Eqing bass

mixsit said:
Wait a min. You watch stuff like that?

you must get a kick out'a me then 'cause I'll just leave these thing on all the time, go take a cra... Or what ever :p

:D:D
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Hehe...No, I don't WATCH for that stuff. But sometimes I notice it...But you're right, often I leave a page open while doing something else and if anyone WAS watching for it, they'd think I'm sitting there staring at the page waiting for something to happen. :)
 
As for the high-pass, i miss typed and should have said "low-pass" filter...my mistake.

I do agree that it depends...and that's what I said. I was just also trying to say, we all start off needing some guidelines or somewhere to start. When questions like this come up, I think the best way to handle it is to provide some guidelines (or just say what we do), and reiterate (strongly) that this is not the end and the asker will have to play with it and find what he wants for his music. But just saying "it depends" doesn't do much to help when someone is completely lost (like we have all been before). Not trying to disagree or cause an argument or 50 page thread, just trying to be productive. That's all I have to say in this thread so I won't make it 50 pages :)
 
aaronmcoleman said:
As for the high-pass, i miss typed and should have said "low-pass" filter...my mistake.
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No you were right. It is high-pass. If you were talking about cutting everything under 50hz, then it's a high-pass filter that you were talking about :)

As for the rest, I know you were trying to help and there's nothing wrong with what you were saying. I was just trying to point that one has to hear what works for them, and it's important to make people just starting out realize that nothing is "easy" or "quick" when it comes to learning about recording.

:cool:
 
good point at the end...i concede to your wisdom (seriously)!

The easiest part of recording is getting the equipment, it becomes much more difficult after that.
 
aaronmcoleman said:
..I do agree that it depends...and that's what I said. I was just also trying to say, we all start off needing some guidelines or somewhere to start. When questions like this come up, I think the best way to handle it is to provide some guidelines (or just say what we do), and reiterate (strongly) that this is not the end and the asker will have to play with it and find what he wants for his music. But just saying "it depends" doesn't do much to help when someone is completely lost (like we have all been before). Not trying to disagree or cause an argument or 50 page thread, just trying to be productive. That's all I have to say in this thread so I won't make it 50 pages :)
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..Which is why I tried to steer it to 'please try to focus our questions a bit so we can get into it better.
(Oh wait that was the other eq thread..
Anyway I keep wanting to just ask back in these situations 'what do you do now/where are you at now about eq'ing?' or whatever.

..are we at 50 pgs yet? :D

Hey I really am interested BTW what you meant about 'tone back there. You used it like it was 'done deal, I'm goin' umm which part of tone' know what I mean? :)
 
jimmys69 said:
High pass everything below 60hz. Notch out 160. Crank up the upper mids around 5k. Listen and realize it sounds like ass for the song. Do the exact opposite. If that don't work then try something else.
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This is a beautiful starting point. :D
 
By "tone" I mean the sound you get when the "tone knob" is turned up...punchy, more mids/high mids. If I turn the tone knob down it loses too much of those things, so I try to get them through EQ. Does this help? I don't like punchy bass. That's just my opinion though.

I also record all bass DI (for ease and I live in an apartment).
 
Bad analogy coming..ok.......GO!

Bass tone is like chicken: There are a million ways to cook, season, raise, and digest. What matters is how the chicken tastes to you and how much time and money you want to throw at preparing a tasty meal. From the get-go, you have no idea what was put into the chick via it's parents (pickups/wood/technique of the rooster) to make it tasty. Now, bass is not unlike chickens in the fact that the tone of the chicken's cluck will vary in the environment of a bunch of other chickens clucking at the same time. I for one, have no idea what your group of chickens sound like. I may be able to make them tasty with some special seasoning, though you may not like it spicy like I do. If your chicken has Tourettes, it may be heard in the mix of chickens in an adverse way. (or a good way in Greg's song). Therapy for you chickens (learning how to control the voice in a mix of chickens) will help to make a happy coup that the rest of us farmers can enjoy the eggs and meat of.

Oh, and about digestion; we may sh!t on you if you don't cook your chicken right.

Jimmy (chicken bitch););)
 
If you can't stand the meat, stay out of the chicken....




...or something. :eek:
 
aaronmcoleman said:
By "tone" I mean the sound you get when the "tone knob" is turned up...punchy, more mids/high mids. If I turn the tone knob down it loses too much of those things, so I try to get them through EQ. Does this help? I don't like punchy bass. That's just my opinion though.

I also record all bass DI (for ease and I live in an apartment).
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Got it. You say 'tone down, I say 'lots of low warm tone'. Taking different ways to the same place.
 
yup, you've got a better description. It doesn't help that I've got an active pickup bass, no amp, and very little bass skill to begin with :)
 
I always high and low pass bass. Take off some highs til it sounds good usually 8 khz-ish and drop off to 30hz-ish.
 
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For bass I'd say this :

try to see where the kick's dominant frequency is (generally 60 - 80 Hz), use filters or EQ to make room for the kick drum here. It depends on what you want to achieve balance-wise.
Then I watch the low mids : 100 to 800 Hz area is crucial because a lots of instruments fight there (guitars, snare, vocals...), you have to make room for everyone without killing your tones. Maybe a dip around 250-600 can help to get the bass in the mix.
Watch also the 100-200 Hz area : bass rumble here, that's what makes your tone full. Solo the kick and bass to see how it's fighting, this area can kill you, it can sound very thin or too "busy", you have to find the good balance.
800-1 k : this range can help you to make the bass more present, try a slight boost here (bit of distorsion should help to get the "growl" underneath the guitars, espacially in a rock/metal context).
1k - 3000 Hz : Presence. Reduce or boost, depending on how it was tracked and how it sits in your mix.
Do not be afraid of compression ! Try different things but basses in mixes tend to be very compressed, or even limited. Any kind of dirt can be cool too :)
 
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