Bass Tone

[thePHexperiment]

I've only been doing audio engineering and production for 3 or 4 months now and want to get something straight. The guy I learned most of my stuff from told me when doing a metal mix, always distort the hell out of the bass and make it sound like garbage in the mix. Is distorting the bass all the time (except for clean guitar parts and some bass leads) really necessary? For example, I listened to The Human Abstract's Nocturne album the other day; none of the bass is distorted and the mix sounds fine.

Thoughts or advice?

 

[Ascendant]

I like using a trick I learned from a fearedse vid, record a bass DI track, duplicate it and reamp one (or don't, just keep the clean DI, that works too sometimes) of the tracks through a bass amp or bass amp sim relatively clean and do the usual processing, compression to hell and back, EQ etc. Then I take the other track and distort it so it sounds like shit on its own, high and low pass to taste (around least 700hz hp 2khz lp) and some surgical cuts if necessary. Usually sits really well when you blend it with the other bass track in the mix, adds some nice grit to the bass.
Another thing that I've tried that works well is splitting the bass DI into 3 tracks, use one track only for the low end (low pass 200-300hz), compress and limit it like you mean it but no distortion. Then I take another track and do the same distortion procedure as above but high pass a bit lower. I use the third track relatively unprocessed, just some high pass (1khz+), possibly a high shelf (-3dB around 8khz is a good place to start), compression and saturation so you get the clank and sheen of the clean DI. Cut frequencies as you see fit, some bass tracks can have a lot of nasty shit going on, usually in the low mids.

If there's a clean passage in a song and you're using the first method, just automate out the grit track.

 

[StefTD]

I am actually more into clean basssounds and it works better for most of my own stuff.
But it's not the "standard" modern sound most of the time, it really depends on the sound
you're after, played bass in a technical deathcore band once, and I think a to heavy distorted
basssound would have sucked alot for that band, but for more groove orientated stuff or
not that technical, it can work out very well, In Flames for example have a really heavy
distorted basssound and it just fits the overall sound, for a band like Obscura, it would be
almost the worst thing

 

[freakkguitarist]

clean bass tone for me is hard to get....since i like sludgy fat fuzzy bass..... to me, ALOT of it is the bass itself and the player, old strings/an inconsistant terrible sloppy player/ a bass with lots of dead spots and buzzes, will be a NIGHTMARE to record with clean tone. i usually do what the above say with duplicating eqing and distorting the various bass tracks. but i try and send the bass through at least 1 guitar head>bass cab. i like the grind of a real amp(usually my splawn promod, sometimes 5150) vs ampsims


when i need clean tone, sometimes a multiband compressor helps if theres nothing i can do while tracking to make it sound decent. ill compress the low lows alot to get them consistent, then cut some low mids or whatever bands are making the bass sound terrible

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

It can go either way.

 

[thePHexperiment]

Thanks for all the input! I might be posting a mix soon so if you get a chance to listen to it, tell me how you think the bass can be better

 

[Mago]

There aren't a lot of "ALWAYS!" in mixing/producing in general imo...
What works cool for one project may suck for another, so always (lol^^) work/mix with an open mind.

Bass distortion yes/no, as other said, also depends on the band/style.
Also there's a lot of different styles/sounds of distortions you can send the bass through...heavy, grindy, crunchy, only through preamp and eq, boosting a clean head etc...
usually whatever works and sounds cool in the mix

 

[Charles J]

i've never ran across a miix or production where the bass didn't benefit from a little bit of grit to a ton. It's up to taste really and what the gtrs are sounding like.... i like to try and get the high-mid grit to compliment the GTR's and give them more bite.

not too mention, you'll actually be able to hear the bass in the mix, even on smaller speakers =D

 

[mburton21]

I've only been doing audio engineering and production for 3 or 4 months now and want to get something straight. The guy I learned most of my stuff from told me when doing a metal mix, always distort the hell out of the bass and make it sound like garbage in the mix. Is distorting the bass all the time (except for clean guitar parts and some bass leads) really necessary? For example, I listened to The Human Abstract's Nocturne album the other day; none of the bass is distorted and the mix sounds fine.

Thoughts or advice?

By the time I post this I think it will have been answered already, but meh.

I've found that the best way - in both efficiency and tone - is to duplicate the bass track, hi-pass one at around 200Hz, and low-pass one at around 200Hz (these are just numbers, use your ears before anything).

Distort the piss out of the high-passed track, and compress/limit/whatever sounds good out of the low track to get a solid low end that doesn't move.

When you're dealing with metal, this is a very good way to get the bass working in the mix; if it clashes with the guitars just cut the mids a bit, etc. Use your ears.

Also, just to throw this out there, there are a huge amount of threads already dealing with this issue that have more in depth answers. Search function FTW.