Massive Master
www.massivemastering.com
Brilliant. Come up with that all on your own?
R
RAMI
Guest
Asshole. Stop reviving old threads with your pointless drivel.
DrewPeterson7
Sage of the Order
I'm surprised to hear so many of you advocating compressing the hell out of a bass to make it "punchier."
My experience (as a guy who was definitely NOT getting it right for a long time) that compression helps to a point if your problem is good attack but no body, but past that point you NEED the attack to give the bass some definition and make it "punch" through the mix.
Sidechaining can help the kick and the bass jive together a bit, but for me what finally got me a bass sound I was happy with was bi-amping my signal - I run through a Sansamp pre, and I record the effected and uneffected outs seperately. The uneffected "direct" out, I'll compress pretty heavily and low-pass somewhere in the 1-3khz range (whatever sounds good, really). The effected out, meanwhile, I'll dial up a gritty driven sound that sounds pretty bad on its own, and then high-pass it around the low-mids. I'll then compress this one quite a bit more lightly - 2:1 to 4:1, maybe - relying mostly on the natural compression from the gain. I'll then route these into a bus, mix levels to taste, and perform any additional needed processing there.
What this gives me is a bass sound with a lot of body and growl to it, but still enough attack to have a good amount of punch to it. The gain sound sounds pretty bad alone, and the clean sound is indistinct and flat, but when you bring them together they fill each other out and give you a great thick, aggressive bass sound.
My experience (as a guy who was definitely NOT getting it right for a long time) that compression helps to a point if your problem is good attack but no body, but past that point you NEED the attack to give the bass some definition and make it "punch" through the mix.
Sidechaining can help the kick and the bass jive together a bit, but for me what finally got me a bass sound I was happy with was bi-amping my signal - I run through a Sansamp pre, and I record the effected and uneffected outs seperately. The uneffected "direct" out, I'll compress pretty heavily and low-pass somewhere in the 1-3khz range (whatever sounds good, really). The effected out, meanwhile, I'll dial up a gritty driven sound that sounds pretty bad on its own, and then high-pass it around the low-mids. I'll then compress this one quite a bit more lightly - 2:1 to 4:1, maybe - relying mostly on the natural compression from the gain. I'll then route these into a bus, mix levels to taste, and perform any additional needed processing there.
What this gives me is a bass sound with a lot of body and growl to it, but still enough attack to have a good amount of punch to it. The gain sound sounds pretty bad alone, and the clean sound is indistinct and flat, but when you bring them together they fill each other out and give you a great thick, aggressive bass sound.
P
pathdoc
New member
I find the style of the bass player has alot to do with punch factor. A person who plays very soft can come out sounding mushy. A player who has a nice almost percussive attack will cut through much better. You might consider having the bass player play the track with more vigor.
N
NYMorningstar
Recording Modus Operandi
Sounds interesting Drew. Can't wait to get home to try it. Thx
joeym
New member
That's similar to what I'm doing lately with my bass tracks. Mixing two tracks is definitely a good idea. After reading this thread, I downloaded the Antress plugs and I think they're great for freeware, especially the Lost Angel. OK, I don't think they're as good as UAD, but then they wouldn't be free would they...?