So wait... mid scoops are bad?

[keb]

Mids are absolutely essential for my sound. I gotta have that bump from around 500Hz up to about 1KHz. There's a lot of tonal information in that range.

 

[Passinwind]

Mids are absolutely essential for my sound. I gotta have that bump from around 500Hz up to about 1KHz. There's a lot of tonal information in that range.

Cool, so scoop your mids at 250 and 1300, everything should be fine.

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

For me, mids help cut through in my loud classic rock band. Best combination I have found for a thick, very audible tone with plenty of bottom, is a Fender Precision and Ampeg SVT. Gets the job done every time. Most of the bands that I hear where the bassist uses a lot of mid scoop, particularly with bright strainless strings and active electronics, it is very hard to hear anything but ping ping ping. There is no bottom, and overall the band sounds weak and harsh

Luckydog, you're a freakin' genius! IMO, perfect post.
The only way I could improve this post is to say: Vintage SVT .

 

[DubDubs]

It's all about what you like. It also depends on the amp and bass your environment and the sound you're going for. Sometimes I like a mid scoop sometimes I like flat sometimes I like a mid boost. There are so many factors just see what sounds good for that playing situation.

 

[SlavaF]

I used to hate mids... but now I put the controls on my Yorkville XM200T as follows:

Bass: 1 o'clock
Low Mids: 11 o'clock
High Mids: 3 o'clock
Treble: 2 o'clock
Scoop: 9 o'clock

I LOVE this sound! Very early-Geddy-Lee-like vibe.

 

[Zooberwerx]

I used to hate mids... but now I put the controls on my Yorkville XM200T as follows:

Bass: 1 o'clock
Low Mids: 11 o'clock
High Mids: 3 o'clock
Treble: 2 o'clock
Scoop: 9 o'clock

I LOVE this sound! Very early-Geddy-Lee-like vibe.

Here's my favorite setting:

Bass (90 hz) - 12:00

Low Mids (300 hz) - 1:00

High Mids (2 khz) - 11:00

Treble (7 khz) - 12:00

Scoop - 10:00

Yeah, I know....its pretty close to a flat / neutral setting! The Yorkie doesn't require a lot of tweaking to produce a decent tone.

Riis

 

[slinkp]

Me like mids. It's the reason I've never liked the Sansamp BDDI pedal, that thing is a black hole for mids.

+1 on the Thunderbird too, those things are awesome,
even my cheapo Greco knockoff. I'm now having a custom bass built with a '76 Thunderbird pickup

 

[Fuzzbass]

Me like mids. It's the reason I've never liked the Sansamp BDDI pedal, that thing is a black hole for mids

Yeah, I've had a love/hate relationship with my BDDI for years. I typically keep Blend down below 50% so the mid scoop (and overdrive) aren't severe. But the BDDI sounds excellent with my Berg NV610 cab... so, I wound up getting the RBI for my second rack rig. The RBI mid control does not counteract the mid scoop, but it's still a good feature to have.

 

[Eldermike]

I don't know how many here have a background in sound. I mix some sound for bands and do some recording in my home studio. I have come to a different understanding of the 100 percent rule in music. For vocals to "pop" some of the band sound has to go. It seems that the trend is to make more than 100 percent of music right around the vocal ranges. I am a bass player first, but I am learning to stay on the bottom, less busy, and never boost anything in the vocal range so that the tracks that are recorded live can actually be used in the studio. Just my opinion.
Mike

 

[tombowlus]

I don't know how many here have a background in sound. I mix some sound for bands and do some recording in my home studio. I have come to a different understanding of the 100 percent rule in music. For vocals to "pop" some of the band sound has to go. It seems that the trend is to make more than 100 percent of music right around the vocal ranges. I am a bass player first, but I am learning to stay on the bottom, less busy, and never boost anything in the vocal range so that the tracks that are recorded live can actually be used in the studio. Just my opinion.
Mike

Good point. What I like to hear from my bass rig, and what works in a mix (both live and in the studio) is not always the same thing. Though, I'm happy to say it often does work out that my bass tone remains intact. In my experience, my bass hasn't intruded too much into the vocal range. The more difficult task is getting it to sit in a mix well with the drums and guitars. With two guitars, they have to work well with each other, as well. Although my bandmates intitially thought I was "bass deaf" and always asking for more in the mix, in the end, we found that for our sound at least, we didn't have to really cut any of the bass (other than to eliminate some errant hiss, here and there), nor do I really boost any frequencies to a noticeable extent. On the other end of things, we did have to do a lot of work to the kick drum, toms, and guitars (mostly cuts, and some BBE-ing) to make them work well. Our vocals are also pretty much un-EQ'd, though dynamics processing is a must.

Later, Tom.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Jeepers creepers,
There have been two major fallacies foisted on bass players in the last few years: The first is that midrange is evil, the second is that clean tone is a must-have for self-respecting players with a budget.
As has been stated above, most of the musical information is in the middle bands...if you want the audience to hear the notes you're playing, and the inflection with which it's delivered, you need those frequencies. The Fieldy tone was an interesting effect ten years ago; it isn't new any more, and you didn't think of it anyway so why make that your sound?
And a little dirt isn't a bad thing, unless you're playing with a symphony, if only because today's crop of bass tones is so hi-fi and homogenous. The ear hears an edge of distortion and relays to the brain Hey, this is different; I'd better file this away. At the very least, the fact that distortion is harmonically imperfect creates a lot of grey area to carve out a sonic identity. Ugly is beautiful, and all that.
I'm forced to agree on the SABDDI...Had one for years, and did away with it hours after I first used it on stage because even I couldn't hear the notes.
As a general rule, as bass players our sound should occupy a certain slot in the bandwidth of human hearing between the low range of the guitar or keys and the thump of the kick drum, otherwise you get frequency conflict between instruments in the low range and mud is the result. If we become inflexible--remember the '80s, when all the great bass lines were played on synths?--we run the risk of becoming obsolete.
Viva la bass,
KFS

 

[Doug Parent]

I agree with everyones posts so far. I have a slightly different take however. Aside from agreeing that mids really are important particularly in determining pitch......I think it depends ALOT on the bass your using, speakers, etc. A 4-10 is a different kettle of fish compared to a 2/15 cab.
Also style is a huge factor.

Funk=cutting around 1.5-2.0 khz is essential while boosting 6-8Khz region for that slap tone.

But that same setting SUCKS for fingerstyle rock/blues, etc.

But the main thing is this, when your talking about boosting ot cutting;you have to determine by how many db and the "Q" factor. If your amp dosen't have at least a semi parametric EQ your stuck with what the amp can do. My rule of humb is use as narrow a Q as I can get away with and stay away from radical cutting or boosting. It only degrades the coherency of the basses basic voice.

whadda say guys, 500-1000 has to be there or it's mud city, right?

 

[keb]

Yeah, I've had a love/hate relationship with my BDDI for years. I typically keep Blend down below 50% so the mid scoop (and overdrive) aren't severe.

Yeah I keep mine at about 50% as well.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Forgot to add one thing last night:
I have to agree with the posts about scooped mids being generally preferable for slap/pop parts, as too many mids clutter up the sound and hide that nice percussiveness our bandmates love so much but those frequencies are usually a must for fingerstyle work.
Except--Alembic basses actually sound better, tighter and more detailed with the right midrange frequencies cut. I used to run an Alembic through an SWR Baby Blue using "normal" EQ, and it sounded OK. But after cutting everything between 40Hz and 5K or so as an experiment, the damned thing sounder thunderous and every little nook and cranny of the note could be heard. It really ticked off the trumpet player for some reason. That might work with Stingrays too, but I've never tried it.
OK...shutting up now.