Mixing 2 Bass players

Cody Suit

Cody Suit

likes Fast/Heavy music
so i just started a new band and we're eventually gonna record and thought i'd bring this question up here before hand so im not going into it with no ideas.

the band has drums, 2 bassists (one distorted, one clean w/ lots of mid) and 2 female screamers. its lke a grind band.

any one have any good ideas how to record/mix the 2 different basses to make it sound full and heavy, with keeping lots of body of the notes?
 
Yo Captain Cody:

With two basses, I do believe you will get a great deal of sympathetic vibrations or EQ cancellations. So, you will have to toy with EQ settings to get some results that make you happy.

You can spend a lot of time trying all the variables; OR, you can send your tracks to a PRO who has the necessary gear and pay to have the tracks mixed.

I'd do this only if you have a "good" song at hand.

So, it depends on your gear and your mixing skills.

Happy Spring
Green Hornet :D
 
if i was in your situation, i would take the amps to a nice room, put 2 close mics up and put 2 condensers out in x/y and pan them in stereo. pan the close mics however you want.
 
i meant to mention i'm totally in your situation since i play bass in a drum/bass band and i play through 2 amps, one is distorted and the other is a real mid rangey (just like yours).
 
i would never pan a bassguitar Left and Right,
don't do that to bass-heavy audio tracks..keep them in the center

are the bassplayers playing at the same time, or do they play.....after each other, i had bassists play with distortion pedals, no problem,
but if they play all the time,

i'd give the clean bassplayer the bottom end,
and on the distorted track you take away all the bass below.....i don't know, you'll have to hear it yourself, but lets say CUT everything below 150,
and boost some around 1000hz

that way you get bass from the clean sound, and on top of that a real agressive sound from the distortion

i consider distorion on a bass as an effect, something you don't use during the entire song, so for me it comes on the second place,
focus on the clean one...then the other one

and send the two female screamers over to my place, that kinda people makes me wild :D :D
 
You're gonna need to seperate the two bass players.

Try putting one in another room, with another band. Then each band would have the optimum number of bass players.
 
earworm said:
i would never pan a bassguitar Left and Right,
don't do that to bass-heavy audio tracks..keep them in the center

are the bassplayers playing at the same time, or do they play.....after each other, i had bassists play with distortion pedals, no problem,
but if they play all the time,

i'd give the clean bassplayer the bottom end,
and on the distorted track you take away all the bass below.....i don't know, you'll have to hear it yourself, but lets say CUT everything below 150,
and boost some around 1000hz

that way you get bass from the clean sound, and on top of that a real agressive sound from the distortion

i consider distorion on a bass as an effect, something you don't use during the entire song, so for me it comes on the second place,
focus on the clean one...then the other one

and send the two female screamers over to my place, that kinda people makes me wild :D :D
Click to expand...


the bass players are playing at the same time. im thinkin maybe pan them like 5% each way but not much. the distorted one will always be distorted.

we were gonna have the clean bass with lots of low end but the song just sounded like mush when we practiced, so we made it almost all mid and cut out from 40 - 120 hz and from 5k-10k on his graphic equalizer on the amp.
 
You could try recording the distorted bass like you would a guitar- with several tracks panned to hard left and right. You'd have to really ephasize the higher frequencies to prevent it from getting muddy, but in the end you'd probably have a really thick, grind-y sound.

Whenever you do get around to recording something, post it up! This ought to be interesting to hear.
 
earworm said:
i would never pan a bassguitar Left and Right,
don't do that to bass-heavy audio tracks..keep them in the center

:D
Click to expand...


Unless you are dealing with Kings X. Then all rules of panning are out the window!





ez_willis said:
You're gonna need to seperate the two bass players.

Try putting one in another room, with another band. Then each band would have the optimum number of bass players.
Click to expand...


LMAO!!! I was thinking it. But you said it perfectly. So many bands are bassless and these guys are hording them like canned beans in 1999!
 
I have a cd of a band with either 3 or 4 bass players that's self recorded, and it sounds AWESOME.

Maybe actually try doing the two basses in stereo? Who knows, it's obviously not your average band, so you shouldn't necessarily have to stick to any formula.
 
I dunno. Listen to Big Bottom by Spinal Tap. That was all bass. Actually, here is a totally awesome song with just bass.
 
scrubs said:
I dunno. Listen to Big Bottom by Spinal Tap. That was all bass. Actually, here is a totally awesome song with just bass.
Click to expand...


man i was just about to mention Big Bottom. great tune.
 
Cody Suit said:
any one have any good ideas how to record/mix the 2 different basses to make it sound full and heavy, with keeping lots of body of the notes?
Click to expand...

I may be stating the obvious here, but if you try to "make it" sound any other way than how it actually DOES sound, WHILE is it being recorded, you will be let down by the end result. Whatever it is you are recording, if you want the recording to sound big, full, and have lots of body, you need the SOURCE to be sounding big, full, and have lots of body.

Crap in = crap out. Find the sound you a re looking fore BEFORE you record. Once you find it, then you can begin to play with it after its recorded. Ive had good luck splitting two bass tracks into halves, ending up with 4. Of these 4, I've shelved out all of the lows from two and panned them, adding whatever chorus or verb I wanna use, and the other two I shelve out all the highs and keep them mostly around the center, and then EQ as needed, IF needed. Sounds kinda neat.
 
theres a band called puppies that has 2 bass players that are hard panned l/r. pg99 had 2 bass players, 3 guitarists, 2 vocalists, and one drummer. imagine mixing that?
 
Your post got me thinking, and experimenting. Multiple bass parts are tricky and (for me) tend to get muddy real fast. I'm going to play with this a little, the potential is there for some interesting innovations. Thanks for inspiring me to try something new.
 
I second the cutting the bass on the distorted track. Make it sound more like a guitar. The clean one has lots of mids, that's too bad, cut some of that shit and give him some lows. Mids are cool for color, if you dig that soft of thing, but distortion + mids on bassguitar is just screaming trouble in my book.
 
Cody Suit said:
about half the time probably
Click to expand...

And how is that sounding? If it were me I'd take advantage of having the two bassists and have one play low melody lines over the other playing bass line type stuff. This would get you a really thick fat sound, perfect for grind.
 
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