Also I think if you run HPF on all your bass tracks around the 50-70Hz type area that should take care of a lot of mud...
what makes a good bass tone
- Thread starter AntonioPetrole
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Bandpass filter = combination of High Pass + Low Pass in one filter.
With a bandpass/band limiter You're selectively allowing particular bands of the source to pass and excluding/limiting others. (All the HPF/LPF filters on my setup are bandpass anyway. You just select THRU For the Hi/Low pass if you dont want to use it).
Bass distortion can get horribly muddy at the lower octaves and harsh at the top so basically chop the lows below 500hz and highs above about 3 Khz. Then maybe eq it normally in case theres some annoying resonance or whatever.
Takes some experimentation ive found because it doesnt necessarily sound great by itself but you're after mids more than anything.
Try it yourself. If I'm feeling lazy then I just the use the DI source and then copy the take onto another track and put some distortion on it.
Now filter out everything on the bass distortion channel below like 500hz and everything above roughly 3 Khz.
Run the mix and turn the DI/Mic sources up to the rough mix level where you think they sound best. Now do the same for the distortion channel. I try to use the DI/Mic for the "weight" or "body" of the bass and the distortion channel to help add definition (hence the mid range content).
Really good advice hear. Also sidechain compression on the kick and bass is an amazing thing to learn, finally just grasped the concept after it was explained on a video.
I have another question, how much do you guys compress the bass? I always hear people talking about how the "Squash the shit out of it", but when i compress is to hell or put a limiter on it, it loses all definition and feel
dmmi
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- Mar 23, 2010
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After you've raised the action to get rid of fret buzz, check the neck relief as well. Often buzz is caused by a perfectly straight neck......once you fret a string the distance from the string to the fretboard will be almost the same even if you raise the action. Without neck relief there is no place for the string to vibrate freely without hitting the frets
You might be using too short an attack in which case the compressor/limiter will be shearing off transients. Its the body you're looking to control and the attack you want to keep. Start with a 4:1 ratio I would say... something in the reagion of 40ms upwards for the attack time and work from there. Threshold is completely relative to the source so it depends on your track and what you need for that. What I do is put the threshold so that its not even kicking in, and then look at the GR (Gain reduction meter) on my compresser until its just riding the levels. Then just set it by ear from there. Adjust the ratio/threshold until it sounds good.
Ermz
¯\(°_o)/¯
In contrast I use a lot of limiter-like compression on bass. Always staged. Usually an 1176 with the attack anywhere from midway to all the way open, and then an L1 taking off a few dB to pin it extra. Combining this with the slamming on the Millennia comp on the way down has the bass being comped about 3 times in serial. The real trick is getting those attack times to interact the right way and not shear off too much of the punch, whilst still keeping it tight.
NSGUITAR
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- Oct 26, 2009
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As mentioned, here's two sound clips of the bass channel I run.
First bass is a Fender Jazz, second bass is a Gibson Grabber.
Check it:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4985090/BassTest.mp3
First bass is a Fender Jazz, second bass is a Gibson Grabber.
Check it:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4985090/BassTest.mp3
Let it burn...
Orgasm Donor
NSGUITAR
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- Oct 26, 2009
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Bass--->DI---->Studio Devil----> Guitar Rig
Check out the post I made in this thread before hand to see exactly what I did.
