university of mud buckets

[Oreomeister365]

There was a battle of the bands earlier here at PSU, and geez, the young bass players of the world have me worried. Every single one of them sounded like a giant bucket of mud. All it did was add a massive BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP to the guitars and make everything undiscernible. If If you take away the gigantic anemic low end of the bassist in any of these bands then the guitars aren't actually that loud, but the giant bucket of mud added onto makes everything seem so much louder in the muddiest most undefined way possible. The bands that had marshal tube halfstacks and bassists with ampeg stacks and fenders all sounded so terrible. Like the bassist turned the bass knob up to 10, treble to zero. Mids? Young musicians are the anti-mid. It doesn't help that some bands had THREE STINKING GUITARISTS playing what it takes ONE GUITARIST to do. They were all playing the exact same thing through all their songs, all sounding exactly the same. Geez, thats not helping the mud. And if they ever want to make money, giving cash to two more people who don't actually add anything is dumb. One guitarist had a dual recto mesa boogie head and boogie cab and had some terrible tone. I was sitting there expecting this guys sound to be head above everyone elses but no. HOW DO THEY DO THIS?!!?

Anyways, thats what I observed tonight. I won't comment on the music, but I will say that their lack of care for tone despite having a whole ton of expensive gear won't get them very far. All these bassists were using fair to great basses, mostly fenders and a stingray in there too. I've only been in college for 1.5 semesters, but I hope to start playing amongst these bands as soon as sophomore year starts. May my sound be tight and punchy and may my tone obliterate the eardrums with its powerful crunchy clear might. I hope

Anyways, I'm really looking forwards to playing next year. I kid you not when I say that every bassist there had their own ampeg stacks of some sort. All 8 bands. Theyu Thing is, I wouldn't know a damn thing about tone and all tge different amps and basses and everything out there if not for talkbass.

When highschool was over I expected college to have much more interesting and tone savvy players. However this concert has shown me that even though their gear might cost 5x as much, their taste in how to use it is just as bad. The only thing that has improved is the singing and its clarity.

Anyways, idk why I typed this.

[BasslineFrenzy]

Originally Posted by Oreomeister365

Anyways, idk why I typed this.

It is alright... we all need to vent every now and then

I know exactly what you are talking about too. I hear mud all around me!

There is so much mud being flung from their amps... I'd think that I was riding on a quad immediately after a downpour.

[Flintlock]

I once heard someone trying out basses with those exact settings on the amp (bass 10, mids and treble 0). It was ridiculous, all of the instruments shook, but you couldn't make out what note was playing. Then the guy said, yeah that sounds good and walked off

And how do they afford ampeg stacks anyway?

[BryanM]

My guess would be misplaced college loan money or parents' bank accounts for a good many of them.

[Shroom]

Guess I live in a better area? I'm in high school, but I think our worst local bassist (as far as tone-consciousness goes. his skills are pretty good) who is a college freshman turns bass, mids, and treble all to 10, and he actually gets a pretty good sound out of it.

Some other guys who play with fenders and picks at least use a scooped EQ, which seems to work out for them. Then there's a few of us guys who like some mids and play with our fingers, but most of us play ska (3rd/4th wave). As for me, I am for a boost in the low mids and a smaller push in the lows and treble, but I got an active bass now, so I adjust EQ on the fly.

[anderbass]

I'm certainly not disputing your observations, but some rooms can definitely add to the "mud" issue.
Were all these bands playing in a gymnasium or some other room of questionable sonic characteristics by any chance?

[Parabolic Box]

Originally Posted by Shroom

Guess I live in a better area? I'm in high school, but I think our worst local bassist (as far as tone-consciousness goes. his skills are pretty good) who is a college freshman turns bass, mids, and treble all to 10, and he actually gets a pretty good sound out of it.

One of my guitarist friends is like that. Good guy, good player, but he takes a "I don't care how it sounds" approach to playing. So, bass, mid, treble to max, gain to max, and it sounds like a weasel getting strangled. He's played through my bass amps (with my settings) during jams and says something like, "Your amp sounds great." I wonder why...

[mellowgerman]

Originally Posted by Oreomeister365

Young musicians are the anti-mid.

I'm only 19 and I happen to love my mids. So it's not all young musicians that are anti-mid. But then not many of my peers are obsessed with jefferson airplane like I am...
I feel the same way you do and have always been frustrated with great gear being abused.
I think it just has to do with the type of sound people are going for. A lot of the new ridiculously heavy stuff is just out to be #1 loud and #2 scary. For both of those you don't need to worry much about tone. Also, if your entire audience is just out to beat the hell out of each other the muddy horrid sound only seems appropriate.
I feel your pain good sir.

[McHaven]

When I was in high school my classic rock outfit was bumped from the lineup in favor of some hardcore act. I swear to god, their entire sound was a giant wall of distortion with some screaming on top of it. No definition, no clarity, just a giant wall of fuzz and static. You could see the guitarists hands move up and down the neck, but there was no change in the sound. Disgusting.

[Parabolic Box]

Originally Posted by McHaven

When I was in high school my classic rock outfit was bumped from the lineup in favor of some hardcore act. I swear to god, their entire sound was a giant wall of distortion with some screaming on top of it. No definition, no clarity, just a giant wall of fuzz and static. You could see the guitarists hands move up and down the neck, but there was no change in the sound. Disgusting.

My high school was similar. Apparently, all you need is yelling, massive distortion, and two chords to wow some kids these days.

[mellowgerman]

Originally Posted by Parabolic Box

My high school was similar. Apparently, all you need is yelling, massive distortion, and two chords to wow some kids these days.

haha actually (and sadly), it seems it's the only way to wow some kids nowadays haha

[Shroom]

A massive wall of sound is always impressive, but not if it's super-distorted hardcore crap. The dude I mentioned with the scooped EQ is in a band that was once a skaterish, popish punk type of band sort of like Blink 182, but has since evolved into a weird, sort of ambient, Angels-and-Airwaves-influenced (go figure) rockish band only better. They do distorted walls of sound sometimes that actually sound good.

Not sure what my point was with this post other than to reply to the last couple. I guess that mids aren't always necessary for good sound, or something..

[mellowgerman]

well, if you want to cut through the mix you really should have some mids. that's all i'm sayin.

[jakusx]

I judged a battle of the bands last night and was really amazed by the first two bass payers. Both were playing Squier's out of Hartke stacks and had the things EQ's perfectly. They sounded lightyears above most local bands I write about that play Ibanez's or MIA Fender's through ampegs.

[El-Bob]

i feel ashamed to be a part of this muddy generation

[Fnord Explorer]

I've played one of those PSU battle of the bands things way back in the day. Sounds like some things never change, eh? My band got like second place and we sounded like a wall of angry wasps. You can only imagine what the rest sounded like.

That's BOTB events for you. Blech!

[Oreomeister365]

Hmm, the event was in a sort of theater type building. Not an auditorium but it was made for musical events and viewing movies.

But even so I was able to get really close to the bass players amps and actually hear that myself..bleh. At least it was on the brink of loud (it wasn't screaming, but definitely a rock venue). In high school they made us turn down so low...

[Spinal Tapper]

Were they all playing out the the same amps?

Just askin - they do that sometimes at battles (which I hate).

[Oreomeister365]

No, one stack had cosmetic flaws. One was composed of two smaller cabs, and they all had different racks.

Okay, literally ever band didn't: there was one with a hartke and one I don't remember.