Mixing and mastering for solo bass guitar compositions

Hello all. I am pretty new to this forum, and not too sure where to put this question. Well here goes. I run a piccolo strung bass guitar into a apogee duet 2, into my MacBook into Logic Pro 9. I record solo compositions, so just one track of the bass. I am not really that happy with any of the mixing a that I have made. I usually do compression first, then EQ, then reverb. But the sound just doesn't sound even close to what I expect from this program. Doesn't quite sound as full and kinda sounds tinny. I know your thinking that it could be my editing and you might be right, but I play around ALOT. And it is not even that close to what I expect. Do you guys have any tips or tricks of things I could do? I also do the stereo imaging I think it's called, and I bus the track 2 times and bring the levels to 0db and then adjust all levels to sound good with no clipping. Thanks for any help.

 

Ed

How does it sound before you add any processing to your recording?

 

What about your use of the tone controls on your bass? Are you using an amp sim?

 

When you say "buss", do you mean you are using sends?

 

What stereo effects are you using? Maybe a screenshot of your mixer could be helpful.

 

The main thing to bear in mind is to get it sounding good before you start playing around with funky processing.

Thank you for that in depth answer. I keep all tonal controls off when I record. Yes I use the bus from send. I heard that is good for stereo sounds. That correct? I try to get a full sound with just compression and EQ but I am never satisfied. I use the only stereo effect from the drop down, I forget off hand what it's called, sorry. How does the recording sound to you?

Well, it sounds like you're a great bass player!

 

That's a really nice arrangement too.

 

As for the sound, it is a little brittle at the top and lacking in bottom. It's not too bad though.

 

If it's the Stereo Spread plug-in, then I'd advise against using it. Or if you do use it, only use it on one of your sends. It works by splitting different frequency bands left and right, which is a bit of a weird trick. The trouble is, your bass is a mono instrument. If I were you, I would use a stereo reverb, one that has different reflection times for left and right.

 

I would start with no plug-ins or sends. Get a nice sound just with your basses' tone controls. Then, instead of using sends, set the output of your bass track to a bus. Create 2 aux channels with their input set to that bus. Solo one of those aux channels and add an amp sim, play around with amp models and tone controls until you get something you like. Now, use a send on that amp channel to send to another aux channel and put a stereo reverb on it, mix that in to taste. Un-solo the amp channel and mix the other, totally dry, aux in to taste (usually it's good to start with the fader down and bring it up slowly).

 

Up to this point, you have a recreation of a typical bass recording - A mic'd amp (with its reverb bus send being the "room" sound) and a DI (Direct Input).

 

As for compression, you may find that it works best on your original audio track, so the compressed signal goes to all subsequent channels, or maybe just on the DI or Amp channels, or even on the output. You'll have to experiment.

 

Same goes for EQ, but your goal should be to get your sound as close as you can without it.

 

Only compress or EQ if something needs it!

 

Hope you could follow all this

Thank you soo much Rev. For your help. And thank you for the compliments. I will try it and let you know the results. You are very kind

Cool, I hope that gets you closer to the sound you want.

 

Post back if you have any questions.

Really beautiful performance!

This is one of those cases where you need to trust your ears and heart. If the recording is expressing what the performance deserves then, as is the case when painting with oils, it is always difficult to know when to call it complete.

Very little tweaking is required IMHO.

I thought you played very nicely. What kind of sound are you looking for exactly?

 

How do you feel about this bass sound? A different style of course, but you mentioned that you felt your sound was a bit tinny.

 

Echoing Rev.'s comments - use an amp sim on one channel and blend with the DI channel.

 

I get great results with Ignite Amps SHB-1 and Overloud's Mark Studio 2.

 

Adding saturation (i.e. SoundToys Decapitator, Kush Audio Pusher) also helps thicken a bass guitar.

 

Also experiment with different compressors, and parallel compression. I particularly like Softube's Summit Audio TLA-100A for this purpose.

 

I would be happy to run one of your DI tracks through my setup.

Thank you all for your kind remarks and your comments. Omm I am kinda lost on some of the stuff that you said to do, lol. A bit over my head. I think I need to take a course, lol. But thank you soo much for your help. I am really just looking for a fuller sound. I just made this new video, any thoughts on sound improvements? Didn't really change much though. EQ a little bit. And thanks again

 

Hi,

 

Can't listen to the new recording just yet, but I've taken some screenshots of a simple setup as I described above to help you. I'm still on Logic 8, but the routing will work the same. It's not supposed to be a template, more a springboard for you to experiment with and change

New recording definitely has more bottom, but it is a bit of a flabby bottom

 

One thing that might help that is to EQ your reverb send, give it a bit of low shelf attenuation (see pic).

Thank you soo much for your patience and time. I will try it and let you know how it works. And to put eq on the reverb, I would have to just add that eq to the reverb channel? Thanks again.

Thank you soo much for your patience and time. I will try it and let you know how it works. And to put eq on the reverb, I would have to just add that eq to the reverb channel? Thanks again.

 

You're welcome

 

I don't get to help out here much these days, as I'm a dinosaur and never used Logic X, so it's nice to be able to help!

 

And yes, put the EQ after your reverb (you could also experiment with putting it before your reverb).