what makes a good bass tone

AntonioPetrole

AntonioPetrole

Brootz
Jun 26, 2009
1,970
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48
New Jersey
I really have no idea, i know its supposed to not be cluttered with the kick and all, but i really have never been able or even known what makes a good bass tone. Its always too boomy or too flat for me. Example (This is just a quick riff i recorded just to practice mixing and trying new techniques)

Bass
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2113488/GREEEE/BASS.mp3

Mix
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2113488/GREEEE/mix.mp3

Anyone care to chime in?

My bass is a 5 string Yamaha RBX375
 
Well a trick I learned was to do the same for bass as you do for guitar. Heres some quickly typed stuff for you to try:

So like if you're quad tracking your guitars then use multiple tracks on bass but with different sources. I generally use a track of DI, a track of mic/amp simulation and maybe even a track of distiortion as well. This will give you a lot more coverage and options to work with and get more definition out of the tone.

I use a pod and sometimes even a korg amp sim or an Ibanez distortion pedal for bass distortion and if you bandpass the distortion channel then it will give the bass more definition and volume in relation to the guitars (think about it peeps, one chan of bass competing with 4 guitars?) because I guess it's a kinda halfway point between the bass and guitar tones.

The bass on the mix just does not stand out in relation to the guitars. So I would try getting the guitar set up better with heavier strings and tracking them as I just mentioned.

Just listened to the clip and it sounds like you need heavier guage strings or a higher action or both on the bass because the rattle is overpowering.

Obviously you want the bass to blend in with the kick and you can do this by mirroring your EQ choices. So if you cut on kick, then boost on the bass and if you boost on kick, then cut on bass and so on.

If its boomy then find out what notes its on boomy on when you track. Then use a deep notch and sweep it to the point where the boomyness disappears. Also bear in mind that this may just be a problem with your room! I'd advise double check on headphones. You can also try a compressor to try and even the track out.

Also make sure you're usiing a HPF on your rhythm guitar tracks to give the bass/kick room to breathe. I also use HPF on the whole bass subsection at about 60hz to clear up some mud.
 
i'm certainly no authority on bass tone, but my first impression from listening to just the bass is it needs more definition. a few good things mentioned above, namely getting rid of the rattle and raise your action off the fretboard. i think those would help with 'definition' quite a bit.

i think less is always more with the bass, meaning a simple, strong and solid recording from a good source will usually do the job. and remember, a bass that sounds fantastic solo'd isn't always the best sound when thrown back in with the mix. work on carving out it's place in the sub-genre of freqs.
 
I like to copy and paste the same bass DI track a few times, having a distorted track, a boomy sound track and a clean bass track, mainly thanks to Gareth and his cool bass sound :D
 
What do you guys use for bass distortion? I never got that whole guitar amp sim with bass thing to work out for me, so I just use the Rock amp in Ampeg SVX with a compressor in the "stomp" section before it.
 
I've found my bass sweet spot using this chain:


Bass (Gibson Grabber, or Fender Jazz)------> DI---->Studio Devil----->GuitarRig


There is a preset that, with a bit of tweaking, sounds INCREDIBLE for bass. I think it's just called "Picked Distorted Bass" or something like that.

For the studio devil, I've just been using "Deep DI" and tweak that also.


The trick is, so you don't get grossly saturated tone, which I've noticed is really common, you need to turn the input down quite a bit in Guitar Rig. I'll Post a solo track tomorrow or something when my internet isn't being so slow.
 
If you can't play well with your fingers, use a pick.
I tend to always boost around 850Hz on my main bass tracks (which is also where I tend to reduce on guitars) to help it blend into the mix more.
Always be very careful with the low end and lower mids.
Multi-band compression, EQ, limiting, all tools at your disposal for taming the beast
 
I have (lately) been using that bbe bass preamp that I snagged. I copy the track and for one I roll off anything below 500hz (and do some upper mid carving) and apply just the stock distortion plug in in cubase. Then I roll off anything above 500hz on the first one (and usually anything below 35hz).

I have podfarm though, I should try that for distortion. I don't mind the one in cubase though, just has to be tweaked a lot and it seems to play off how you have the track eq'ed.
 
For bass drive stuff, I totally love the sound of a tubescreamer on bass. Guitar amp distorsion on bass hasn't worked for me either so far, It always ends up sounding like a down-tuned guitar instead of a bass guitar. I normally go for copying the DI and mixing in some super compressed clean DI track for the heaviness, some distorsion and sometimes a good amp sim.
 
I've started using Blockfish's saturation on bass tones when I split them up into frequency bands. The lower bands just get fuck tons of compression and some eq, but the high band gets 2 instances of blockfish with full saturation, and then some eq. All that is sent to a bus and then comp'd more.

What kind of compression settings are people using on bass? (on the main group or individual tracks, I'm looking for ideas)
 
well its depends because normally the distortion track is very low-light and pre-compressed due to being run through distortion so I tend to not compress that as much... its the amp/DI's that I always focus on evening out with compression. I generally go for a 3:1 or 4:1 type ratio depending what it is. A lot of the un-even sounds of a bass can be just simple body resonance or over-prominant frequencies that you can calm down with a notch of Q 10 eq. I dont realy compress stuff heavily unless it really needs it. Even more problems with bass eq can be resolved down to problems with peoples rooms.
 
I'll record 2 tracks, both DI. One with neck and piezo on full. The other on the bridge. Run the bridge through a smidge of drive on the RBI and boost the bass frequencies. The neck/piezo I'll compress a little and cut most of the rumbly bass frequencies about 4-6db.
 
thanks to all the help guys, and yes i am fixing the bass rattle right now lol. Anyone care to maybe post one of their bass tones? Im not asking for settings or anything, just a clip to push me in the right direction
 
Try getting your hands on an old big box rat or some plugin model of it for distortion tones. I have an 80ies original that just sounds badass on bass.
 
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