help needed to tame a few unruly bass notes

[village1]

Any suggestions about taming a bass that when certain notes are hit, resonate to much? I'm already using a bit of compression, but I'm assuming that I need to make eq cuts around the notes that boom such as a low g, etc.?

thanks,

giovanni

[scenaria]

I had this problem before, something that I tried that worked really well for me was adding a second comp and sidechaining it with a eq that bumped my problem freq. You have to tweak the attack/release and really play with the threshold dont hit it with too much compression or you will really hear the affect (not the idea).

Again it worked for my situation Im not sure about yours, worth a shot though.

Steve

[KingTor]

how about using an EQ to roll off some of the low frequencies. In my experience in recording bass, which is admitedly limited, I've had a lot of success using a low shelf (at 350Hz or so) to roll off some mud and a parametric at 110Hz with a nice, tight Q to bring back some of that bass-y punch that cuts through the mix nicely.

just a thought. I could get started on old school vs. new school and mastering techniques for vinyl vs. CD and bass management, but I'd probably get flamed by a million new school cats, so I won't bother.

[Guruman]

are you monitoring in a square room? You may be hearing the resonant frequency of you listening space. Just a thought.

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-Guruman

[COCO]

All awesome tips! I just have to plug a fantastic limiter which solves most of my bass problems: Altec 436C! Yes I recapped and replaced every resistor myself. Found GOOD nos tubes as well. I think I'd like to re-pop these units. If I made them, who wants one?
COCO

[MichaelEarthMedia]

Hi,village 1,
don't forget about multiband compression.
Waves C4. It has negatted some of these EQ issues totally for me!
Regards Michael

[Mano]

Yeah,
But you can also try the Waves C1. O.K:It has the possibility to compress or limit only one specific band but you can tweak the EQ and Qfactor in bandsplit mode. The C1 then acts as a kind of crossover and reacts only on the freq. you chose...
Also for deessing bandsplit processing works better then sidechain processing, but that's old news I guess. I had some (and still have) satisfying results with this oldfashioned C1.

[COCO]

alright, i withdraw my offer.

[ODYSS]

if the overall sound is good for you and only problem is these notes you can "gain'em down" manually (if you have the time)
if it is not the only problem and you have frequency problems also,try compress (with thresold of course such as only the problem is compressed)with side chain an empty track that has the right plugs to cure the frequency problem
greetings

[Will Russell]

I run into this problem alot with acoustic basses. I use the Waves Q10 eq with a very narrow band and automate it to reduce the overly resonant notes. If it is only one note I may just leave the eq on. A note to frequency chart is helpful. Then i compress to taste.

Also, definately check to make sure that the resonance is not in your monitors and or control room.

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Will Russell
Electric Wilburland Studio
http://www.wilburland.com

[Peter Duemmler]

I had the same problem today.
I used McDSP B1 (a bandpass/bandstop with adjustable Q, part of Filterbank) and it works perfectly!

Peter