More sustain?

[FrankLowend]

Something to keep in mind - you will get more "perceived" sustain if you control your plucking hand technique such that the attack of the note is as close in level to the sustained part of the note as possible.

Hitting the strings hard doesn't really result in more sustain; it will actually seem like less, because the attack is so much louder than the rest of the held note it seems like the note is dying off faster than if you hit a bit softer.

Use the right technique in combination with the right settings on your compressor and you should get all the sustain you're looking for. Granted, some basses will have more sustain than others, but practically all basses will have enough for most needs.

See my usual compressor parameters (with the stereo buttom i can activate channel one to assum parameters of channel two), please show yours:

 

[Nephilymbass]

No idea where to post this, so I'll post it here.

How is it possible to get more sustain? I'm rolling with a 5 string, flatwound strings, into an MXR bass compressor, into my DAW, where I also slightly compress to fit into a mix, but my bass has little sustain. Even when I strike the note as cleanly and strongly as I can, there is still not enough to cover a 4 second space in a couple songs.

I have a feeling the flatwounds are part of the equation, perhaps my bass isn't set up correctly, maybe my compressor is also not set up correctly, but I feel these are the only things it could be.

Another option is that I'm also running through an OC-2 octaver, but when it's not engaged it could be tone sucking.

Anyone have any insight into this?

I use a boss Cs-2 on our last album and currently on my board. It provides more sustain than I'd ever need.

If it's that bad I'm guessing it's an combination of things. The set up, some bridge designs in basses cause strings to twists as they're strung up which hurts sustain but can be compensated for be U twisting the length of the string before the last bit of turning the tuner. Could be that your compressing twice. Could be a gate built into to either compressor thats kicking in way to early.if you play tight you really shouldn't need a gate at all because you can edit out any noise when your not playing but cutting those parts of the track out