problems with the mids on my eq

[juan13]

Hi, hope you can help me with this issue...

I play on a power trio, LOUD drums, a trebly power guitar and my crazy bass with no flashy effects but with agressive fingers sound on high action mixing the classical lows of the bass with some intensity more of a guitar.
I have a jazz bass mexico and a mxr m80 bass di.

WELL, the thing goes like this: everybody (or many here) were told that to have a bass that is audible for the audience and so is important to put your mids up on the eq. I do as i was told puting the mid knob on my mxr on 5 o clock (if i could reach up to six i would do it) BUT the bass looses two important components of what people told me (and i think also) is my sound on the band: the attack of the fingers and the lows that fill that spaces always there on a trio.
What do i do? there is this feature on the mxr that is called "COLOUR", i switch that on and thing start to sound right (i leave the mids knob on 5 o clock). But on theory, i understand that this option boosts the lows and the highs, pushing down a little bit the mids. The bass obviously sounds great but in my head there is a sign saying: "you may need more mids, this aparent improvement can make you sound more like a ball".
But when i turn it off and leave my eq only with the mids on top, there's not enough power on the lows and on the attack.
I may sound a little amateur on this thing but hey, i'm here to learn: the only way i think i can get that sound with mids included without switching on the colour option is to leave my mids on 5 o clock and the lows and highs on 4 and 3 o clock. In other words: putting all my eq in savage mode. Am i doing right or this is stupid?

Give me some advice please, and thank you!

 

[two fingers]

You almost got it right. It's low mids you want to bring up for good articulate punch. High mids just sound honky to me. But low mids kick you in the chest while still having much more definition than ubers low frequencies.

Try that and come back. I think you'll be pleased.

 

[wcriley]

Set the knobs and switches however they need to be to get the sound YOU want.

 

[Rick Auricchio]

Bring everything back to neutral (on most amps that's straight up, but that isn't universal).

Now add some low mids.

And, as wcriley says, nobody here knows what you like to hear in your tone.

It's somewhat like asking "How should I cook this dish?" You have to decide how you like it to taste.

 

[WayneP]

What Rick said, back to neutral and add some low mids. At 5:00 you’ve boosted the mids to the max; no wonder it sounds like scratch. Then you start dialing up the lows and highs to compensate, so you end up with all the EQ boosted – not a good business model.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt


Administrator, Pedulla Club #45
Administrator, Tobias Club #133
Fretless Club #943
Big Cabs Club #23
My Basses
Pedulla Club #45

 

[juan13]

Yeah i know it is not a good idea...but on the other hand when we play live we play so loud that sometimes i think i the only way. People say "you shold play less louder" but i take that as an easy escape. I'll show you a rehersal we recorded. On this song the bass stays alone at 1:03 (for the ones who listen to the whole song, on the solo section i turn the distortion on the mxr). And i would not say that's my ideal tone, but is something on that direction.

 

[JimmyM]

Honestly, I like your tone and your playing. I think you could do with a little more low low mid between 100 and 150 hz, but other than that, it's jammin'.

 

[TrevorOfDoom]

The trick to EQing properly is to listen to the whole band and adjust while playing.
Your EQ when solo likely won't be great in a band setting, and vice versa.
The track you posted is a great start, not just because it shows that you're recording practice (which is invaluable for learning purposes), but i think you sound pretty jamming as well.
Also, make sure to have the EQ conversation as a whole band because if the guitarist is heavy on his bass or low mids it'll crowd you out. He's not, so you're good

 

[monsterthompson]

The trick to EQing properly is to listen to the whole band and adjust while playing.
Your EQ when solo likely won't be great in a band setting, and vice versa.
The track you posted is a great start, not just because it shows that you're recording practice (which is invaluable for learning purposes), but i think you sound pretty jamming as well.
Also, make sure to have the EQ conversation as a whole band because if the guitarist is heavy on his bass or low mids it'll crowd you out. He's not, so you're good

Set the knobs and switches however they need to be to get the sound YOU want.

these.

you can't add everything so everything is louder than everything else. it is all relative. if you want to bring mids into the mix, you will need to have less bass in your sound. perhaps you need not boost mids, just bring them up a touch from where they are.

 

[WayneP]

Smokin’ band there. I’m always amazed at how good those Mexican Fenders sound.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt


Administrator, Pedulla Club #45
Administrator, Tobias Club #133
Fretless Club #943
Big Cabs Club #23
My Basses
Pedulla Club #45

 

[Gasman]

Sounds pretty good to me. Nice punchy punk sound. If you wanted to add a touch of low mid, it might be what you are looking for, but honestly I think it sounds fine as is.

Trevor is right, though- you want to make sure you have your own "space" in the mix and don't wander into anyone else's. And vice versa.

 

[Robus]

Tone doesn't sound bad to me. It could use a bit more low mid girth, but not much. In general, there's no point in boosting everything. That's using your EQ as an amplifier--not what it was designed to do and just adds noise. If I were you I'd find your flat EQ settings and start from there. Don't forget, you can also cut frequencies as well as boosting.

 

[Bodeanly]

I see no reason to change anything. I dig your sound and your singer is, at times, reminiscent of a young Scott Weiland (huge STP/ R. DeLeo fan right here). Keep it up!

Edited to add: I have no idea what amp you're using. I'll go back and see if I missed your mentioning of it. However, one thing that changed my tone, and the way I look at tone, was adding a preamp/ DI. I like the Ampeg-SCR DI and the SansAmp VT Deluxe. Both made me wonder how I was ever happy with my tone before I owned them.

 

[JimmyM]

Tone doesn't sound bad to me. It could use a bit more low mid girth, but not much. In general, there's no point in boosting everything. That's using your EQ as an amplifier--not what it was designed to do and just adds noise. If I were you I'd find your flat EQ settings and start from there. Don't forget, you can also cut frequencies as well as boosting.

While this is certainly a legit way of EQing your bass, and while EQing with boosts can add noise, I've found that I really don't care about any of it as long as I get the sound I want. Depending on what cabs I use, sometimes I'll have some fairly extreme boosts, and it sounds great so I don't worry about trying to find a comparable sound by leaving the knobs at noon and cutting freqs.

 

[Slapstyle]

HAHA! They said I should turn up the mids to be heard so I turned up the mids? This is a gross over generalization. I would recommend not taking advice on your tone from people who have never heard your tone. It's not a rule to turn up your mids. Use your ears. Get yourself a graphic eq. Markbass makes a 7 band pedal and MXR makes a 10 band. The more bands, the more finely tuned adjustment you can make. You can get 15 or 31 band rackmount eq's as well. Anyway, get your hands on one of these and play with boosting and cutting different frequency bands so you have some understanding of what those frequencies sound like, and what impact they have on your tone. Then dial it in how YOU like it. After that, get a good parametric eq with variable bandwidth and 2 midrange controls. You'll be in a good position for dialing in your eq that way. First you need to educate yourself though. At the university where I teach, audio students are required to do "ear training" with what basically amounts to audio flash cards. They have to identify different frequencies which is super helpful when trying to squash feedback in a hurry or correct annoying sounds in a mix, or for dialing in your tone, figuring out what frequencies are mixing and combining with a guitarist for example, creating annoying bumps in the audio spectrum and on and on it goes.

 

[Slapstyle]

Then.... start looking into compression.

 

[TrevorOfDoom]

Trevor is right, though

That feels good to hear. Now will you please tell that to my wife?

 

[Rocktometrist]

Cool band. Cool song. Cool bass tone! I don't think you really need to change anything, unless you think you need to make a small tweak to get YOUR sound. The hits at 3:05 and the change at 3:40 were surprising and made me chuckle (in a good way). You guys are super tight! Enjoyed it thoroughly...

 

[Chris 'Wighat' Jordan]

I think the best advice has already been given: listen to your tone and listen to how the knob twisting affects it. You might also consider how you have your gain/master set. What amp and cabinet are you using?

 

[physics]

I have to agree with JimmyM and Robus about your tone but that is a subjective thing. In experimenting with EQ settings on my amp, I found that leaving the freqs between 80 Hz and 200Hz flat and cutting everything else by about 3 db gave me a noticeable increase in punch that I liked.