Which bass better cut trough a mix?

[Rip Van Dan]

Hahaha... yep, since 1963. Some records I played on had very prominent bass. and I never really liked it. To me, bass is just a support instrument. Yes I dig Jaco etc, but live I dig the likes of Lee Sklar who just sits IN the mix, not cutting through. I think I'm definitely weird.

Your definition of "cuts through the mix" is different from how most of the folks here are thinking about it. Cutting through the mix in this case means you can actually hear the individual notes he's playing. It's not just a dull blur where you can only tell that he "was there" when he stops playing. It doesn't mean he drowns out everyone else. Sklar ALWAYS sits nicely in the mix. He's never overbearing; he can always be heard; and his fills are tastefully done in all the right places. He's an incredible musician.

You also have to remember that in the recording studio, they are in the ideal environment to make their music sound exactly how they want it to sound. If the bass line is prominent in the studio mix, it should also be prominent in their live performance. If it doesn't have the same prominence live, then something is not going right. They don't want it to sound different, it's just much more difficult to get the same sound live that you do on a studio recording.

 

[mbell75]

Rarely. Isolated sounds are important to me only when tracking them, to see if there's something funny about them (like noises and buzzes etc). Beyond that, it's all about the mix and the context.



See thread title: " Which bass better
cut trough a mix?"

What do you refer to as "cutting sound"? Upfront hi-mids and fresh roundwounds -kinda sound?

There's a million ways to make a sound "cut through" a mix, but all of it is context dependent, and the means getting there vary almost invariably. No set answers.

I meant isolated bass tracks from guys like Dirnt and Hoppus, the guys who defined the pop punk bass tone. Its bass rolled off a bit, boosted mids and highs. Yes, fresh wounds in their case. Dirnt plays fresh strings for every show. Ive seen both bands live several times, you can hear every bass note loud and clear and thats what I consider cutting thru a mix. Listen to isolated bass tracks from popular modern rock and punk bass players and its much the same. Bass rolled off with boosted mids and highs.

 

[kalle74]

I meant isolated bass tracks from guys like Dirnt and Hoppus, the guys who defined the pop punk bass tone. Its bass rolled off a bit, boosted mids and highs. Yes, fresh wounds in their case. Dirnt plays fresh strings for every show. Ive seen both bands live several times, you can hear every bass note loud and clear and thats what I consider cutting thru a mix. Listen to isolated bass tracks from popular modern rock and punk bass players and its much the same. Bass rolled off with boosted mids and highs.

Yep, I know that sound. There could a million different ways and settings to achieve it.

Jaco also "cut through" prominently, and his sound had almost none of the above elements.

Context.

 

[chadds]

For fiddling you'll have to head over to TalkFiddle.

He can’t. He was banned for asking that one question. “Is this fiddle good for Metal?”

 

[Bboopbennie]

No set answer... Picking on one bass and fingers on others changes the game. Strings fresh vs old and the balance of the pickups on a J bass. If your playing with a drummer that has a lot of overtones cutting thru
has its problems.Loud guitar players can be trouble too. Playing live, the balance of the band is critical for the
bass to shine thru.

 

[DTRN]

The other day in my basement some friends & I were jamming. I was playing bass. I couldn't get over how well we were mixing together...perfectly. My buds noticed this as well. However, despite taking notice of our settings and all that, I informed my friends that we will never see this again. With their tube amps, the barometric pressure, the outside temp subtracted from the inside temp, humidity, phase of the moon, day of the week, etc, we will never find exactly that again. Not on purpose anyway. Always fun trying though.

 

[Deleted member 339551]

The other day in my basement some friends & I were jamming. I was playing bass. I couldn't get over how well we were mixing together...perfectly. My buds noticed this as well. However, despite taking notice of our settings and all that, I informed my friends that we will never see this again. With their tube amps, the barometric pressure, the outside temp subtracted from the inside temp, humidity, phase of the moon, day of the week, etc, we will never find exactly that again. Not on purpose anyway. Always fun trying though.

Yeah, sometimes there's this great chemistry beetween players that just occurs randomly and that you can't replicate easily.