glueing guitars/bass

[Tommy Evans]

I've been told in a previous thread that my guitar/bass need better glueing. my problem is that i like both the tones separately but together they dont blend well enough. what would you do in this situation? I'd prolly go to the bass first and mess with that. any tips on this?

 

[tempe]

It's to do with the EQ relationship between them, I got better at this by EQ'ing my guitar around the bass guitar as opposed to the other way around. Also you're low end boost on the bass always tends to sit higher than you would think, at least in my experience.

Basically when someone says the guitar and bass need to glue better it just means getting that 80-250Hz region together.

 

[CharlesMonroe1989]

and maybe a litte compressor on a common bus?

 

[SoundSpiral]

It sounds like you are mixing with the instruments on solo.
Try to mix as much as possible with everything playing.
That way you can make the thing sound good in the proper context = instruments working together.

 

[Tommy Evans]

Good tips all around guys thanks! I'll try these out and hopefully make progress

 

[Let it burn...]

What I do is record a fuzzier guitar track in the center and EQ it in with the bass. You can barely hear it in the mix but it helps the bass blend in better.

 

[Clark Kent]

i like both the tones separately but together they dont blend well enough.

The problem here is that no one will ever listen to guitar or bass separately. They will only listen to them in a blended situation.

I'm sorry to say this but it sounds like you should start liking different types of tones. Guitars are a middle frequency instrument. Bass is a low frequency instrument. Most guitarists pay attention to guitar low end and presence frequencies when they should mostly be thinking about the middles.

The rule of thumb I use is that guitars cut best when they are flat frequency-wise. So the same amount of lows, middle, and treble. If your ears aren't trained to know how that sounds I suggest using a spectrum analyzer. If you want scooped guitars; scoop a little. If you're scooping -5-10dB which is what I see often on this forum you are not doing it right. That will end up sounding unprofessional.

This is all just my opinion and I can't assure these will work for you but it has worked for me.

 

[MetalSound]

If you're scooping -5-10dB which is what I see often on this forum you are not doing it right. That will end up sounding unprofessional.

no, it won´t. it´s all up to the source.

 

[Tommy Evans]

The problem here is that no one will ever listen to guitar or bass separately. They will only listen to them in a blended situation.

mind = blown.

Why has this never hit me before? Guess I was so focused on having everything sounding good on its own I forgot/didn't realize that people won't even be listening to the mix with solo buttons available. Thanks Clark!

 

[Klosure]

Be careful...


EQ is an answer.. but its not the solution.


Take Jens Bogren on the Great cold distance, he panned 2 bass tracks left and right and a distorted line up the middle with little bass information.


Another trick is to scoop the mids. This only works well if you put a distorted bass (sansamp) in to replace the mids, gives you the grunt (high and low pass the distorted bass)

Outside the box....


Think about the guitars, they are distored and heavy, the bass is clean and pure, together they will sound very different. To blend them they need to share stuff in common.

 

[Clark Kent]

no, it won´t. it´s all up to the source.

I'm talking about the "visible" scoopage in a spectrum analyzer. I wasn't clear on that because I don't think it's good for people to learn tone by watching meters. That's the way I learned things but it took me a while to "hear" what's actually happening.

And ofcourse this is still my own opinion. Old Metallica songs have more scoopage than 5dB and some people think that's the best tone there is.

 

[Clark Kent]

mind = blown.

Why has this never hit me before? Guess I was so focused on having everything sounding good on its own I forgot/didn't realize that people won't even be listening to the mix with solo buttons available. Thanks Clark!

Haha... I know man. This hit me back in the day when I was trying to find a guitar amp that had the most low end. I was running a Mesa Roadster with the bass knob on 10. It sounded amazing in the room when I was playing alone but in a band situation I couldn't hear anything. Then our rhythm guitarist came in with a crappy Line6 amp and everyone was complimenting his tone although I had a 5000€ Mesa rig in the corner.

It was time to change my tone philosophy!

 

[tempe]

Haha Clark so many guitarists are like that at first, they like to think that the Bass Guitar doesn't exist.

One last tip, you'll find that a lot of the time your guitars will be A LOT thinner and duller than you might like if you EQ them soloed. I've gotten pretty chronic with high passing at around 90-120Hz depending on the tuning and low passing between 10 and 7kHz depending on the amp. If you make the guitars only take up the frequency range they need which is essentially the midrange, you'll just have so much room to fit things like bass guitar, cymbals and your vocal. Which in my opinion are the hardest things to get blending into the mix in a pleasing way.

Also what can be cool is boosting the bass where you cut the nasal frequencies from the guitars, you'll fill that void with awesome clanky goodness!

 

[kool98769]

Haha... I know man. This hit me back in the day when I was trying to find a guitar amp that had the most low end. I was running a Mesa Roadster with the bass knob on 10. It sounded amazing in the room when I was playing alone but in a band situation I couldn't hear anything. Then our rhythm guitarist came in with a crappy Line6 amp and everyone was complimenting his tone although I had a 5000€ Mesa rig in the corner.

It was time to change my tone philosophy!

That happened to my band last night. I've been bitching at our other guitarist to turn down his gain forever because it sounded fizzy, but he never listened.
THen last night I finally convinced him to turn it down (from 6.5 to 4.5) and all the sudden everything was so much more clear. I knew it was going to help, but not as much as it actually did! I think a lot of people on this forum need to turn down their gain. Turn it up to where you think it sounds good.....then turn it down

 

[GearMan2point0]

That happened to my band last night. I've been bitching at our other guitarist to turn down his gain forever because it sounded fizzy, but he never listened.
THen last night I finally convinced him to turn it down (from 6.5 to 4.5) and all the sudden everything was so much more clear. I knew it was going to help, but not as much as it actually did! I think a lot of people on this forum need to turn down their gain. Turn it up to where you think it sounds good.....then turn it down

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