Fixing a single boomy bass note in the low end; muddies up my whole mix

[stevehollx]

On a bass track for a song, either due to the playing or the natural resonance of the bass guitar, I'm having really nasty low-end boom on a specific note. It completely muddies up the low end, and in order to get rid of it with a high pass filter, I have to scoop out like <110 Hz, which completely kills the good sounding low end of the bass throughout the entire song. The boominess appears to be in the 60-90 range, and is at least 3 times as loud.

My chain on the bass track is just RComp into an EQ. I tried automating an EQ high a higher high pass for when those notes are played, but it's pretty ghetto sounding. I also tried throwing a high pass around 100 Hz before the compressor in the event that the compressor was adding to the issue on the low end, but after a first try (still gotta play with it some) it made no difference.

Is there any way I can tame this without re-recording the bass track? Has anyone else experienced this and is able to offer some advice?

 

[Fox Mulder]

use a multiband comp for the 60-90 range? :/

 

[Ermz]

Happens really often. It's just a natural by-product of the instrument. It will resonate more at certain notes. Some people 'tune' the instrument with EQ by attenuating those particular fundamentals.

If that frequency range is muddying your mix constantly try a simple EQ notch. If it only happens on that note, try a multiband, as suggested above. Multibands can be really good on bass guitar, if used well.

Also, make sure that one note isn't a factor of your room. It's very possible that you have a mode somewhere between 60 to 90, so watch out. Your monitoring environment can be misleading in the low-end.

Now, my question is, if one were to saturate the low-end of the bass guitar, would this help even things out? I know many of us are advocates of crossing over and treating the highs separately, but if we were to hit the lows with a tape sim, or saturator of some kind, would be in essence be helping even out the fundamentals?

 

[Fox Mulder]

Also, make sure that one note isn't a factor of your room. It's very possible that you have a mode somewhere between 60 to 90, so watch out. Your monitoring environment can be misleading in the low-end.

+1

 

[stevehollx]

Bass was recorded direct with an AxeFx, so no room involved here during tracking. Ironically, all of the other 10 tracks for the album sound great. I think our bassist turned some knobs on his guitar when recording this track, and didn't pay attention to his dynamics, making it my problem in post-production.

Although, in thinking about it, I wonder if it is a symptom of the room I am referencing the track in. I should throw it in my car stereo to check, but I don't think that's it especially since my stereo is acoustically corrected for the room environment. Unfortunately my near-field monitors suck and can't reproduce the low frequencies I'm having issues with accurately so fixing this requires a lot of bouncing, going downstairs and referencing on my hi-fi stereo.

Multiband compressor sounds like a good idea. I assume I'd want to slam <120 really hard and then reduce the makeup gain?

I'll give a notch EQ a whirl tonight too, although I'm thinking that may not do much since the high pass to kill those frequencies didn't do much.

 

[greyskull]

ah one note bass.
multi band comp, or notch it out with eq

 

[smy1]

steveholix:

Basically you are saying:

a) my speakers are crap
b) I don't know if my room has problems (if you don't know, then it definitely HAS)
c) I don't know how my car translates to my room and vice-versa

Taking all this into consideration, you basically have no chance of mixing this correctly - other than: mix it, bring it to 5 different listening environments (fro 30$ boomboxes to 5000$ audiophile stereos) and see how the mix translates. Then make notes and go back to your room, remix it, listen on the 5 different systems again. Repeat till it sounds good everywhere.

 

[Ermz]

Your monitoring room was what I was referring to. I don't know many people insane enough to try to use the low-end from a bass cab! Make sure your room doesn't have a modal peak in the region you are attributing to this bass guitar note. If it's '3 times louder' that tells me it could very well be your room at play. Run some sine sweeps and listen carefully when you hit the 60 to 90 zone, see if it jumps.

 

[Splat88]

Watch this video from Bob Katz.

 

[Trevoire520]

Probably the monitoring in your room rather than the actual track thats causing the problem. Best to sort this out with some decent headphones if you wan't any chance of getting it right man.

 

[Moonlight_Seeker]

How to find the sucky frequency :

http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html

But I will admit I do not know what is that wave length thing they're talking about.

 

[Dexter_prog]

Watch this video from Bob Katz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evJo5_qt6mY

How to find the sucky frequency :

http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html

But I will admit I do not know what is that wave length thing they're talking about.

Pretty fucking useful information, people!.