6 String Bass turning to mud

[the edzell]

Did some recording with a friend who plays a 6 string bass and sets his amps so the low end comes out strong. On the recordings the bass gets lost in the mix and turns to mud.

I’ve tried to EQ and compress it so that it will bring it up, but the bass player really demands that the bass be “big, low and full.” (and it isn’t even a Nu Metal project) so I’m hesitant to play around too much with the sound by bringing up the mids and highs.

Should I have him re-record DI or should I work with what I have? Can you guys suggest anything to keep the bass tracks “big, low and full” without it being so low that it gets lost in the mix?

 

[ez_willis]

I’ve tried to EQ and compress it so that it will bring it up, but the bass player really demands that the bass be “big, low and full.” (and it isn’t even a Nu Metal project) so I’m hesitant to play around too much with the sound by bringing up the mids and highs.

Who's mixing it, the bass player or you?

Should I have him re-record DI ?

Yes.

 

[ecktronic]

I have had this nightmare of a trouble with a meir four string bass, god help you with six string bass!! Anyway i would re-record the bass again, but this time tell him that he needs to change his tone, but will still have the big lo bass sound that he so so wants. Your problem with your recording will probably be that there is not enough mids and hi mids recorded to define the bass, so when you try and boost certain areas of mids and highs nothing much changes.
You should make sure that the bass guitars tone knobs are turned to hi tone rather than lo tone. If the bass guitar is active try changing the battery as this can make a HUGE difference in definition. Play with the amp settings trying to acheive a more defined bass sound. Take away more los and add more his and play with the mids to see which setting gives the most clarity. Make sure the amp is off the ground to avoid lo end bouncing off the floor into the mic as this can make a recording muddy. The secret is to get a well defined bass tone so that the notes are distinguishable and then when mixing boost around 3-5k for more definition and boost around the lo end for a bit of meat (but only a bit probably). If it sounds muddy still try cutting some mids at the lower end around 200hz abouts maybe.
Where you will get the heavy bass tone that the bassist is looking for is at the mastering stage. Get your mix sounding clean and so there is no mud or lo end overpowering and muffling the mix and every instrument is well defined throughout the whole song then add some lo end to beef up the bass and kick.
Hope this helps. Tell me how it went if you decide to try this or even if the bass player lets you!!
Eck.

 

[7string]

Explain to him that playing live and recording are two different things. Record the bass through a DI AND the mic. Keep the DI signal.

 

[giraffe]

yea, i'm dealing with this bass player (not a 5) now who REFUSED to let me add mids into his bass sound during tracking.

guess what, he dosn't like how it sits in the mix now.

that's what i get for letting people have opinions.

 

[Zed10R]

Explain to him that playing live and recording are two different things. Record the bass through a DI AND the mic. Keep the DI signal.

+1

The perfect tone for solo bass sucks balls when recording/mixing and the perfect recording/mixing tone is not one you would want to solo with. If it's at all possible, have him play along with the music while monitoring his own sound via headphones or monitors. Get him away from his amp. he needs to dial in a tone that works in the music. That's a tough ego issue a lot of musicians have a hard time dealing with, but it must be done.

So yeah, he needs to do it again, preferable direct. If he insists on recording a huge fat tone, promise him it will end up sucking balls.

 

[7string]

+1

The perfect tone for solo bass sucks balls when recording/mixing and the perfect recording/mixing tone is not one you would want to solo with. If it's at all possible, have him play along with the music while monitoring his own sound via headphones or monitors. Get him away from his amp. he needs to dial in a tone that works in the music. That's a tough ego issue a lot of musicians have a hard time dealing with, but it must be done.

So yeah, he needs to do it again, preferable direct. If he insists on recording a huge fat tone, promise him it will end up sucking balls.

I was going to tell him to separate the bassist from the amp but the more I though about it the more I thought that if he just ran a DI and a mic, he could let the guy hear the mic sound but record the DI sound. Best of both worlds. A little shady but it gets the job done and 9 times out of 10 the bassist will listen to the mix and say it sounds good.

 

[Zed10R]

I was going to tell him to separate the bassist from the amp but the more I though about it the more I thought that if he just ran a DI and a mic, he could let the guy hear the mic sound but record the DI sound. Best of both worlds. A little shady but it gets the job done and 9 times out of 10 the bassist will listen to the mix and say it sounds good.

You sneaky bastard.... Just remeber, if you don't educate the offender, you will have to keep dealing with the same issues over and over.....but I DO like that idea for particularly difficult poeple.

 

[7string]

You sneaky bastard.... Just remeber, if you don't educate the offender, you will have to keep dealing with the same issues over and over.....but I DO like that idea for particularly difficult poeple.

I agree. With the 'educate' part and prolly the 'sneaky bastard' part too. But sometimes you just have to make people think. I thought he'd figure the sneaky bastard part out for himself.

 

[riantide]

Try this:

"Hey bass player, do you think you could run upstairs and grab me a cup of coffee?"

"Why certainly, engineer. I'd be happy to."

And then while he's gone you EQ the hell out of his amp.

Ok, so you didn't teach him how to fish, but the session just saved about an hour of bickering.