Hi!

I brought up a question in the mastering section about the balance of frequency where the guitars and the bass overlap and someone thought I should bring it over here(what was I thinking?)It was posted for a particular song I was working on and since then I have come up with some good recipe.

Someone had posted somewhere else that the guy who mixed the stones would mute the bass and then mix the rest of the song to taste filtering out much of the low-low mid of guitars etc. If he thought they were going to interfere(something like that).From there it was a matter of unmuting the bass and fine tuning. .I like stones records so I thought. .okay I'll give it a go.

The thing is I am the bass player on the track and I had'nt layed it down yet(or vocals).I am a believer in mixing a song heavily before the singer comes in so that the song sounds complete when they sing.It really adds to their enthusiasm when laying down the takes.

Since the the stones mixing trick did'nt require bass until the end,I figured I would mix the song before I played so that I could get the same enthusiastic feeling as the singer when laying down my bass part. Well I got more than I bargained for.First I spent probably way to much time mixing this song but in the end I am happy with almost every little detail.I left a healthy freq hole for the bass but also felt the song sounded great without the bass.Almost to the point where it could live without one.Kinda like something Prince would do.

So there was only finding the tone of the bass and laying down the track left to do before the singer came in to do his parts.In pre-pro I had played the bass a certain way and thought it sounded good.Good groove and the right sensabilities for the song.However after I had achieved the tone I wanted to lay down,I noticed the part I once played was now not going to work.The overdubs of electric guitar changed the vibe too much.The bass part just did'nt fill the holes the right way anymore.At this point I thought the bass was now taking away from the song rather than adding to it.I had to revamp the lines. BOOOOOM ALL OF A SUDDEN THERE WAS A HUGE CRACK OF THUNDER AND THE TIDAL WAVES STARTED FLOOD THE EARTH(my studio)!

Maybe give this a try and see what you think.

I hope I will get permission from my client to post an MP3 after release date. :)

P.S. If you are using inferior gear like I am,don't worry so much about the things you SHOULD be using like top of line stuff.Work on making the biggest impact with what you have and letting the music do the rest.Great art has always been repressed.

Damian Jacobs
Cloud Sound Recording
Pro Tools LE(001)
Yamaha 1642 console
RODE NT1
Shure SM94-57
A whole lotta bleed.

'I get by with a little help from friends.'
Thnkx to all those who post geat info!