how do you get the bass to sound even?

M

Malone

New member
it seems all of the times certain notes will over power and have more 'balls' and then some will be alittle weak.. has anyone had this problem??
 
It's mostly in the playing... A great bass player can play steady notes at the same volumes..

But, We all don't have access to great bass players... I have the same problem as you...... If you want to fix the problem, just put a compressor on the track.

Joe
 
Joe is correct. A compressor on the bass[track] is used a lot of the times for just that...smoothing out the volume relationships between the different notes/strings on a bass. It is actually a pretty common problem....or at least I've seen it quite a bit, even with great players. As you go up the neck, many basses seem to have certain notes that just "grab you by the balls" and shake the windows, while everything else seems ok.

on a side note, the compressor can also help to get your bass to "punch" a bit more also. Probably the 2nd most popular reason for strapping a compressor on the bass.
 
I had this problem with my bass because it has some sweet spots on the neck, if that's what you're talking about. The long term fix is to take it to a guy who know to have a set up. I had to replace the neck and now it's much smoother, though I lost the Fender logo on the process. Whatever. Another natural way of dealing with it is to change the song to a key that doesn't use the offending fret (in my bass is sometimes the low G).

Then you have compression an eq, which are the artificial way. Compression is cool, it helps even the notes and also can give you a specific tone, like the compression you get by using Ampegs. With eq, you have to dial by ear until you find the offending note.

Then you have your playing technique, if that's the problem. If a note is too loud try to pluck it closer to the bridge.

Finally, if you're miking then maybe it's your room the cause of trouble (standing waves). Get far away from the corners and walls, maybe that'll help.

Cheers, Andrés
 
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