The bass in "Thunder..." is really buggin me.

T

Teddie

New member
Folks, I know everyone's listened to this already, so if you've still got the mp3 on your desktop have a listen, or listen here: http://mp3.com/smartapple The song is "Thunder on the Mountain".

The more I listen to the bass in this song compared to the bass in my other songs, it tends to sound like my strings are dead... and the sound isn't fat... it's like loud, but ... man I can't explain this... I can run the bass track through an EQ plug-in, but what should I raise, lower, cut, blah blah on the bass track. I'd like the bass to be fatter like the bass on "A Darker Shade..." (I don't pay attention to my SansAmp settings when I'm doing bass - just kind of try and get a good tone for each song, but the bass on "Thunder on ..." just sound like crap. I'm typing in circles, sorry.
 
I wouldn't knock yer self out over this...I think it sounds good personally... :)

PS...go see my "Tweek" thread...I missed one of your post and commented on it.
 
I know what you're saying about it sounding a little dead.

But it sounds pretty good already.

As for EQ and stuff like that I can't help. Sorry.

Good luck.

I remember reading in another of your posts that your mother was Philipino (I'm not sure how to spell it). I have quite a few Philipino friends and they are all outstanding musicians. What do you guys eat that makes you so good?!?
 
Ric, thanks man... I'll check out the Tweek post.

MrLip, you know, the strings were actually pretty "Dead"... I had done 2 songs prior to "Thunder..." with the same strings. Funny thing about my sweat on my hands when I play -- my sweat eats through metal stuff within hours... I'm a freak. ---- Yeah, my moms and my pops are both Filipino. I notice the same thing about the musical thing with other Filipinos... most of the Filipinos I know either play good guitar, or piano, or whatever... What do we eat to make us so good? Um. I eat my wife - PAH! (Sorry bad joke)...

Somethings really funked up with "Thunder..." - I can't seem to keep the low end from booming (this is in my car stereo)... I mean, right around when the guitars kick in it really throws my cones all over the place. Here's what I think I'm going to do -- I'm going to redo the bass track (I've got new strings)... and maybe cut the low end on the guitars somemore. I added the verb on all the drum tracks for all the songs with drums and it sounds pretty damn good, but for some reason, mp3.com is having problems with it's update function, so I can't post them yet.
 
Yeah, I remember noting this when I first heard the bass on this. There's something "direct input" and "squashed" about the bass sound. It ends up sounding a little fake somehow, and not enough like strings and wood... ya know?

However, there's nothing that doesn't work about it. It's just a different sound. It's actually distinctive. Nobody who wasn't a recording tech would ever notice it.

Have you tried micing a speaker and/or blending a speaker mic with the direct tone? You can also try a decent mic preamp with just the bare minimum compression to get a good signal to the deck. You could also try adding just a touch of good verb to the bass to give it some "air". Right now, it's like it's crawling right into your ear.

I repeat, tho', it's not bad at all "as is". It definitely works.

Good stuff, as always. :cool:

CT

[This message has been edited by CharlesThomas (edited 05-31-2000).]
 
Eh, forget it. Sorry for the mentalness guys. I'm leaving it as it is. I actually remixed it and tried about 5 different things, but it all sounded worse to me... maybe because I'm so used to this version... I'm content now... ugh.
 
hey......don't know what everone thinks,but i think the bass adds an extra edgeness to the song.....i think in this song ,the bass is perfect and destinctive.......
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top