EQing bass

[Masashi is God]

Hi Guys

I've read on here a few times that most sound engineers are used to working with fender basses and know how to mix them well.

With that in mind does anyone have any industry standard Eqing tips (frequencies to cut and boost) that they would nearly always use for a rock track, with a US fender J, using flats and finger technique through an AMpeg SVT?

It's a bit specific, but I thought it might be a common setup. .

Many thank in anticipation

 

[Steve]

The single most valuable thing I know about eq'in low end in any musical context be it bass amp, festival PA rig or recording console is the value of a good 40-50hz high pass filter.

If you get the sub crud out of the way, anything is possible and FAR easier.

 

[JohnDavisNYC]

Ears. Use them. Can't possibly say without hearing the player, song, console, delivery medium, etc...

John

 

[Tuned]

Unlike pretty much everything else, the bass should simply sound good on its own, and not try to compete with the rest of the mix throughout its entire frequency response. Fretted bass needs the help of saturation and coloration which is your SVT's job, with fretless I find I want a dead neutral recording path, no tubes.

 

[Betrayer_Bass]

You'll want to use you ears as has been previously said. Every single song is different. You should treat them as such (obviously for an album master, try to keep it the same so the album flows)

Get your EQ out and pan through the frequencies til you find the ones that sound right. You'll know it when you hear it. Also roll of 30-40hz as this is just mud and will "horrible up" your mix

Use a tight Q on the freq as to not interfere with other instrumenhts (like the kick drum for example.)

Get another EQ and pan in the mid-higher frequencies with a less tight Q to find some nice tones up there that you like, also keeping away from guitars/vox.

Hope that helps, I might be able to help more if I knew which DAW you're using

 

[Ubersheist]

Unlike pretty much everything else, the bass should simply sound good on its own

That's never really worked for me, as far as having the "bass sound good on its own." Actually, that never really worked for me for any instrument while recording, except the kick drum, snare and vocals. If the other instruments happen to sound good on their own, that's great, but not in any way a a rule of thumb. That's my take. If getting the bass to sound great seems to always work for you, then by all means, go with that! It just doesn't really for me.

As mentioned before, every song is different, and you should just always rely on your ears. However, there's also a couple of standard things that you should probably try.

EQing the bass is not as simple as using any standards. Most basses compete to some degree with other instruments, and 95% of the time, it's the kick drum. As such, you usually need to see how you're EQing the kick, and then EQ the bass to make the two sit well with each other and in the mix.

It's usually more musically important to get that kick to stand out for the brief moment it's being kicked. So, EQ the kick first. Most kicks benefit from a boost with a small Q between about 60-80 hz, again at about 150-200 hz. If you imagine the kick as a "thump" sound, that initial "th" sound can often use some shaping, and that's around 3-5khz or so (although it varies).

Now, using whatever EQ on the kick, make sort of an inverted EQ on the bass guitar track, and cut to some degree the same frequencies that you boosted on the kick. If you carve out these frequencies from your bass guitar, it'll usually make the bass more distinct and sit better in the mix.

Something else that can clean up the sound of your mix is to put a side chain compressor on the bass track that's triggered by the kick. It'll clean up the low end a ton, usually. If you get fancy, sidechaining the kick to the the lower frequencies on a multiband compressor that's applied on the bass track can really clean it up.

ALso, it's been said here to roll off the bass at 20 or 30 hz on the bass guitar. This is usually a good idea.

The bottom line is that it ALWAYS takes a bit of monkeying. Eventually, you'll get a feel for it enough that when you're listening to it, you'll think "wow, the bass could use a boost at 1 khz, and a cut a 100." Until then, just figure out what other instruments it might be competing with and then EQ both instruments until the mix as a whole sounds good.

Also remember to mix at a lower volume, too. Whatever's missing is usually too quiet, and it becomes very apparent what tracks are too loud. This is true with EQing the bass and kick.

Above all, take ALL of the advice you hear (even the ones I disagree with), and see what sounds the best to your ears.

 

[spigmu]

It's not a decision made in a vacuum, so to speak. Certain other factors will influence where you can go. An engineer will decide what the sonic role of the bass is, and what is the sonic role of the kick, so if you are responsible for the sound choices you should consider the roles first and then apply eq to both to fit what you are envisioning, rather than have the music all slamming at you and you try to sort it out.

If the kick is first decided to be a punchy and tight snappy sound it gives us different bass options than if it's a bloomy, subby looser release kick. The kick and the bass have to be eq'ed, whatever the strategy is, with this one over here and that one over there. Think of it like a guitarist who chooses to use a Strat when the other guitarist uses a Les Paul, so that they can occupy slightly different sonic spaces even though they're both distorted rock guitars.

 

[Bufalo]

I'll second the advice of using high pass filtering, it's surprising at first just how much better everything works when you reduce the low frequency mush.

Also, I've found that just making the bass sound great solo won't often lend to a good overall mix.