First real attempt with my studio gear

Bass Master "K"

Bass Master "K"

New member
Hey everyone. Well, after investing waaaaay to much money in my DAW, and reading stuff around here and pretty much reading stuff everywhere I locked myself in my music room over the weekend and this is what came out of it.

I would REALLY appreciate any feedback. Except for sketching out like 10 songs on a 4 track, and then sketching a few acoustic songs on my new studio gear I haven't really done much home recording so I am pretty new to all of this. This one I wanted to test out more of what I can get from my system.

It's an instrumental, so don't hold your breath for the vocals to kick in :D

I'm working on an album (while I'm waiting for my rock band to strike it rich :p ) of bass oriented rock instrumentals. Lots of tapping and lots of melodic bass. This is the first tune. I'm playing all of the instruments.

Known Issues: fret noise when moving my hands while tapping during the hard part. I could have tried to re-record it but I thought my tendons were about to pop out of my arm in a scene reminicent of the movie Alien. Also, the tapping bass drops a bit in volume for a few beats during the middle hard section due to the above mentioned tendons.

Thanks guys and I look forward to hearing what you think of it and what can make this better.

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=3159/singles
 
Well the big guns should roll in and can tell you from the engineering angle soon, but from a bass players view I say this.. Your gettin a good sound on your DAW already, the tracking is good, it seems like the eq area is gonna be a good project for you. In the low end from around 100 to 600 you got some wrestling going on with the bass , low end guitar, and kick. take a little away from the guitar and let it stay up in the mids, that'll let the kick and bass come out more. You could low shelve the low end with a knee at around 50 and it`ll get the mud out. I wouldnt rob the mids quite so much on the bass, it`ll work with that style of attack. turn the guitars down a tad.
You might check out Stanley`s latest album and listen to the eq of his bass rythyms and leads at the same time. Good work man..
 
Hey Toki, thank you for all the tips! That's a lot of great info and I will definately look into trying that stuff out. I noticed that the because the bass is playing in the higher register that it was battling a bit with the guitar. Againk I really appreciate you giving it a listen.

Particpant: I noticed that nowhereradio was down for a few minutes. It just came back online...maybe you could try again?
 
Bass Master K

I kept thinking of my country's favourite Bass Master,
Geddy Lee as I was listening.
I just winced from a bit of fret noise...........
you should zero in on that small section of the part and see if you can't mellow it out a bit.

Quite an instrumental
 
That intro scared the shit out of me! I thought my monitors were broken!

I agree with what toki said. Low mid and bass is muddy and undefined, but nice playing and arranging!
 
HevyD....I can't imagine a much bigger compliment. I was a Rush fan since high school and Geddy is an unbelievable musician. Thanks for taking the time to listen. The fret noise I am afraid I can't do much with and I am starting to think that I will need to rerecord the whole bass track and see if I can't get rid of it. It's tough because the tapping is moving so fast at steady sixteenth notes that I don't have much time to get my right hand to the new chord and the left hand to the new melodic notes. There are times that you don't hear it though so I think I really need to sit down and figure out how to play it cleaner. When I tap in a live setting you don't really notice it as much since it gets lost with everything. That has been one of the interesting things coming at recording as a lifelong musician, and not as a guy interested in recording. The live game and the studio game are much further apart than I think I ever realized as far as what you can get away with noise wise and things that work in one setting but don't sound as good in another.

Sorry Swede :p I guess I should have put a disclaimer in there about not worrying that your cones just got fried during the intro :D The end thing is kind of an inside joke with me and the band mates about an excuse for canceling practice one time. It became a running joke for when anyone couldn't do something. When I get home tonight I am going to get back down to the music room and play with the EQ like you and Toki suggested and see if I can't clear the lows up. Thanks for listening and taking the time to respond.

If anyone else has any comments I would love to hear them. I'm real new to all of this. I have downloaded a couple mp3's from here and will give some comments when I get home to return the favor. This is a very cool area of the BBS that I had not explored until now.
 
Bass Master "K" said:

Sorry Swede :p I guess I should have put a disclaimer in there about not worrying that your cones just got fried during the intro :D
Click to expand...

To late, LOL. I already shit in my pants :)
 
The string sounds do not bother me in the least. In fact, I like 'em.
Work on getting rid of them if you personally don't like them, but don't feel you have to.

Nice playing by the way :D.
 
Song: Dude I...

Musically... quite nice

I think the drums are a little wet though and the snare could use a little boost (just a little).

There are some noises when you're sliding the strings on the bass. I have the same problem too with my songs. But IMO, placed just right those noises sound cool cause it makes the performance sound more organic and spontaneous.
 
Yeah... Today's Tom Sawyer... mean mean guy... (well... those thoughts were there in the intro...) ...

Yeah... the compression really does kinda take the thump outta those drums in that manic part... flattens 'em right up. Okay... a more melodic part. Kinda reminds me of a samicide groove right there... except for that bridge-pickupy sound on bass(?) right there...

Something about the mix is bowl-of-soupy... the "snare" (drum sample) placement, vs. the lead gtr and the trebly bass part that's hiding there somewhere, too. Some of the gentlemen on this group (can't speak about the gentlewomen) use ye olde simulatede reverberation on a lead guitar like that for more separation... just a thought... maybe your mix should be thought of as more "back to front"... instead of the always "side-to side" thing.

The tracks being as dry as they are means everything kind of sits right there at the same depth; then you've compressed it which brings everything forward, leaving nothing in the back. Some panning and esp. reverb gives you the separation these tracks seem to need. More for tracks meant to sit furthest back; less for those in front. It doesn't take much; but better quality 'verbs don't hurt, either. Suggestion that's all ;)

Nice mood piece.


Chad
 
Hey bass,
.very cool stuff here man. It sounds like Toki covered mixing tips pretty well. This takes me back to trying to figure out Talas licks as a teenager. It sounds like youre having a blast w/ your new gear. This was a fun listen.
g
 
Swede said:
To late, LOL. I already shit in my pants :)
Click to expand...

If you'll ever listen to another one of my tunes now, I will send you a free box of depends or baby wipes....whichever you prefer :p

fprod south...thanks for the opinion on the string noise. As I listen, alot of them aren't really that bad as a matter of fact I like a little bit of string noise myself. I went back and listened to it and tried to pretend that I was listening to it for the first time and I think there are probably two or three that really jump out as a bit too much and will need to do something about it. Thanks for the listen and the opinion!

quattro and participant....you guys nailed what is the biggest problem I have had to face with my setup....drums. My best friend is a drummer, but we have found it easier for me to sketch the tunes and use either no drums, or one of the sampled set sfrom my digital piano and just program them by hand. Later he will either lay live drums over the tracks or we will start from scratch once all the tunes are assembled. Part of the problem is that the drums already have a bit of verb on them. I turned it down as much as I could because I don't like the sound with that verb. I have a TC Electronic verb unit hooked up that I ran it through and even just using "drum box", I could tell that at the beginning of the song it sounded like too much. Can you say THUNDERDRUMS!?!?! But then once the rest of the instruments come in I thought it sounded pretty good especially during the mellow section. But you guys gave me a great thought which to seperate the drums into more individual tracks. I recorded the bass drum to a seperate track but the rest of the drums on one track since the bass drum is always to soft. It would be smart to seperate the snare out as well I am thinking now. I will play with the front to back concept a bit more. I have been reading about it in this mixing book I got my hands on.

Thanks Guerenica for the compliments. I am definately having fun. It was nice to get to play around a bit more other than just sketching. I can tell I have a long way to go :p

Thank you to everyone who took the time to listen I really appreciate it, this has really helped me out :)
 
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