Need Help with Bass Tone (sample inside)!

[HvO]

Hi,

I recorded last month a melodic death metal band.

The bass was recorded by an ESP LTD F-104 bass guitar through a DI box.
The bass - old thick strings! plus bad playing... It sounds like shit.

I believed I could fix it with some post proccessing, but I can't get a balanced tone out of it.

here is a short sample clip without post proccessing:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5645638/recording/bass_di_sample.mp3

any advices?
or can somebody post a good reference bass tone!?

 

[guitarguru777]

No you cant fix it. Old bass string suck, shit playing = suck.

SHIT IN = SHIT OUT

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/641530-old-bass-strings.html

 

[hurdy]

Sounds like a cheap bass with old strings... Ewww
You could maybe try moving the picking hand around, try find a sweet spot that sounds better musically

 

[guitarguru777]

Its old strings. you CANT make old strings sound great. You can make them passable, but nothing spectacular.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Convert the files to midi (using a good note-detector) and use a good bass vst. Something like Hardcore bass maybe. If that's temporarily out of your league you may try Broomstick bass.

Oh and yes, you can use melodyne to do the conversion for you.

 

[Deebo]

Convert the files to midi (using a good note-detector) and use a good bass vst. Something like Hardcore bass maybe. If that's temporarily out of your league you may try Broomstick bass.

Oh and yes, you can use melodyne to do the conversion for you.

I was just going to suggest this. Bad bass can totally mess up the low end and make everything sound horrible. Use Hardcore Bass as suggested.

 

[HvO]

@all: THANKS!

Its old strings. you CANT make old strings sound great. You can make them passable, but nothing spectacular.

ok, how to make it passable? can anybody test it? tips?

 

[Fox Mulder]

@all: THANKS!



ok, how to make it passable? can anybody test it? tips?

Use a combination of Waves Maxxbass and PSP Mixtreble first in the chain before doing anything else.

Maxxbass will take care of the low end harmonics and mixtreble would take care of the high end harmonics. They would more or less balance the harmonics out (pop out the harmonics that we perceive as inaudible due to old strings).

Results would be half decent for non-djenty stuff, btw. For djenty stuff I'd use Hardcore Bass and automate the shit out of it to make it sound somewhat human.


Edit: Use a sharp pick. Even John Myung can't get away with old strings playing with his fingers.

 

[DanLights]

yeah definitely using a pick gives a tad more life to dead strings.

You could try, limiting (or compressing) the fuck out of the bass and simply keeping the low end to fill in but not make it be "noticed" in any way. When the bassist says (because he will) to boost the bass a bit, ignore him or something I don't know

 

[HvO]

ok thanks a lot! i will post my results soon.

 

[HvO]

here are my temporary results of the hole mix (with that crappy bass DIs):
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...-metoel-single-rectifier-6505-real-drums.html

 

[ahjteam]