Do you struggle to get bass guitar to sound right? Is it always either too loud or too thin or too boomy or too round?
We’ve all been there. On some projects the bass just seems to fall into place. On others, you feel like nothing short of divine intervention will make the bass sound right.
Here are three quick tips for getting a better sound out of your bass tracks.
1. Go Nuts with EQ
There are no rules when it comes to EQ-ing bass. I’ve mixed some tracks recently where I had a 16 dB cut at 250 Hz on a bass track. Seems extreme, I know, but that was what it needed. Only then did the bass begin to sit nicely in the mix without giving me a headache from all the low-mid buildup.
The EQ curve looks just plain ugly, but the bass sounds right.
2. Use Distortion
Most of us are probably recording a fairly clean bass, either direct or through an amp. Sometimes a little bit of distortion can go a long way with bass.
I first saw this watching someone mix a (believe it or not) country song. He duplicated the bass track and added a distortion plug-in to the second track. He dialed in a fair amount of distortion and blended it with the original bass track.
The end result is a bass that seems to cut through more. You don’t necessarily hear the distortion, but the distortion helps draw the ear’s attention to the bass. If your bass track tends to hide in the mix and you can’t seem to bring it out without overwhelming the mix with bass, try duplicating it and adding distortion.
3. Play with the Attack Settings on Your Compressor
I usually heavily compress the bass on my mixes. It helps me get a consistent volume out of the bass from note to note. However, compression brings with it a whole can of worms. It can accentuate trouble frequencies or turn down the very frequencies you’re trying to hear.
One way to drastically change the tone is to change the attack settings. I talked about attack a little bit in yesterday’s podcast.
If your bass has too much punch, try a faster attack. it will start compressing the transients of the bass note, keeping them from standing out too much.
If your bass LACKS punch, try using a slower attack, this will let the transients of the bass come through before the compressor kicks in, helping the bass “thump” a bit more.
Usually when I adjust the attack I end up going too far one direction or the other, then I slowly dial it back until I find a happy medium.
What about you?
We’re all about sharing tricks and tips here on HSC. Got any bass tips for us? Leave a comment. If I get enough good ones, I’ll feature them in a future sequel to this blog post. I’ll need at least 10 comments before I can post the next article/video.
[Photo by Joe Seggiola]
I slowly dial it back until I find a happy medium.
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I duplicate my DI bass and in one I insert the Bass Amp Room (Softube), which make the bass more “bass” with the right low and and than I use the other track with a nice tape distortion.. than I compress/limit as you write the track with Bass Amp in order to have the body and the distorted one for the attack.. I blend them in a group and this is!
something i’ve recently started doing is recording a bass line and then duplicating the track. i eq one to accentuate the low end and basically cut out all the attack and high end. the other track i do the opposite. cut the low end and leave mainly the attack and punch. i then heavily compress the low end track so the “bass” of the song maintains consistent volume. i then lightly compress the attack track so the bass guitar punches somewhat naturally. mix the two tracks to taste until you find the right amount of low end to actuall attack. i use this same technique when i want overdriven/fuzz bass, except i only fuzz the attack and not the low end. i find this gives you the grit you are looking for but wont muddy up the nice low end notes that support your song.
Great tips! I’ve also found that a little parallel compression/distortion or filtering can spice up my electric bass recordings.
I’ve found Camel Audio’s Camel Crusher a very awesome tool for the.
Check it out, it’s free!!!
http://www.camelaudio.com/camelcrusher.php
[...] 3 Tips For Getting A Good Bass Sound [...]
I can get some nice sounding basses with my Behringer Bass V-Amp Pro. They sit nice in the mix and are really punchy with a little chorus added.
Seems to me most of the time when I have trouble getting the bass right it’s because something else is masking it. And more often than not, it’s guitar. What I remove from the mix with EQ is often more important than what I add.
Also, I find reciprocal EQ is more effective than EQing the bass alone. In other words, I can +6 at 250Hz on the bass -OR- +3 the bass then -3 the electric guitar at the same frequency.
I have a very simple “tip”. PUT ON NEW BASS STRINGS THE DAY YOU RECORD. I literally just got done recording bass tracks for my bands EP and was trying to get a good tone coming stright out of the bass. It sounded good but not great. I went out and got new strings. And it was as easy as that! Seriously recommend doing that.
I would recommend putting them on the day before, so the tension sets in.
Very cool tips Joe
I guess that adding distortion is kind of like what orchestrators do by doubling (or tripling/”xling”) the double-bass part with another instrument an octave higher – adds overtones and upper harmonics that outline the fundamentals for the ear…
Let me preface by saying I love a clean punchy bass sound. But I found a great way to get a sound I like that cuts through the mix nicely is to record my bass direct but also record the bass through a mid 60′s Fender Vibro Champ with the “warm” Blue Ball mic. It is much like the other ideas of using a guitar amp sim, but with a real amp instead. The DI signal gets the body of the bass sound while the mic’ed amp gives the bass sound an extra punch without too much because the Blue Ball helps attenuate the real high end of the signal. The small speaker guitar amp also helps compress the bass signal quite a bit which mixes nicely with the original signal I find. I’ve found this works better than using an amp sim because of the small 8″ speaker in the amp. None of the amp sims I’ve tried recreate the small speaker size, which I think helps get this sound that I love.
I use the Amplitube Ampeg Bass plugin. on it’s own the bass sounds great w/ this plugin, but when i try to mix w/ it, i’m either too loud or too thin. No punch. i am having trouble just getting the bass to sit in its own spot for some reason. i can’t figure it out. I’ve assumed it was the recording of the bass track, meaning I maybe just have a horrible tone to start with. I went direct into a preamp and set my active bass eq to mids. however, i’m thinking i need to re-record the bass going through an amp or something. I really have no idea what to do. lol
anyone use this plug in? any tips out there??
help!
let me reiterate what i’m after. I want the bass tone to have a bit of growl in it and i’m not accomplishing this for some reason. is the growl a tone that one must record into the DAW? can you get a growl from a DI signal, ie: my bass directly in to Pro Tools, by mixing?
I think you can get growl from your Amplitube model, but I also think the way that you EQ the bass will dramatically effect how the “growl” sounds.
thanks, Joe. Everyone has so many good ideas, I guess I’ll take a weekend and try them all until I “find the missing the growl”.
Hey Joe, Great tips! I recently doubled a bass part with Spectrasonics Trilian software worked out very good. Just a little
picked bass from the software mixed in with
my finger style direct playing, This isn’t gonna work all the time but I can see how it will on certain typys of music.
Thanks, Keep em coming!
Mike
I’ve started using the Scarbee PreBass VSTi and I love it! Not only does it sound GREAT but it gives me the flexibility of midi editing. Now I find that after I get a good take and add come compression I used rhythmic editing more than anything to get the bass part to sit well. Sometimes a bass notes sit best when it land just a smidge behind the kick. Sometimes it works best to let a note hang over a couple of kicks and you almost hear it as two separate notes because of the kick attack. A good bass player knows all this which is why a part played by a good bass player is easier to mix. Another great thing about PreBass is that with the various articulations you can create an interesting part without having to over play (i.e. fewer notes but using slides, pulloffs, etc.) If you’re in the market for an excellent bass VSTi Check out the video & audio samples at native-instruments.com
Try series compression too. 1st compressor to even out the dynamics of different notes, then a 2nd compressor to get the attack you want.
hmmm, distortion? seems strange but it just might work. going to try it now.
That’s what I thought the first time I saw it.
I’ve been using the PSP VintageWarmer plugin with good results for the electric bass.
http://www.pspaudioware.com/plugins/dynamic_processors/psp_vintagewarmer2/index.html
Great tips brother Joe. I like simple but effective tips. Keep ‘em coming.
I always mix a distorted SVT model with something fatter to get a balanced sound.
Joe, have you tried any of the Softube plugins? Bass amp room is really good, really versatile despite its apparent limitations, and Vintage Amp Room is out of this world!
what do you mean you mix it w/ something fatter? can you expand on your technique?
I usually do drums and bass first. These usually take the most time for me. I do like a little distortion on most bass parts that need to cut through the mix. I usually do bass parts through a Bellari RP220 tube pre in which you have a gain and a volume and can overdrive it for some added warmth. This pre works great for vocals and instrument to add warmth. I also use IK’s Fender plugin which has some great emulations and bass sounds. Just use your imagination and if you have PT 8 SanAmp and Eleven work well. Use EQ to find that problem frequency with the kick and the bass. That’s my opinion on the subject. There are no cut and dried rules on this but look out for the bass and EQ police. They’re out to get me!!!
using distortion could you still get a good tone.
Great tips joe. Would you ever consider using a program like guitar rig to get a bass sound? Also how would you mix a bass so that it sits well with a kick drum. the problem i have is that they clash from time to time and i get a wall of muddy sound. thanks
Rob, I actually use Guitar Rig from time to time on bass. Like joe mentions, I’ll duplicate the bass track, leave one track clean, with slight compression, and eq to taste. Then I’ll take the dupe track and run it through Guitar Rig. Something like they’re Orange model works pretty well. I tend to make the clean track more prominent and just have the distorted track somewhere in the background. works well.
I tried this on one of the songs in Joe’s MixWithUs course and it sounded fantastic. I used Podfarm for mine, but the same thing: distorted track lower in the background. Really worked wonders…
To help the bass and the kick work well together, have you tried side chaining the compressor on the bass? Just set up the compressor on your bass track and set it to your kick track, then dial it in so that the kick can shine through and not be overwhelmed by the bass. Be careful though, if you over do it the bass might throb a bit too much. I hope thats helpful, if you need more info refer back to Joe’s post on Side Chaining
http://www.homestudiocorner.com/2009/06/08/review-tech21-sans-amp-character-series-vt-bass-and-california-pedals/
Excellent.