Snare drum sound

Both questions: Snare is probably a deep wood snare and it sounds like the tuning is low and the snare wires a little loose. There are two hihat tracks one playing straight 16's and one playing the snare hits open/close effect. The hats for this are heavy and recorded separately and recorded very loud.

The bass is a P-Bass with round wound strings. There's a bass pedal of some sort on it and lots of compression. Also recorded very loud. I don't hear a speaker involved with the bass.

And all of the drum sounds have a layer on them from Slate or some other programs

Awesome.
Thanks, I'm hearing all that.
My bass does have flats on it, and I think they're harder to get definition from...good point. That could be the issue in the bass.
 
Thanks. How low do you cut? Currently, I HP at 80hz. There is still a lot of energy around 100hz. I was leaving that for low end, but now thinking maybe cut it and boost the volume.
Does anything go with bass?
Funny thing is I used this same bass on another song and it fit better. I guess the other instruments are building up in this one.

I don't HPF , usually I find a frequency around 180 and lower everything evenly from there down (flat line on EQ). The frequency point and the slope at the cut depends a lot on the bass and the type of music. I am only talking about a few dB here but it helps with my suggestion in turning up the bass. I read somewhere years ago that producers in the 1980's took some low end out of the bass so it could be mixed louder without effecting the overall volume of the overall mix, which would have suffered in mastering due to the low end energy (remember a lot of this went to vinyl). You can hear this in 1980's British music.

The discussion on flat wounds v round wounds, round wounds give more top end and definition and flat wounds give a smoother tone. I have basses with both types and I use whichever sound suits the song.

Alan
 
I play bass. I have quite a few. Some cheap, some very expensive, some fretted some not, and one fretless with round wound and another with flats. I simply suck at recording them. Not one records and sounds how it does when I play. DI, miked cabs - none of my mics really captures what I hear. I end up using pretty severe eq, and while the end result appears fine - it annoys me I have to massage the sound so much, actually when solo'd sounding NOTHING like me!

I just don't know how people get these amazing bass sounds. It really, really annoys me that my main instrument is so difficult to mix properly.
 
P-Bass. String choice is dependent on style of music. Tube pre-amp with Fender tone stack. Alembic F-1X is a great one to have. Another is the Eden WT-300B. The Avalon U-5 is another. 1176 after.

It doesn't have to be a P-Bass but recording bass without a great set of hardware at the front end can be frustrating with the repairs you might encounter at mix.

I have found in my 40+ years of playing and recording bass that a passive pickup is going to be truer throughout the frequencies. In that case it comes down to the instrument having dead spots in the neck or resonant spots.....even is always better.

I have a dedicated recording chain just for bass. I never go from this no matter what the style of music is. It never fails me. My attack technique becomes all important in translating the style. But I can always rely on the hardware to give me what I play into the system.

Thats why I suggest a dedicated preamp for this especially if you are having problems capturing your bass tracks. And stay away from the active pre-amps basses for recording. GREAT for live though. My NSHO
 
I have an american made fender p/j bass with flats. I agree with Witz that the tone is smoother and mellower due to the flats. This makes it easy to sit low in the mix and be smooth (ala motown sound), but harder to get any cut in a rock mix. I think the latter is what I'm struggling with. I wanted more definition for this particular song. I guess I'll just get more aggressive with the EQ, which I never like to do. The source recording sounds good on its own. It was DI into a UA Solo 610, which is a great tube bass pre imo. The strings are Thomastik-Infeld JF344. I love them. I like the sound on its own, but it wasn't sitting in the mix right. I might try running it through different bass sims to see if that helps it sit.
 
I have an american made fender p/j bass with flats. I agree with Witz that the tone is smoother and mellower due to the flats. This makes it easy to sit low in the mix and be smooth (ala motown sound), but harder to get any cut in a rock mix. I think the latter is what I'm struggling with. I wanted more definition for this particular song. I guess I'll just get more aggressive with the EQ, which I never like to do. The source recording sounds good on its own. It was DI into a UA Solo 610, which is a great tube bass pre imo. The strings are Thomastik-Infeld JF344. I love them. I like the sound on its own, but it wasn't sitting in the mix right. I might try running it through different bass sims to see if that helps it sit.

I wouldn't go as far as to use a sim unless you want it to sound completely different. Thats what I use the sims for. In your case a SMALL amount of EQ at mix will go a long way. Do you have any of the API EQs found in the Waves library? If so, use those. Also the Waves Scheps 73 is excellent. If you have a UA package, the 1073 pre is a good one to sort out bass with. It doesn't ever take much as long as the track is solid.

For rock tracks ALWAYS HPF above 85hz. Give it a little bump around 120 and around 320. Clarity without getting in the way of the drums.
 
I have both those plugins but tend to like the CLA-2A compressor for bass (sounds smooth and natural to me rather than overly aggressive), but I will give them a try. The Scheps 73 is one of Waves best. When people crap no Waves I kinda get it since many plugins are fluff, but they have like a dozen really good ones. I HP at 80hz. My bass has a lot of frequency (I'd say excess) at 100hz so I rarely bump around there. I personally think it's due to the flats, but it might just be these pickups. The bass is one of those Magnificent7 P/J basses. It's excellent. When I recorded it, I think I rolled off too much treble because I'm obsessed with the smooth Motown type tone, but it doesn't cut through this busy mix well, so it might be user error and a poor decision. I might just redo the part with a little more cut right from the get go. Thanks!
 
The CLA 2A is too slow for a punchy bass sound IMHO. Thats why the 1176. The 1176 behind the API 550B EQ should get you anywhere you could need to go. I use LA2A's on vocals a lot. Too 'fluffy' for a rock bass track.
 
I have found over the years that the soloed bass sound is often not the sound you need in the mix, in fact when the bass sounds great in the mix and then I solo it what you hear is crap LOL.

All my Basses are passive pickups, I do have an Ibanez that has active EQ but with passive pickups. On the basses that are completely passive I have the volume and treble full up when recording due to the fact that passive EQ controls are really only top end cut, they don't boost. The active EQ bass I have all the tone central or neutral position, I do all the EQ after tracking.

When mixing these basses I very rarely have to do massive EQ, almost never boosting always a few cuts. The exception to boosting the EQ is if I want to make the bass really stand out then I look at upper mids, but very small boosting.

I should also point out that I play the strings with fingers not pick, playing with a pick actually brings out the top end more but I prefer playing with fingers. I should say that a lot of the sound is playing technique and a good set up bass. In fact when playing live and I use a back line amp the guitar player says that every amp sounds like me or my sound LOL.

I often record DI and Amp and blend the tracks, but I also only use the amp or DI sound if that fits better, I do both so I have options, sometimes by different blending of the 2 tracks no EQ is needed.

Strings are
Elixer round wounds, light gauge
D'Addario XL Chromes, flat wounds, light gauge


My usual recording Basses:

Fender Precision 1974 (round wounds)
Fender Jazz Frettless 1994 (round wounds)
Fender Precision hollow body fretless (jazz neck, flat wounds)
Ibanez BTB455 5 String ((round wounds)

Alan.
 
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