Your Bass approach Grit/Body ?

[Kaleb Formz]

I used to be so confused on this. I've heard some people say

-Run a bass D.I through any distortion amp/plugin for the grit AND
-Run a bass D.I through an amp/Cab for the body.

I might be hazy on the specifics of the technique so any help would really be appreciated. I used to be so confused, What amp/cab sounds best for bass metal. Whats most used? Whats the best AMP head/Plugin to run the D.I for grit. It complicating this for me too much that now I just use T.S.E BOD.
It's simplifying my life.

Usually one track is enough. If I feel i NEED it I'll make a separate grit track and EQ accordingly etc.

Anyone using this approach? Is there a better one?
I ask because I've been hearing to buy Ampeg but I can't see why. The BOD gives me the body and the grit..and it's free.
Also I hear the Tech 21 sansAmp which it emulates slays bass amps

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

This thread may be of use: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...guys-using-get-your-bass-grit-these-days.html

Two to three tracks:

1. Bottom end
2. Clank/mids
3. Overdrive

I usually only do two, because I haven't found a way to make 3 tracks of the same DI phase coherent. So I sort of make the second track distorted, but still predominantly clanky.

On the first, I use a LPF up to about 200hz. The second and third get high passed up to around 400-500. I usually leave the first track as a DI (no amp sim), then put the second through an amp sim (TSE BOD works great here; crank the drive) to get the "clanky" mid tone. The third I usually put through a full amp and cab sim, like a 5150 or a triple rec; something with a lot of nasty bite. Crank the drive and make it br00tz. Make sure at least one of your tracks is phase inverted and mix to taste.

Also try switching the HPF for the second and third tracks to before and after the amp sim. It makes a huge amount of difference.

 

[JeffTD]

It's typical for me to have 3-4 bass tracks. Generally an amp set to clean, an amp set to raunchy grit, and a guitar amp going full bore in addition to the DI run through TSE BOD or a B7K Darkglass. I used to be really anal about HP/LP filtering each one, but for the last year or so I've just been letting them all run full-bore and liking the results more.

 

[Studdy]

"Make sure at least one of your tracks is phase inverted and mix to taste."

Huh?

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

"Make sure at least one of your tracks is phase inverted and mix to taste."

Huh?

If you use more than one bass track with the same DI, you need to invert the phase of one of the tracks, or it will clash with some of the others. I'm not exactly an expert producer, but I can tell that there's a lot of difference when I don't do that. The other tracks sound very muddled and weak.

 

[Studdy]

"If you use more than one bass track with the same DI, you need to invert the phase of one of the tracks"

Im glad it works for you, but this makes no sense to me at all.

 

[JeffTD]

Generally speaking with multiple tracks off the same DI you'll run into phase issues. Sometimes you won't. If you do, fix them. That's all he's saying.

 

[Studdy]

When I duplicate a track in my daw I don't seem to run into to many phase issues, it usually just sounds louder and in phase. But i will do a little experimenting to see if im missing something. Thanks Jeff.

 

[AntonioPetrole]

I usually get the meat and clank of my bass from my Sansamp RBI. Distortion I usually get through whatever guitar setup I'm running, typically my 5150. I just high pass the DI around 120hz, blend and filter to taste. The really low end depends. I either have a very sub heavy kick, or I will program the sub with a sine wave and low pass it around 140hz. Nothing will give you a more perfect and tight low end than sine wave bass imo. Like anything else, the most important thing with bass is getting it right at the source. New strings, a good bass and good playing is 70% of the battle with bass tone, the rest comes with ease

 

[Kaleb Formz]

I usually get the meat and clank of my bass from my Sansamp RBI. Distortion I usually get through whatever guitar setup I'm running, typically my 5150. I just high pass the DI around 120hz, blend and filter to taste. The really low end depends. I either have a very sub heavy kick, or I will program the sub with a sine wave and low pass it around 140hz. Nothing will give you a more perfect and tight low end than sine wave bass imo. Like anything else, the most important thing with bass is getting it right at the source. New strings, a good bass and good playing is 70% of the battle with bass tone, the rest comes with ease

I'm trying to understand this better. You run your bass through your rbi for bottom end and clank. Then your DI you Highpass 120. and then you have a third bass track you run though your 5150 without a cab? So 3 bass tracks?

BTW thanks for the reply guys i appreciate it

 

[hks350d]

If you haven't tried NI Guitar Rig 5 yet, check it out. There are some awesome bass rig presets in there.

As for everyone else that's running 3 or 4 tracks, how do you keep everything lined up and in time? Doesn't that make problems when you're editing or do you usually bounce them to one track?

 

[Studdy]

I just use duplicate identical tracks. Timing and phase issues keep coming up in thread, I really don't understand why, I just duplicate the track, bang perfectly lined up and in phase. Obviously when I'm applying different plugins etc. I am listening for anything weird but it never really is a problem. Am I missing something? Thanks

 

[miguelrx10d]

if you have three tracks of the same D.I you'll not have any phase issues, just the same signal but louder. Phase issues start to appear when you apply distortion to one or more tracks because some processors flip the phase at some stage (as part of the distortion processing), just try to play around with the phase switcher of the distorted track and see if you need it or not - simple

 

[Kaleb Formz]

I just use duplicate identical tracks. Timing and phase issues keep coming up in thread, I really don't understand why, I just duplicate the track, bang perfectly lined up and in phase. Obviously when I'm applying different plugins etc. I am listening for anything weird but it never really is a problem. Am I missing something? Thanks

Yeah I was thinking the same thing Lol. What do you do for your bass?

 

[hks350d]

You process them differently though right? isn't that the point of duplicating the track?

 

[egan.]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing Lol. What do you do for your bass?

I think you guys are missing the part where some of us split and/or reamp to actual amps and pedals. Obviously you only fix what's broken.

 

[Kaleb Formz]

Nope not missing anything. "I was thinking the same thing" as in I duplicate as well. Obviously blending a re-amped signal would cause phase. What everyone was saying is when working with multiple tracks of the same D.I
so It's was more sensible for me to assume it's a duplicated track not a re-amped or split signal cause that wasn't mentioned. My bad though came out condescending I guess. In no way though I promise, I'm the one looking for help Lol.

 

[Alphanumeric]

So no one uses 1 bass track ever? I find 2 is enough, DI for the low end and something added to the DI like a guitar amp, pedal, sansamp for attack, high passed.

 

[Kaptain K. Rool]

So no one uses 1 bass track ever? I find 2 is enough, DI for the low end and something added to the DI like a guitar amp, pedal, sansamp for attack, high passed.

Honestly I've never had the need for more than two. Sometimes I use one if i can get away with it. The TSE BOD is great! I run one through the BOD and take a huge chunk of the mid range leaving the bottom and top clank and add a second bass D.I Run through any amp head or emulation no cab where i eq the same but do a small dip somewhere from 60-100 Hz so the bass doesn't overwhelm (depending on the amp head) and blend them in.

 

[Kaptain K. Rool]

This thread may be of use: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...guys-using-get-your-bass-grit-these-days.html

Two to three tracks:

1. Bottom end
2. Clank/mids
3. Overdrive

I usually only do two, because I haven't found a way to make 3 tracks of the same DI phase coherent. So I sort of make the second track distorted, but still predominantly clanky.

On the first, I use a LPF up to about 200hz. The second and third get high passed up to around 400-500. I usually leave the first track as a DI (no amp sim), then put the second through an amp sim (TSE BOD works great here; crank the drive) to get the "clanky" mid tone. The third I usually put through a full amp and cab sim, like a 5150 or a triple rec; something with a lot of nasty bite. Crank the drive and make it br00tz. Make sure at least one of your tracks is phase inverted and mix to taste.

Also try switching the HPF for the second and third tracks to before and after the amp sim. It makes a huge amount of difference.

Which two are you normally choosing D.I & 5150 Or BOD & 5150?