Help making bass guitar not seem "flat"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Seafroggys
  • Start date Start date
Seems you'v got a bit of 'cream/jack bruce going (-fine by me BTW. :D
 
heh, I always seem to wind up with a Jack Bruce tone, I've had other people comment on other work I've done with the same comparison
 
4:1 would be "killing" it also. 9:1 might as well be a hard limiter. Try 2:1. *Maybe* 3:1 if you're really out of control.

The biggest problem with most bassists I see is strings... Nothing sounds like fresh strings - Put a couple hours of playing time on fresh strings and they won't sound so fresh anymore no matter what you do with them. Adding a mic'd up amp wouldn't be out of the question either.

See, this is why (ignoring all disclaimers about "there are no 'magic' settings" and "there are no rules, do what works for the mix") sometimes it's just helpful to post settings you use anyway.

I've been, as it turns out, compressing the living shit out of my bass guitar without really thinking much about it for years now, 8:, thru 12:1, depending on my mood. Why? Because I thought that's what everyone was doing. Meanwhile, I've also been pretty dissatisfied with bass tone - no matter what I tried, it just didn't sound right to me.

Two lessons here - one, doing anything "without really thinking about it" is probably retarded. Two, though, sometimes just having a sense of what's "normal" can really help when you're trying to find out what isn't working for you. "Normal" is all relative, and if somehow you're under the impression that all bass guitars get super-heavily compressed to smooth out the dynamic swings, so your starting point becomes 8:1, well...

I'm listening to a new mix now of a song I'd been working on - it's still not perfect, but it's working waybetter for me. Thanks! :D
 
The bass sounded fine. A tad bit loud. I think if you didn't use staccato for every note and used a few more half notes to cement the line, along with a few well chosen rests it'd do wonders for the line. Try accenting the downbeats by nailing the one then letting some breathing room afterwards.

However, that's just my opinion - it is your music and you've got to do what you think is right. My string are usually between 3-4 years old, but that's more to do with poverty then with tone.


I really liked the keyboard tone and the drum solo.
 
yea seafroggys i can hear what your calling flat, empty something missing.
i don't know what it is either.

seems it starts sounding best way into the song during the bridge piece. 1:45 or so....2min on it sounds better.

I'm guessing there's some lower end not there that your wanting in the intro or something. The mid-notes seem fine and the note clarity seems good (many people like this bass sound actually, subjective issue). I mean you can't really use a swampy mud bass when your doing all those notes, so I'll bet its going to be a fine line between getting the lower end in and beware of mud-swamp blues bass which won't work either.

the intro really has the missing tone. maybe double track it in the intro.
Once its all going I think the bass sounds pretty good? The volume was pretty smooth, and the notes were clear...

Is it your strings? Do you think its "empty" while your recording (maybe monitors?) or only during playback? Is it the Bass guitar itself!?

a lot of interesting posts on this thread....I never knew some of that about McCartneys bass recording work...or Geoff's actually. Altec compressors..?
 
maybe this will help. i've found that using a pick and picking near the bridge adds a little more clarity to each note struck. Might change the pitch a little though.
 
Argh, I can't use picks to save my life. Plus I'm a finger purist (odd, considering Mr. McCartney used picks and Mr. Entwistle used picks half the time)...but yeah, I suck with picks.

I like the bassline as it is, though I think it is lacking a bit of depth in the beginning like you mentioned....and its a tad bit more staccato than I wanted. I haven't tried re-recording it in awhile, but I'll see what I can do tomorrow.
 
The bass does sound odd - almost farty in spots then again seems to be all upper mid definition and no guts.
It "seems" out of tune to me - it isn't but it gives me that impression - in that it doesn't seem to belong.
I don't compress unless I have to.
I do a small tweak up at 3khz.
I don't think either is of any use to you as they suit my bass, my gear and my ear.
 
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