Unleash the Beast

If you’ve been following my “first single release” journey for my new band deadsoulrevival.com you know I’ve been examining how we recorded, mixed, and promoted our upcoming release.  You can download  Black Roses and Down for the Last Time at the link above.

I thought it would be really cool if in this post I shared with you a chapter from the Bass module included in my course  The Sound Visualization Method. 

So lets unleash the beast that is the bass guitar.

Bass is tricky and misunderstood. It took me years of experimenting to really nail it every time. This is where recording the DI can really save you. If I’m mixing your project I can always get a really good tone happening if I have that DI track.

A lot of old school engineers and musicians will tell you to make a decision regard- ing tone and then record it. In other words don’t wait until mix time to select a tone. I would tend to agree with this in that you want to have a vision.

But, if you are inexperienced it’s always good to have those DI tracks as a safety net. Especially if your vision is extreme and/or you are working with a mixing engineer. It will give more flexibility in the mixing process.

Some of that old school attitude is based around the fact that they had to get it right going in because there weren’t as many great tools to make things work after the fact. Having said that, you want a usable tone as a basis.

When I’m producing a song I want certain qualities to be captured in the bass recording. First, I want the bass to be recorded with frequencies sounding balanced. What that requires is being able to judge low end accurately.

If you don’t have a room that is acoustically treated this can be very difficult. Check out my guide to acoustics for some solutions to this issue (this is available as an add on purchase to the Sound Visualization Method).

Having the DI recorded (with no eq) will save you in this situation come mix time. As an aside if you don’t have your acoustics worked out, consider using some high quality headphones and the Sonarworks Reference plugin.

One of the biggest things that sets pro mixes apart from amateur mixes is the low end. Another tool I would suggest you use is a spectrum analyzer. My favorite is the FabFilter ProQ3. You can see and freeze a picture of what it happening with your signal.

This is especially good if you aren’t using a subwoofer.

The other thing I would suggest is don’t forget the midrange and high end of the bass. This of course is style dependent.

Boosting the mids and highs a bit on the amp can bring out the bass in a mix. This is because most of the lower end of the bass is felt rather than heard.

When mixing I’m usually looking at 800 hz range for the mids and 2-4 K for the high end. If you want to bring out a pick sound this is where you’ll need to look (the high end).

I’ve heard bass tones on raw multi-tracks that I thought the click of the pick would stick out like a sore thumb in the mix. This is not usually the case.

That pick sound usually gets covered to a certain extent by distorted guitars and can provide a cool percussive quality.

To continue reading grab your copy of The Sound Visualization Method.

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If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up for my email list.  I offer exclusive content, discounts and other goodies for my subscribers. Go to rockmixingengineer.com to subscribe. You’ll also get a free guide on recording heavy guitars and a sneak peak at my new recording course The Sound Visualization Method.

Also, in case you didn’t know, I mix singles, EPs, and Albums for Rock and Metal bands. You can check out my work and get more info at mattclarkmixer.com/secdir/ as well as get prices, etc.

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