alternative rock metal bass in the mix

[flipmodea]

I am currently mixing a alternative rock metal.... track at the moment and I am tyring to blend the bass guitar with the drums,
the bass seems to be good in some places then it kind of gets lost in the mix,
anybody got any cool tips technique approaches when adding bass to a mix.

[nlc201]

Mult it and distort the living crap out of one channel. Blend accordingly with existing signal(s). Don't be afraid to EQ and compress either. The 500-1000 Hz range can bring some definition into play, just be careful.

[andychamp]

Originally Posted by nlc201

Mult it and distort the living crap out of one channel. Blend accordingly with existing signal(s).

Second that! (Or, to quote M.Brauer:"...squeeze the t*ts out of it!")
And bring out those old distortion/overdrive pedals.

[Froombosch]

A distressor is nice for this application.


Harrie

[u b k]

if it gets lost in the mix, it can only be because other elements are coming in (or rising up dynamically) that mask the freqs where the bass otherwise cuts thru.

you have several options. the first is to find these competing freqs and cut them, just enough that you get a sense of the bass back. i say 'a sense' because it may well be appropriate that there are times when the bass is merely felt and not so distinctly heard. the denser a song gets, the more this is true. pull your focus back from the bass and hear the song as a whole, what does it need?

your second option is, as others have suggested, use processing such as eq, distortion, and compression to excite higher freqs in the bass, which will allow it to cut thru a denser mix. a little goes a long way here.

your last option, which is the simplest, is to just ride the fader with your finger or your mouse, and automate that puppy. watch for low end bloom.

my guess is that you have some combination of masking and arrangement issues going on, which brings me to another option: the mute button. things may be coming in that step on an otherwise perfectly good arrangement. do they need to? are they serving the song, or just a musician's ego?

good luck!


gregoire
del
ubk
.

[flipmodea]

cool!!
thanks for the help, will bear in mind these tips.

[flipmodea]

Yeah been f£%^&*ing around with the bass.
I compressed/EQ'ed/Limit

duplicated it with distorted track/EQ

sounds pretty good, there is still a lot more experimentation that can be done,
I haven't tried to send the bass DI to a distortion pedal yet.

The only pedals I got are
BOSS BLUES DRIVE BD-2
BOSS LMB-3 (Limiter)
BOSS ODB-3 (Overdrive)

I think I will start with ODB and overdrive the living shiznit out of it...

[PhilRanger]

Originally Posted by flipmodea

Yeah been f£%^&*ing around with the bass.
I compressed/EQ'ed/Limit

duplicated it with distorted track/EQ

sounds pretty good, there is still a lot more experimentation that can be done,
I haven't tried to send the bass DI to a distortion pedal yet.

The only pedals I got are
BOSS BLUES DRIVE BD-2
BOSS LMB-3 (Limiter)
BOSS ODB-3 (Overdrive)

I think I will start with ODB and overdrive the living shiznit out of it...

If you feel you still need more disto, try BD2 and OBD3 in series (order will change the final sound!)

[everybody's x]

did you take a DI? reamp through a guitar amp, 12" speaker distorted to fu*k. blend with original

[flipmodea]

started out recording the bass through an amp using beyer M-88 + D112 but it actually sounded really bad so just recorded DI, somehow the DI bass guitar sounded much better than the miced one.

[edvdr76]

Originally Posted by flipmodea

I am currently mixing a alternative rock metal.... track at the moment and I am tyring to blend the bass guitar with the drums,
the bass seems to be good in some places then it kind of gets lost in the mix,
anybody got any cool tips technique approaches when adding bass to a mix.

What I do is I run all my drum and bass tracks to 2 channels. I then compress the shit out of those 2 channels and bring them up under the original tracks. This works as a sort of glue and it really brings up all the notes on the bass and makes the drums slap you in the face!!.