Some Cool Bass Mixing Tips

[Slate]

Some metal guys like to mix the bass guitar over the kick, say the kick hits 60-80Hz, they'll roll off from 80Hz on the bass and smack 120Hz. This can be cool for some ultra fast stuff where you don't want to mudd up the mix too much. BUT, I personally like a lot of subsonic HUMMM from the bass.

Here are two things you guys should try and let me know if they work out good for you. Some of you may already do this kind of thing too:

Get a slightly narrow bell eq and crank 50Hz by 6db. Then crank 1-2khz. Now send the bass to some kind of compressor with a high ratio and slam it so that the thing is almost pinned, probably around 10db gain reduction. Now, put on another eq and with a narrow notch, carve out 80Hz so your kick can breathe. You'll end up with a big humm'n deep bass sound that will sound huge on guitar palm mute stuff but will still have the upper mid growl.

Now check this out: Set up an aux and put a thick and wide chorus on it. Follow it up with an eq and put a hi pass filter at 300Hz. Send some of the bass to this aux and mix in the chorused signal while monitoring with the full mix.. what you'll hear is that the bass will have a wider, more massive presence. The reason you follow the chorus with a hi pass is because it'll muck the low end up, the chorus is mainly to spread the upper mids in the stereo spectrum.

Lemme know how this works for you guys.

 

[botus99]

Now check this out: Set up an aux and put a thick and wide chorus on it. Follow it up with an eq and put a hi pass filter at 300Hz. Send some of the bass to this aux and mix in the chorused signal while monitoring with the full mix.. what you'll hear is that the bass will have a wider, more massive presence. The reason you follow the chorus with a hi pass is because it'll muck the low end up, the chorus is mainly to spread the upper mids in the stereo spectrum.

I REALLY like that idea. I'll be trying that one for sure really soon! Thanks for the tips Steve

 

[JeffTD]

Yeah shit, I can imagine using that chorus w/HPF trick on more than just bass... thanks Steven!

 

[everybody's x]

sweet tip, thanks Steven

 

[Noumenon]

Have to save this tip

 

[Jaymz]

By sending "some of the bass" to the aux is it just tweaking the aux send fader yarr?

 

[Slate]

yeah the chorus thing works great... remember to keep it subtle, you don't want it to sound like "whoa there is chorus on the bass"... its all about getting a bit more presence and spread.. and yeah it works with guitars too. With guitars, try using a pitch shifter... Go 9cents up on one side, 9cents down on the other, delay the left 15ms and the right 30ms and add that in a bit.

Shred I would push the bass's aux so that its hitting the chorus with some decent signal, and then use the chorus's fader to adjust its ouput volume to the mixbuss.

 

[-Gavin-]

Any chance you could post a with/without mp3?

 

[Daunt]

Great tip Steven! How do you usually set your attack and release on the compressor?

 

[Eduardo Apolonia]

Good tip Steve.

I've been doing something similar but instead of chorus I apply a small amount of distortion HP 200-300 and LP 10-12k.

 

[Slate]

I would keep attack as slow as you can and release as fast as you can without causing distortion, which can happen with some comps on low frequency material.

The distortion thing is a good trick and can be put on another aux and blended.

 

[Seizure.]

Thanks for the tips,
I'm on of those people who mixes the bass waaayy above the kick actually (180 hz most of the time..) and there are definitly some mixes which would benefit from a more deep bass

 

[colonel kurtz]

is this the same sort of shit that andy wallace does by applying a slight flange to the bass?

 

[broken81]

on the aux buss for chorus do you want a stereo aux and panned 100% left and right??

I ask cause my bass usually is panned up the middle and just 1 track....

 

[ThatGuitarGuy]

anyone know how paul northfield goes about mixing his bass? If he can make John Myung from Dream Theater's bass to sound good again, he must be insanely good...and it so clear its ridiculous!

 

[Ben Johnson]

anyone know how paul northfield goes about mixing his bass? If he can make John Myung from Dream Theater's bass to sound good again, he must be insanely good...and it so clear its ridiculous!

Errr, that would mostly be the work of Myung's skilled hands. Northfield is probably just tossing up a DI/mic and capturing a performance. Engineering is easy when you're working with great talent.

 

[everybody's x]

Engineering is easy when you're working with great talent.

that sums everything up

 

[sparkyness]

Paul Northfield's bass mixes tend to be pretty special. I know every time I pick up an album he's engineered, mixed or produced, that it's gonna have a bass tone I'm going to really dig. He's been at it a long time and has worked with the likes of Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler and Rob Trujillo and he gets the call for a reason.....

He was Peter Collins' engineer on the likes of Operation Mindcrime and Empire as well which gets my vote for having one of the coolest bass tones ever.

In terms of treatment, from what I've read in articles with Geddy Lee and Rob Trujillo in Bass Player mag a few years back he doesn't do anything too out of the ordinary and blends dirty amp or sansamp and DI tracks. He's a big fan of compressing the high and low end of the bass tone differently too.

I've always hated John Myung's bass tone before so I might have to check out this DT album.

 

[metalkingdom]

Engineering is easy when you're working with great talent.

Easier is more like it.

I worked with Paul Northfield and Suicidal. No tricks or anything special that I can remember. We called him Mr. Peabody.

 

[everybody's x]

I guess that made you Sherman?