trying to make the bassline stand out more

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mikeyc222

New member
i recorded a song with a friend playing a really nice pedula bass DI into the board. the only problem is that the bass is really muddy and doesn't stand out well in the mix and my friend now lives in LA and i don't have a bass to rerecord.
any eq, compression, limiting ideas to make it stand out more?
can/should i run it line out to my guitar amp and mic that to try and get a little brighter sound or is that just a stupid idea?
 
it's only a bad idea if it sounds bad. It's worth a shot. Try boosting the mids on your eq a little. I find that helps a bass stand out better.
 
i had tried copying the bass track and eqing the 2nd track with all highs/mids to try and overlay with the other original track but it just didn't have the results i was looking for. the original track was still muddy, it just had a brighter noise over the top of it. lol
part of the problem i guess is that it is a heavy sound tuned down to B(but actually played in E). my guitar tone may be a little too deep and as a result may be making the bass sound even muddier. i donno. i'm still new at this stuff.
 
Don't EQ a copy just EQ the original track. Do a gentle bass roll off around 250hz on the guitar and cut around 150-350hz on the bass. Add a little around 400hz on the bass and maybe a little around 4khz to add more presence. Play with those areas and see if they work better together.
 
try cutting the low frequencies on all of your other tracks ( unless they are parts that need a lot of bass ). I've gotten to where I whack some of the bottom off of all my vocals, guitar, keyboard and miscellaneous rhythm ( shakers, tambourine, etc.) tracks while recording them. Helps the bass fit in. You tend to want to make individual tracks sound really full by themselves but you have to think of the single track in terms of the mix. You could try some compression on the bass track too. Good luck.
 
What program are you using? If you can run the bass through an amp simulator, that'll clean it right up. Yes, a guitar amp simulator will work fine.
 
i use cubase, with a POS lexicon core 2 sound card(waitin for the day i can afford the delta 10/10), a beringer 1204 mixer and unfortunately no amp sim. i thought about getting a POD Pro but available funds are preventing me from obtaining one at the moment.
 
I think you should definately try compression. Also, if you can get your hands on a bass amp, send the signal to the bass amp and re-record it the way you like it.
 
Go find an amp sim plug-in to download. There's a few out there for free. If you have a copy of Sonar or CWPA 9 there's a sim plug-in on there. Trust me, it's all you need for your particular problem.
 
I've never found an amp modeller to be the solution for anything except 'how do I make my tracks sound more dull and lifeless'. :D
 
well, after losts of fiddling, i think i will have to rerecord the bass line after all(have to borrow a bass somewhere). the trck was too hot when i recorded it which didn't show up that bad till i rolled of the lows and boosted the mids...
back to the drawing board...er...tracking board
 
TexRoadkill said:
I've never found an amp modeller to be the solution for anything except 'how do I make my tracks sound more dull and lifeless'. :D
Click to expand...


Then you're not using them correctly.
 
mikeyc222 said:
well, after losts of fiddling, i think i will have to rerecord the bass line after all(have to borrow a bass somewhere). the trck was too hot when i recorded it which didn't show up that bad till i rolled of the lows and boosted the mids...
back to the drawing board...er...tracking board
Click to expand...

What do you mean? Is it only clipping when you boost the EQ? Then you are boosting too much. How much are you using?
 
well, it distorts a little without any eqing but if i boost the the mids it just really stands out more. even just cutting the really low stuff a little made the distorting parts really stand out more.
 
When I EQ something I try to think about which part I want to boost and instead cut everything else to the same result in energy proportions. Then you can push the track volume up and get more of what you want boosted while keeping overall volume in check.
 
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