Help! The case of the dissapearing bass

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laptoppop

Musical Technogeek
OK, listening through my monitors on this one song...the bass guitar sounds great. Its a slow folk song rendition of silent night, and the bass player is playing this slow extrememly low part that kind of drones in the background... lots of open strings, waaaaay low.

The bass was recorded through a DI box through the d8b console direct onto ADAT tape. I'm now mixing it in Sonar 2.1. I also have Ozone2 and CEP2 available.

When I play the song on my car stereo or boombox, the bass guitar is missing.

My best guess is that I've got the sound of the guitar without many harmonics, so if the speakers can't handle the fundamental note, the bass dissapears. Does that sound reasonable?

How can I increase the harmonics? EQ? Compression of the lower mid? Amp simulator plugin?

Or am I missing something else?

Help!

Thanks,
-lee-
 
Well,
there is always the possibility that you have inverted one of the channels. If it's not that, one of the nicest ways to get nice even order harmonics in the lower registers is a little tube overdrive. But not too much! Mm, nice harmonics...
 
Nope, no inversions, darn it!

Is there a "decent tube overdrive" plugin, preferably free? I've tried Sonar's amp simulator, but the solid state version is too clean and the others are too dirty.

-lee-
 
Well, if you're looking to add a little harmonic distortion, you said you had Ozone, right? I've stuggled with this same issue a lot and the problem is often solved with a combination of compression/filtering/eq & *maybe* a little low-end harmonic assist with Ozone at the end.

Actually, I'm almost embarrassed to admit it but the "small practice amp" setting on Cakewalk's amp sim has been my dirty little secret for bass "tightening" lately. If properly tweaked it really compresses the living daylights out of the sound, without destroying the tone, and does wonders for helping the bass stand out in a track. But it's generally more useful for rock-type stuff where tone isn't quite as crucial.

Chris
 
Thanks for the secret, I'll give it a try!

In the future, does it seem reasonable to think that recording a bass playing through an amp instead of a direct in might be better for upper harmonics?

-lee-
 
laptoppop said:
Thanks for the secret, I'll give it a try!

In the future, does it seem reasonable to think that recording a bass playing through an amp instead of a direct in might be better for upper harmonics?

-lee-
Click to expand...

This one's tough for me to answer since I never record the bass through an amp. I either use a POD or just go directly in. Recording through an amp just seems like more trouble than it's worth. But I'm sure there are people who would vehemently disagree with that one.

Cheers,
Chris
 
HI! this is my first post on here!

You have a nice board (d8b) and ADAT converters are quite good.
Besides phase problems, I imagine you have problems with your room and with your monitors placement.

Take care of that as first instance.

I am a recording /mastering engineer down here in Brazil. I imagine you shall be losing quality finalizing your job at a Cakewalk system. I know guys will hate me saying that, but I really do not appreciate the sound of Cakewalk, Digi 001..
I know that for project recording they are fabulous! At 10 years ago they would be a daydream but for a pro recording Cd, I would recommend you saving bucks, selling some stuff and buying a used PT mix at USA ebay. You will have lots of tracks, much superior quality.

The Roland machnes also have very nice sound, but no much fun if you are a fan of plugins.

I also liked the sound of DM800 ( still have one) and the AW4016 from Yamaha.
I imagine that VS2480 shall be really go either!

Nice week
!
 
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