Bass in the mix - a newbie question...

  • Thread starter Thread starter cooterbrown
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cooterbrown

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Hey,

My son has been recording his garage band on a tascam DP03 recorder.

Considering his budget is NIL - he's done a great job. Learned the equipment - scoured forums for answers. I'm just picking up the slack while he's in school.

His test master is really close.

But he can't seem to tame the Bass at high volumes. It all sounds great at reasonable volume - but the bass blows out at loud volumes (it's garage rock - so it has to be loud!)

1 - He said that the Bass was the only instrument recorded direct in - the guitars, vocals, drums, were all mic'ed.

2 - Also said that he has the bass turned almost all the way down in the mix.

Is there any advice out there as to how to approach it?
Re-record the bass with mic's?
Anyway to save what has already been recorded?

The rest of it sounds really good. Surprisingly so for what he has to work with.

And advice is appreciated!

Thanks!
 
If the bass is recorded on a separate track, then remix - I'd suggest moving tracks over to a computer so you can add compression and EQ to the bass track.
 
Would you say the mix as it is, sounds muddy?

If so, perhaps you could consider re-tracking the drums making sure the kick doesn't trespass in the 100hz and below region.

I think this way you don't have to have the bass so high in the mix as it'll stand out with no interfering frequencies.

Just a thought...
 
Garf Richards said:
making sure the kick doesn't trespass in the 100hz and below region. ...
Click to expand...

Huh? You want to cut pretty much the only instrument that actually should go below 100hz? You'll be replacing one problem with another. Now, you'll have no meat in your mix.

OP, don't cut that kik below 100hz.
 
In all fairness, it depends what is driving the song. I'd definitely play around with the bottom end, to try and fix the problem.
 
Garf Richards said:
In all fairness, it depends what is driving the song. I'd definitely play around with the bottom end, to try and fix the problem.
Click to expand...

No, I agree, it always deoends on a lot of things. But cleaning up your low end by cutiing everything on the kik below 100hz is probably the last thing I would consider in a "problem low end" situation. You might get rid of your low end problems, but that would be because you're getting rid of the low end.
 
RAMI said:
No, I agree, it always deoends on a lot of things. But cleaning up your low end by cutiing everything on the kik below 100hz is probably the last thing I would consider in a "problem low end" situation. You might get rid of your low end problems, but that would be because you're getting rid of the low end.
Click to expand...

The final solution!
 
Where?? are you when listening to the mix?? Problems with the bass may not be the recording at all, it could be the room and/or speakers you are listening in/with.

Try to post a clip here if you can.

It might also be another instrument that is causing the bloated low end. Maybe the guitars have too much low freq energy. Hard for us to help without hearing what you're talking about.
 
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