Death Metal bass sounds (how to get)

[Heartless]

Hey, if any bass players are reading this. I'm really interested to know what sound you guys like to have and what you used to get it.

I've gotten a fat, clean bass sound for years but I would love to move into a more grittier overdriven thrash sound.

Bass sounds like I love....

HateSphere, Carnal Forge, Dimension Zero, At The Gates, Carcass, Arch Enemy, Killswitch Engage etc

Any advice on what pedals/amp combination to go for would be much appreciated. Do i go with an overdrive pedal, or a distortion pedal? I dont want that ear shredding grindcore noise bass sound but something to fatten it up to complement the overal band sound.

Thanks

 

[xenophobe]

Well, that all depends on what kind of music you're going to play...

ADDING distortion is a bad Idea, IMO. You want the grit to come from the guitars, and the backing melody or ghost lines to support, not compete with any distortion or crunch....

LIGHT GAUGE STRINGS!!! Right now I'm running 95-45 4 string... Much better for technical thrash/death metal than the 105s, which are great for Rock and metal in general. Personally, the lighter gauge isn't as bassy, and is better suited for playing fast technical stuff.

If you're running a tube head or preamp section, an overdrive might be a good thing, not for distortion from the pedal, but just to boost the signal to drive your preamp section... it may add definition and sound...

Go with a clean and slightly compressed sound...

Technical or melodic death metal requires LESS fatness... You're looking for something actually rather thin, IMO.

With ROCK/METAL in general, you want your BASS to heavily push air. With Death Metal, I think it's strictly up to the drummer to do this.

You don't want to drown out the frequency guitarists use...

I have two different setups that I use.. one is my straight sound I get from my Ampeg and Warwick bass...

Bass at about 2 o'clock, mid at about four and high at around 1 o'clock...

My bass has an active EQ, and I boost the bass near to peak, and mid slightly up from center position.

This provides a nice rich tone that doesn't upset the mid-scooped sound of my guitarists.

My second, is using the same amp with my DBX DDP, using some compression, fast attack, really slow release, with about 10db gain and tight cut hard knee compression. This helps with keeping volume levels at more of a constant, and giving it some cool ga-gunk ga-gunk ringing when accenting the timing.

I take a little mid and high out of my head, and boost those frequencies with the 3 band parametric, and I got the sound I am happy with.
This makes the sound mesh a little too much with my guitarists though, but adds articulation.

When I was playing in a Death/Power type band, my sound was very different.

Anyways, hope this helps in some way....

 

[SADUDE]

Hey, im also a bassist. In metal for a bass tone i highly reccomend one similar to Rex in Pantera. I don't care who likes them or not. The point is the bass cuts through. For the type of sound you want is the one that can be heard. If you can get to that point you've accomplished more than most metal bassists already. Id personally reccommend a spector bass, a Sans Amp driver pedal(used to thicken up the sound and boost the mids), and an amp probably by SWR, or AMPEG. But you dont necessarily need one of those very expensive amps. HOWEVER it is very imporant to have an amp that has a gain knob as well as a master volume one. You need to have the gain up to
like half way turned up. If you've messed around with your EQ after the above and still can't get a good solid cut-through tone, then i suggest to get an equalizer pedal by boss which i think is a 7-band EQ although it might be 9.
The sans amp pedal would probably cost between $100-200. The Boss one around $120 max although i've found it a lot cheaper. Those pedals could probably be the cheapest who knows maybe the best solution. Get a good amp and those pedal jsut work even better. I don't reccommend distortion. you could lose your lows or get lost more in the mix depending apon the sound of your guitarist(s). Distortion on bass should be used moderately and not constantly. Hope this helped if i missed anything or you have any other questions that I can answer feel free to post them or PM me.
Later

 

[Heartless]

Excellent responses, thanks for the advice.

I have the Boss Bass Eq pedal and it does works wonders with boosting the frequencies desired and rounding off peaks...

I've had a very smooth (yet defined) fat clean bass sound for numerous metal oriented bands.

I totally understand the pro's and cons of all-out distortion, and this simply isnt what im after. I just want a more overdriven, grittier sound ala alot of bass players out there. Having guitar-like distortion on the bass almost defeats the purpose of even being a bass player. I realise this!

I'm going to look into Sans Amp for sure. I've played through one live a few times and was very impressed.

Rex in Pantera gets a pretty sweet bass sound, but he cuts through in the mix alot because of the overly processed guitar tone!

thanks again!

 

[xenophobe]

If you're playing through a solid state amp, I'd definitely reccomend a SansAmp.

If you're running through a decent tube head, you probably wouldn't need it.

Nothing beats a bit of compression and eqing for good, solid bass tone.

 

[SADUDE]

xenophobe what basses do you think work good in a metal environmetal. Id say the cheapest ones and good for the price are the Spectors but I bet there are better. I don't reccommend Ibanez. Fenders are praised by everyone but I don't think they are the best. Maybe a vintage fender but I dont know. WHat do you use?

 

[xenophobe]

I don't reccomend Ibanez either, but I would suggest one of their basses.

Fenders have that great short-scale playability, and I'm considering getting a nice older USA P-Bass or a new Mexican one (for new Fenders, the Mexican stuff is better and more consistent than the US stuff... go figure)...

I play a Custom Warwick Thumb bolt-on. I had a standard one, but loved it so much, I got one the way I wanted it.

What I would reccomend all depends on how much you'd be willing to spend.

I really liked the Ergodyne 600 series stuff... I had two, but returned them both... their necks were very finicky.... seeing how I play with a pick, I like a super low action, and I couldn't get the buzz out of the frets, at least to some kind of consistency.

But they sounded great.

 

[HemiDuty]

if you like a clean sound solid cone speakers cut thru great, but i don't think they do distortion etc. very well. the old hartke 4x10s are pretty good