Bass line disappears

LazerBeakShiek

LazerBeakShiek

Rad Racing Team
What are your suggestions for something like this? Many of you really have this figured out, and the bass sounds even. My bass lines disappear. Do I cut out a notch pocket under 500hz? Cut the guitars and drums at less than 500 hz for the bass line?

I shaped the bass preset, so the tone is similar to the kick drum. Or tried, it is hard to hear them.

Here is a simple experiment to illustrate the problem. Guitar bass EZ drums.


My levels are -6db or less and managed.
levelsa.jpg
 
I wouldn't necessarily try to match the bass and kick tones. More likely I'd let them be different.

I haven't had a chance to listen, but there may be a higher frequency in the bass that gives it definition. A lot of the work I do on kick and bass is balancing the bottom and the definition.
 
I listened on the MacBook - no good, so tried my in-ears, still no good - got interested so went to the studio and still I cannot hear the bass. There is something down there, but I can't tell what. The guitar sounds meaty enough and the drums sound right - but the bass is impossible to tell what it's doing. Can you post just the bass track on it's own? I'm left thinking it must be the bass - the tone, the playing style, fingers or pick or EQ - I don't know? Or maybe it's playing too cleverly and not staying in the bass where it should be - maybe you could post the track as is, without the bass and I can try using mine and see if that vanishes too - I don't mind having a go.
 


The bass is too quiet. I recorded it too low I think.

Im going to keep playing with it, until I can push it up in the frequencies to sound like the radio.
 
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How about just turning it up?

The bass does seem to be dominated by percussiveness. That's way on top of the actual notes.
 
When I turn it up, it is not impressive. It is boomy in the mix, up. How about instead of targeting -6db on the meter, like songs taken into the DAW, going to +4 db? It would be in the red , but not clipping.

Once I listen to it at a level, specially distorted guitar, it is hard for me to turn it down. Lower it and the track losses its power. Bass is the opposite, unbalanced, and forget about any bass lines using the upper range. They don't break thru.

Louder is what I am looking for. I think the bass was recorded too soft. Yeah, I am definitely struggling to get the mix balanced. The files are included . Make it a jim jam jubilee.
 
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Try starting with the bass and kick, then build the mix around that. I would add vocals and snare next, then fill in the spaces with the guitars, being careful not to step on the core rhythm elements.

I downloaded the session, but I don't have EZ Drummer or EZ Keyboards, so I could only hear the bass and guitars. Also, it wouldn't play properly in Reaper for me, so I put the audio files into Vegas Pro.
 
I dowloaded the projected. The bass is recorded at a lower level than the guitars. I substituted Superdrums for EZ drummer. The program played fine for me.

So do what BSG says above ^^

Start the mix with bass and drums, and get those two elements working together nicely. Then bring up the guitars until they are there but not overwhelming bass and drums. Guitars are acoustically very dense, so it is easy fore them to take over a mix.
 
gecko zzed said:
the bass is recorded at a lower level than the guitars.
Click to expand...
Yes. That what I suspect. Its too low. You cannot really up the slider if the track was not recorded at the correct volume. That is why I was doing the room SPL and stuff. At some point it should start sounding right.

Not just more gain. It needs to be much louder at the microphone. It is around 80-85 SPL.
 
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The bass sound only has low end and slap, you aren't going to be able to hear it. Try adding some 800-900hz to give it a little growl.

BTW, see those red lights at the top of the bass and master meters? That's clipping.
 
I tried a bunch of eq and compression/limiting. A big, wide boost at about 800 did help, but it was still overwhelmed with slap.
 
For some reason I recorded it like that. I made the slap bass sound similar to the kick drum. I even thought they would mix better like that.

Headphones are Senn HD201

Monitors are the 2.1 Klipsch Studio system.
 
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There is nothing in fixed point linear PCM digital audio to represent signals greater than 0 dBFS. The red lights at the top of the bass and master meters are telling you that you went over. It causes digital clipping and aliasing and sounds nasty if there is enough of it. Line level is usually around -18 dBFS.

What's the best way to fit a gallon in a pint glass?

Your bass sound is very scooped and tubby. I wouldn't try to boost anything below 80 Hz or so. A percieved increase in "low end" would happen if the sound had a bit more content in the 200 - 500 Hz area. Easier to control than sub bass frequencies. Higher midrange frequencies closer to 1 kHz will help the bass to poke out of the mix better. There should also be something in the 2 to 5 kHz range for presence. Too much in that range will make the bass sound clicky like an old school typewriter.

If the kick and the bass sound the same, neither will have definition. If you want a deep bass sound, make the kick punchy. If you want a deep kick, make the bass punchy.
 
Take the Bass and carve out some sonic real estate - then mix the kick carving different space. Then turn it up.
 
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