Foo Fighters Bass Guitar

[mdoelger]

Hi guys.

I'm quite new hear, but learning.

Question: Know the bass guitar sound on FF's new album? Sounds so thick and kind of always up front in the mix. How's that done?

Multed and compressed the hell out of the low end and low mids?

Any ideas?

[thecrashfactory]

Check out last months Sound On Sound magazine for a great article on how Rich Costey mixed The Pretender. I *think* someone posted the article on GS a week or so ago...

[mdoelger]

Originally Posted by thecrashfactory

Check out last months Sound On Sound magazine for a great article on how Rich Costey mixed The Pretender. I *think* someone posted the article on GS a week or so ago...

sorry couldn't find that one

could i get that sound by multing the bass, lowpass at around 300, squash it and bring it back in with some little dip at 200 to get rid of a bit of mud?

[edcampos]

I don't know. Could you?

GS can be an extremely helpful and valuable community, but you have to know how to make the most of it. In cases like this, it is likely that most members will be honest with you rather than just blindly shoot information out there. In other words, instead what telling you what to do we might ask you a few questions so we can better understand how you're approaching something and what might work best in your situation. So... Have you tried what you just suggested? What results did you get? How was the bass tracked? Was it done well? Was it played well? Give us a little more info and we might be able to better assist you. Good luck,

Ed

[edwonbass]

In a Bass Player mag article he mentions playing a 71 P bass and a Bob Glaub Lakland. He is using Ashdown amps but makes no mention of the recording chain. I tried sorry.

[bobwarren]

SOS stated it was a NEVE 1073 into an 1176.

[mdoelger]

Originally Posted by edcampos

I don't know. Could you?

GS can be an extremely helpful and valuable community, but you have to know how to make the most of it. In cases like this, it is likely that most members will be honest with you rather than just blindly shoot information out there. In other words, instead what telling you what to do we might ask you a few questions so we can better understand how you're approaching something and what might work best in your situation. So... Have you tried what you just suggested? What results did you get? How was the bass tracked? Was it done well? Was it played well? Give us a little more info and we might be able to better assist you. Good luck,

Ed

The bass was tracked direct, don't know which console, guess a cheap one. However, sounds pretty good. lots of lowend, warm mids, but also lots of noise in the upper mids. could lowpass the noise. still sounds right to me.

I was not tracking. The band i'm mixing for (ITB, for beer - as I said still learning) requested a FooFighters type of sound. I told them it's not possible since lowend and untreated room, etc. But I'm getting "closer".

Now...that bass isnt very steady in level, tried compression on it - like 6 to 12db GR - loud, but still not present enough. could eq it out of the kick pretty well.
Dont get me wrong here, I'm really satisfied with the sound I got, I just wanted to have you guys guess on what THEY did to get that bass on songs like lets say "Long Road To Ruin".

Thanks a lot for reading this...

I'll try that parallel aproach tomorrow. Its getting late hear in germany

[Podgorny]

Much of the sound comes from the fact that Nate Mendel is a good bassist.

[BLUElightCory]

Originally Posted by Podgorny

Much of the sound comes from the fact that Nate Mendel is a good bassist.

There you go!

Fender-style bass with a pick, well played into a good DI/amp with a nice compressor.

[void]

Originally Posted by thecrashfactory

Check out last months Sound On Sound magazine for a great article on how Rich Costey mixed The Pretender. I *think* someone posted the article on GS a week or so ago...

Anyone got this link, please ?? thanks

[bobwarren]

Whoops! I confused the guitar chain for the bass signal path. It's a Chandler TG1 and not an 1176, they used the Urei 1176 for guitar; at least on 'The Pretender'. I stand corrected.

Article Preview - Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Rich Costey
(subscribe and you can log in and read the whole article.)

From the article in Sound on Sound-
The bass was recorded with three tracks, according to Costey; one through an Ampeg SVT, another through a Marshall 4x12 cabinet, and a D.I. through a Sansamp. A sidechain path included the NEVE1073, Pultec EQP, and a Chandler TG1.

[Blast9]

Originally Posted by lunale

The bass was tracked direct, don't know which console, guess a cheap one. However, sounds pretty good. lots of lowend, warm mids, but also lots of noise in the upper mids. could lowpass the noise. still sounds right to me.

I was not tracking. The band i'm mixing for (ITB, for beer - as I said still learning) requested a FooFighters type of sound. I told them it's not possible since lowend and untreated room, etc. But I'm getting "closer".

Now...that bass isnt very steady in level, tried compression on it - like 6 to 12db GR - loud, but still not present enough. could eq it out of the kick pretty well.
Dont get me wrong here, I'm really satisfied with the sound I got, I just wanted to have you guys guess on what THEY did to get that bass on songs like lets say "Long Road To Ruin".

Thanks a lot for reading this...

I'll try that parallel aproach tomorrow. Its getting late hear in germany

You may need to automate to bring all the quiet notes up like Mike Shipley does (there's a thread on gearslutz where he describes this (will probably drive you nuts!)

"Not present enough" - You may have to boost the upper mids more despite the noise that you can hear - Should be fine if its a "wall of guitars" type song...

I seriously would not low pass it if you can avoid it

"Long road to ruin" has lots of warm mids and the definition comes from new strings as much as anything else I reckon - I'd say it was multed when recorded because you can hear the attack of the note but also compressed sustain and body on the rest of the notes.

Also the bass is quite high in the mix

[scking]

One of the most important things Costey says in that article is that he boosts the hi-mid of the bass to make sure it can be heard through the mix. It sounds TOO bright by itself, but when you put it in the mix it's just right.

[mdoelger]

Originally Posted by scking

One of the most important things Costey says in that article is that he boosts the hi-mid of the bass to make sure it can be heard through the mix. It sounds TOO bright by itself, but when you put it in the mix it's just right.

"Not present enough" - You may have to boost the upper mids more despite the noise that you can hear - Should be fine if its a "wall of guitars" type song...

I seriously would not low pass it if you can avoid it


Also the bass is quite high in the mix

The noise in the bass sound is coming from the crappy bass guitar the bassist plays or maybe from a too overdriven cheap tube preamp I guess. Had the same issue with a Behringer Tube. Dumped it. its not really a problem to lowpass the highs to get rid of some of the noise AND boost the hi-mids. Thats kind of the first thing I try to do with a bass sound. Don't laugh, I love the sound of Fat Mikes (NoFX) bass.

You may need to automate to bring all the quiet notes up like Mike Shipley does (there's a thread on gearslutz where he describes this (will probably drive you nuts!)

This is not gonna happen. I said I mix for beer.
However I do that on my own mixes of course (to some extend )

I tried parallel compression but that seemed to mess with the low-mids.
I decided to finish the mix for them, drink my beer and be happy.

I'm really satisfied with the sound I've got as well as the band. So f**k the bass! fuuck

But thanks a lot for your help guys. GS is really a wonderful place! Like heaven

[carlheinz]

WRONG... WRONG.. AND WRONG.

THEY(FOO'S) PRINT BASS TO PROTOOLS 192 WITH APOGEE BIG BEN WITH 3 SEPARATE TRACKS.
P-BASS INTO AVALON D.I. THAT SPLITS INTO TWO SIGNALS...1.XLR INTO NEVE 1073....2..INSTRUMENT OUT INTO SANSAMP BASS DRIVER D.I PEDAL....SPLITS AGAIN!!!....3....XLR(speaker simulated) OUT GOES TO NEVE 1073......4....INSTRUMENT OUT GOES INTO AMPEG FLIP TOP REISSUE.MIC ON AMPEG UNKNOWN(FET47 I THINK).ALL 3 SIGNALS ARE COMPRESSED SEPARATLY...USING WHATS AVALAIBLE...LA2A/1176/DISTRESSOR ETC.

I took this photo of nate(pre 2001) during my stay at Daves home/studio in Virginia to help out with some demos after Adam Casper left.

[mdoelger]

Wow, thats great. I would have loved to there too

[allencollins]

Whatever happened to the golden days when folks thought Entwisle, geddy and flea had great bass sounds?

I never thought the foo fighters would even be in a conversation that related to 'sound'


.Im just kidding I always lijed the bass ound on the Monkey wrench song. Very warm and nice texture

[DeadPoet]

From the article:

I'll also mix in some side-chain compression, which in this case was a 1073, Pultec EQP, and Chandler TG1.

Now if you're able to use a 1073, Pultec and TG1 for side-chain, I don't want to know what your actual chain is ....

(only plugs used on the pretender: Waves DeEsser, Reel Tape, Pultec plug, Echoboy, but it seems only on background vocals... )


Herwig