recording a band with no bass

[Geno_]

ala wormrot/pig destroyer.

Have to do this soon and was wondering if anyone has any experiances of such a project.

and no i cant convince them to put bass on the record.

The way i am considering going is possibly having a "lower"/hp guitar track panned centre to augment the low energy of the tracks.

Be interested to see what you guys think/have done in the past

 

[AaronDylan]

hey dude

1. confince them that it will sound shitty without bass! find a record that fits to their style and ask them what they think about it or ask them to bring a reference their self and always you will be able to say: THEIR IS BASS on this record and that´s why it sound´s like it should!

2. i produced a song of a band without bass 2 years ago. they were satisfied but other people who heard it said: it sounds really cool but the guy who mixed it sucks on mixing bass.
avarage listeners will just think that the bass is mixed shitty and so on..

3. try to confince them to tabb their song via guitar pro or so and give you the file so you can tabb the bass yourself. export the file as midi and use a good virtual bass instrument in the mix!

4. give them two mixes first one with bass the second one without.

trust me they will take the one with bass

if not they have bees in the ears!uke:

good luck

 

[xTomx]

My band played a show where our bassist couldn't make it.

The guy who mostly plays rhythm parts slaved his amp to a bass amp and cab, filled out the low end half decently. EQ on the bass amp was super scooped

 

[ahjteam]

if everything else fails: waves rbass.

 

[Fbarre]

This could probably work. Record the guitars direct, duplicate one, shift it down an octave and delay it between 40-60ms. High pass is with a very steep filter so you can ownly hear the low end notes. Also you could try running it through a bass amp simulation. Don't know if this will sound good but maybe better than no bass at all.

 

[tarbh666]

Whatever happened to artistic creativity???? So fucking what if there's no bass. Use ....And Justice For All as a reference lol. No but seriously, fatten up the bass drum, floor toms, rack toms and make the kit be the bottom end of the music. A big fat pulsating mechanical sounding kit with grindy guitars, think about it......
And no, a bass is not central to achieving the sound of that genre. Loads of bands like Insect Warfare, Pig Destroyer, Wormrot have no bass and still sound ferocious. Experiment man.

 

[ratsapprentice]

I'd assume that the band actually wants it to sound like there is no bass guitar, otherwise they would have asked you to play on it.

I'm probably just mix it as normal, but obviously you don't have to make space for the bass.
You probably shouldn't just add loads of bass, because if they wanted loads of low end, they would have got a bassist!
Maybe just beef up the areas that you would usually remove in order to get the bass to fit, with the kick and guitars.

 

[joshwheelermusic]

Whatever happened to artistic creativity???? So fucking what if there's no bass. Use ....And Justice For All as a reference lol. No but seriously, fatten up the bass drum, floor toms, rack toms and make the kit be the bottom end of the music. A big fat pulsating mechanical sounding kit with grindy guitars, think about it......
And no, a bass is not central to achieving the sound of that genre. Loads of bands like Insect Warfare, Pig Destroyer, Wormrot have no bass and still sound ferocious. Experiment man.

^ this guy..

I just finished mixing a band that had two basses... no guitars. o_0
Pretty cool stuff actually. As Cities Burn feel with a chick singer. If it was a metal band, i probably would have laughed and said gtfo. haha

 

[MindMunch]

Use ....And Justice For All as a reference lol. No but seriously

I was actually going to say that for real.

 

[LeSedna]

This could probably work. Record the guitars direct, duplicate one, shift it down an octave and delay it between 40-60ms. High pass is with a very steep filter so you can ownly hear the low end notes. Also you could try running it through a bass amp simulation. Don't know if this will sound good but maybe better than no bass at all.

I guess you mean low pass

 

[Megin]

Experiment man.

What will be next? A distorted harmonica instead of a guitar?

 

[GarethSE]

For the record, distorted harmonica sounds heavy as fuck ^

 

[tarbh666]

What will be next? A distorted harmonica instead of a guitar?

Whatevver the music calls for man. Pitch shifted power tools, animal noises inverted and fed through long delays and reverbs, audo of a jackhammer triggering a vst and blended together then reamped and an industrial fan placed in front of an sm57 fredman micing technique. Go for it man, crazy scientist shit all in the name of extreme music.

 

[006]

For the record, distorted harmonica sounds heavy as fuck ^

tr00th.

 

[Clockwork]

^ this guy..

I just finished mixing a band that had two basses... no guitars. o_0
Pretty cool stuff actually. As Cities Burn feel with a chick singer. If it was a metal band, i probably would have laughed and said gtfo. haha

My band has two basses and no guitars and we still sound metal as fuck. Half the time people are tuning their guitars so low they might as well just play a bass anyways. For Geno's situation I would say just get the bass else where, try to milk the kick and toms for the low frequencies as much as possible. just let everything else fill the space.

 

[Williamn]

1. Track the band
2. Rave about how great its gonna be
3. Wait for them to leave.
4. Record the bass yourself and low pass it so much that you cant really hear it
5. ????
6. Profit

It will be our little secret and no one will ever know

 

[ratsapprentice]

It will be our little secret and no one will ever know

Thing is though, it's supposed to sound like there isn't a bass dude...

like this

 

[DolphinSplatter]

quad track that shit nigga!
have them play the L/R normal, and then play the exact same shit on the neck pup, with way too much distortion
it sounds awesome

 

[joshwheelermusic]

My band has two basses and no guitars and we still sound metal as fuck. Half the time people are tuning their guitars so low they might as well just play a bass anyways.QUOTE]

good point. send me a link to that shit. i'm intrigued.

 

[Audiosprite]

Electro Quarterstaff are another band that pull off the no-bass metal thing really well. the kick on their album wasn't sampled/triggered either, pretty unique production.