Boo to bass mixing.
Why is it that, particularly in a life situation, so many engineers will mix it so that there's tons of bass...but not a lot of the actual bass guitar? All you can hear is a stupid mush. It's the same on albums, you struggle to pick out the bass guitar. I thought the point was to make it so you could hear everything? At least that's my philosophy when mixing live or in the studio. I always have loads of mid on my bass so that it cuts through.
Does this annoy anyone else?
I'm back and better than ever.
yes!
Most engineers just don't understand bass.... but also a lot of bassists who have the 'i was the worst guitarst who turned up' tag also don't understand bass.
A Good DI box and a good engineer are a wonderful mix for a gig.
And not using speakers above 12inches helps too.
18 in particular are useless flubbery things.
The Reverend Lord Henry was not one of those new-fangled parsons who carry the principles of their vocation uncomfortably into private life.
Boo to you both!
Middy bass sounds nasty and messes up the spectrum. Nice low and sub bass is ideal, with some "mid-top" for snaps and pops.
The problem live is that most venues are simply incapable of accommodating proper bottom end and you get a mush. Adding mid to the bass will just move the mush up to the even more audible part of the spectrum.
If you're experiencing inaudible bass or mush at home then that is to do with your stereo, room and/or ears.
Bass recording and reproduction has never been better than it is now. And bass is meant to be bass, not mid.
...the bluebird can sing but the crows got the soul...
i use a pretty high mid setting on my esp/ltd f255 with the bass set at around 5 and the treble set just high enough so that the slaps n pops sound right ive never had a problem hearing my basslines on any of my band recordings but perhaps i understand bass better than the previously mentioned "worst guitarist who turned up" yeah im a guitarist too but my first love was always with the low end and hence bass is im first instrument and yes it annoys me when bass is just thrown in willy nilly and that they dont use propper instruments (down with dance music and its horrible computerised and synth garbage)
Note im not against good synth or keys players cos i think when used properly they sound awesome but seriously how many dance tracks really sound good....very few in my opinion (probably cos i cant stand dance music)
I'm with Goj here, low end's meant to be low. Midrange in a recording mix just gets in the way (at least if you're metalling it up like the proverbial mofo anyways)
Though for definition driving a bi-amp signal and just EQing the thing to "pong" along with the mix, in as inobtrusive a way as possible in the mix.
When it's on it's own, sure, midrange it to heaven, but in a busy mix, it leads to trouble.
Hugs and kisses
VnM
its never done my band any harm in a live set up so i dunno whats going on there but then again im not a sound engineer.Originally Posted by Racerdeth
Bands with a middy bass and complicated mix - Joy Division, Queen, Pink Floyd. Dont see what the argument against mids is. A decent mixing engineer is all thats required.
If you're going for a dubby sound then fair enough but tbh I think too many bands leave the sound sculpting to an engineer somewhere down the line and dont consider it part of their job. There arent that many people who make great mix engineers in this day and age - a dying art and a pig of an art to get right.
good point there downfader ill admit i dont have a clue about sound engineering but when im playing a gig i know how i want my bass to sound (in the studio i just work from the amp n make sure its recorded right) if im not happy ill ask the engineer to put more treble on or whatever i feel i need and so far most of the engineers ive worked with dont have a problem with that have i just been lucky so far or is that the norm i e if u ask em to do something with ur sound do they usually do it or just nod their heads and do their own thing anyway??
tell your live sound engineer to eq you to the room. you can eq yourself to the individual song by adjusting yourself with a programmable eq or laptop with eq plugins adjust to the key of the song and the harmonics E=329.6hz G=392hz A= 440hz C=523.3hz . me i use a bass v amp live, fed di to house.
for the scientific method of obtaining the pitch in hz use this (I myself am no damn good at trig algebra or any like math.
Pitches are often labeled using scientific pitch notation or some combination of a letter and a number representing a fundamental frequency. For example, one might refer to the A above middle C as "A4" or "A440." However, there are two problems with this practice. First, in standard Western equal-temperament, the notion of pitch is insensitive to spelling: the description "G4 double sharp" refers to the same pitch as "A4." Second, human pitch perception is logarithmic with respect to fundamental frequency: the perceived distance between the pitches "A220" and "A440" is the same as the perceived distance between the pitches "A440" and "A880."
To avoid these problems, music theorists sometimes represent pitches using a numerical scale based on the logarithm of fundamental frequency. For example, one can adopt the widely used MIDI standard to map fundamental frequency f to a real number p as follows
p = 69 + 12\times\log_2 { \left(\frac {f}{440\; \mbox{Hz}} \right) }
This creates a linear pitch space in which octaves have size 12, semitones (the distance between adjacent keys on the piano keyboard) have size 1, and A440 is assigned the number 69. Distance in this space corresponds to musical distance as measured in psychological experiments and understood by musicians. The system is flexible enough to include "microtones" not found on standard piano keyboards. For example, the pitch halfway between C (60) and C♯ (61) can be labeled 60.5.
I hope i was more helpful than not...
60.5??
Bah - I 'discover' loads more microtones on my fretless all the time......
:shame:
The Reverend Lord Henry was not one of those new-fangled parsons who carry the principles of their vocation uncomfortably into private life.
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