I just got out of the studio and we are about to master, but before we do I want to find out how to get an even bass presence in the mix reguardless of the speakers. On my CDs the bass is always basically at the same volume, but when I play our tape on small speakers, the bass is very, very weak. However, on nice speakers, the bass sounds great. What should I do?
Bass range problems
- Thread starter bassboy
- Start date
Maybe get someone to do some mastering. After all, little tiny speakers really do have lousy bass response. The trick is to get the whole song to sound good on small speakers without having it boom on decent ones. If you're into bass, you might pump up the bass too high in the mix and screw up the sound of the entire song.
See the all-famous page at https://homerecording.com/mastering.html
See the all-famous page at https://homerecording.com/mastering.html
S8-N
..|.. Part-time Antichrist ..|..
Jesus H. this is a hard sword to swallow...
The bass should encompass the range between the kick drum and the guitar... Do this without stepping on either, while being heard, and you have a good mix.
In general, you probably need less high end than sounds good to your ears. At practice you want a crisp sound but in the studio you want low end that wont conflict with the guitar... kill that high end... unless you are Les Claypool you want to go easy on the high end...
If you have ever seen the Chili Peppers live you might notice that Flea uses way more high-end live than in the studio... This is because there is no one stopping him from doing so... (Just kidding) really... given the quality of most of our white-bread stereo systems... You have to squash the bass... or sound like Primus.
It is coming to the day( with subwoofers) that bass guitar will be felt and not heard.
O.K. Fine... that is an opinion...
S8-N
The bass should encompass the range between the kick drum and the guitar... Do this without stepping on either, while being heard, and you have a good mix.
In general, you probably need less high end than sounds good to your ears. At practice you want a crisp sound but in the studio you want low end that wont conflict with the guitar... kill that high end... unless you are Les Claypool you want to go easy on the high end...
If you have ever seen the Chili Peppers live you might notice that Flea uses way more high-end live than in the studio... This is because there is no one stopping him from doing so... (Just kidding) really... given the quality of most of our white-bread stereo systems... You have to squash the bass... or sound like Primus.
It is coming to the day( with subwoofers) that bass guitar will be felt and not heard.
O.K. Fine... that is an opinion...
S8-N