Making space for the bass...

S

schwa

New member
Hi Folks,

Mixing problem here. I am a fan of bass giutar with a healthy top end, for example any Geddy Lee stuff, the character found on Jazz or Rickenbacker basses.

My problem is this, I seem to get the right tone on the track, but when I go to mix, the top end disappears. So then I am left with a bass track that doesn't have the ring I am looking for.

I have the waves eq, and have tried the textbook rool off @80-100HZ, and have swept another band in an atempt to bring up the ring. This helps, but not to the degree I desire.

I have also tried cutting the relevant frequencies on the other tracks, but that does seem to help. It also doesn't seem to matter what else is going on (vocals, keys, guitar, etc) I mute each track one by one, and not until the bass is soloed do I get that tone.

This all said, the more traditonal bass tone is there, I can hear the bass line clearly, though it may be a little too high in the mix, and taking more space than it should.

I suppose I could post examples, but I have this problem in every mix I have tried.

Any ideas?
 
Only an example is going to help here.

If you post an example I'll give it a listen.

First a short bass alone so I understand what you want from the bass sound, then a clip of your mix.
 
If your rythem guitarist is strumming you can lose the bass in those frequencys If the guitarist can stick to doing 5ths or 4ths more of that bass work will stand out.
 
I kinda knew I needed to post...

But that begs another question.

I don't have an MP3.com account established, which is where most folks seem to post. Any suggestions as to where to do a casual post of a file?
 
Try ww.diskwise.com
Or javamusic.com
Or temp....open an account on geocities or fireangel.......
 
Try this:
mult the bass - copy bass to a new track, pan them ( original and copy ) hard left and hard right. Now put some delay on one track, 10 - 20 ms ( experiment with delay time to avoid comb filtering effect, or you maybe love some flanger on bass ? ). Now increase level of delayed track to compensate precedence effect ( image shift to one side ). You will get fluid, clear, extra wide bass which float over everything in the mix. ;)
 
If you have the tracks available:

1. Mic the bass cab as usual

2. Take a direct line (either off the back of the amp or throgh a DI box from the bass guitar its self)

3. Mic the strings down near the bridge

Now you should have everything you need to get the sound that you want.


I got this idea from this article, so check it out for the full explaination.

-tkr
 
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