It's time to do the mix, help!

[harry manback]

Ok, I did a FAQ on this and found nothing... exactly...

Well everything has been recorded for my band's album, and it's time to mix the thing. I love the tone i got, it cuts thru nicely, a very warm and clear sound. Still when all the instruments get played the bass lacks punchyness, and I want it to kick in a little bit more. What can I do? Compression? EQ? It was recorded thru a UA 610 recording channel. I need a little help from you bass gurus. Thanks.

[harry manback]

anybody?

[agreatheight]

To start, you likely should be compressing the bass if it had not been during tracking. Every situation is different, but ballparking it = you can try a 5:1 to 8:1 ratio and set the threshold so you are seeing a small amount of reduction during the quiet parts to about 5 dbs of reduction during the louder parts, give or take. That is about average for a bass track. Then adjust the make-up gain or the track volume to get you back to mix volume. This will even out the sound and likely give the bass more 'presence.' If you still need to get through the mix a bit by all means add some eq. Start with a narrow band (Q), say maybe 2, and find the frequency the get's your bass heard, then adjust the amount of gain to get you to punch through. Also, be sure the guitars are panned away from the center of the stereo spectrum if possible, assuming you guys double tracked. If you can hard-pan the guitars, it'll leave more space in the center for kick, bass, snare and vocals. Finally, make sure the guitars aren't too loud in their lows and low mids. Often, it's not the bass that is the issue, it's the guitars covering them up.

These are just suggestions, mixing ideas, use what works! Good luck!

[harry manback]

Nice! Thanks a lot man!

[bsullivan]

It will partly depend on what you are trying to accomplish and what ingredients you have for your mix. (guitars, drums, keys, double tracked guitars, dobro, etc.)

But a couple of general things to keep in mind. Subtractive EQ can often be more effective than additive. A little bit goes a long ways.

What's your base (no pun intended) ingredient? What are you starting your mix with?

Every sound in your mix has a "sonic makeup", frequencies that really define it. The frequencies that you feel give your bass sound "punch" are being masked by something else? What is it?

You've probably already caught the cooking analogy but I'll take it a bit further. Everything in your mix affects the "taste" of everything else. Keep experimenting until you find the receipe you like.

[THIRSTYGUMS]

Push your mids
Push your mids
Push your mids
Push your mids
Push your mids (!)
push your mids a bit up so that it looks wrong on the e.q. but have faith! because of a trick of the ear boosting the lowlow lows just dulls out a lot of detail. The middle and upper middle will register as thick bass to your ear.
Try it, i struggled to be heard for years and then one night at practise our drummer recorded us with a camcorder and its cruddy mic, just so happens that someone had been in the studio and fiddled with my amp before hand (pushing the e.q. curve up like a mountain shape) , anyway, guess what? It was a revelation! I could hear myself, loud and fat, i was crapping all over TWO marshall stacks!!!
It seems wrong but it works!

[harry manback]

thanks guys.. I dunno much about mixing, I won't be mixing it but I wanna be ready to told the guy what I want and how to accomplish it... My band is alternative rock (guitars,drums, programming, and bass). The sound I got has lots of mids ( Fender P-bass, and Ampeg Dan Armstrong) and as I said it sounds pretty good and can be heard clearly, the only thing missing is a little punch..

agreatheight
or anybody; can you explain me what exactly is "hard-pan the guitars"? Thanks again.

[All_¥our_Bass]

Originally Posted by harry manback

can you explain me what exactly is "hard-pan the guitars"? Thanks again.

Say you have two guitar tracks, hard panning means paning all
the way to the left or right. (I.E. Guitar1 comes only out of left speaker, Guitar2 comes only out of right speaker)

And btw, who is harry manback? I'm a tool fan but could never figure it out.

[harry manback]

Originally Posted by All_¥our_Bass

Say you have two guitar tracks, hard panning means paning all
the way to the left or right. (I.E. Guitar1 comes only out of left speaker, Guitar2 comes only out of right speaker)

And btw, who is harry manback? I'm a tool fan but could never figure it out.

Thanks for the answer...

Harry Manback was the friend and roomate of Maynard who got the threat call (heard on the track)... I heard he is the guy who sang on Green Jelly. By the way, Harry Manback is a pseudonym.

[Skit1]

Pan the guitars in either speaker (perhaps not fully - 85%) and have the bass and drums in the centre.

Mess around with the eq until your bass punches through as required (Eq lows + mids mainly)