How to get bass to sound like this

echobeach said:
Hey, finally an answer that's on topic instead of "punk sucks" or arguing about the cost of fretless basses!

Yeah, it also seems like the guitar has had a lot of lower frequencies cut and the drums have some modulation effect on them, maybe phaser, which makes the bass more prominent in the mix.

I've wondered if maybe the bass wasn't run through something like a Mu-tron phaser (a favorite of all those old dub reggae guys) on a really slow sweep so that it was acting more like a static resonant filter.
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To an extent it's possible that there are some low frequency content augmenting the bass - it doesn't sound like a Mu-Tron - but does sound like something is around the bass - like they put a chorus on it and then limited the frequency of it. There is something that's making the low mid really cut through.
 
rob aylestone said:
The reason the baseline is different is that it's syncopated in this case a kind of anti-rhythm that is not in the remainder of the parts or the drums. Add to this the fact is it's playing a higher twiddly bit makes it a bit different to the bass lines used in the genre. It's a bit similar to early Split End, which had similar bass lines but was a bit gentler than punk. I've never heard music described as quantitatively different. The rest of the song is pretty naturally quantised, but the bass line pulls and pushes alongside the pulse of the drums, which is a bit clever (maybe too clever) for the genre as a whole - so kind of unusual. I don't think it's fretless because I tried to play it on my fretless and I'd need some serious practice to get the intonation right with the right rhythm and accents. It's too repetitive to be done on a fretless with the level of technology available back then. Now, we could fix everything and copy and paste, back then, they had to play it for real.
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Thanks for the music theory lesson but as with all your posts, it doesn't address the question. Of course, if you don't hear anything unusual in how the bass was tracked or mixed, then you wouldn't be able to answer the question anyway. So why are you still posting?
 
echobeach said:
What's going on with the bass guitar in this song?
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If you look into the band a bit you'll find some info about their work. This is from 83-84. That art work comes up on a compilation record BS Detector 3 from Crass Records which is a UK label. Not sure how a band from Newport RI ended up on this label but probably from their touring. Found a couple interviews online in a quick search. Might find more if you poke around.
 
Papanate said:
To an extent it's possible that there are some low frequency content augmenting the bass - it doesn't sound like a Mu-Tron - but does sound like something is around the bass - like they put a chorus on it and then limited the frequency of it. There is something that's making the low mid really cut through.
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Since you bring up chorus, maybe it's something like an Electric Mistress or MXR flanger in "filter matrix" mode. Those pedals would have been common then, and consistent with basement recording budgets, though I'd expect a colder or tinnier sound from them.
 
Folkcafe said:
If you look into the band a bit you'll find some info about their work. This is from 83-84. That art work comes up on a compilation record BS Detector 3 from Crass Records which is a UK label. Not sure how a band from Newport RI ended up on this label but probably from their touring. Found a couple interviews online in a quick search. Might find more if you poke around.
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I used to own that record on vinyl back in the '80s. I know what it is. I'm not sure why you think I don't know these things.

There were bands from all over the place on those compilations. Being signed to Crass Records wasn't necessary to appear on one of them.
 
echobeach said:
I used to own that record on vinyl back in the '80s. I know what it is. I'm not sure why you think I don't know these things.

There were bands from all over the place on those compilations. Being signed to Crass Records wasn't necessary to appear on one of them.
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I get you are in hostile mode for some reason. Production research is pretty common and that is the direction I was pointing you in. If you are familiar with the band then you probably already know which bass player is on this tune. A bit of searching, you might be able to reach out and ask the actual person who either recorded this track or even the bass player for the information you seek. Was more into the corporate punk like Carroll around then which wouldn't be apparent from my handle. I wish you luck and will cease to try to "help" if it is otherwise so objectionable.
 
echobeach said:
My question was "How to get bass to sound like this?" What's ambiguous about it?
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The sound of a bass is determined by a variety of factors, inclduing playing techique, the instrument attributes, the instrument amplification, the recording process and the engineering techniques.

You actually asked " What's going on with the bass guitar in this song?" which could cover any or all of the above. That is non-sepcific and very ambiguous. You later narrowed it down somewhat with "I meant "what's going on" in terms of the sound, the production, the processing, rather than the musical composition or performance."

That is not ambiguous, but is very difficult to answer, because the final sound you hear doesn't always reveal its genesis. So the sound of that bass may be the result of extensives post-recording manipulation. But it may also have nothing to dowith that, but is the sound created in the pre-recoding performance by the player.
 
So since phasers, chorus, etc. have been brought up, the question must be raised: Do you have access to a higher quality* rip of the track? Your original posted version only goes to 480p; at that level, YT drastically downsamples audio. The full album rip goes up to 720, which is better quality, but still an mp3 tier. Even between the 2 tho, there are drastic differences in the audio quality. At 720, there is far less swishing on the cymbals, and you can hear each cymbal crash gradually move from center to far right.

The variable panning on the drums means they almost certainly had a multiple mic setup. They add a ton of reverb to 2 out of 3 snare hits during the outro, meaning they had access to a reverb chamber of some sort and setup with complex enough routing to send specific hits to a reverb bus.

So they recorded this in a real studio. Looking at their Discogs, the only studio credits I can find for that era is that they recorded an album live in WRIU (RI radio station) studio. So they were generally keeping things local. What legit recording studios were operating in Rhode Island in the mid-80s?

I'd still be inclined to guess DI, but it's distinctly possible that they had access to some high-quality compressors and outboard gear for the bass. Possibly even some used 70s disco gear as you suggested yourself EB.

* Yes, I understand the irony
 
VomitHatSteve said:
So since phasers, chorus, etc. have been brought up, the question must be raised: Do you have access to a higher quality* rip of the track? Your original posted version only goes to 480p; at that level, YT drastically downsamples audio. The full album rip goes up to 720, which is better quality, but still an mp3 tier. Even between the 2 tho, there are drastic differences in the audio quality. At 720, there is far less swishing on the cymbals, and you can hear each cymbal crash gradually move from center to far right.

The variable panning on the drums means they almost certainly had a multiple mic setup. They add a ton of reverb to 2 out of 3 snare hits during the outro, meaning they had access to a reverb chamber of some sort and setup with complex enough routing to send specific hits to a reverb bus.

So they recorded this in a real studio. Looking at their Discogs, the only studio credits I can find for that era is that they recorded an album live in WRIU (RI radio station) studio. So they were generally keeping things local. What legit recording studios were operating in Rhode Island in the mid-80s?

I'd still be inclined to guess DI, but it's distinctly possible that they had access to some high-quality compressors and outboard gear for the bass. Possibly even some used 70s disco gear as you suggested yourself EB.

* Yes, I understand the irony
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I think it's dead Steve as us old farts pissed this guy off.

I had done a sum total of 10 minutes search and found more useful info than I could read through. I've got a business to run and I'm not being paid to do this guys research, so attempted to point him in the self service direction.

I did skim this article from 3 years ago where a small RI label is remastering their catalog. The singer seems to have returned to the RI area. Contacting either Chris or Brian, approaching respectfully, the OP could likely get in touch with someone related to the recording that could give him answers. Aka, the shortest distance between two points is a strait line.

Article Verbal Assault Remastering
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Oh, you might be looking at the wrong band. According to Discogs, there was a UK Verbal Assault who basically did nothing but this comp: https://www.discogs.com/artist/3997...Appearances&subtype=Compilations&filter_anv=0
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Two punk bands from the same time period with the same name. Too funny. I didn't spend a whole lot of time but based on a quick read I mentioned that I found it odd that a label that specialized in UK bands would have this on one of their compilations. Anyway, I've stopped caring and the OP went off stomping his feet.
 
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