Bass line disappears

I would put a bit of saturation or even some harmonic distortion on the bass, it should help even out the sonics and allow it to poke through. A little low shelf might be called for around say 100Hz?
 
No that's the snag. The guitars are very low in fundamental pitch and all the energy in the bass is in the harmonics and percussive, so although I can hear what it's playing now - which is essential two notes, they get hidden, and I can't get the bass louder either. In this key you can't play it the octave below - so you're stuck with a High D, and while the low D on my 5str sort of works, the low C doesn't. Playing it without the percussiveness didn't work that well either. If you cut the D and C on the guitars it weakens them quite a lot.
 
Not sure why that bass part would be slapped. A straight 8th note pattern isn't really anything that a slap player would play.

With this arrangement, the bass isn't going to stick out since it is mimicking the guitar part. The best you can hope for is the bass and guitar becoming one wall of sound.
 
I downloaded the project and gave it a shot as well, and concluded the same thing . . . guitars and bass are so closely matched tonally. I could get a good bass and drums mix, but as soon as I brought up the guitars to a reasonable level, the bass disappeared. The guitars had to be right down to hear the bass.
 
In fairness - it's not slap bass in the true style but the kind of sound that Iron Maiden have when you abuse the strings on a precision - very hard. That kind of percussive rattle. So not a funky slap,but a Steve Harris bash!
 
I think the other problem is that the bass line too closely mirrors what guitar1 is doing, so not only is it low in level, it's hard to distinguish what it doing that is different from the guitar.

Maybe vary what the bass is doing relative to the guitar1.
 
LazerBeakShiek said:
You think a dampener or bass mute might help? Cut the sustain off each note.
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You could just play it so the note doesn't sustain, either palm mute or bounce your fretting fingers to stop the note. You could also come up with a bass line the moves, so it doesn't do the exact thing the guitar is doing. There are lots of things you can do if getting the bass to cut is your goal. You could even change the guitar sounds so they aren't quite so nasal, then add some midrange to the bass.
 
You ever use a Bassmute? My pads are old on it. They no longer hold against the strings with proper force. Its a contraption.

They make spongey blocks that slide under the strings by the bridge too.

20210701_202942.jpg
 
I've seen them, but never really understood why you would use them, at least in a rock context. I was always able to mute with one hand or the other.
 
Yeah.....IMO just record it again and either change your technique enough to fit the mix or maybe even re-record the guitar parts. I think you've done as much as you can to try to fix your current track.......but it's not likely to get there. I also agree with Farview that a different bass line could help too. It doesn't need a complete revamp....just some changes. As for muting......you play guitar as I recall right? It's not a vastly different approach.

2 cents worth of.......hey man.....give it a try.....

Mick
 
frank1985 said:
. i usually high pass guitars up to 170-200hz to make space for the bass.
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Taking ideas from the comments. I kept the beat and restarted. The more that i cut HPF or LPF , the better it sounded to me. No boomy bass in the guitars. It also sets everything back , like the instruments are farther away in the headphones.

This new mix is heavily cut on top and bottoms of everything. I drew weird pictures in the EQ GUI box. Compressed. It sounds like tiny instruments. Tiny guitars...but I kind of like how the bass layers in it.


Is this closer to what I am looking for? It uses lots of EQ and cuts. Not much is boosted. This uses no real amplifiers or microphones. I am kinda bummed about that. However the recordings do sound more authentic...
 
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