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audio engineer/stubborn lead singer tone dissagreement

T

tmsteph

Jan 11, 2009
54
1
#1
Hey guys, my band is in the process of recording our album. Me and our singer/keys player are doing everything ourselves and we are having disagreements in bass tone.

His idea is pillowy and soft, a lot of 100 hz and not much growl or defenition. My ideal would be punchy and articulate. Our goal for recording sound would probably be something like mutemath does.

Could you guys listen to the demo we have put up so far and let me know what would fit the sound better. So far we have been going the soft and pillowy rout because he claims it fits the mix better. Let me know what you guys think!

Also, any tips on the playing and any musical critique are also welcome and appreciated.

the tunes are at
http://valero.bandcamp.com
 
#3
Tone is the least of your issues. That bass is probably 6db's below where it should be in the mix.
Which is knda a drag because your stuff is pretty cool.
IMHO
 
#4
Let's start by saying that the recording sounds great overall. As for the bass, it all depends what you are going for. The pillowy bass softens the impact of the music and makes it a bit dreamy. A more mid focused approach would make the music throttle more. What do you want it to do?
 
#5
Just my opinion , but I think your bass sounds already pretty good , maybe a little bit of mids for definition(a little boost in the 310-320 hz) and a bit of volume to give the tracks a bit more power(the bass volume is too low ) . By the way ; it's a very cool project. I love your music ;)
 
#10
My process goes like this:
1. Split the bass into two tracks.

2. Leave one full range, and apply a low pass filter, or EQ out everything above 150hz (ballpark) on the other track. This leaves you with a full range track and a sub track.

3. Compress the sub track to the point that it has little to no dynamic range. You want it as steady as possible. For modern RnB stuff, I add a very slight amount of reverb to it as well.

4. Solo the kick, snare, lead vocals (no backups or harmonies) and the sub bass track. Mix these tracks relative to each other in a way that's pleasing to listen to and fits the style of your music.

5. Next you have to bring this relative mix up to the appropriate level. If you're mixing on a console/desk, the 0db point will typically have upwards of 22db of clean headroom left. If you're mixing on a DAW (software), 0db is typically where you run out of headroom. On a console/desk, mix the relative mix you've created up to 0db. On a DAW, mix the relative mix up to -12db. Depending on how much "stuff" goes in later, you may have to reduce these by a few db's to keep from running out of headroom.

6. Bring in all of the other tracks on top of this foundation, including the full range bass track. This part has a lot of other methodologies as well, but I won't go into them. With the foundation in place you can start building the sound a lot more easily. That should also satisfy you keyboard player's need for soft, pillowy bass and allow you to mix in bass with detail and character on top of it.
 
#11
First of all, many thinks to all the tips! I will definitely take all of them in to consideration. I think we can reach a happy medium of sorts. Im probably going to re track the bass with my new 5 string jazz im purchasing tomorrow :) rather than the really muddy sammick I have been using. And I wholehartedly agree to the calls for MO BASS in the mix.

Right now there is just not the money for pro mixing to be done, and we kind of like the do it yourself attitude at this stage (the taking over your local scene stage). But hopefully with the advice from here we can make a pretty darn good album. Ill let you guys know when its finished and keep up the advice, it really is insightful.

mike
 

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