Scooping Mids for Bass....

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strungout

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Should bassists that play metal (motley crue, megadeth, children of bodom, yngwie, skid row, killswitch engage, VH, opeth) scoop? I play guitar (learning bass), and I hate that scooped sound that everyone adores nowadays that plays guitar. But, if the guitar doesn't get scooped, should the bass?



And yes the bands that I mentioned are kind of off-centered on the metal spectrum (or not even on it), but from what I can hear, the guitar is not scooped. But on the other hand, you cant tell what the bass is doing tone wise (maybe its cause my ears arent used to hearing bass frequencies alone :) ).
 
maybe scoop some low mids........like around 300'ish hz, add some around 800hz(that will be the attack in the bass) and as much low end as you want.
 
donkeystyle said:
maybe scoop some low mids........like around 300'ish hz, add some around 800hz(that will be the attack in the bass) and as much low end as you want.
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If you add too much bass, wouldn't it get muddy and un-articulate? I know that applies to guitar.
 
Most of the bands you mentioned have kind of a piano type sound on the bass. Most of them were using a p-bass and a j-bass pickup at the same time. Always new strings. The place to scoop the bass for that sound is around 1k. You will need to add some 3k or 4k for the brightness. What you do with the lower mids depends on the bass.
 
As with 6 string tones, if you scoop the mids you won't hear much when the band is playing. I see all these guys setting up and getting "their sound" . It sounds nice and ballsy by themself, but when the band plays it disapears almost completely. They usually get a puzzled look on their face too. Like..."Hey what happened? I could have sworn it was loud enough."
 
Granted I don't play any of the stuff you mentioned, or anything even close, but I have learned to *boost* mids. Maybe it's because I'm old enough that I favor the sound I heard growing up - underpowered tube bass amps with inadequate speakers. But I need far less power on stage, and my notes are distinct. I've heard loud bands where the bassist is using the smiley-face EQ, and you can't tell what he's playing.
 
The trick is to be very specific with the frequencies you cut. You have to work around the type of mids the guitars have. Most of the bands you mention have guitar tones that are heavy in the 1k region but not so around 400hz. In that case I would dip 1k and boost the 300 to 400hz.

The goal is not to have the best individual sounds, but to have sounds that all work together. The classic setup with the guitar player using marshalls and the bass player using ampeg svts worked well because the natural sounds of these amps fit together like a puzzle. The sound of the band will improve tenfold when you do this.
 
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thanks everyone for the responses. I think the main picture is not to scoop the mids, whether its a guitar or bass.
 
AGCurry said:
I've heard loud bands where the bassist is using the smiley-face EQ, and you can't tell what he's playing.
Click to expand...

Heheheheheh, smiley-face EQ, I like that. Hate the sound though, not enough substance.
 
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