Yan Doroshenko that being said, check out my music! Sometimes the time signatures change so fast that nobody listens to my music! My mom says it's great though.
Believe or not! I actually worked with a bass player who changed strings for every new session for an entire album. And also took part of arranging the songs and coached the singer during vocal sessions. But… I am a working musician for almost 30 years now and I've witnessed this only ONCE :)
I only record with 10.000W bass rig. Over 100 speakers cones. I use 10 microphones in the room. Including condensors to pick up the shaking of the door, and tripods, and other things shaking in the room. This is important cos it gives the music the feel and violence I crave.
This guy is offensive, profane, and probably the closest thing I've seen to a real live wizard in a good long while. Super informative, and very concise. I don't necessarily agree 100% on his whole new strings thing. Aggressive metally stuff definitely calls for it, but a P bass with dead strings sounds great for a lot of less high-octane stuff. But, that's just my opinion. All in all, guy's awesome.
The former Bass Player from my band - and I shit you not - instead of buying new strings and learning how to wire them on his bass he rather went and fucking bought A NEW BASS!!! Price range would go from 300 up to 1000 €uros...
On the plus side, he's now owning about 10 bass-guitars, from 4 - 6 string basses ( a fretless one is among those ) and I can borrow a bass from him anytime I want, when Imma about to record some bass :D
Paul Mares For those bass players too cheap to buy new strings in order to support their heroine habits, IT"S CALLED BOILING YOUR STRINGS!!!! Look it up, SMFH!!!!!! And why is it always the fucking bass player who has the heroine addiction? FUCKERS ARE USELESS.
iron maiden has bass that's clear as day 1)standard tuning 2)maple neck 3)no 7 strings 4)keep the treble up! 5)write music that doesn't have three instruments playing the exact same thing!
How a Bass Player records Heavy Bass: they superglue a 25lbs weight lifting plate onto the back of their Bass' body, and then record direct in with the preamp volume maxed out. Freaking BR00T4L.
As a bassist, I play a 5 string. And have a few spare sets in my desk and in my gig bag as they are sometimes hard to come by. The whole thing about buying a spare set cracked me up. I will definitely give this method a go. Other than Micing the amp up, I never thought of other ways to record bass. Thank you sir!
I'm sorry, but the "bass players can't really play" stereotype seems to only be true in metal and rock... Never met a jazz or any other genre players who don't have their shit together head to toes.
"Music is an easy way to get fame, fortune, and pussy." -Said no jazz musician ever, but a few morons in rock and metal bands have. "Music is an art form that allows you to express yourself in many creative ways." -Said every musician who actually has any passion.
LESTR97 to be fair, many metal bands who do truly have a passion for the music can play. When done right, metal can be very difficult to play. Of course though, Jazz is definitely an advanced form of music, and there's no taking away from that.
BASSIST: Thank you so much for making this video! For years I have been using all kinds of Line 6 Pods, but after watching your videos I grabbed an MXR M80 (similar to Sansamp) and WOW! My bass tone has just jumped into a new dimension. Some videos on live bass sound would be awesome!
Loved the drummer joke at 1:40! On another (yet not so distant) note, I really enjoy the "How to Record Heavy Drums" series. It really helps out with the little snippets regarding tuning and cymbal placements on my own drum kit at home. Thanks!
As a bassist, I definitely agree that aiming for a big fat bass tone which can sound nice as a solo sound can be useless if not detrimental for the mix. The aim is to play well and help the mix sound good and balanced. Using a DI is all you really need these days. Even the wonderful Jaco Pastorius went straight into the desk.
Hey Glenn... Love the channel, anyways... My bass player and I watched this video several times, as I have a sweet pro set up with this awesome Auto-Tune VST that just rocks, and we want to record heavy bass. I asked my bass player what he thought, and he said, "It's obvious what to do, JUST USE A BASS THAT WEIGHS A LOT."
Just a quick tip for everyone; mix to every players style. Every bassist has his or own unique playing style and a scooped tone will not sound good in every bassists hands. I notice that some can pull of a great scooped tone, but I sound best with plenty of high mids and a treble cut. Keep that in mind! scooped is for those who dont know how to properly mix.
Also keep in mind that, even though on the main track he scooped the mids a little, on the distorted track he made it nothing but mids. So when he combined the 2, the overall sound was not scooped at all.
This is great. I used to use the Sansamp Bass Driver too. I also have an old rack mount Sansamp. I haven't used it in a long time. I got the dp3x last year and most of my bass tracks are being recorded through that now. Great sounding overdrive, mid scoop, and compression are all there in one pedal/recording preamp.
For your typical modern metal sound I agree - direct bass is the best solution. But I really like it when you combine direct in with a miced up amp. Use the direct signal for bass and the amp for your midrange. Sounds great on more "vibey" genres of metal. Stuff like Karnivool (check out Goliath, the bass sound is huge. But I'd argue that the bass plays a much more important role than the guitars on that track.), various Doom Metal Bands (Yob, Monolord, Nero Di Marte) also benefit greatly from a miced up bass amp. Also check out Kurt Ballou's work, his bass sounds outstanding and as far as I know, he always uses bass amps. Check out his "I need a doctor" video on the STOMPBOX SONIC video for reference. I feel like micing a bass amp goes a long way if you really want your bass to be heard as its own instrument rather than just an extended low end for your guitars. Great video as always, by the way!
It's been less than 6 months of learning bass, playing almost every day and I can't wait to try out new strings. I didn't want to change the strings from the get go because I had no frame of reference, but now I can feel and see that those Fender strings have done their time. I don't know how people can't realize that.
No offence but I wouldn't never let a producer make my "heavy bass" track sound like that (from 3:46 on, it sounds sick without that grit). Adding too much distortion like that just makes it a deeper guitar and sounds pretty contradictory to the "how to not completely suck on bass guitar". I like a nice round tone with a sansamp for a bit of chunkiness and wouldn't settle for anything else but the sound I play when I'm on stage.
yeah man i agree to a degree its all how you want/need to sound. for different genres and play styles this could really work. I play in a 2 p punk band trying to dial a solid sound on bass is work
Its to make the mix sound fuller and heavier when it needs to be, i usually do this technique but i lower the volume of the distorted bass so its just there adding extra distortion in the background but the main bassline you hear is the clean bass tone
Bradley S the bass sits better in the mix with distortion. For itself it sounds horrible therefor you cut the distortion in the parts where the bass is audible alone. But it has far more bite with the distortion. Try it out.
***** For sure, I did say it was really nice at 3:46. I write melodies and grooves with my bass tracks, and these cut through much better with a partially clean tone. A little distortion gives more bottom end to the guitars, and a little bit of clean lets you cut through. There's no way Steve Harris sounds like this in Iron Maiden's mixes aha.
A video on how to get such good results out of such a budget bass would be fantastic and a great help to everyone I am sure. Thanks for another great video.
I never watched this video before since I've never yet had the opportunity to record a bass player (I am, after all, primarily a filmmaker not a recording engineer; I've mixed a lot of music tracks that were already recorded but never had the opportunity yet to create my own tracks). However, I decided to watch because I'm always curious about audio recording techniques. When I first saw you scoop out the mids in the bass I thought to myself, "What the fuck is he doing?!" Didn't look like a good idea to me. But then when you multed the track and then created a complimentary curve that emphasizes the midrange on the second track the whole thing suddenly made sense: you were just creating a sonic space for that midrange distortion. The final result totally kicked ass! I gotta remember that trick! :) Actually, I have a similar trick for combining high/low Hammond Organ tracks (when I encounter them on a Mixing Secrets Multitrack project, like the one I'm doing now, actually). On the high, I roll off everything below 500 Hz and on the low I roll off everything ABOVE 500 Hz. This keeps the high and low tones of the Hammond out of each others' sonic spaces. I've found this gives some some nice, bright, screaming high tones while still retaining that nice low end body of the low tones. I still have to get some practical experience with mic technique, but as far as mixing goes I've learned a LOT mixing 200+ Mixing Secrets Multitrack projects. Of all the things that experience has taught me, finding a sonic space for everything was the most useful. Hell, learning how to do that has helped in post production sound on my videos, too, as I've managed to solve a few problems with production sound that, until I had that experience, I thought were unsolvable. Like getting rid of wind noise with a sharp low cut, for example; so long as you keep the rolloff below the fundamental frequency of the voice of the person you're shooting it doesn't affect the voice at all and all but eliminates wind noise (I do have a hairy windjammer on my mic but it can only do so much when an event I want to shoot is outdoors in 25+ km/h wind). I'm glad there's someone out there trying to help novice recording engineers figure this shit out.
+PedalingPrince +SpectreSoundStudios Interestingly, the 500Hz crossover thing is something I did recently when recording bass guitar for a song at uni. I had the bass going into a DI with parallel outputs, with one output going straight into Logic Pro X. The other one went into a 1x15 combo bass amp miked up with an SM-57 (a MD421 also works for bass cabinets, I've since learned) and then into Logic. What I found is that the direct signal gave me plenty of low-end to work with, and the amp signal emphasised the mids and the highs. After I did the 500 Hz crossover on both the tracks, I put an overdrive patch from the DAW on the miked track, and that gave me a pretty decent rock tone. Whether that would work for a metal track, I'm not sure, but I'd say it'd be worth trying.
Oddly enough, Glenn, I started watching your videos because they made me laugh to the point of tears, but watching your extremely in-depth tutorials has made me appreciate metal music a little more, which is something I never thought I would say. So thanks for opening my ears!
Main reason why bass players don't change their strings too often is because they're stupid expensive. Like 3-5 times more expensive than regular guitar strings.
So true, last time I changed my bass strings was '03. I rarely play bass and those strings were $40 or more. I paid more for the strings than I did for the bass.
+Tom SDM I don't change my strings as I hate that twangy, trebly "new string" sound. I like my bass tone to be very sub bass heavy so I use flatwound, nylon wrapped strings and rarely change them. Cost doesn't come into. They are only like £30.
dzemohendrix Why? The sound of your strings is a personal preference. I'm in two bands: a 5 five acoustic funk-rock band: they also hate the new string twang so we are all good there. And my other band is a dubstep/trip hop/electronic 2 piece, so once again, horribly trebly strings have no place in that.
Going DI is definitely the simplest way of doing this, and with a good DI and amp sim it'll sound pretty good. You don't have to worry about the room you're recording in either. There is no point in micing up if you've got a shitty amp, but a good amp sounds better than any amp sim, in my opinion. In most metal genres the bass isn't really prominent anyway, so what's the point of going to all that extra trouble? Sometimes though, the music can really benefit from a bassist that takes up more space with sound and with playing. (Tool)
Third option: my GK amp head has an XLR jack for direct out. If i need more grit than it can give me, I plug a fuzz pedal into the effects loop. Sounds awesome.
You may be a crabby old coot, but my interest in your videos a decade ago helped lead me to having a successful career in audio today. Thanks man, your animated personality hooked me on the subject matter and helped set me on the path I’m on now. I still have days where the bass player jokes make all too much sense though.
wow dude, you gotta make a tutorial on how to do that "disappearing bass" trick (2:30). your loyal fan and a bassist. also, we're not stupid. I read a lot. the three piglets, hansel and gretel... and a lot more.
15 dollars?! You're lucky! Over here in England it is 15 - 30 pounds, which is a lot more than 15 dollars (just so you know) Besides, I'm under 18, so coming up with that kind of money consistently is annoying.
well for one i didn't know you were in England, also i didn't know that bass strings were that much more expensive in England (and yes i knew that pounds were more).
GamesPlaysWill Lets be honest man, I have five guitars. I restring every single of them at the same time and they cost 8 - 10 quid per set. I am 17 and I don't have a job. Now tell me you can't afford bass strings...
I've gotten a fantastic sound by going direct, obviously, but then putting a mic in front of the bass to catch the acoustic sound of new strings. mix to taste. love it.
Distorted bass is what makes music sound good. Modern dance and pop music is so obsessed with clean bass that it has zero anything that makes it interesting to listen to, add a distorted bass and now you have something that is not gonna make you want to rip your eyes out. Distorted bass is what makes all the classics classic. Its what makes real metal bands sound good. Its what really makes certain songs that just have "something" sound so good.
Loved the “no beer here” sign! To think there are some people who leave their drinks on top of something that, if spilled, can really fuck up EVERYTHING.
Very nice video. As a bass player of 12 years I always laugh at your bassist comments because I agree with all of them. Its nice to see how simple you can break down the process of recording bass...unfortunately you still have to find a player who actually knows the song, right? Glenn have you seen anything on the Darkglass B7K? I just got one and I'm excited to see how it tracks compared to my Sansamp. It has a lot more control of the mid range (hi and lo mid knobs, and I like to boost my midrange) and has a great gritty drive sound and the classic blend knob. Keep the videos rolling! I'm digging them!
I've been struggling for weeks with the bass tone on a track I've been working on. Then I remembered this video of Glenn's and I took a look tonight and applied it to the bass track. There were two versions of the track (recorded at the same time) - one recorded through an Avalon and one through a sans amp, but they still sounded kind of muddy and the top end was destroyed by the bass players nails grinding against the strings as he hit them. Anyway, I ended up using the Avalon as the main track and the sans amp track for the distorted one. I ran them both out through a group and applied some slight eq to pull out the clunk that was still there and add in a bit of life to the top mids and bugger me, it worked a treat. Thanks Glenn. The track really has come to life and the bass guitar is giving it heaps of energy and aggressiveness. All the guitars and vocals are sitting better because of this method. I'm going to give it a shot over the rest of the album and see what happens.
Alex Ritter ikr I changed my strings finally after a long time and after half an hour of cleaning the frets, another 15 minutes went by trying to put the strings around the tuners(I'm a trained guitarist so I'm not used to bass string changin). After I finally manage to put the B string in place, I start tuning the G. One turn, two turns, SNAP!!!. The fucking string breaks. I've never thrown so many objects against a wall before
As a bass player who actually changes his strings 4-5 times a year, I found this video great for explaining to me what sort of gear I should use to help me record
Man, that final mix just KILLS me !!!! Clean and crisp and clear and yet it still makes me want to “dance” (bang my head?) 😎😎😎😎 Thanks again for some great advice, I’ll be trying it right after potty training my drummer... Wah wah wah waaaaahhhh
Step 1 to a good bass tone according to you: get new strings. Ok understandable... but.. Step 1 to getting a good bass tone from people who know what they're doing: not scooping your goddamn mids.
Anthony Mora If you look at the second eq he brings back the mids, that's why he says: "narrow midrange bandwidth" then he gives them some distortion. So technically he didn't scoop any mids he just singled them out and added what he wanted specifically for them.
"The rules" seem oriented to sounding as much as possible like what you learned off of, a decade (or more) ago. SOMEBODY needs to take the midrange because that's where humans hear the best, anytime a guitarist or singer or sax player gets compliments on their tone it's MIDRANGE. I mean, OF COURSE the guitar player is going to tell the bassist to "scoop the mids" - and the singer is going to tell the guitarist to scoop HIS mids! Everyone's fighting over the prime real estate. The only rule that makes complete sense is that a band needs to allocate ALL the frequencies in a way that sounds best for what you play, and I don't think that's going to come from overt copying other mixes, unless that's all you can do. Mixing for a trio is drastically different than if you've got two guitars and a keyboard and two (or more) singers. There were some nu-metal bands that sounded laughably awful on record BECAUSE EVERYBODY SCOOPED THE MIDS. And all the arguing in the world doesn't mean ANYTHING if the "musicians" don't even know where frequencies are. The open high E string of an electric guitar is just barely into upper mids, and the 24th fret of that is barely even into "highs." You don't see horns or tweeters on guitar amps BECAUSE you want to kill everything above 2.5K or so, plug a guitar into a PA and you soon see why. And when you see guitar pedals advertised to help you "cut through the mix"and the singer's mike is designed to "cut through the mix" and your bass player's amp is "cutting through the mix" - SO WHO'S PLAYING THE FUCKING MIX THEN?!? The drummer? Yah I really wanna hear THAT band...
What freq. Is goddamn mids? I mean I agree totally but is goddamn mids like 2k? That and he has like 10 vids on bass players sucking. This is for recording bass players who where natually gifted with being deaf.
Guys like you give bass players a bad name. Yes there are quite a bit of meatheaded bassists, and like you said there is to much guitar going on to even hear the bass. You here that guitarists your apart of the problem too! 😃👍 see that's the problem with a lot of metal now guitarists are too over powering. Every one in the band must be equal that is why i respect 3 piece bands so much because everyone is doing equal parts. Anthrax and Megadeth are good examples of bass players. You can hear them but they are not the focal point. Ego comes into play a lot for guitarist two. When I was in my ex band I was turned down so much by the rhythm guitarist (he couldn't even keep up with the drums and I) but he just thought bass was un important and should never be at the level of his "solos".
thanks for sharing this!! Ive been playing for 21 years now and am planning on putting together a home studio, there is no doubt I will be referencing this video in the future.... Sounds great BTW
I cant believe some of the excuses im hearing in these comments (for not buying new bass strings) "I like the dull sound of old bass strings" .. " I don't like the new twangy sound of new strings".."they are too expensive"..that last one I can agree with, new strings for Bass are almost 4X times more money than 1 pack of new guitar strings. so cant argue that exscuse, your right...but you can always boil them. Ive kept almost every bass string over the last 2 years or so, after I pull them off, I boil them and catalog them (size, thickness, type, date used) this way I can mix and match or replace the correct gauge if in a pinch. good luck bassy's.
+chuck jones While I do like the sound of twangy new bass strings, the thing with people that like the sound of old bass strings is true. People like James Jamerson or Donald "Duck" Dunn preferred the sound of old, dull, dead bass strings. It's not an excuse, and really, nothing new or very odd.
+Ivo Samuel Giosa Domínguez while I respect your opinion, I think there are other ways to get that dull sound, like EQ. old strings should not be "in any way" a deciding factor in your sound. good luck man.
Going direct works but honestly I've never heard anything sound better than recording a bass through a high end amp and cabinet with my Audix D6. Sounds absolutely incredible.
As a long time guitarist and also a former bassist in a metal band, (I was the friend that happened to own a bass,) I wish that I'd known about this video, (or at least the people that recorded me had seen it,) long ago. I love your videos man.
what is with that intro song man???it is 7 times louder than the video sound.my ears explode when that song kicks in..if you call yourself a producer,then mix sound on your videos bit better!
No, I've heard much better tones using a similar clean dirty mix technique. I think he was going for a generic metal sound, like the cut away music to a reality show involving souped up cars.
Glenn!!!! Thanks for sharing this trick, I remember my teacher told me about this trick but never show us how sounded in the mix. now my basses sound with more detail, Thanks!
When mixing it's important to get rid of content that just muddies up the mix, and sadly basses do that in metal around the 500hz range a lot. There's so much in that area already; guitars, snare, toms, vocals, you need to make room. Bass isn't an instrument that is supposed to be out the front most of the time, so it's a handy place to cut from.
heresjonny666 Look at Megadeth, there's a perfect example of how David still has mids in his tone. Guitarists are normally the ones who mess up the mix with trying the be the loudest and fill up the entire sound spectrum.
I dont know man, I really enjoy the tone of killing the low mids on my amp (depending on what genre I'm playing). In metal, it just cleans up the sound; gives it definition. I play fingerstyle most of the time, and pretty aggressively at that. (and there is a difference between scooping out at 400 or 500Hz, and getting the Korn bass tone). I find that in a mix, a bass just sounds like mud if you dont scoop the mids somewhere. Probably why they're so buried in the mix so often. Just my 2 cents though.
Rock on! Definitely love these tips and vids, and I really like the sounds you get. I'd love to see how you mic up, track and mix drums. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to seeing more.
I'm a bass player from Puerto Rico and I've never laughed so much with a video 😂😂 !! But thanks was a great help and not only for the rock music .. also for the latin music is very good.. !! So thanks and excellent work ... !!! And if the musicians are offended by your comments about the bass players .. they just put to practice 👍 success ... !! Thanks
Working on demoing and dicking around mixing, haha don't even have a bass I'm just pitch shifting a guitar DI down an octave and playing it like a bass, doing this dual track thing and wow, I never realized til i AB'ed it but this just sits in a mix so right, didn't realize how important the bass tone was til it wasn't there, and didn't realize how easy it was to make it sound pretty good. Thanks Glen, making this whole recording at home thing a lot of fun.
We use the Orange Crush 50, it has a cab sim output, use this with a little compression and fuzz direct into the board comes out nice .Great vid thanks Glenn
Hello. I'd like to say that as a bassist, I was entertained. I'm not offended, but I actually learned a little something. Learning something, plus a good laugh is always good. I'm just a high school kid and so is my drummer friend, so we don't make money from what we do, but we enjoy every bit of the music. We're fans, and we thank you for making us laugh and teaching us to be just a bit more professional and better at what we do.
I’ve tracked bass for albums DI (with sansamp or odb3 pedals DI), and with a mic’d cab (sansamp into orange tiny terror 1000W head into ampeg 8x10). Each sound okay, but much like your tutorial on mic’ing up guitar cabs goes the same with bass. Such a bigger soundscape and cabinet resonance (in my personal opinion). Sincerely, the bassist who knows his own material in the studio. P.s. your generalizations on bassists is hilarious (and a bit aggravating knowing it’s mostly true). love the channel
Very cool, the highs and bass are previously rounded off before hand, so the scoop is sculpting out some midrange frequencies while preserving and even highlighting others. This prevents it from sounding thin and gives the bass tone some big tight fundamental with clean and consistent texture. Then the mid focused and dirty track adds the punch and harmonics to complement the warmth, stand out among other instruments, and creates a great balance. Bass has a harder time getting heard in metal but it is CERTAINLY easily felt. If you're listening to some metal through your head phones or at mid volume in your car or something then yeah, a lot of the times bass is hard to hear with how wide and big the drums and guitar sound, like the video mentions. But when you CRANK IT through actual speakers or play it LIVE, then when the bass player stops playing, the drop off is usually immediately noticeable. Like "uncomfortable now that it's not there" noticeable. In fact pads are often included and compressors are often used to roll off a lot of that bass or else it build too much and the speakers can't handle it, flubbing it up and drowning out everything else in the live or studio mix, so the struggle when mixing bass is to keep the low end tight, musical, and focused. The main reason being that there is not really any less bass in a typical metal mix, it just gets pushed lower, meaning it takes a lot more power to move all that low end. Harmonics and uppermids come in handy with making your bass audible at low levels because they give it a texture that can be picked up by the ears a bit. Think of an Ice berg and how little of it comes above the surface for you to see, but get under the water and it is (or at least can be) MASSIVE. More volume in metal=more bass frequencies you get to hear/feel, and naturally this is how metal is supposed to be listened to. Loud and proud. Otherwise you are probably hearing about half of what the bass is actually contributing, which leads to the notion that it isn't that important, and frankly to a casual listener who doesn't often rock out with their cock out, it isn't. What good are frequencies you can't normally hear right? Hence the struggle to get bass tones that cut or punch through the other instruments, since getting a deep and wide low end isn't necessarily hard to do as long as you have the power to move the sound. Also I guess I should warn against hearing damage too. Savor the loudness and don't overindulge. appreciate it!
Thanks It is a really nice advise. I was laughing when you were talking about the strings. I had spend lot of money in strings to find my own sound, and it is really important. Thanks again...
I think that sounds fine, but I'm not big on the whole scooped mids thing specially on bass. The guitar tone still survives because it still has a lot of upper mids and highs to be heard, but on bass you're sucking most of the tone out of it. It's a technique that works when the bass player is just hitting root notes, but will get a lot of complaints when you get a bass player who can actually play (and believe it or not, there are quite a few who can). So for people who want to know how to make the bass stand out I highly suggest you to look for stuff produced by Kurt Ballou (of Converge). His basses are actually quite clear in the mix, and the bands he produces are, in my opinion, some of the heaviest bands you'll ever hear (Converge, Trapped Them, Code Orange Kids, Nails). I think the thing he does the most is splitting the bass signal into two amps, one for the bass frequencies and one for the mids. Then he blends them so when the bass player is hitting lower notes it sounds like a bass, but when he moves up the frets it almost sounds like a guitar. The song Dark Horse by Converge is a great example of how full he can make a three piece sound with this approach. But I understand most people will be ok with this style of mixing because is much more familiar. I just chimed in for the few who like having there basses heard. Cheers!
jazz is the land where drummers can count to 5 and bass players learn their part
Fucking jazz drummers can play 17/32, 9/16, 4/7 as easy as scratching their butts.
Yeah, to play 17/32 one has to know what 32 is...
Yan Doroshenko well, as long as you're not trying to write anything down, the number on the bottom is kind of irrelevant.
Yan Doroshenko that being said, check out my music! Sometimes the time signatures change so fast that nobody listens to my music! My mom says it's great though.
Funnily enough, jazz is the genre where guitarists are the incompetent ones.
My friend and I are both bass players, We're starting a band together called The Useless Cunts. Our moms said they would drive us to practice.
pacorpse666 lol
LmFaOO
pacorpse666 Your grammar is so good that I don't even believe you are a bassist lol
***** no it isn't, just ask Marcus Miller
***** yep Marcus solos while another bass player plays bass lol
Believe or not!
I actually worked with a bass player who changed strings for every new session for an entire album.
And also took part of arranging the songs and coached the singer during vocal sessions.
But…
I am a working musician for almost 30 years now and I've witnessed this only ONCE :)
Tanju Eren we do exist! XD
So he spended more money on new bass strings, than he will get from selling the album?)
Steinn Bjorn lol, savage!
Yea we exist
A rare occurrence indeed! Did you snap pictures of it?... maybe a stool sample? :-) All kidding aside, I too am one of those rare breeds !
I'm a drummer and I was taking a shit while watching the video. Thanks for the advice.
Glad to help!
I only record with 10.000W bass rig. Over 100 speakers cones. I use 10 microphones in the room. Including condensors to pick up the shaking of the door, and tripods, and other things shaking in the room. This is important cos it gives the music the feel and violence I crave.
I never highpass. The entire mix has enough headroom to include all transients and unexpected sonorities. I even have mics outside the room.
+SwordsHeldHigh Don't suppose you double-track your bass too? Y'know, for that extra bassiness?
+DamnSam what about mics around your house too? or your whole street? reverb and all...
+SwordsHeldHigh You neighbours must 'love' you!
+Callum Cockburn If you listen closely to the outdoor-mic tracks, you can actually hear the neighbours calling the police
I can proudly say that we have a bassist in our band who can play his instrument, buys new strings and learns his stuff :D we will never let him go
congrats on breaking rule #2
This guy is offensive, profane, and probably the closest thing I've seen to a real live wizard in a good long while. Super informative, and very concise. I don't necessarily agree 100% on his whole new strings thing. Aggressive metally stuff definitely calls for it, but a P bass with dead strings sounds great for a lot of less high-octane stuff. But, that's just my opinion. All in all, guy's awesome.
hey 7 year since this comment. how are you
Very awesome ho it panned out.
Thinking about slapping flats on my p, Glen would slap me for that
This. This is still gold. You said in 5 minutes what others fail to in 15. Thank you Glenn.
The former Bass Player from my band - and I shit you not - instead of buying new strings and learning how to wire them on his bass he rather went and fucking bought A NEW BASS!!! Price range would go from 300 up to 1000 €uros...
On the plus side, he's now owning about 10 bass-guitars, from 4 - 6 string basses ( a fretless one is among those ) and I can borrow a bass from him anytime I want, when Imma about to record some bass :D
Blond Panda
Well of course; but I wouldn't call it stupid per se, rather than LAZY ( I think that word describes it the best ) XD
Paul Mares former
Paul Mares But if you're in a band wouldn't you want to change your strings like at least once a month?
Paul Mares For those bass players too cheap to buy new strings in order to support their heroine habits, IT"S CALLED BOILING YOUR STRINGS!!!! Look it up, SMFH!!!!!! And why is it always the fucking bass player who has the heroine addiction? FUCKERS ARE USELESS.
Coming to your channel for bass advice is constantly insulting, funny, and extremely useful. I love it.
iron maiden has bass that's clear as day
1)standard tuning
2)maple neck
3)no 7 strings
4)keep the treble up!
5)write music that doesn't have three instruments playing the exact same thing!
exactly. I bought steves pickups and strings and got his tone. and I also learned his playstyle
Neck wood doesn't matter
+SShimon the Fuck it don't.it absolutely changes the punch of the bass
+SShimon yeah a maple neck or a bolt on neck give a more "punchy" tone
david campbell Oh, you're actually right. Lol I'll admit when I'm wrong. Yes, for bass it matters. But absolutely not for guitar.
I love how you rag on all of us bass players. It keeps us motivated to not be idiots.
These techniques have helped me achieve the best bass tone I ever got. Thank you.
i really enjoyed that "good luck finding someone who can play one" as a bass player, you have a good sense of humor glenn. good vid.
How a Bass Player records Heavy Bass: they superglue a 25lbs weight lifting plate onto the back of their Bass' body, and then record direct in with the preamp volume maxed out. Freaking BR00T4L.
lol
As a bassist, I play a 5 string. And have a few spare sets in my desk and in my gig bag as they are sometimes hard to come by. The whole thing about buying a spare set cracked me up. I will definitely give this method a go. Other than Micing the amp up, I never thought of other ways to record bass. Thank you sir!
Hi, I want to record heavy bass, but I need to ask a question first.
What's a bass?
a fish
Its non acidic.
its a Ass class B
You beat me to it by 3 months.
are you being serious?
I'm sorry, but the "bass players can't really play" stereotype seems to only be true in metal and rock... Never met a jazz or any other genre players who don't have their shit together head to toes.
Most of the bass players I know utterly kick ass--I generally go to blues jams.
Well Glenn does a lot of metal recording so obviously those are the kinds of bass players that walk through his doors
"Music is an easy way to get fame, fortune, and pussy." -Said no jazz musician ever, but a few morons in rock and metal bands have.
"Music is an art form that allows you to express yourself in many creative ways." -Said every musician who actually has any passion.
LESTR97 to be fair, many metal bands who do truly have a passion for the music can play. When done right, metal can be very difficult to play. Of course though, Jazz is definitely an advanced form of music, and there's no taking away from that.
Country music bass players are the absolute worst
Am I the only bassist that loves the fucking bass jokes? yep? okay thought so
Jaiden Gill i think it got old very fast
Jaiden Gill, I play bass, I like the jokes, it's like getting my dick kicked in... but I like the jokes.
BASSIST: Thank you so much for making this video! For years I have been using all kinds of Line 6 Pods, but after watching your videos I grabbed an MXR M80 (similar to Sansamp) and WOW! My bass tone has just jumped into a new dimension. Some videos on live bass sound would be awesome!
"just put it direct"
Cries in bass
Loved the drummer joke at 1:40! On another (yet not so distant) note, I really enjoy the "How to Record Heavy Drums" series. It really helps out with the little snippets regarding tuning and cymbal placements on my own drum kit at home. Thanks!
im a bassist.
but just have to laugh at all the bashing, love it!
As a bassist, I definitely agree that aiming for a big fat bass tone which can sound nice as a solo sound can be useless if not detrimental for the mix. The aim is to play well and help the mix sound good and balanced. Using a DI is all you really need these days. Even the wonderful Jaco Pastorius went straight into the desk.
Hey Glenn... Love the channel, anyways...
My bass player and I watched this video several times, as I have a sweet pro set up with this awesome Auto-Tune VST that just rocks, and we want to record heavy bass. I asked my bass player what he thought, and he said, "It's obvious what to do, JUST USE A BASS THAT WEIGHS A LOT."
Facepalm.
Watching this again after 5 years... damn you've slimmed down man! Keep it up! :)
Thanks, dude!
Just a quick tip for everyone; mix to every players style. Every bassist has his or own unique playing style and a scooped tone will not sound good in every bassists hands. I notice that some can pull of a great scooped tone, but I sound best with plenty of high mids and a treble cut. Keep that in mind! scooped is for those who dont know how to properly mix.
Also keep in mind that, even though on the main track he scooped the mids a little, on the distorted track he made it nothing but mids. So when he combined the 2, the overall sound was not scooped at all.
This is great. I used to use the Sansamp Bass Driver too. I also have an old rack mount Sansamp. I haven't used it in a long time. I got the dp3x last year and most of my bass tracks are being recorded through that now. Great sounding overdrive, mid scoop, and compression are all there in one pedal/recording preamp.
For your typical modern metal sound I agree - direct bass is the best solution. But I really like it when you combine direct in with a miced up amp. Use the direct signal for bass and the amp for your midrange. Sounds great on more "vibey" genres of metal. Stuff like Karnivool (check out Goliath, the bass sound is huge. But I'd argue that the bass plays a much more important role than the guitars on that track.), various Doom Metal Bands (Yob, Monolord, Nero Di Marte) also benefit greatly from a miced up bass amp. Also check out Kurt Ballou's work, his bass sounds outstanding and as far as I know, he always uses bass amps. Check out his "I need a doctor" video on the STOMPBOX SONIC video for reference.
I feel like micing a bass amp goes a long way if you really want your bass to be heard as its own instrument rather than just an extended low end for your guitars.
Great video as always, by the way!
I agree, the sound he is going for is the sound that would be sought after when the guitarists are like "can you turn me up please?"
It's been less than 6 months of learning bass, playing almost every day and I can't wait to try out new strings. I didn't want to change the strings from the get go because I had no frame of reference, but now I can feel and see that those Fender strings have done their time. I don't know how people can't realize that.
No offence but I wouldn't never let a producer make my "heavy bass" track sound like that (from 3:46 on, it sounds sick without that grit). Adding too much distortion like that just makes it a deeper guitar and sounds pretty contradictory to the "how to not completely suck on bass guitar". I like a nice round tone with a sansamp for a bit of chunkiness and wouldn't settle for anything else but the sound I play when I'm on stage.
yeah man i agree to a degree its all how you want/need to sound. for different genres and play styles this could really work. I play in a 2 p punk band trying to dial a solid sound on bass is work
Its to make the mix sound fuller and heavier when it needs to be, i usually do this technique but i lower the volume of the distorted bass so its just there adding extra distortion in the background but the main bassline you hear is the clean bass tone
Bradley S the bass sits better in the mix with distortion. For itself it sounds horrible therefor you cut the distortion in the parts where the bass is audible alone. But it has far more bite with the distortion. Try it out.
***** For sure, I did say it was really nice at 3:46. I write melodies and grooves with my bass tracks, and these cut through much better with a partially clean tone. A little distortion gives more bottom end to the guitars, and a little bit of clean lets you cut through. There's no way Steve Harris sounds like this in Iron Maiden's mixes aha.
Bradley S in my experience it's the other way around. Steve Harris hasn't to cut trough a wall of distorted guitars. In Metal it's a different story.
A video on how to get such good results out of such a budget bass would be fantastic and a great help to everyone I am sure. Thanks for another great video.
I never watched this video before since I've never yet had the opportunity to record a bass player (I am, after all, primarily a filmmaker not a recording engineer; I've mixed a lot of music tracks that were already recorded but never had the opportunity yet to create my own tracks). However, I decided to watch because I'm always curious about audio recording techniques.
When I first saw you scoop out the mids in the bass I thought to myself, "What the fuck is he doing?!" Didn't look like a good idea to me. But then when you multed the track and then created a complimentary curve that emphasizes the midrange on the second track the whole thing suddenly made sense: you were just creating a sonic space for that midrange distortion. The final result totally kicked ass! I gotta remember that trick! :)
Actually, I have a similar trick for combining high/low Hammond Organ tracks (when I encounter them on a Mixing Secrets Multitrack project, like the one I'm doing now, actually). On the high, I roll off everything below 500 Hz and on the low I roll off everything ABOVE 500 Hz. This keeps the high and low tones of the Hammond out of each others' sonic spaces. I've found this gives some some nice, bright, screaming high tones while still retaining that nice low end body of the low tones.
I still have to get some practical experience with mic technique, but as far as mixing goes I've learned a LOT mixing 200+ Mixing Secrets Multitrack projects. Of all the things that experience has taught me, finding a sonic space for everything was the most useful.
Hell, learning how to do that has helped in post production sound on my videos, too, as I've managed to solve a few problems with production sound that, until I had that experience, I thought were unsolvable. Like getting rid of wind noise with a sharp low cut, for example; so long as you keep the rolloff below the fundamental frequency of the voice of the person you're shooting it doesn't affect the voice at all and all but eliminates wind noise (I do have a hairy windjammer on my mic but it can only do so much when an event I want to shoot is outdoors in 25+ km/h wind).
I'm glad there's someone out there trying to help novice recording engineers figure this shit out.
Thanks man!
+SpectreSoundStudios Isn't this a little to much editing for a instrument?
+PedalingPrince +SpectreSoundStudios Interestingly, the 500Hz crossover thing is something I did recently when recording bass guitar for a song at uni. I had the bass going into a DI with parallel outputs, with one output going straight into Logic Pro X. The other one went into a 1x15 combo bass amp miked up with an SM-57 (a MD421 also works for bass cabinets, I've since learned) and then into Logic. What I found is that the direct signal gave me plenty of low-end to work with, and the amp signal emphasised the mids and the highs. After I did the 500 Hz crossover on both the tracks, I put an overdrive patch from the DAW on the miked track, and that gave me a pretty decent rock tone. Whether that would work for a metal track, I'm not sure, but I'd say it'd be worth trying.
Oddly enough, Glenn, I started watching your videos because they made me laugh to the point of tears, but watching your extremely in-depth tutorials has made me appreciate metal music a little more, which is something I never thought I would say. So thanks for opening my ears!
Main reason why bass players don't change their strings too often is because they're stupid expensive. Like 3-5 times more expensive than regular guitar strings.
So true, last time I changed my bass strings was '03. I rarely play bass and those strings were $40 or more. I paid more for the strings than I did for the bass.
+Tom SDM I don't change my strings as I hate that twangy, trebly "new string" sound. I like my bass tone to be very sub bass heavy so I use flatwound, nylon wrapped strings and rarely change them. Cost doesn't come into. They are only like £30.
+Code: Marla I hope you spare any band the priviledge to play with you...
dzemohendrix Why? The sound of your strings is a personal preference.
I'm in two bands: a 5 five acoustic funk-rock band: they also hate the new string twang so we are all good there.
And my other band is a dubstep/trip hop/electronic 2 piece, so once again, horribly trebly strings have no place in that.
Code: Marla Hey, if a crap sound is your preference, fine by me.
I will never argue with some when the results are so awesome. Thanks for the tip. Helped me alot. I wish I knew this before hand.
Going DI is definitely the simplest way of doing this, and with a good DI and amp sim it'll sound pretty good. You don't have to worry about the room you're recording in either. There is no point in micing up if you've got a shitty amp, but a good amp sounds better than any amp sim, in my opinion.
In most metal genres the bass isn't really prominent anyway, so what's the point of going to all that extra trouble?
Sometimes though, the music can really benefit from a bassist that takes up more space with sound and with playing. (Tool)
Absolutely.
Third option: my GK amp head has an XLR jack for direct out. If i need more grit than it can give me, I plug a fuzz pedal into the effects loop. Sounds awesome.
You may be a crabby old coot, but my interest in your videos a decade ago helped lead me to having a successful career in audio today. Thanks man, your animated personality hooked me on the subject matter and helped set me on the path I’m on now. I still have days where the bass player jokes make all too much sense though.
Just don't tell Lars this video is out here.
Solid advice on the distortion track. It really blends seamlessly with the crunch of the guitars.
wow dude, you gotta make a tutorial on how to do that "disappearing bass" trick (2:30).
your loyal fan and a bassist.
also, we're not stupid. I read a lot. the three piglets, hansel and gretel... and a lot more.
+Fred Marcoty i was talking about the part when the bass dissappears from his hands... 2:27 would be more accurate
Bass strings are fucking expensive man. It makes me wanna tear my face off.
GamesPlaysWill are you kidding me, you don't have 15$ to spare on some strings
15 dollars?! You're lucky! Over here in England it is 15 - 30 pounds, which is a lot more than 15 dollars (just so you know)
Besides, I'm under 18, so coming up with that kind of money consistently is annoying.
well for one i didn't know you were in England, also i didn't know that bass strings were that much more expensive in England (and yes i knew that pounds were more).
Whatever man. It's cleared up at least.
GamesPlaysWill Lets be honest man, I have five guitars. I restring every single of them at the same time and they cost 8 - 10 quid per set. I am 17 and I don't have a job. Now tell me you can't afford bass strings...
I've gotten a fantastic sound by going direct, obviously, but then putting a mic in front of the bass to catch the acoustic sound of new strings. mix to taste. love it.
That distorted bass track sounds like noise IMO
Sounds like absolute fucking shit
What he's basically done is halved it into the guitar tone he's assuming most bassists play the exact same lines as a guitar mainly
Hey want to know the funniest shit though this mix is still infinitely better than and justice for all
Distorted bass is what makes music sound good. Modern dance and pop music is so obsessed with clean bass that it has zero anything that makes it interesting to listen to, add a distorted bass and now you have something that is not gonna make you want to rip your eyes out. Distorted bass is what makes all the classics classic. Its what makes real metal bands sound good. Its what really makes certain songs that just have "something" sound so good.
@@jthunderbass1 ok, bass doesnt need to be distorted to fit in. And alot of "real" metal bands dont have a distorted bass
Loved the “no beer here” sign! To think there are some people who leave their drinks on top of something that, if spilled, can really fuck up EVERYTHING.
Very nice video. As a bass player of 12 years I always laugh at your bassist comments because I agree with all of them. Its nice to see how simple you can break down the process of recording bass...unfortunately you still have to find a player who actually knows the song, right?
Glenn have you seen anything on the Darkglass B7K? I just got one and I'm excited to see how it tracks compared to my Sansamp. It has a lot more control of the mid range (hi and lo mid knobs, and I like to boost my midrange) and has a great gritty drive sound and the classic blend knob.
Keep the videos rolling! I'm digging them!
I don't care how old this video is, the new bass strings joke is always hilarious
2:07 Geddy Lee!
I've been struggling for weeks with the bass tone on a track I've been working on. Then I remembered this video of Glenn's and I took a look tonight and applied it to the bass track. There were two versions of the track (recorded at the same time) - one recorded through an Avalon and one through a sans amp, but they still sounded kind of muddy and the top end was destroyed by the bass players nails grinding against the strings as he hit them. Anyway, I ended up using the Avalon as the main track and the sans amp track for the distorted one. I ran them both out through a group and applied some slight eq to pull out the clunk that was still there and add in a bit of life to the top mids and bugger me, it worked a treat. Thanks Glenn. The track really has come to life and the bass guitar is giving it heaps of energy and aggressiveness. All the guitars and vocals are sitting better because of this method. I'm going to give it a shot over the rest of the album and see what happens.
I remember the first time I tried to put new Strings on my bass. Let's just say a wasted about $35...
Alex Ritter ikr I changed my strings finally after a long time and after half an hour of cleaning the frets, another 15 minutes went by trying to put the strings around the tuners(I'm a trained guitarist so I'm not used to bass string changin). After I finally manage to put the B string in place, I start tuning the G. One turn, two turns, SNAP!!!. The fucking string breaks. I've never thrown so many objects against a wall before
Max Miller
LOL! You must be a rookie.
As a relatively new bass player, I find your videos both highly informative and absolutely ruinous to my self-esteem.
but what about DOOM bass? DOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Mannnnnnnnnn I am so lucky the only bass players I know actually know the importance of having fresh strings and having good bass technique 😉😉😉😉😉😉
Garbage or Nickelback? I don't see the difference
Neither do I :)
That's because there is no difference. Nickelback is garbage.
As a bass player who actually changes his strings 4-5 times a year, I found this video great for explaining to me what sort of gear I should use to help me record
Ola Englund's how to record bass for metal was better for tone and brutality!
Man, that final mix just KILLS me !!!!
Clean and crisp and clear and yet it still makes me want to “dance” (bang my head?) 😎😎😎😎
Thanks again for some great advice, I’ll be trying it right after potty training my drummer... Wah wah wah waaaaahhhh
Step 1 to a good bass tone according to you: get new strings.
Ok understandable... but..
Step 1 to getting a good bass tone from people who know what they're doing: not scooping your goddamn mids.
Anthony Mora If you look at the second eq he brings back the mids, that's why he says: "narrow midrange bandwidth" then he gives them some distortion. So technically he didn't scoop any mids he just singled them out and added what he wanted specifically for them.
Yeah that's pretty much what I said. Except the metallica part... which was dead on lol.
"The rules" seem oriented to sounding as much as possible like what you learned off of, a decade (or more) ago. SOMEBODY needs to take the midrange because that's where humans hear the best, anytime a guitarist or singer or sax player gets compliments on their tone it's MIDRANGE. I mean, OF COURSE the guitar player is going to tell the bassist to "scoop the mids" - and the singer is going to tell the guitarist to scoop HIS mids! Everyone's fighting over the prime real estate. The only rule that makes complete sense is that a band needs to allocate ALL the frequencies in a way that sounds best for what you play, and I don't think that's going to come from overt copying other mixes, unless that's all you can do. Mixing for a trio is drastically different than if you've got two guitars and a keyboard and two (or more) singers. There were some nu-metal bands that sounded laughably awful on record BECAUSE EVERYBODY SCOOPED THE MIDS.
And all the arguing in the world doesn't mean ANYTHING if the "musicians" don't even know where frequencies are. The open high E string of an electric guitar is just barely into upper mids, and the 24th fret of that is barely even into "highs." You don't see horns or tweeters on guitar amps BECAUSE you want to kill everything above 2.5K or so, plug a guitar into a PA and you soon see why.
And when you see guitar pedals advertised to help you "cut through the mix"and the singer's mike is designed to "cut through the mix" and your bass player's amp is "cutting through the mix" - SO WHO'S PLAYING THE FUCKING MIX THEN?!? The drummer? Yah I really wanna hear THAT band...
What freq. Is goddamn mids?
I mean I agree totally but is goddamn mids like 2k? That and he has like 10 vids on bass players sucking. This is for recording bass players who where natually gifted with being deaf.
+h1de not totally true, Jason had some great bass sounds so did Cliff, but once BOB ROCK popped in to help that all went to shit ha ha ha ha
That sans amp is no joke... Been using it live and in the studio for 7 years.
Guys like you give bass players a bad name. Yes there are quite a bit of meatheaded bassists, and like you said there is to much guitar going on to even hear the bass. You here that guitarists your apart of the problem too! 😃👍 see that's the problem with a lot of metal now guitarists are too over powering. Every one in the band must be equal that is why i respect 3 piece bands so much because everyone is doing equal parts. Anthrax and Megadeth are good examples of bass players. You can hear them but they are not the focal point. Ego comes into play a lot for guitarist two. When I was in my ex band I was turned down so much by the rhythm guitarist (he couldn't even keep up with the drums and I) but he just thought bass was un important and should never be at the level of his "solos".
Ryan jagr Same thing happened to me
+Ryan jagr Real bass players evolve to jazz or funk. I know I did. (Nothing against metal though I write and listen to it almost exclusively)
This video is an example of a guitar player pretending to know how to play bass and recording it like they record guitars in metal.
thanks for sharing this!! Ive been playing for 21 years now and am planning on putting together a home studio, there is no doubt I will be referencing this video in the future....
Sounds great BTW
I cant believe some of the excuses im hearing in these comments (for not buying new bass strings) "I like the dull sound of old bass strings" .. " I don't like the new twangy sound of new strings".."they are too expensive"..that last one I can agree with, new strings for Bass are almost 4X times more money than 1 pack of new guitar strings. so cant argue that exscuse, your right...but you can always boil them. Ive kept almost every bass string over the last 2 years or so, after I pull them off, I boil them and catalog them (size, thickness, type, date used) this way I can mix and match or replace the correct gauge if in a pinch. good luck bassy's.
+chuck jones whiny bassists :) lets talk about the cost of a set of new drum heads...
+chuck jones While I do like the sound of twangy new bass strings, the thing with people that like the sound of old bass strings is true. People like James Jamerson or Donald "Duck" Dunn preferred the sound of old, dull, dead bass strings. It's not an excuse, and really, nothing new or very odd.
+Ivo Samuel Giosa Domínguez while I respect your opinion, I think there are other ways to get that dull sound, like EQ. old strings should not be "in any way" a deciding factor in your sound. good luck man.
Going direct works but honestly I've never heard anything sound better than recording a bass through a high end amp and cabinet with my Audix D6. Sounds absolutely incredible.
Is that a Death Note Shirt?!
Half the time he was talking, I was trying to figure that out. That's awesome :)
As a long time guitarist and also a former bassist in a metal band, (I was the friend that happened to own a bass,) I wish that I'd known about this video, (or at least the people that recorded me had seen it,) long ago. I love your videos man.
what is with that intro song man???it is 7 times louder than the video sound.my ears explode when that song kicks in..if you call yourself a producer,then mix sound on your videos bit better!
8 years I follow you, this was one of the first videos I've seen. :) To the next 8
Am I the only who hates the tone
No, I've heard much better tones using a similar clean dirty mix technique. I think he was going for a generic metal sound, like the cut away music to a reality show involving souped up cars.
It's not supposed to sound good on its own, it's supposed to sit in a mix
Glenn!!!!
Thanks for sharing this trick, I remember my teacher told me about this trick but never show us how sounded in the mix. now my basses sound with more detail, Thanks!
Yuck, scooping the mids!
When mixing it's important to get rid of content that just muddies up the mix, and sadly basses do that in metal around the 500hz range a lot. There's so much in that area already; guitars, snare, toms, vocals, you need to make room. Bass isn't an instrument that is supposed to be out the front most of the time, so it's a handy place to cut from.
heresjonny666 Look at Megadeth, there's a perfect example of how David still has mids in his tone. Guitarists are normally the ones who mess up the mix with trying the be the loudest and fill up the entire sound spectrum.
I dont know man, I really enjoy the tone of killing the low mids on my amp (depending on what genre I'm playing). In metal, it just cleans up the sound; gives it definition. I play fingerstyle most of the time, and pretty aggressively at that. (and there is a difference between scooping out at 400 or 500Hz, and getting the Korn bass tone). I find that in a mix, a bass just sounds like mud if you dont scoop the mids somewhere. Probably why they're so buried in the mix so often. Just my 2 cents though.
>plays BASS
>wants mids
play fucking guitar then
Resolvehk14 Isn't that kind of silly considering you haven't mentioned anything about treble which hasn't been cut?
the irony, now you are making bass guitar videos. great, man, thanks.
Make a better studio, and better bass players will come to record in it, instead of mixing in your grandmas basement..
Glenn, I love your videos and tutorials and they work so well if you actually use them and try them out before saying they don't work. Thanks again!
But i want a 60s tone, not no fucking death heavy metal 1 string piece of amphibian shit.
Rock on! Definitely love these tips and vids, and I really like the sounds you get. I'd love to see how you mic up, track and mix drums.
Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to seeing more.
this goes out to the competent bassists, you’re chill. you know you’re one of the competent ones if you can laugh at the jokes too.
The bass intro. on Mercyful Fate's "Fifteen men (and a bottle of rum)" is an example of some sick bass tone. Love that stuff.
I'm a bass player from Puerto Rico and I've never laughed so much with a video 😂😂 !! But thanks was a great help and not only for the rock music .. also for the latin music is very good.. !! So thanks and excellent work ... !!! And if the musicians are offended by your comments about the bass players .. they just put to practice 👍 success ... !! Thanks
For live applications I mic the bass cab as well as a DI line. I use the bass for the IEM mix and I use the DI only for FOH mixing. Works great!
Don't be mean to bassplayers man. As you said in another video, they make the band sound good.
Hey Glenn, big fan here. Justed wanted to thank you for the tutorial, just used this on a bass cover i uploaded and I loved it.
Working on demoing and dicking around mixing, haha don't even have a bass I'm just pitch shifting a guitar DI down an octave and playing it like a bass, doing this dual track thing and wow, I never realized til i AB'ed it but this just sits in a mix so right, didn't realize how important the bass tone was til it wasn't there, and didn't realize how easy it was to make it sound pretty good. Thanks Glen, making this whole recording at home thing a lot of fun.
Finally, someone that gets it. THANK YOU!
i have my own studio and tracking bass has always been a struggle this video kicks ass man thanx for the info
I'm starting to watch these videos for the comedic content mainly! The strings, man! YEAH!
Doug from King's X plays Tech 21 and his signal is huge.Solid heavy bass sound can bring your track's total mix to life!
+1 for the Sansamp Bass DI. Super useful for tracking Bass!
The A-Designs Reddi DI gives an amazing tone.
We use the Orange Crush 50, it has a cab sim output, use this with a little compression and fuzz direct into the board comes out nice .Great vid thanks Glenn
Hello. I'd like to say that as a bassist, I was entertained. I'm not offended, but I actually learned a little something. Learning something, plus a good laugh is always good. I'm just a high school kid and so is my drummer friend, so we don't make money from what we do, but we enjoy every bit of the music. We're fans, and we thank you for making us laugh and teaching us to be just a bit more professional and better at what we do.
You just saved my mix. Thank you so much!
Nice use of the distortion, it really helps the bass to cut through the mix. And those are pretty neat vst's, for being free they work really good
Im gonna learn bass and be good at it just because you said that
These are such useful and instructive videos! You are so direct and clear about how all these sounds are ending up on the tunes I hear. Thanks.
Amazing tone, I've always thought mids were the bassists friend, but I seen what you did there and it worked.
I’ve tracked bass for albums DI (with sansamp or odb3 pedals DI), and with a mic’d cab (sansamp into orange tiny terror 1000W head into ampeg 8x10). Each sound okay, but much like your tutorial on mic’ing up guitar cabs goes the same with bass. Such a bigger soundscape and cabinet resonance (in my personal opinion). Sincerely, the bassist who knows his own material in the studio. P.s. your generalizations on bassists is hilarious (and a bit aggravating knowing it’s mostly true). love the channel
Very cool, the highs and bass are previously rounded off before hand, so the scoop is sculpting out some midrange frequencies while preserving and even highlighting others. This prevents it from sounding thin and gives the bass tone some big tight fundamental with clean and consistent texture. Then the mid focused and dirty track adds the punch and harmonics to complement the warmth, stand out among other instruments, and creates a great balance.
Bass has a harder time getting heard in metal but it is CERTAINLY easily felt. If you're listening to some metal through your head phones or at mid volume in your car or something then yeah, a lot of the times bass is hard to hear with how wide and big the drums and guitar sound, like the video mentions. But when you CRANK IT through actual speakers or play it LIVE, then when the bass player stops playing, the drop off is usually immediately noticeable. Like "uncomfortable now that it's not there" noticeable. In fact pads are often included and compressors are often used to roll off a lot of that bass or else it build too much and the speakers can't handle it, flubbing it up and drowning out everything else in the live or studio mix, so the struggle when mixing bass is to keep the low end tight, musical, and focused.
The main reason being that there is not really any less bass in a typical metal mix, it just gets pushed lower, meaning it takes a lot more power to move all that low end. Harmonics and uppermids come in handy with making your bass audible at low levels because they give it a texture that can be picked up by the ears a bit. Think of an Ice berg and how little of it comes above the surface for you to see, but get under the water and it is (or at least can be) MASSIVE. More volume in metal=more bass frequencies you get to hear/feel, and naturally this is how metal is supposed to be listened to. Loud and proud. Otherwise you are probably hearing about half of what the bass is actually contributing, which leads to the notion that it isn't that important, and frankly to a casual listener who doesn't often rock out with their cock out, it isn't. What good are frequencies you can't normally hear right? Hence the struggle to get bass tones that cut or punch through the other instruments, since getting a deep and wide low end isn't necessarily hard to do as long as you have the power to move the sound. Also I guess I should warn against hearing damage too. Savor the loudness and don't overindulge. appreciate it!
Woah that is an incredible useful tip! I'm usually stuck with this soggy thin sounding distorted bass track. Can't wait to try this!
Thanks It is a really nice advise. I was laughing when you were talking about the strings. I had spend lot of money in strings to find my own sound, and it is really important.
Thanks again...
I think that sounds fine, but I'm not big on the whole scooped mids thing specially on bass. The guitar tone still survives because it still has a lot of upper mids and highs to be heard, but on bass you're sucking most of the tone out of it. It's a technique that works when the bass player is just hitting root notes, but will get a lot of complaints when you get a bass player who can actually play (and believe it or not, there are quite a few who can).
So for people who want to know how to make the bass stand out I highly suggest you to look for stuff produced by Kurt Ballou (of Converge). His basses are actually quite clear in the mix, and the bands he produces are, in my opinion, some of the heaviest bands you'll ever hear (Converge, Trapped Them, Code Orange Kids, Nails). I think the thing he does the most is splitting the bass signal into two amps, one for the bass frequencies and one for the mids. Then he blends them so when the bass player is hitting lower notes it sounds like a bass, but when he moves up the frets it almost sounds like a guitar.
The song Dark Horse by Converge is a great example of how full he can make a three piece sound with this approach.
But I understand most people will be ok with this style of mixing because is much more familiar. I just chimed in for the few who like having there basses heard. Cheers!