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MIDS!!! How do YOU treat yours?

#61
kbarboza4 said:
Mid frequencies, especially low mids, find themselves in any tonal conversation, whether we're talking about live or recording applications. They really are the secret sauce to tone. I've heard so many people say boosting your low mids (anywhere from about 220 to 500) will help you be heard and more present in a mix. I used to be in that camp, with a slight bump in my low mids, and a slight cut in my high mids (with bass and treble flat).

However, in recent years I've reversed my thoughts on that, and favored a slight cut in the low mids, and a slight boost in high mids to give me a little rasp, some airy punch in the articulation, and just a hair of glass on the top end. I'm running a fender jazz (60's voices) through a Markbass lm3 and MB cabs.

Tell me: 1) Where are your mids these days? 2) What bass and amplification are you running it through, and...3) How does that lend to *your* sound?
Click to expand...

I don't think there is a golden rule. It all depends on what sound the band wants to have, what other instruments are in the band, and what do they sound like. In an ideal situation everybody is willing to work together. I dislike certain sounds but if they do work in a band/live setting I am willing to dial them in.
 
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#62
An important thing to remember with mids is that for everything you boost , the other frequencies will seem relatively cut, and if you boost two mid bands, the area in in middle seems scooped .. and of course vice versa
 
#63
kbarboza4 said:
Mid frequencies, especially low mids, find themselves in any tonal conversation, whether we're talking about live or recording applications. They really are the secret sauce to tone. I've heard so many people say boosting your low mids (anywhere from about 220 to 500) will help you be heard and more present in a mix. I used to be in that camp, with a slight bump in my low mids, and a slight cut in my high mids (with bass and treble flat).

However, in recent years I've reversed my thoughts on that, and favored a slight cut in the low mids, and a slight boost in high mids to give me a little rasp, some airy punch in the articulation, and just a hair of glass on the top end. I'm running a fender jazz (60's voices) through a Markbass lm3 and MB cabs.

Tell me: 1) Where are your mids these days? 2) What bass and amplification are you running it through, and...3) How does that lend to *your* sound?
Click to expand...
1) I have a slight boost in the mids around 900Hz. Otherwise my EQ is pretty flat.
2) Traynor YBA-100
3) It gives me a lot more colour to play with. I'm a pretty busy bassist who sees the purpose of the instrument in an ensemble to create counter-melodies that outline the chord progression, elevate the melody, and weld the drums in, rather than an "effect" that follows the kick and plays root notes (though sometimes, this is what the music calls for).
 
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#64
Rip Van Dan said:
I run a 1982 Olympic White Jazz bass with white-bound all maple neck and 70's era pickup spacing (4" center to center). I run the controls on the bass dimed. I currently use three different amps: an Eden WT500/800 (400-watts rms per channel into 4Ω or 800-watts bridged into 8Ω), an Eden TN-226 (225-watts rms into 4Ω, and a DNA-800 (400-watts rms into 8Ω, 800-watts into either 4Ω or 2Ω). I also use an Eden WTDI, which is a DI pedal with a built-in Eden WT preamp.

With my Eden amps, I run the Enhance (shape control) all the way off; bypass the auto-compressor; run the bass, high-mids, and treble flat; boost my low mids at 250Hz up to about 1:30. With my WTDI, same basic set up except it has only one mids control that can be toggled between 500Hz and 2KHz. So I run that with 500Hz selected.

On my DNA-800 I bypass the adjustable compressor; turn the shape control off (all the way to the left); boost the Bass EQ to ~1 o'clock, the low-mids (500Hz) to 1:30, and the high mids (2KHz) and treble (everything above 2KHz) flat. I run the Bass EQ up just a bit on the DNA-800 because it is a shelving control set at 35Hz and the Bass EQ on the Eden amps is set at 30Hz. Just giving it that little boost on the DNA Bass EQ gives me the same sound that I get from my Eden amps.

I have run the boost a 2KHz in the high-bids before and find it gives an edgier sound. I don't really care for that though, so I don't use it. It can also get pretty crowded in the high mids with the guitar and keys reaching down in there, which degrades definition of the bass in the mix. I might add that my '82 Jazz is a bit brighter in sound and has a lot more sustain than my 1965 Jazz that I bought in 1966 did. My '65 had a rosewood fretboard on a maple neck and the 60's era (and current era) pickup spacing of 3.6" center to center. So my '82 Jazz is a little brighter on its own than my '65 was. Tragically, my '65 Jazz was stolen in 1976 along with all my touring gear.

By the way the best recorded sound I've gotten from it was on a recording session at a pro studio in Seattle in 2019. I was using my WTDI direct to the board because there was too much bleed over with the drums in the room we shared. Mids were set at 500Hz (low-mids) with everything else set flat. It amazed the sound engineer and the owner of the studio who both came in to get a good look at what I was using. Sound engineer said the only thing he adjusted on the raw takes was the level. He didn't change the EQ or use any compression on it at that point.
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Very cool info. I run a jazz bass dimed as well, and from the Eden stuff I've tried, I'd bet giving it a little at 250/500 really makes that "hifi" thing punch a little more. That's gotta be a killin sound. Are playing more funk/soul stuff, or is it rock/blues?
 
#68
like this

iu
 
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#70
I try to get my mids and as much of my basic toan/eq from the natural state of the gear, meaning strings/pickups/playing, then tweak as little as necessary to "get there". EMG35P4A-RC and Roto77s bring it for me. Typical eq on ye olde Q\strip are slight low shelf bump and slight 150Hz bump always on, though lately I've considered trying to find the sound with subtractive EQ rather than boosting. Either way, I like my mids but I am picky about them. It's worth mentioning that I play in a 3 piece so there is a lot more room. I'm dreading the day we bring on a second guitar/keys and I have to disappear into the mix.
 
#71
All this talk on the importance of dialing in your mids is very helpful. :thumbsup:

I’m still working on dialing in what my ears would like to hear and what the audience actually hears.

I’ve landed on the notion that if I like what I’m hearing, so will the audience. EQ matters. Every stage is unique. YMMV.

Last night on a silent stage (bass > pedalboard > FOH), the sound guy was floored on how clearly he could hear the bass, so much so, that he gave the subs a workout (the low-note vibrations shook the board). Always nice when the subs add an exclamation point to your IEM’s! I guess I’m doing something right. :)
 
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#73
SemiDriven said:
All this talk on the importance of dialing in your mids is very helpful. :thumbsup:

I’m still working on dialing in what my ears would like to hear and what the audience actually hears.

I’ve landed on the notion that if I like what I’m hearing, so will the audience. EQ matters. Every stage is unique. YMMV.

Last night on a silent stage (bass > pedalboard > FOH), the sound guy was floored on how clearly he could hear the bass, so much so, that he gave the subs a workout (the low-note vibrations shook the board). Always nice when the subs add an exclamation point to your IEM’s! I guess I’m doing something right. :)
Click to expand...
Yeah man you must be!
 
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#74
I run in ears and straight to PA with my B-6. On my P, which is my main bass, I sweep the low mids for the frequency I don't like. It's usually 180-200hz and attenuate 3-6db with a pretty tight Q. On the upper mids, I like a boost at 800hz, sometimes as much as 10db. I find bass backing tracks on YouTube of songs my band covers and see how it sits in the mix. I practice and make my settings with good flat headphones and make small adjustments at the gig.
 
#75
Mids, like anything, are something I try to CUT before I boost, but in a measured way.... especially with amplified upright bass. The 'problem areas' around 200Hz are always something I have to cut on upright at the preamp level to clean things up. On electric, it really just depends. That 'boxiness' is not as much of an issue with electric from the start. I do not like a scooped sound, but my first rule of thumb is to tweak as little as possible to remove any boxiness or 'woof' down low on my amp, depending on the room, and then mess with upper mids for articulation. Sometimes I have to add things back in once the band gets going, because I prefer to be heard as well as felt. Sometimes the subs are cranking out front and are really rendering my stage volume/tone irrelevant and that requires a different approach which sometimes results in turning my amp off altogether and just using the house and monitors. I always use a long cable to get out front and really hear what my amp sounds like, because what you hear on stage is never exactly what you hear out front, 20-30 feet in front. Mids are powerful.
 
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#78
kbarboza4 said:
Very cool info. I run a jazz bass dimed as well, and from the Eden stuff I've tried, I'd bet giving it a little at 250/500 really makes that "hifi" thing punch a little more. That's gotta be a killin sound. Are playing more funk/soul stuff, or is it rock/blues?
Click to expand...
A wide variety of genre's but more rock and blues than anything else. One of the bands I played with was primarily a 3-pc. a blues band although we also did some rock songs.

The other band was a 5-pc. band - 2 guitars, keys, bass and drims (later a 4-pc. with just 1 guitar) and we did rock from the 60.'s 70's, a lot of 80's, also 90's. So mostly classic rock. Did songs by Beatles and Stones, Chuck Berry, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Moody Blues, Chicago, Billy Idol, The Who, the Doors, 3 Dog Night, Grand Funk Railroad, Cream, Doobie Brothers, Radiohead, the Pretenders, the Cars, Steely Dan, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Fleetwood Mac, The Church, Georgia Satellites, Blondie, Eagles, Depeche Mode, Head East, The Cure, Katrina and the Waves, Madonna, AC/DC, Tom Petty, ZZ Top, Green Day, Alice in Chains, Amy Winehouse, Collective Soul, Stone Temple pilots, Foo-Fighters, Bruno Mars, 5-Finger Death Punch. There's probably more but that's a good chunk of them.
 
#79
Kyle_S said:
I have no idea how to EQ, so I have every knob except volume set to 12 o'clock on my GK MB110. If I want to change my tone, I just tweak settings on the bass.
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My first rule of thumb is to identify what you don’t like and try to remove it before you start to boost what you do like. Sometimes a slight reduction in the offending frequency and adding a little volume is all it takes.
 
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#80
kbarboza4 said:
Mid frequencies, especially low mids, find themselves in any tonal conversation, whether we're talking about live or recording applications. They really are the secret sauce to tone. I've heard so many people say boosting your low mids (anywhere from about 220 to 500) will help you be heard and more present in a mix. I used to be in that camp, with a slight bump in my low mids, and a slight cut in my high mids (with bass and treble flat).

However, in recent years I've reversed my thoughts on that, and favored a slight cut in the low mids, and a slight boost in high mids to give me a little rasp, some airy punch in the articulation, and just a hair of glass on the top end. I'm running a fender jazz (60's voices) through a Markbass lm3 and MB cabs.

Tell me: 1) Where are your mids these days? 2) What bass and amplification are you running it through, and...3) How does that lend to *your* sound?
Click to expand...
My approach has always been to adjust to the room, find a useable tone then play.
My set-up:
Custom made passive, usually one pickup 5 string basses
Flat wound strings
Rumble 500 watt head
2x12 cabinet
The room tells me what needs to be done.
 

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