In Flames - Come Clarity bass sound

[Ermz]

Hey guys,

I know Bergstrand is a hard one to find techniques about, but surely some of you might have an idea as to what was used for the bass sound on 'Come Clarity'? He does the tightest, largest, generally best bass sounds I've ever heard out of anyone doing rock or metal, at any level, ever.

I'm going for a similar vibe on a record I'm doing soon, and any techniques I can add to my bag of standard tricks to help me get there better would help.

Thanks!

 

[AllanD]

I think I read something about a Dime Distortion pedal being used in conjunction with a D.I. track. Have you heard the bass track by itself? It sounds totally nasty, but in a mix it sounds HUGE.

 

[Ermz]

The solo bass track on 'Take this Life' is the weirdest/most awesome thing I've ever heard. I can't tell whether it's a fuzz pedal being used, or the insane amount of limiting is creating all that distortion.

 

[AllanD]

Indeed. It sounds muddy as hell honestly, but it works amazingly. Listening to the guitar tracks was also a shock, SUPER high passed. Bergstrand definitely mixes with a full picture in his head as opposed to individual sounding elements.

EDIT: Also, Iwers from In Flames plays with his fingers, which will definitely affect the tone.

 

[Perishh]

Heard this mix the other day for the first time in ages, definitely my favourite bass tone ever! Just the meatiest thing i've ever heard.

I think it would just be a lot of playing around to find this one.... try finding parts in songs where the bass solos (there are quite a few bits on the CD) and start trying to match from there. Would love to hear what you can come up with!

 

[Ermz]

One thing I'd love to know is what compressors/limiters he stages, and how, in order to get such extreme gain reduction but without total pump-mania.

 

[gabriel g.]

I have the dimedistortion somewhere.
its a piece of shit for guitars but I have to use it for bass.

that bass sound is amazing

 

[UtopianCrux]

Agreed, 100%. Peter's bass sound on later In Flames stuff has probably been my absolute favorite metal bass tone. Even on earlier stuff like 'Cloud Connected' or 'Black And White' you really get a sense of how much air it adds to the tracks. I've yet to find a distortion that sits in that particular sweet spot. Bi-amping is surely part of the equation. I know he's cited using an Dunlop MXR M-80 Bass D.I. in the past, but I'm guessing a lot of it is EQ'ing the sordid details just right.

Here's him tracking in the studio, looks like he's got a few fuzz boxes (and the engineer lights up the wrong one first) and the M-80 gets clicked on for "the sound".





BTW, are the stems from 'Take This Life' still out there for reference?

 

[Melb_shredder]

Jizz.... Amazing bass tone. And after our own muck around, if that guitar tone was a little better, it would probably be my favorite mix... Ever!

 

[AllanD]

They're hard to find online, PM not sent. I hope you don't have VLC or Audacity.

 

[Ermz]

You can hear the attack in his playing in that video is much the same as the bass track from 'Take this life'. He seems to slap down on the string, which accounts for the consistent drive. I'm glad actually, because this takes the edge off. It means the DIs I'm dealing with are incapable of getting that end result, haha. I only got a performance like that once, and it was the only time I managed to get a bass sound somewhat close to this record/STD. You truly have to be animalistic on the guitar in order to execute it.

Anyway I reamped via the PSA-1, using a lot more of the 'Drive' knob than I usually would, in order to emphasize the farty power-section style distortion. I think it's somewhere in the ballpark, and hopefully the mix can take it a fair way forward from there.

Thanks for the heads up regarding the MXR. You'd never tell from Dunlop's demo video that it's a decent distortion pedal.

 

[The Unavoidable]

Sorry to burst everyones bubble, but Daniel Bergstrand didn't mix Come Clarity. He didn't even track the bass, Anders and Björn did. The mix was done at Tonteknik Recording by Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Livström. Bergstrand tracked the vocals and the drums. Don't any of you guys own the actual CD haha

 

[Melb_shredder]

I have the collectors edition but fuck me... Of all the times I've needed to find it!!??

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Beat me to it. Yeah Daniel has nothing to do with that.

 

[lolzgreg]

... and the plot thickens...

 

[crillemannen]

You guys are so busted haha

 

[Harry Hughes]

 

[Ermz]

Sweet, well I hate giving incorrect credit so my apologies. Thread still stands though, moar pointers toward the bass sound!

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

A Sense of Purpose comes with a making of DVD, which is really, really entertaining and interesting. I'd recommend you to grab a copy.

 

[Sly]

MXR M80 bass DI with lots of gain, tons of limiting.