the In Flames bass tone, I tend to use more gain than when I just want to "fatten" up a bass sound.
When tracking I always have a "clean" track and a parallel "distorsion track" with an EQ plugin filtering out everything which is not 800 Hz to 2 khz. I always try to match the mids with the mids of the guitars to create a coherent sound. Too much mids and you'll have to EQ a lot, not enough and it "lacks" something. The distorsion settings really depend on the player (mediator or fingers), because it has a huge impact on dynamics.
It's really funny because depending on the band going into the studio, I tend to choose between 2 options :
- a fat bass sound ala Audioslave : an overdive pedal would be better because you need the fatness in the lowmids (between 200 and 500 Hz).
- an agressive bass sound ala In Flames, Meshuggah... : distorsion pedal is a must, it will act more in the high mids (as I said, 800 hz-2 khz).
A splitter works damn good, you can always reamp if something is wrong.
 
A really nice overdriven bass sound is also achieved through a guitar amp head into a bass cab. Mesa Triple Rect into a bass cab, with the head set to the 3rd channel. Blend it with another mic'd up Ampeg or something and you're gonna have something nice to mix when mixing.

In Flames' tone is brutal tho... I've never actually tried to go that far with a bass tone. They had some REALLY nice gear patched in when they tracked that guy in their studio vids. API lunchbox doesn't hurt the tone...
 
I have to try that "real guitar amp distorsion" for brutal tones :D

Machinated, yes I could use them both side by side, they are pretty different : MXR has more "growl" and dirt. It's awesome if you need something sounding like Meshuggah/ In Flames (I used it when I mixed a recent project you can hear here : www.perimetron.com, you can listen to the songs from the website. I actually reamped the bass into the MXR and mixed it with the clean track, for a really agressive tone).
The Sansamp is IMO more beefy in the low mids, more "tube-like" and "pleasant" sounding. And it has more of a presence thing in the high mids (less growl than the MXR).

I like both but I use the MXR more because I really enjoy agressive tones.
 
mmmmm.. guyz do you mind that is possible to have a bass sound quite similar to in flames "come clarity" by using ONLY a vst chain?

i'm getting mad with this.. :|
 
Hey guys,

I know, it's been a while, but still some people might be interested in this.
As far as i know, In Flames recorded the bass on their previous record, splitting the signal.
The clean signal ran straight through an Ampeg stack and the distorted one through the MXR dime distortion pedal (which is acutally the pantera guitar pedal) and then an Ashdown ABM amp.
I think the key really is the two way signal and the correct mix of the two (bass from clean, mids & highs from distorted).
Also I noticed, that the bass sound differs for each song, so there might be a lot of trial & error involved to get exactly that tone from this or that song.
For his live sound Peter usually uses the MXR Bass DI+.
I personally do play an Ibanez SG 505 (with slightly increased highs and increased mids + the parametric mids shifted a bit to the higher region - but that also depends a lot on the age of the strings [DR LoRiders]) and also use the MXR Bass DI+ and an Ashdown ABM halfstack. From what I can feel & hear, it is quite close to the In Flames sound. I also think, that compression is a big factor. When I listen to the bass tone, I notice that it sounds pretty constant for a long time.
Well after all, IF do have a lot of gear&personell involved in their recordings, so you would never get a 100% of their sound ^^.

Cheers!
 
Any ideas how to get the "Character" bass tone?(Dark Tranquillity)

It has the best bass tone I've ever heard.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Light distortion, lots of high mids and treble, brickwall it.
 
Yea, this type of DT's bass tone is quite easy to achieve, just use a Tube Screamer or a simple Bass Driver with moderate settings ;) What's huge is, the bass tone of In Flames :p
 
Another thing to have a sound ala inflames, is that on the heaviest parts, the bass does not sound good if you listen to it alone. It's all about making a bass + guitar tight relationship. The bass is so distorted and so aggressive sounding it's not beautiful alone, but it glues to the guitar so that it sounds huge both together.

I love the smooth distortion the bass has on the softer parts of Clayman. It sounds tube-ish, full of distortion, but not fizz.
 
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