Need help mixing bass

wallystripes

wallystripes

New member
Ok so Ive been recording myself for a couple of months and I have done mainly acoustic guitar, voice, electric guitar and some synths. Everything fine so far, but I wanted to try a full mix with electric bass and drums, so I recorded some simple stuff but I have been struggling to get a nice electric bass sound in the mix.

I was wondering how do you guys normally do it, I know it depends a lot on the song, instrument and way it was recorded but I want to know some of the different techniques and then try them myself to see which works best.
 
Direct in; mic a good bass cabinet set up in a good sounding room; a combination of both.

I DI into PodFarm and set up a good podfarm sound (or dual tone) and record that.
 
Plug my bass straight into my recorder and press RECORD and PLAY at the same time.
 
Yeah, I know those are like the standard ways to record bass, ive tried them. But do you make any significant changes later on the mixing stage? (EQ, Effects, Compression, etc)
 
wallystripes said:
Yeah, I know those are like the standard ways to record bass, ive tried them. But do you make any significant changes later on the mixing stage? (EQ, Effects, Compression, etc)
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I don't know about "significant", but I might cut somewhere around 200-300hz a little and compress. But it really depends on the song whether I do any of these things and how much I do it. I'm usually 95% happy with my bass as soon as it's recorded. The other 5% is small adjustments to suit the situation. If you're not happy with your sound at the source, it might be the bass, the strings, the way you're playing, etc....Besides that, the rest is sweetening. It shouldn't be depended on to make or break the bass track.
 
yeah, I guess my bass sound is not awesome, it is decent, but when I hear it within the mix I feel it is missing some power. I will try something different
 
One thing that hasn't been touched on yet is overtones. Sometimes the purer basic tones- mostly just note fundamentals are fine. But very often even though that does its job as far as fullness it can get lost in the mix.
A lot of times its easier to place the bass if you get it to speak' with a bit of what happens when you just lay into the strings a bit for example, or move up towards the bridge some.
Also if it tends to put a bit of point on the notes and that can be a plus.. depending of course.
Given all else equal.. I'd definitely pick more speak'. :cool:
..Let's say a lot easier to tame it down than not have it and want it at least

..but when I hear it within the mix I feel it is missing some power.
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Sometimes we can associate a little 'crunch, or growl/distortion as power, or added loudness.
 
just a touch of distortion when recording.

slight cut in the high lows(?) somewhere around 300ish. slight boost around 150ish. LPF around 4500.

compress with slow attack, medium release, and ratio anywhere from 3-8:1.

Lots you can do. I find that mixing bass is just a matter of making it sit with the rest of the song. Any EQing I do is dependent on the song (duh), and compression is pretty much a gimmie for me. But your bass may sound way different (and probably does) from mine before mixing. It can be hard since bass is the foundation for a lot of rock n roll.
 
aaronmcoleman said:
just a touch of distortion when recording.

slight cut in the high lows(?) somewhere around 300ish. slight boost around 150ish. LPF around 4500.

compress with slow attack, medium release, and ratio anywhere from 3-8:1.

Lots you can do. I find that mixing bass is just a matter of making it sit with the rest of the song. Any EQing I do is dependent on the song (duh), and compression is pretty much a gimmie for me. But your bass may sound way different (and probably does) from mine before mixing. It can be hard since bass is the foundation for a lot of rock n roll.
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I don't get it. Why even go there with specific numbers like that?
;)
 
He asked how we'd do it. That's how I'd do it. I tired to make it clear that this is all dependent on his source. If that was t clear…EQ IS ALL DEPENDENT ON YOUR SOURCE. The poster wanted some ideas to try and see what he likes. Is it ok to give him some place to start?

When I was learning having a few specifics to begin with was nice, the. I used those to adjust and find my own sound.
 
That's cool. Just thought it was pretty odd to say on one hand its song.. -oops, inst, accompaniment, arrangement- specific, then go.. push 150...?


..You like 300?



Now I'm just messin :D
 
IMHO the most important factor in getting the bass to sit in the mix is making sure it's freaking ROCK solid ryhtmically and at least resembles the same rythmic patternt hat the Kick is playing. If those two things are off you can have Chris Lord-Alge process your track and it will still not sit right. Also make sure that you make a certain frequency space for the bass and make a certain one for the kick. I usually start by cutting some bass away at 120hz and moving my EQ frq until I find the fundumental is popping out nice and good. Then I do the same with the Kick but I usually start at about 80hz. If the fundemental ends up bieng the same I re-record a different Kick tune slightly up or down or swap out the sample for a different one if I'm using MIDI. Ends up saving me some headaches later on. I always want to fell like the Kick is hitting me in the chest but the bass is hitting me in the mouth (if that makes sense). If I still can't get the Kick and Bass to sound disticnt from each other I will ad some reverb (NOT TOO MUCH!) to the KICK not the bass, as reverb on the bass seems to disorient the song to me. This will set the kick back a little bit, kinda lie the bass player has his cab more forward on the stage than the drum set. This is a last resort tactic as it almost always makes the drums sound too far back. Make sure if you do this you add at least that amunt of reverb to the rest of the drums or it will sound like your set is split apart.

The next thing you need to do is put a High Pass filter on everything except the Kick and Bass. start at 250hz and move it down till it sounds right but don't go below 100hz or your just gonna muddy things up down there. Your not gonna like what this does to your guitar sound but it'll make the MIX overall much better.

Most of the time when a bass isn't sitting int he mix well it's not the bass that faulty but something else, 2/3 of the time it's the bass freq of the electric guitar.

Alot of people like to toss a high pass on thier bass tracks, but I think this takes out some of that POP. especially if it's a dirtier tonality.

If it sounds thin I'll toss some distortion on it. Even though it's distorted it'll sound clean to most people in the overall mix and it'll sound WAY bigger. You'd be suprised if you listened to U@ o the Doors bass track solo. All those old bands, they had ALOT of saturation on thier bass tones. But that's why it sound HUGE.
Before I had Bass amp modeling all I had was some cheap distortion plugin's that sounded buzzy and weak, so I would make a duplicate track of the bass and put the distortion on one of the tracks and mix them together until It sounded right.

And that's how I process the bass guitar (-:
 
aaronmcoleman said:
He asked how we'd do it. That's how I'd do it. I tired to make it clear that this is all dependent on his source. If that was t clear…EQ IS ALL DEPENDENT ON YOUR SOURCE. The poster wanted some ideas to try and see what he likes. Is it ok to give him some place to start?

When I was learning having a few specifics to begin with was nice, the. I used those to adjust and find my own sound.
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Thanks Aaron, that was actually the kind of answer I was looking for. I know it wont work exactly the same way for me since my source is different, but it is a starting point which is great.
 
alicia grey said:
Bass is a type of effect which fills us with lots of energy and its liked by everyone ! The super effect , the power , wow ! i love to listen songs full of bass.
You can also add bass effects into it with the help of some good sound mixing software available in the market. They are very easy to operate also gives you instructions in detail.

I hope you will find a suitable one for you.
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...wtf?
 
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