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Why aren't bass parts mixed louder?


Still.ill

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This is the ONE good thing I've seen come out of "Guitar Hero"... people taking the stems of the individual tracks and putting them out there for download. Hearing the bare tracks for the VH stuff tells you everything you need to know about mixing. The tracks, on their own, sound nowhere as impressive out of the mix, but obviously work perfectly as a part of the whole.


The point being that the guitar tone everyone is chasing is that of the guitar as it sits in the mix, not on it's own... which is why no one gets it right.


The rule of thumb should be, when recording, when your amp sounds just the way you want it... turn the gain and bass down 25% and the mids up to match. This would get you somewhere in the vicinity of what you think it's going to sound like.



I'm not going to comment on the guitar hero part because honestly I'll just swear a lot.

I think you're spot on with the second paragraph though! :thu:

Exactly! If you intend on recording with a {censored} load of gain and bass you're going to end up with a mushy sound. Then when you go to add actual bass guitar in there it will sound even worse. Hell, even in a live situation this can make all the difference. Knock back your bass a little. I can almost guarantee it will sound better. :thu:

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Speaking of the bass and GuitarHero...I watched my boys play it once, at a friend's house and I'm going, " Guys, that's the bass line you are playing...not the guitar part".

I have no idea how many songs they do that on but the few I heard, the bass line was turned way up...so it can be done.

Surfy

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A lot of it is the speakers most peopel have don't pick it up like professional audio equipment. But I agree, I love bass and low mids in my music, that's how I like my amps as well, pretty balenced, but cranked basss.

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I remember hearing Everything's Alright from Jesus Christ Superstar when I was first learning guitar and being totally blown away by the bass playing on the song. The bass grooves the whole song but really rips at the end.

[YOUTUBE]1Vx8KpqTVCk[/YOUTUBE]

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I'm a guitarist trying to learn bass, and I often find it very difficult to focus on the right frequencies to hear exactly what is being played.


I have no idea how those who tab out basslines manage to do so!

 

 

start listening to rockabilly.

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Depends on your speakers. If you're listening to your music through the stock iPod headphones you won't hear the bass even in Spinal Tap's "Big Bottoms".

 

I've got an '06 Mustang convertible with the factory Shaker 500 system and I hear bass in Metallica with Newstead stuff even over regular radio, which is known to have very little bass in it. I don't even have the bass turned up more than a notch over the flat setting.

 

In other words... Get rid of your {censored}ty speakers.

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Since I got a sub woofer I was thinking the total oppisite:lol:

 

 

this. Especially background music to TV that you thought has no background or windnoise on OB mics.

 

 

Listen to music with good speakers, good equ, there's plenty of bass around these days in most things.

 

In feature bass bands like reggae, Level 42, slap'n'pop stuff you can't miss it and sometimes can't live with it.

 

Here Thai country music features repetitive reggae style bass lines played at earthmoving volumes so you can hear pickups and taxis several miles away!

 

I started as a (bad) bassist and so I hear bass in anything first, sometimes it helps and sometimes not.

 

But its there.......................

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...The loudness wars is definitely the more recent trend -- and probably has something to do with (1) iPods and people listening through earbuds in noisy environments like city streets or buses, and (2) people listening in car stereos, with all the wind and tire noise to compete with...

 

 

The loudness war is not recent at all. It's at least a couple of decades old. From what I remember, even in the days before CDs existed the loudness war was taking place. Radio play had a big influence on this, as labels wanted their songs to be louder than those of their competitors.

These days it is just worse since the digital format allows for more extremes, but the loudness wars are far from recent.

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I remember hearing Everything's Alright from Jesus Christ Superstar when I was first learning guitar and being totally blown away by the bass playing on the song. The bass grooves the whole song but really rips at the end.



That album is incredible. I love that version. Having said that, I also love the movie version. It's incredible that Ted Neeley is still on the road performing that role today.
:thu:

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In some things a less heard and more sensed or not noticed unless it stops for a moment, is better for the mix. Though if its a fairly busy and entertaining bass line rather then just gets boring quick root notes or simple arp pattern type stuff, then yeah is nice for it to sit more prominant in the mix. I find bass parts have a more prominant role for being heard in some genres. Prog rock, electronica, funk, & fusion jazz being main ones. But in basic rock and pop everything but lyrics and lead guitar are regarded as something to be subdued. There but not detracting at all from lyrics and lead guitar. I dont much like that sort of music myself. In death and black metal the bass plays a more prominant role thats more on the just add dense heavyness to the music, role. It doesnt too often stray from that unless something else like dense deep keyboard sound beds are taking care of that aspect of the music.

In most of the stuff I do with bass guitar, it may be fairly dense and complex at times but its goal is more to add dense dark deepness to the peice, Rather then to act as melody or compete with the main odd sounds and whatever's doing lead. May sometimes copy the lead lines octave lower to add depth to them but not to give folks a listen to bass player copying lead guitar or synth. At some ogther times, wether a fill, or interlude, or perhaps a whole peice might use bass guitar as the lead instrument in place of guitar, or as a 2nd lead to synth voices.

I dislike it when record companies either bury or hype the bass to try and make record sell more copies. I think bands and solo artists etc should try to do cd's mixed along the lines of how best seats in the house sound at clubs and venues with great acoustics and sound systems. How the band and its members want the bass guitar parts to be heard either overall or according to the individual music peices.

But yeah, thinks a lot of the time subdueing bass level on records is result of it being stuff thats aimed to mass market basic rock type thing. Which is mostly lyrics and lead guitar oriented or most important.

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That album is incredible. I love that version. Having said that, I also love the movie version. It's incredible that Ted Neeley is still on the road performing that role today.

:thu:

 

I'm a big fan of the movie, the album, and the live rock opera. I saw Ted Neeley perform JCS live over a decade ago...it was fantastic!

 

A great subwoofer does make it easy to hear the bass on just about any track. But, it's so much better when it lives and breaths in the mix the way it does on this particular song. :thu:

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