Minimizing compression artifacts. Maximizing HATE.

[Sloan]

I usually smash the shit out of bass. As far as I know this seems like a normal practice amongst BRUTALASFUCK mix engineers, or whatever.

Anyway, a lot of times this skanks up my track. You probably know what I'm talking about.

I've done the multiple compressors in series thing and that helps a little but to really get my bass CRUSHED it still gets kinda artifacty and you know.

Most of the stuff I record is live tracked with the whole band, therefore I set my gains fairly conservative just to make sure my shit doesn't clip. I was thinking this may contribute to this problem somehow because I'll have a relatively low signal sometimes.


Here's what I usually do:
Compressor 01
> RATIO: 5:1 - ATTACK: 20ms - RELEASE: 1ms - about 5db reduction


Compressor 02
> RATIO: 5:1 - ATTACK: 20ms - RELEASE: 1ms - about 5db reduction


Compressor 03 (used as kind of a limiter)
> RATIO: 20:1 (or 50:1) - ATTACK: 20ms - RELEASE: 1ms - about 10-12db reduction

I opt not to use a straight up limiter plugin last because I'm trying to get used to just doing all this shit by hand with as little tools as possible, therefore maybe learning more about compression as I go. I'm like an oldass traditionalist asshole that doesn't use a lot of shit. MINIMALIST WHATEVER.

 

[LSD-Studio]

usually I have 6-10dB of reduction on the way in (Safe sound Audio P1) with a slow attack (20-35 ms) and smash the Track in the DAW another 10 dB with a compressor 8-10:1, 2-5ms Atk, 50-200ms Release....never had any problems

 

[Psych05]

I wouldn't go with more than 2 compressors in series. From my experience, it only makes things worse. I do pretty much the same as LSD.

 

[egan.]

I'm not sure cascading three compressors would ever be called traditional or minimalist. For your settings the 1ms release is the giant red flag for me.

 

[Sloan]

ok, sweet. i will apply these suggestions promptly.

 

[Sloan]

oh, and the three comps was liek maybe having three crappy comps doing a little to act like one big comp.

 

[Sloan]

perhaps if i just replace all bass guitars i record with BANGIN' SYNTH BASS LINES i can make MULTI-PLATINUM HITS?
















wait, fuck that.

 

[Sloan]

i'm completely failing. it's probably something to do with lower-end preamps or something. I just can't ever get the bass to sound as "clean" as I feel it should be.

 

[beyond dead]

what type of bass are you using? pickups play a big role in a direct basses sound. ive tracked with quite a few basses and ive noticed that the bass makes the biggest difference tone wise. ive felt very discouraged getting sounds out of some basses, then i get some one in with a nice bass and getting a good sound is easy as pie!!!

 

[egan.]

i'm completely failing. it's probably something to do with lower-end preamps or something. I just can't ever get the bass to sound as "clean" as I feel it should be.

I'm honestly not sure what you mean by 'clean'. When I hear 'clean' it usually makes me think of technique issues (ex. the string slapping the pickup all the time) and my second thought would be the instrument. Do you mean the tone has some nastiness on the attack or you are hearing the compressor pump or the compressor is imparting some other issues? Maybe post some samples?
It may be a source issue but I doubt it is a preamp issue.

 

[Sloan]

I'm pretty sure it's happened with every bass I've ever recorded. It's hard to explain. I might scrape together some samples and try to describe what I'm talking about. It could just be the way bass sounds, but it's bothered me for a long long time...

 

[ahjteam]

I just tried this one out with my dbx 166XL and it worked pretty nicely. I have passive sickfucks in my bass, standard tuning and I play with a pick. The first compressor tames the spikes, second one evens out the whole track

SETUP
Hook up the bass to input 1, output 1 to input 2, output 2 to DAW.

COMP 1
Put the ratio to 4:1, attack at 9 o'clock, release 12 o'clock, no gating/limiting. Start to slap the lowest string (in my case, E) with your thumb on the 24th fret and put the threshold so that you will get 6-10 dB reduction each hit. The start to pull the highest string (in my case, G) with your index and middle finger and you should get 8-12 dB reduction each time. For me the threshold was set to -10dB. Makeup half of the reduction, which would be about +4dB. The purposes of this compressor is to tame the spikes, it doesn't usually hit the normal playing style at all or if it does, it only hits less than that 4dB.

COMP 2
Put the ratio to 2:1, attack and release to 2 o'clock, no makeup gain and no gating/limiting. Now start to play just like you will play and adjust the threshold so that for soft playing, you should get 2-4 dB reduction and for harder playing you should get 6-8 dB reduction. For me the threshold was set to -30dB. Give it another +4dB makeup gain and start rocking!

 

[scorpio01169]

how are you actually recording the bass..that is mic'd, direct, mic'd and direct. i do the later and for me i get the bass sounding exactly the way i want before any processing and then i use a 3.1 ratio with at least 10 to 15 dbs of reduction to start with.

 

[Sloan]

I always record bass direct.

 

[evolutions_end]

what brand/model off bass are you using? p-style pups? j-style pups? soapbar pups? active electronics? set up properly? new strings? old strings?

IMO, go back to square one. plug your bass in, and work on getting a sick as fuck tone without compression. ones your happy, whack your first comp in there, screw around until your happy, then (only if necessary) chuck your second comp in there. try different compressors in different orders too.