recording a band with no bass
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SharkGTS
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- Apr 11, 2011
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My kids band just guitar and drums, two up front vocals, scream and clean. What we did was tri-amp the guitar for live. Gotta Traynor combo left, Traynor tube stack right and down the middle is a 300W bass amp doing sub-freq duties. My son (Quigs) also plays the Baritone for the most part.
IF you can score a Bari guitar, have the guitarist to the low freq work on the Bari they are a lot of fun. We have two a Gretsch Double Jet and a Dano. Still guitar but lots of balls down low.
http://twitpic.com/4421u7
IF you can score a Bari guitar, have the guitarist to the low freq work on the Bari they are a lot of fun. We have two a Gretsch Double Jet and a Dano. Still guitar but lots of balls down low.
http://twitpic.com/4421u7
paladin shredder
Member
just do what you think the mix needs. i don't think wormrot really needs bass in their mix, sounds cool without. just record everything first and see if it needs it. it may or may not. remember, there's no rules for recording.
Finally someone got it. You need to serve the vibe of the music dude. If they don't have a bass out of choice - its a musical decision. If I had a band that didn't have a bassist because we didn't want one and the engineer went and recorded bass after the session, I'd just tell him he wasted his time; please mute the bass.
Don't think like a metal audio engineer... think like a producer. Serve the vibe. No 5150 into a mesa with a TS in front, no slate blah blah blah - you'll kill the energy. Do what works. Sounds like it could be a really fun project so enjoy it and post the final product in the rate my mix/tone subforum - I'd be really keen to hear how it works out
DanLights
Santa Hat Forever
I understand the whole "they don´t have a bass cause they don´t want it" argument, but you guys gotta take into account that 80% of musicians don´t really know what they want, and will probably end up liking the mix with a vsti bass filling in the low end if you don´t tell them it has it.
This said, I think wormrot sounds pretty good without bass, but it wouldn´t hurt them either to have one
This said, I think wormrot sounds pretty good without bass, but it wouldn´t hurt them either to have one
Erik Monsonis
Member
I don't get it... If they don't want bass it's their problem, and their business. As a mixing engineer you have to approach the mix the way the band provides the music. It's not your task to produce their music and tell them what's better.
GarethSE
New Metal Member
- Jul 5, 2008
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Uros
Sonic Incision
Yeah, but on the other hand, every job you do as an audio engineer is part of your portfolio. So, it's not really easy to decide what to do.
DolphinSplatter
What it is, Bullhorn
Yeah it is.
If you really believe a lack of bass is going to sound like shit just don't record the band
bam!
If you really believe a lack of bass is going to sound like shit just don't record the band
bam!
Uros
Sonic Incision
I don't have necessarily to like the music of a band I work on, but it's extremely important to be satisfied with final result. And by that, I don't mean 'presetz lolololo', but if I like it sonically or not/find it that it suits the certain band or not. On the other hand, I am also on the other side of the glass, so I do understand your point that mixers/producers are just a tool at band's disposal, and that band decides what's it gonna be.
So, I agree with 'Dolphin Splatter' about that. It's the only proper way of doing it - to familiarize properly yourself with a potential project before you do anything. If you do accept it, swallow the dick and lube up.
So, I agree with 'Dolphin Splatter' about that. It's the only proper way of doing it - to familiarize properly yourself with a potential project before you do anything. If you do accept it, swallow the dick and lube up.
ratsapprentice
God can gtfo
BUT THE BAND DOESN'T WANT BASS!
I don't think OP is actually contemplating not putting the bass in, he was just asking for people's opinions on what they would do to the mix in his situation.
I don't think OP is actually contemplating not putting the bass in, he was just asking for people's opinions on what they would do to the mix in his situation.
Clockwork
Bass playing guy.
I don't understand why people think it's going to sound bad without a bass... It might not have a lot of low end, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. They wouldn't be doing it if they didn't like how it sounds, and isn't the point kind of to play music that we like and not music that we think will be commercially viable? And I can see it going both ways for the portfolio, some people won't like it, but others will see that he is a versatile engineer who works with the musicians.
ratsapprentice
God can gtfo
The thing that people have to remember is that it's a grind band.
If he goes about recording it as if it's the new Arch Enemy record, then it will NOT benefit his portfolio when the next grind band comes along.
And I'd hope that other possible clients that listen to it would understand that it's grind, and that it's supposed to sound how it sounds.
If he goes about recording it as if it's the new Arch Enemy record, then it will NOT benefit his portfolio when the next grind band comes along.
And I'd hope that other possible clients that listen to it would understand that it's grind, and that it's supposed to sound how it sounds.
ratsapprentice
God can gtfo
Do you have access to some sort of splitter pedal?
I play in a 2 piece grind band, and my guitarist has rigged an individual output for each of his pickups on his guitar. He runs into 2 half stacks simultaneously; the bridge pickup is routed to a guitar amp, and the neck pickup is routed to another amp made to sound bassy, ie bass maxed, no highs, etc. You can achieve a similar effect with 2 half stacks and a splitter (many people I know have used the white boss tuner pedal. It wouldn't be the neck pickup going out, but you could still EQ it to sound bassy as well. I like to think of it less as having a second guitar and more of adding a powerful bassy texture that mixes with the guitar to produce an all-around heavier and beefier sound.
I've had success close micing the guitar cab with a 57 and micing the other cab about 2-3ft away with a large diaphragm condenser; the resulting sound retains the definition and cut of the normal, more mid-heavy guitar cab with the roomy and big-sounding bass cab. Assuming you're multitracking you could work out the blend afterwards even better. Hell, if you recorded it twice and had them as separate tracks you quad track it in half the time.
I play in a 2 piece grind band, and my guitarist has rigged an individual output for each of his pickups on his guitar. He runs into 2 half stacks simultaneously; the bridge pickup is routed to a guitar amp, and the neck pickup is routed to another amp made to sound bassy, ie bass maxed, no highs, etc. You can achieve a similar effect with 2 half stacks and a splitter (many people I know have used the white boss tuner pedal. It wouldn't be the neck pickup going out, but you could still EQ it to sound bassy as well. I like to think of it less as having a second guitar and more of adding a powerful bassy texture that mixes with the guitar to produce an all-around heavier and beefier sound.
I've had success close micing the guitar cab with a 57 and micing the other cab about 2-3ft away with a large diaphragm condenser; the resulting sound retains the definition and cut of the normal, more mid-heavy guitar cab with the roomy and big-sounding bass cab. Assuming you're multitracking you could work out the blend afterwards even better. Hell, if you recorded it twice and had them as separate tracks you quad track it in half the time.
This guy gets a cookie. That argument has taken place many times before... sometimes it's the engineer's job to save 'artists' from themselves, sometimes they just need to burn. (For what it's worth, I think that ELP's 'Knife Edge' is the heaviest thing in existence.)
Jeff
DanLights
Santa Hat Forever
curiously enough, I was having one when I read this.
To put it in another way, you get a band coming into the studio saying "we don´t want no sample replacing cause Wigger McJigger doesn´t replace his drums and I wanna be like him" but their drums are shit and they don´t realize that (we all know it happens more often that it should), don´t you secretly sample replace them knowing they´re too retarded to notice? Or when they don´t want no editing cause they want it "natural" like their favourite band, but they´re shit at playing their instruments and their favourite band isn´t?
Again, not saying this is the case, perhaps they really do know what they´re doing and actually have ears to judge and not just go by names and brands, but we all know it´s more often for the opposite to happen
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