Distorted bass (how?)

[Ermz]

So, of all my pondering, one of the most common topics tends to be bass, and how to get a nice, gritty distorted sound out of one without all the fuzz and mud.

The sort of thing I'm talking about is found in 2:39 of Decapitated's 'Three Dimensional Defect'.

The common method of doing this when recorded is to split the signal into lows and highs, and only treating the highs with distortion. Yet, how would one go about this in a live setting, or say they wanted that awesome clear, punchy, gritty sound coming straight out of the bass cab?

 

[cobhc]

I know fuck all when it comes to mixing bass, or bass amps, and you probably already know this. But I'd assume it's mainly in the amp, a good Ampeg with a good bass is probably the way to go. Maybe adding in a nice bass dist pedal. Same as guitar I'd assume you keep a nice midrange in there, not too much bass to keep the mud away, and not too much high to to avoid the fizz.

Sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to tell you something you already know.

 

[musickey]

As far as geting that grit live, mic up your cabs and if your bass head has a direct line out run that into a Sansamp BD-DI and then run that into the mic snake as well. that way you can blend the miced cabs with the bass driver DI. it sound killler.

 

[greyskull]

some amps just have that sound!!! the ampeg svt classic and the marshall vba 400 sound pretty much like that !!

or... run two heads with two cabs,

 

[hoehlentroll]

if you have a pod x3, just raise high frequencies/reduce low freq. on one channel and distort it and raise bass/reduce high freq. on the other going straight through amp without distortion.
you could do the same with normal amp set up by splitting the signal. the di goes through an equalizer and the rest of the signal through a screamer and through the amp.

 

[Machinated]

I can get that kind of sound pretty easily with a couple of amps on the gearbox plugin. A lot is in the actual bass, play around with the tone controls on that and also make sure the bass is played hard, near the bridge.

 

[Fredrik-Ablaze]

Live we tend to use the blend control on the distbox we're using to pass some "low" end rumble through into the amp.
Eg Bass - TC Vintage bass distorsion with filter set pretty high, dist according to taste and then we use the mixknob to blend in the high end distorsion into the sound - Head - 2*15 cab

 

[aramism]

i have a MB bass 400+ head and with a sansamp in front giving it a bit of drive, just a bit, i find that pushing the channel volume and keeping the master low gives your that distorted drive.

same theory as with a guitar amp, the pre and power amp. except i use the channel volume as gain by overdriving it and then just using the master volume as a true volume control, though the manual states otherwise. but whatever, the only thing is you need some runway room with that thing because it's hard to keep it low it has so much power.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I have usually went for signal splitting when doing FOH. Take the gritty, distorted tone from the miced bass amp and blend in the clean DI signal from the desk. HP/LP is a friend here.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I really like IK trash.

Multiband distortion...mmmmm

 

[wishtheend]

I really like IK trash.

Multiband distortion...mmmmm

Correction, that's Izotope, not IK. But yeah, that's very versitile for distortion.

 

[PhilR]

Tube Screamer or Big Muff gets my vote.

The TS-9 Tube Screamer creates enough grind to melt my face, and the Big Muff is just like a fat mans diet of pure filth.

 

[-Noodles-]

I personally take the Mic / DI / pedal DI if i can.

The mic, and DI are pretty simple.

The pedal depends on what tone is going on, but if i can - I'll use a guitar SD-1 on bass just to give a little grit, and take another DI after this pedal (or another take).

If I only have a DI, I'll split the signal - and bus it to another channel with some distortion on it, and then level it out with the clean DI. It gives it clarity, depth and power.

Also, a little ear candy for those engineers that listen to the band!

 

[colonel kurtz]

Yet, how would one go about this in a live setting, or say they wanted that awesome clear, punchy, gritty sound coming straight out of the bass cab?

i dunno how most people do it, but tim c. from RATM...who IMO has some of the sickest bass tone ever, combines clean and distorted amps, along with a DI signal

there's some article out there where he talks pretty in-depth about his live rig nowadays, but i don't know where/how to find it anymore

 

[hoehlentroll]

I really like IK trash.

Multiband distortion...mmmmm

I use deltaseries delta force. It's freeware: http://www.expdigital.co.uk/freeware.htm

 

[Sly]

Something I wrote in a previous thread about distorded bass :

Here is what I do with the bass when tracking :

Using new strings for a recording is very important and you will get a lot more depth and thickness to the tone.
I usually use a splitter, the important thing is to get one clean signal, and one distorded (amps or DI, depends on what you can use, amps are better really). I love MXR Bass DI or Sansamp Bass Driver DI for this kind of distorsion.

When mixing I usually do A LOT of filtering to see what happens with each signal recorded.
I usually highpass ther distorsion @ around 500-700 Hz, and lowpass @ 2-5 khz. Keep only the clear midrange agression. Maybe you'll have to boost 2 or 3 db of 800 Hz to make the growl appear and cutting the mix. Sometimes you'll have too much of 800 Hz (nasal sound) and you'll have to cut there. I also like a slight boost around 2-2,5 khz too.
Then you have the clean track, it can be a nightmare. I generally highpass it around 60 Hz and lowpass it somewhere between 150 and 300 Hz, depending on the clarity of the low mids area.
From there I generally have to cut some 250 Hz to make things clearer, and then I check the area between 100 and 200 Hz which is very important and has to compliment the low mids of the guitars. Some slight EQing here and here can help to get the good amount of low mids, they do not have to fight with the guitars fatness.
Then comes the "low" part of the bass. Grab an EQ, boost 10 db somewhere between 70 and 90 Hz and see where is the key frequency for the bass to sit in the whole mix. I find that it's generally 75 Hz or something. Reduce your boosting to taste (you'll need a sub or good headphones to check that). When you think it's good, that boost in the lows of your bass clean track should sit just behind the lows of the guitars (yeah the 90 Hz boost you applied to make them bigger).
Then send those two tracks (disto+clean) to a bus that you can compress (usually I do something like 3:1, fast to medium attack, fast to medium release, threshold -7 db). Hope this can help you a bit.

 

[cobhc]

I have usually went for signal splitting when doing FOH. Take the gritty, distorted tone from the miced bass amp and blend in the clean DI signal from the desk. HP/LP is a friend here.

Completely OT, but I just realised looking at your avatar. If you had a bass in your hands, you'd look like Peter Iwers from In Flames.

 

[Ermz]

When you guys use a splitter and go to an amp for your distorted sound, do you find some way to filter the lows prior to hitting the amp or do you just send fullrange signals both to the amp, DI and wherever else you're going?

 

[beyond dead]

I usually just get one good sound without blending signals. if you have a good bass, a sansamp bd di, and get a good tone going into the board, thats the biggest part. only slight eq and l/h pass filtering is really needed afterwards. I like bass tones such as clayman ect.
thats just me though. different strokes for different folks

 

[greyskull]

i have a MB bass 400+ head

i hate you