Song feedback, tone help, drum & bass

[St Drogo]

Helleuw.

So, since a few weeks i've been playing around a bit with this drummer friend of mine, and this is the first song we've come up with.

This is it right here, you have to click it 'n' such!

As of now it's just a rought draft in need of smoothing out a bit, and I'd like some feedback on structure and (more importantly) tone.

In this recording I'm using an ATK, into a turbo rat, into a Peavey tour 4x10 (the amp in our rehearsal space). I'm trying to find ways of making it sound more articulate, but without losing the (omg so awesome!) hairy, dirtyness of the rat. If you'll notice the chorus (the bit with the powerchords), the high notes kind of drown out in the mix. Also the first/main riff is supposed to be staccato, but it kind of becomes more legato. This might be more down to technique though, and isn't as annoying as the high notes not standing out.

I've experimented with a clean blend, but I don't really like it.

I've also experimented with a Boss CEB-3 used as a high frequency crossover split, with the lows going into the peavey, and the highs going into a guitar amp, as suggested in another thread by someone. Great sound, but kind of impractical live. Not so much the hauling of an extra amp, but finding a good balance of volume is quite challenging.

One other thing, in more recent recordings I've replaced the ATK with my new squier jazz. This sounds a bit different, but my drummer keeps insisting on mic'ing the bass and drums for recording, and it sound kinda crappy.

So, any particular tips or things to keep in mind tonewise with a drum/bass duo in this style?

[FretlessMainly]

Ah, the curse of the distortion pedal. "Sounds great, but where'd my low end go?" The nature of fuzz-type distortion (as opposed to amp overdrive) is that it cuts lower frequencies. I've heard this with several pedals, and I've seen it explained in varying degrees of electrical circuitry theory as well.

Do a search in the effects section to see if this has been discussed (I'm sure it has, at least several times). There are some pedals that are better at keeping the low frequencies in there than others (the Russian Big Muff pops into my mind, but I'm not certain it's for this reason).

I solved the problem by using my Rickenbacker in stereo mode with the neck pickup going to a clean low-end rig and the bridge pickup going through distortion to a separate rig. Sounds like you've done something akin to that, but it is a fair bit of stuff to lug around...

[GizmoTheOne]

I was worried with an issue similar to yours, as the distortion in my fx unit drowned my low frequencies out, and I think it sounded "not bad, but it could be better".

Here's what I did (and am soooo glad I did) :

1) Bought a crossover + mixer pedal (works like a crossover + fx loop)
2) Set the crossover frequency to approximately 100Hz.
3) Sent frequencies above 100Hz in the distortion (overdrive) pedal and returned it to the mixer section of the crossover.
4) Sent output of mixer section into my amp.

That way, the frequencies under 100Hz are uneffected by the pedal and give a very nice clean bottom layer. I have everything in one amp, my low/ low-mid definition is not drowned out and I can still clearly feel the crunchy edge of the overdrive pedal in my tone.

Maybe my explanation is not clear, feel free to ask questions if you need to.

As for the song, I think the bass should be a bit more present, I couldn't hear much of your dynamics / playing. I think the song was good for the style of music, though if it was me I would use a bit less distortion in order to make things tighter and clearer.

[St Drogo]

Crap. Forgot about this thread, excuse me.

Sound like a good idea, Gizmo. What I dislike about cleanblends (as I use atm through an LS-2), is that the clean is put through fullrange. But you'd want only the lows there, so that might just work. What crossoverpedal do you use?

Also, I'd love to put your idea to use Fretless, but I regrettably can't afford a rick . Plus that would mean hauling an extra amp.

[Jay2U]

Play a little looser and partly bypass the pedal.