Bass Related Question

Hello V
It is quite amazing how much bass you have to take out of a bass recording to fit well in a mix.
The bass track soloed sounds rather thinly, sometimes, by itself.
But you have to tweak/EQ the sound of Bass Drum and Bass to give them their own little space in a mix, even if a 5-string goes down to almost 30 Hz.
Otherwise it will sound muddy and boomy and... gives you trouble when finalizing or mastering. There would be too much energy in the low end that nobody needs. You can work the lower bass guitar sound with a multiband compressor to get some control over it, if necessary.
As to the bass players, and I am one as well, .. He should listen to the complete mix and decide then, if there is low end missing from his instrument. Mostly not ;-)
After all, it is the complete works that get on CD and not a single instrument. If you have a bass solo in the song you can always give it a fuller sound on an extra track with a nice fade in and out to soften the threshold.

If they don't believe you, bend a little forewards to the bass player and tell him that you have so much experience and he is full of ... just a little bit nicer...
;-)

George Martin once said "Roll off 100Hz on any instrument that doesn't have the word "bass" in it's name."

So I roll of 100Hz on everything except bass guitar and bass drum. No 100hz or below on Vox, guitars, synth, organs, Rhodes, or anything else. It does clear up my mixes a lot because these instruments have nothing of value below 100Hz. There are exceptions: an instrument playing solo (say, in the song's introduction) may need all it's frequencies to sound right. In that case, I use automation to fade the 100Hz out when other instruments come in.

Another exception may be when it's only a couple of instruments playing, say, an acoustic guitar and a voice, like The Beatles "Blackbird". I haven't recorded that song, but I'd say be careful about rolling off the guitar since there, basically, is no bass in the song. YMMV.

Hope this helps!

EDIT: Well, BigK said all of this another way. I should refresh the page more often!

I find that if I take some some of the very-low freqs on bass guitar, I can turn the bass guitar up and hear it better in the mix. Works for me.

Thanks! It's thrilling and nerve racking! Go team me! If I win I'll publish numerous reports about it.

And love it and squeeze it and call it George. ;)

Great idea! If I win I'll tape a photo of George Martin to it, take a photo of that and send it to him with my homage! NEATO!

I tend to take care of this matter at tracking. I'm very much in the school of cut below 100hz if it aint called bass.....(hard to say with a clipped British accent). At mix, I'll use a parametric EQ on the bass and kick if they need a bit of propping up and will put a tiny, very tight bell in their boost a few hz apart below 100, The trick is to get these points harmonically correct for the key of the song and the need to get these to stick out as well as 'Who's on top'.

That'll be 5 bucks.....

The other day I stopped by a bar to have a little drink after band practice. I had my banjo with me and didnt want to take it in so I left it in the car. After two or three rounds I decided it was time to go, so I went out to get in my car. I could see from several yards away that something was wrong, and when I got to it, I found that the back window had been broken out. This happened the last time I had stopped after band rehearsal only this time they had left THREE banjos instead of two.........

Substitute: for banjo= accordian, trombone, bagpipe, bassoon, etc etc...

"Paddle faster, Daddy, I hear banjo music!"

Voiceofallanger, post: 363130 wrote: Ok so here's my dilemma.

[...]But I have one guy saying to me [...]"

[...] and another guy saying [...]

The ultimate arbiter of what sounds good is you, your ears, your judgment, your aesthetic. Read a lot, hear a lot, learn a lot, try more. Roll it off lower. Roll it higher. Roll everything, roll one thing, step on the mic stand while rolled off and not...see what it all does...THE ONLY MISTAKE YOU CAN MAKE IS LEAVING YOUR GEAR OUT IN THE RAIN!:tongue: (yup, I did it) Well, there may be others...ok getting serious again:

Wynton Marsalis has spoken in the past about learning jazz. In essence he says "learn everything there is to learn, practice until technique is 2nd nature, then forget it all and play." I may be doing that very talented musician a disservice with my lame quoting, but you get the idea!

Voiceofallanger, post: 363369 wrote: The main reason I asked this is because my monitors are not very good and so I have trouble hearing major differences at those frequencies.

That reminds me of the whole idea that no matter what gear you own, you need to "learn" your gear. Generally, no matter how good or bad your gear is, it gives you the sound in some form that will give you enough information to know how your mix will sound everywhere else. I'm sure you know this already, but make sure you spend time listening to your mixes on many different sound systems, big and small. Adjust mix accordingly!

Good luck!

And listen to pro-made CD's on your system, too. Lots of engineers use "Abbey Road" because of it;s wide array of sounds, etc.

Peter Gabriels "So"..Steely Dan's "AJA"...Led Zepplin's first....I prefer The Beatles " Rubber Soul" for the sound. Its a bit more raw. You can really hear the studio.

Learn = read...
I really like to hear all frequencies there are, for tweaking them. But if you use something like the old NS10s, which are far from good, you must know how to read their signature.
Many engineers still know them well and can mix great productions on them, because they have learned to compensate and how the mixes convert. Not ideal, but rather universal...
What monitors are you using, at all? For good reason it is mentioned in this fourm so often: Room & Monitors are essential. Rather sell the chair..lol...