Old 80s' Tune "Ah! Leah!" - Struggling with bass sound

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BAN5150

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Old 80's Tune "Ah! Leah!" - Struggling with bass sound

Hi all,

I heard this song on the radio last week, and figured it might be fun to mess around and make it a little harder sounding since it's such an easy song. I've done some of the vocals, but I wanted to get the mix right without them first. I'm struggling how to get the bass to sound more articulated and everytime I adjust the low end down to try to bring that out, it loses the body of the bass obviously. Just having a hard time with it. Any thoughts? Appreciate it. There's a couple other things that need to be adjusted (not really thrilled with some of the drum stuff), but the bass is what I'm most frustrated with.

https://soundcloud.com/ban5150/ah-leah-full-cover-wno-vocals-yet
 
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That was my impression. The guitars sound great but they are doing double duty. Crunching them up like you did fights the bass. Something needs to be pulled from the guitars, less gain, less volume, or an EQ cut. Not exactly sure. But as great as the guitars sound they are fighting the bass.

BTW, Love that you're doing this piece. What a great song!
 
RFR said:
That was my impression. The guitars sound great but they are doing double duty. Crunching them up like you did fights the bass. Something needs to be pulled from the guitars, less gain, less volume, or an EQ cut. Not exactly sure. But as great as the guitars sound they are fighting the bass.

BTW, Love that you're doing this piece. What a great song!
Click to expand...

I kinda thought my guitars doubled up with a lot of crunch might have been fighting the bass a bit. Wasn't sure quite how to approach it. Maybe the EQ cut is the way to go, I kinda don't want to take the crunch from them except as a last resort.

It is a cool old gem, and kind of lends it itself to having some fun with it.
 
I would bring back the crunch a wee bit. Often times what we perceive as crunchy guitars is how the bass is working with them.
Try with EQ to thin them out a bit first, then push the bass up a bit.

As to a "cool old jem". a good song is a good song no matter what era it came from. Just watch how people react in a bar if that tune comes on the jukebox. :D
 
RFR said:
I would bring back the crunch a wee bit. Often times what we perceive as crunchy guitars is how the bass is working with them.
Try with EQ to thin them out a bit first, then push the bass up a bit.

As to a "cool old jem". a good song is a good song no matter what era it came from. Just watch how people react in a bar if that tune comes on the jukebox. :D
Click to expand...

Where should I look to cut EQ, around 200K or so?

Absolutely...a good song is a good song no matter what era.
 
I'd drop the level of the guitars first, before playing with the EQ. Might make it easier to fit a vocal in your mix too. I think every guitarist wants to hear the guitars too loud in the mix, but at the end of the day you have to settle for less of one thing if you want more of some other.

Notice on the original, the guitars are not especially loud (except the solo). The track puts the lead and harmony vocals in the foreground.
 
Thanks guys I'm going to do a little work on it tonight. I do have a multiband compressor on the bass. Let me work on the guitars a bit

Appreciate the feedback! :)
 
I think the guitars sound good. The kick seems a bit too prominent and could do with less slap & a bit more boom.
Sometimes a bit of distortion on the bass will help it cut through, and yeah like antichef said compress the bejesus out of it and high pass the guitars to create space down there
 
Whole arrangement sounds great to me. Mix-wise, the bass is still kind of hidden when I listen. It seems like it's there, just below what my headphones can manage frequency-wise. I wonder what would happen if you just like carved out the mid of the bass so you can still hear hear some of it up high?
 
listened to both - second is definitely better, but now the bass needs some re-mixing. ha. its kind of..."ploppy" sounding. if that's a thing. plop plop is what i hear, you know? EQ adjustments and you will be good to go. I'm not a bass expert, by any means..

ah, i'm also noticing that its timing is off a bit (2:34). that exaggerates its weakness, i would say.
 
What are you mixing on? (monitor-wise) Do they pump the bass so you compensate by bringing it back?

Second version a bit better but bass is still a bit in the background.
 
So to answer the questions. I knew the bass was off a bit in the part of the last chorus, I re-recorded that tonight and fixed that. Yes that was totally annoying.

Unfortunately I'm using headphones and my Bose computer speakers, I don't have real monitors. I have to basically mix it and take it all over the house and my car to see what sounds good where.

Man I thought I made the bass too loud and you guys say it's still too low. Still the definition isn't great to me, when I raise it up it just seems to wash out even more. It's gotta be my guitars.
 
Sorry to ride ya, but I have high hopes for you with this song.:D

How is the bass when soloed, or whatever its called in daw-speak.

A good set of monitors would be nice to have.
 
If you have doubts about your headphones you could always see what it looks like in an analyzer, maybe it'll point out some less obvious frequencies that are masking the bass or that the bass is lacking.
 
No I want you guys to ride me, I want to get this thing right. I'm a proficient musican, but I've always had to go to people to have them mix my stuff, or my band's stuff and I just want to be able to do it myself for once. I'll always half-ass it and get frustrated and say "good enough" but it never is. So I'm deteremined to get this one right! I do want a set of studio monitors, just not in the budget right now unfortunately. So I need to make due with what I have.

With that said, I think I had a bit of a break through last night and got the bass sounding much better. I just need to fix a couple things and then I'll post another version tonight. It's cutting through better and it has some body to it. I also tried high passing the guitars which I think helped.

I'm really appreciating this feedback, I honestly want to finally get one mix sounding the way it should! Thank you for continuing to put up with me. :)
 
All right so I'm back with another mix. I think I've made some headway now. I got the bass sounding more full, I think there's better definition now and it definitely seems to pump. I worked on the kick a little, it may beat too hard now, but compared to what I had I was happy to hear it like this. I can turn it down, it might be too much, but at least the song thumps more now. Guitars, I high passed them and I think that helped, and I boosted some of the upper mids a bit to give them some life. I don't know, see what you guys think. Am I getting closer? Thanks!!!

https://soundcloud.com/ban5150/ah-leah-donnie-iris-cover-mix-3-no-vocals
 
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