Processing Bass Guitar Track

[Cal D]

I have a raw Bass guitar track. Can anyone suggest how best to apply treatment to it? What effects should I deploy and in what order, in order to make it the best it can sound?

Thank-you

[Craig F]

I find the Mute button to be very powerful

[DrFord]

Well you really have 3 options...

Amp Sim

EQ

Compress

--------

If you have a DI bass and you want a different tone, start with an Amp Sim, then compress it, then EQ it.

Some folks will say EQ before Compression. By doing this, the boosted EQ will trigger the compressor as the peak hits the threshold. This may further change the "color" of your sound, so experiment with eq or compression first... I prefer to do compression first.


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Now my REAL first step in dealing with bass guitar, is I go into the wav file with the GAIN Audiosuite plug in, and I manually gain up or down certain notes to even out the overall volume. You will find certain notes were played badly, and even though they were on the the correct fret, the volume of the note is poor.

Sometimes when I am feeling lazy, I just use Vocal rider.

Compressing bass is pretty simple.... slowest attack, set the release depending on how fast the bass player plays the notes.

If The bass player plays with a pick, adjust the attack to a faster attack, so as to get rid of the "tacky" nature of the pick sound.

Chris Lord Alge would recommend a Black face 1176. This is not to say to use the Bomb Factory 1176, which in my opinion acts more like a tube compressor than a FET compressor. I know some Country guys who use the TubeTech CL-1B on slower tunes.

Then use some EQ to bring out the desired tone of the bass.

ALWAYS Eq the bass against the KICK DRUM. They need to compliment each other. Too much EQ on either in competing frequencies and you will get mud. I usually gain down the bass around the 60hz-100hz mark (depending on the kick source) to bring out the "whump" of the kick, and maybe a little bit of 500hz if you are getting a bit muddy.

I also know a bunch of producers who like a bit of top end distortion on their bass guitar.

Anyways, the best way to get a great bass tone is the PLAYER and his INSTRUMENT. I have recorded phenomenal bass players who go direct into a mic pre.

[Cal D]

Thanks Dr. Ford. That was very helpful.

Much appreciated!

[albee1952]

I usually will start with a simple low shelf. Then a compressor(usually BF76) and then a 4 band EQ to get the tone as good as I can. Then I add an AUX send to a mono AuX track and insert IK's Amplitube SVX and choose an SVT amp sim. Of course, all of this means zip if the recorded tone really stinks(I do this with my MusicMan Stingray).

[Cal D]

Thanks Albee...I will try that as well. I recorded the bass using a Fender Geddy Lee Signature Jazz bass, so the tone sound pretty good as is. I'll experiment a bit with the ideas posted. thanks again to all

[TimothyJohn]

Originally Posted by DrFord

Well you really have 3 options...

Amp Sim

EQ

Compress

--------

If you have a DI bass and you want a different tone, start with an Amp Sim, then compress it, then EQ it.

Some folks will say EQ before Compression. By doing this, the boosted EQ will trigger the compressor as the peak hits the threshold. This may further change the "color" of your sound, so experiment with eq or compression first... I prefer to do compression first.


----------


Now my REAL first step in dealing with bass guitar, is I go into the wav file with the GAIN Audiosuite plug in, and I manually gain up or down certain notes to even out the overall volume. You will find certain notes were played badly, and even though they were on the the correct fret, the volume of the note is poor.

Sometimes when I am feeling lazy, I just use Vocal rider.

Compressing bass is pretty simple.... slowest attack, set the release depending on how fast the bass player plays the notes.

If The bass player plays with a pick, adjust the attack to a faster attack, so as to get rid of the "tacky" nature of the pick sound.

Chris Lord Alge would recommend a Black face 1176. This is not to say to use the Bomb Factory 1176, which in my opinion acts more like a tube compressor than a FET compressor. I know some Country guys who use the TubeTech CL-1B on slower tunes.

Then use some EQ to bring out the desired tone of the bass.

ALWAYS Eq the bass against the KICK DRUM. They need to compliment each other. Too much EQ on either in competing frequencies and you will get mud. I usually gain down the bass around the 60hz-100hz mark (depending on the kick source) to bring out the "whump" of the kick, and maybe a little bit of 500hz if you are getting a bit muddy.

I also know a bunch of producers who like a bit of top end distortion on their bass guitar.

Anyways, the best way to get a great bass tone is the PLAYER and his INSTRUMENT. I have recorded phenomenal bass players who go direct into a mic pre.

DrFord,

I just saw this post today while searching for ideas to produce bass guitar. It's been over a year since you posted, but I had to say thanks!!! Some great ideas here, and fantastic advice. Plus, with the clip gain feature in Pro Tools 10 now, the work flow that involved the GAIN Audiosuite plug in becomes much more convenient.

Tim