Boo to bass mixing.

[imperial_black]

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?

Yeah I can kinda sympathise with that and I think some of the problem is like you say ,too many bass frequencies on other instruments .
This is more about each instrument having its own territory or not fighting in the frequency range with other instruments . Keeping these kinds of separation Makes mixing a doddle. Doesn't matter whether your talking about sub,bass,mid,treble, I hear this problem right across the board on my London outings .
It usually boils down to an inexperienced sound man that tries too hard to make an empty room sound bassy and then when it fills up with bodies its too much hassle to re EQ over 30 tracks in the time that it takes for the singer throw his mic stand at the monitor guy.

[ibanezgav]

hmmmmmmm perhaps us bass players should all take a sound engineering course so that when we turn up we just kick the sound guy to the side set our basses how we like em to sound and then say change that setting at ur own peril............but obviously in a nice and diplomatic way after all everyone knows that us bass players are the nicest ones in the band

[stevefingers]

It' all about separation IMO. In my band me (guitar) and the other guitarist used to go for the heaviest sounds we could possibly acheive but because the actual bass guitar got lost in the mix it didn't sound as heavy as it should.
We started rolling off the low end and concentrated more on acheiving crunchy mids. Lo and behold the true weight of the bassists C-tuned Thunderbird shone through with definition and trouser-flapping lows.
Can't think you'll be very popular trying to mess with a guitarists precious 'tone' though.....

[Gojirosan]

that is because the bassist turns up and asks the usual "Have you bought your Fender Jazz? No, have you bought the 1 other bass I have ever recorded then... a P bass? No.

Ok use one of mine then....

Amp? No need just DI it please..."


Cue loads of arguments until the bassist, for the good of the band, gives in and gets the same bass sound as everyone else that the engineer has recorded.


bah.

But musicians are just cattle. It's the engineer that's the important one in the relationship...

[fretmeister]

But musicians are just cattle. It's the engineer that's the important one in the relationship...

I shall remember that....

"Oi! I'm taking to you Kurosawa! Your movies are shit without the right projectionist!"

[funkyfraz]

I'm not precious about my bass tone in recording anyway. I'd much rather have the whole mix sounding good than have my "own tone" replicated in the studio. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that I'd rather just DI straight into the desk and let the engineer dude do the magic while I'm away home or in the pub!

[Gojirosan]

I shall remember that....

"Oi! I'm taking to you Kurosawa! Your movies are shit without the right projectionist!"

Ah, bad comparison: The engineer is like the cinematographer, the producer like the director the musicians are like the actors. And actors, as Hitchcock said are "cattle". The projectionist would be the DJ...

[Gojirosan]

I'm not precious about my bass tone in recording anyway. I'd much rather have the whole mix sounding good than have my "own tone" replicated in the studio. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that I'd rather just DI straight into the desk and let the engineer dude do the magic while I'm away home or in the pub!

Exactly, and besides "your tone" might be wrong for the track.

[ibanezgav]

But musicians are just cattle. It's the engineer that's the important one in the relationship...

gojirosan i think u might just have opened a whole other can of worms there and are about to meet with many many objections including mine lol but it all leads back to the old what came first the chicken or the egg cos without the musicians the engineer has nothing and without someone to engineer their sound the musicians may sound awful

[Gojirosan]

gojirosan i think u might just have opened a whole other can of worms there and are about to meet with many many objections including mine lol but it all leads back to the old what came first the chicken or the egg cos without the musicians the engineer has nothing and without someone to engineer their sound the musicians may sound awful

Well I was slightly taking the piss...but I think there is some truth in it once you hit the studio.