Making bass fill out/gel with the mix

[Pedro Teixeira]

I think it should be stressed that in order to mix the bass great you have to take care of everything else that will want to eat within that bandwidth. Be it kick, guitars, toms, drum rooms, etc.

 

[nezvers]

Ask the player to play 8-th notes with good attack and watch the tuner. It should give you the same numbers your guitars gave (0 strict, around +5 cents, etc).

Then depending on sections, retune the bass. When he plays really fast 16-ths with less attack, he'll tune differently.

When he hits the long notes, he'll go flat in the end. I teach the bass players to watch the tuner and press the string more on the fret in such cases. Pulling the neck backwards works with open strings.

Being the bass player myself, I tend to play without too much strength. There are many ways to achieve a focused and agressive sound without punishing the strings.

Autotune/ melodyne... anyone? I think Andy uses melodyne for bass.

 

[Max Morton]

Autotune/ melodyne... anyone? I think Andy uses melodyne for bass.

Oh yes! Very often if it was recorded elsewhere. As I wrote, Melodyne is great. Basses, shitty solos, etc etc)) But why fixing it if it can be recorded good enough?

There are always ways to solve a problem if the player is decent. Picking way too brutal (if he's picking)? Try the thinner pick of the same shape. Will make things sound cleaner, sharper and less dynamicaly jumpy. Will also tune better.

 

[Terminus]

Using a thin pick will often help with notes going out of tune when picking hard.

EDIT: well shit didn't see Max's post above.

 

[Max Morton]

Using a thin pick will often help with notes going out of tune when picking hard.

EDIT: well shit didn't see Max's post above.

Cheers man! Using thinner picks can never be stressed enough. How often people tend to use thick picks because "thin picks are for pussies" or "I need a strong solid tone cutting through the mix") Just a weird cliche.

By the way! I saw a youtube video somewhere here on UM a few days ago. Nolly telling about his live rig. He has a great playing technique and exceptionally clear mind in terms of getting great bass tones. Watched it like 20 times. Delightful!

Here it is:

I'm sure it's applicable in the studio and it will sound great in a mix with a good player.

 

[anotherpaul]

Yeah, the video gives a good insight. I tried to simulate his tone and got pretty good results using tse x50 for super-distorted bass track here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/107089785/kse_aos_2.mp3