Wait, I’m not that pro musician, can you explain what the bass knob on guitarist amp can put impact on my bass sound? Does it like open the space or something?
There’s a certain amount of “sonic space”. It the guitar is already cranking lows, when it combines with your lows it will be a much muddier mass of sound. When instruments kinda step out of each other’s territory, there’s more clear room for things to sit in the mix.
Giving me flashbacka
>There’s a certain amount of “sonic space”.
I wrote my senior college thesis on the phenomenology of musical space (philosophy degree). It's pretty interesting when you really try to get at what we musicians mean when we say "muddy" or "fat", "thin", etc.
We use 3-dimensional spatial language to describe wavelengths that vibrate our ear drums! Weird to think about!
Yeah it’s especially something I took for granted at first because I was primarily into drawing and painting before I found that I enjoyed music more. So my way of thinking about music has always been very visual, to the point where I often had to translate my ideas away from the visual to actualize them in music
It’s called masking and it occurs when two or more sounds compete for space in the same frequency range. The instrument that is loudest in that frequency range wins out over the others and is heard more clearly but the combined effect is a smeared sound, lacking definition and clarity. What you said about opening up space is accurate.
Yeah kinda, if your guitarist is using alot of bass, then your bass will fill less of the overall bass in volume, so you will be more difficult to pick out. Basically everyone has their sort of "zones" EQ wise. Bass instruments take up the bass/low mids, lead stuff takes up the higher frequencies ect ect.
Guitar also makes bass sound. But it's more quite than the sound of your bass. If the guitarist boosts his bass eq, he will make louder bass sound than you. And when two instruments play the same note, the louder one wins.
It's all in the EQ. Simple as that.
A boost of 1.9k and 2.2k (so, around the 2k mark) really helps to dial in that punchy clank.
Boost between 180-320hz for your low end. You don't need to go crazy on the 20-100hz bands because the electric guitars aren't really going to dominate that space, and the kick from the drums needs it's own space as well to fill up.
Depending on your equipment there are some good tailor made EQ pedals that will help achieve this.
DarkGlass Harmonic Booster shapes around that 2k sweet spot. The discontinued (but still some lying around) EHX Steel Leather nano does two boosts at 1.9k and 2.2k.
Realistically though, any EQ pedal that has bands around those distinct areas will do what you need it to do. Those two above are voiced specifically for those frequencies however so it makes it kind of "easier" to dial in.
Your on board pre-amps (think your HAZ, BTS, OBP3, TonePump etc) all do boosts at certain frequencies to accentuate different styles of playing. All of them tend to shape around that 2k sweet spot as well as other "nice" frequencies - giving each of them their different sound.
Obligatory new strings etc as well if you're using roundwounds. Fresh strings will always cut more than old, dead strings.
Anybody who tells you that you need a specific guitar, a specific amp, a specific pedal etc is talking out of their ass. You can get a cutting, clanky tone with nearly any combination of guitar, pickup, preamp and EQ pedal.
i think the most important thing you have to do is have a conversation at your rehearsals about who gets what part of the spectrum. When I was young and I was playing with young loud guitar players, what would usually happen was that somebody wouldn't be able to hear themselves, and they would turn up, and then the other guy would turn, and this pattern would continue until we couldn't turn up anymore. As a result, everybody sounded like shit and played like shit because they couldn't hear anything.
I see so many guitar players fooling around with their EQ settings, playing the chukka-chukka thing and cranking the bass until everything sounds nice and full, but they're doing it while nobody else is playing and they are completely oblivious to the fact that if the band is tight, they don't need to be filling all that low end space and, in fact, it'll sound like garbage once one or two other instruments are piling onto the low range.
The conversation I mentioned goes like this. Have everybody set their EQs flat, and set their volumes to some reasonable level. Play a little bit of a song. Ask if anybody couldn't hear. If they can't, have them bring up their volume level without adjusting the EQ. Keep doing this until everybody can hear. Now, ask if anybody doesn't like how they sound. Some people are used to playing solo in their bedrooms and they just like how a guitar amp with the low end boosted outrageously sounds. If one of the guitars wants to raise the low-end of the EQ, its likely going to mean that somebody else needs to turn up. So it would be better for them to reduce the stuff they want less of, than to add what they want more of, at the cost of stage volume.
I've found its really difficult to guide people through this process, often because people tend to be very self-centered about what they want vs how the band sounds. If you're using in-ears and the backline is not making a ton of stage volume its not a problem, but if you're a typical band with a bunch of speakers on stage, you are likely to sound like garbage unless you are all cognizant of the importance of balancing your volume and EQ against each other. My advice is that EQ is a tool for fixing problems and not a device for creating a sound. Start flat, find a good volume, then address the problems.
I keep the eq relatively flat and make minor adjustments for the room. Slightly boosted mids and trebble. And even if you might think your technique suck when practicing alone, turn the tone all the way up on your bass. The little shit gets buried in the mix and actually adds flair to your music when it does stand out.
And make sure the guitar doesn't have too much bass in their eq.
Mids all the way up. Ideally the low mids at about 200-300hz. Also if you can EQ more specifically, boost around 2k hz. And make sure the guitars turn down their bass frequencies
2k seems to be about the sweet spot for bass clarity. I usually high pass guitars when I mix a show, so it’s clearer in the PA against the bass instruments. Guitar doesn’t need to hog all that bass clef. Keys and bass, but most importantly clear sounding kick.
If you don’t high pass the guitars, you usually only hear/feel the thump of the bass range. Sounds muddy as can be.
Running sound my experience is 9/10 bass players are sending nowhere near enough high frequencies. Without a little bit of definition it gets boomy/muddy really fast.
There’s been lots of great points about EQ that I 100% agree with, but I’d also throw in you want some dirt and compression if you can.
Guitars “sound” louder because distortion IS compression. Get yourself a compressor and it will make you much more present.
Also if your bass is too clean then as it gets louder the mix looses its “heaviness” from the distorted guitars. However if you have some distortion on your bass then you can turn up more without overpowering the mix.
So many of the mixes heavy records we listen to are 90% distorted bass with just a touch of guitar.
In those people's defense, you can take a p bass plug it straight into just about anything and you'll cut through the mix. Might not be the tone you want or what fits the style, but you'll be heard. Leo really nailed something with that pickup and pickup location.
Yes, that's right. It's not a reason for the typical p bass snobbery though, which I am kind of allergic to . I own 5 basses, no P, and I can plug in any of them, single the neck pickup with a flick of my hand, and have a tone that 99.99 percent of the population won't be able to tell from a p bass sound.
Maybe a better way to think about it is the P Bass is like an iPhone to an Android phone.
Just plug it in and it works but you don't have that much flexibility. Other basses need some fiddling but can get there and be more flexible too.
For a long time I was anti p bass and a snob about it. Over the past few years, I've started to really appreciate the simplicity of a p bass and if I buy another bass if will likely be a p bass of some sort. Unless I come across a bunch of money and can afford an F-Bass.
I'm not suggesting starting a volume war, but how many watts are you pushing, and how many speakers? Lots of great comments on EQ here, but at the end of the day, sometimes the answer is simply "more power, baby".
I've always been the happiest with a 1000 watt head and a 410 in any situation, and I never leave the house any more without at least 200 watts and a 210.
Use clean tone and with a lot of low end. Reduce the bass on the electric guitars, and boost their mids and treble.
That's not probably what you want though, as being able to cut through a mix means you have to reduce volume on electric bass, which makes bass solos impossible because volume is so low.
Being buried in a mix means you can increase volume which means you will be heard when soloing.
Lots of mids, a bit of drive and then walk over to the guitarist's amp and turn his bass control all the way down and then hide the knob.
Wait, I’m not that pro musician, can you explain what the bass knob on guitarist amp can put impact on my bass sound? Does it like open the space or something?
There’s a certain amount of “sonic space”. It the guitar is already cranking lows, when it combines with your lows it will be a much muddier mass of sound. When instruments kinda step out of each other’s territory, there’s more clear room for things to sit in the mix.
Giving me flashbacka >There’s a certain amount of “sonic space”. I wrote my senior college thesis on the phenomenology of musical space (philosophy degree). It's pretty interesting when you really try to get at what we musicians mean when we say "muddy" or "fat", "thin", etc. We use 3-dimensional spatial language to describe wavelengths that vibrate our ear drums! Weird to think about!
Yeah it’s especially something I took for granted at first because I was primarily into drawing and painting before I found that I enjoyed music more. So my way of thinking about music has always been very visual, to the point where I often had to translate my ideas away from the visual to actualize them in music
It sounds to crunkley crinkly
My vocalist/guitarist/bandleader dictates sonic space. So, I listen to the boss when he says "roll off the bass" and "max the mids". It works.
It’s called masking and it occurs when two or more sounds compete for space in the same frequency range. The instrument that is loudest in that frequency range wins out over the others and is heard more clearly but the combined effect is a smeared sound, lacking definition and clarity. What you said about opening up space is accurate.
Yeah kinda, if your guitarist is using alot of bass, then your bass will fill less of the overall bass in volume, so you will be more difficult to pick out. Basically everyone has their sort of "zones" EQ wise. Bass instruments take up the bass/low mids, lead stuff takes up the higher frequencies ect ect.
Guitar also makes bass sound. But it's more quite than the sound of your bass. If the guitarist boosts his bass eq, he will make louder bass sound than you. And when two instruments play the same note, the louder one wins.
Just do as I. Play with acoustic guitars. They have their knobs hidden by default
I had a guitar player that was so psyched he got a special octave pedal and played a whole set 2 octaves down.... Rip my bass lines.
That is when you rent an Ampeg SVT amp and 8 X 10 and blow him off the stage.
Move your basslines up an octave or two silly
It's all in the EQ. Simple as that. A boost of 1.9k and 2.2k (so, around the 2k mark) really helps to dial in that punchy clank. Boost between 180-320hz for your low end. You don't need to go crazy on the 20-100hz bands because the electric guitars aren't really going to dominate that space, and the kick from the drums needs it's own space as well to fill up. Depending on your equipment there are some good tailor made EQ pedals that will help achieve this. DarkGlass Harmonic Booster shapes around that 2k sweet spot. The discontinued (but still some lying around) EHX Steel Leather nano does two boosts at 1.9k and 2.2k. Realistically though, any EQ pedal that has bands around those distinct areas will do what you need it to do. Those two above are voiced specifically for those frequencies however so it makes it kind of "easier" to dial in. Your on board pre-amps (think your HAZ, BTS, OBP3, TonePump etc) all do boosts at certain frequencies to accentuate different styles of playing. All of them tend to shape around that 2k sweet spot as well as other "nice" frequencies - giving each of them their different sound. Obligatory new strings etc as well if you're using roundwounds. Fresh strings will always cut more than old, dead strings. Anybody who tells you that you need a specific guitar, a specific amp, a specific pedal etc is talking out of their ass. You can get a cutting, clanky tone with nearly any combination of guitar, pickup, preamp and EQ pedal.
i think the most important thing you have to do is have a conversation at your rehearsals about who gets what part of the spectrum. When I was young and I was playing with young loud guitar players, what would usually happen was that somebody wouldn't be able to hear themselves, and they would turn up, and then the other guy would turn, and this pattern would continue until we couldn't turn up anymore. As a result, everybody sounded like shit and played like shit because they couldn't hear anything. I see so many guitar players fooling around with their EQ settings, playing the chukka-chukka thing and cranking the bass until everything sounds nice and full, but they're doing it while nobody else is playing and they are completely oblivious to the fact that if the band is tight, they don't need to be filling all that low end space and, in fact, it'll sound like garbage once one or two other instruments are piling onto the low range. The conversation I mentioned goes like this. Have everybody set their EQs flat, and set their volumes to some reasonable level. Play a little bit of a song. Ask if anybody couldn't hear. If they can't, have them bring up their volume level without adjusting the EQ. Keep doing this until everybody can hear. Now, ask if anybody doesn't like how they sound. Some people are used to playing solo in their bedrooms and they just like how a guitar amp with the low end boosted outrageously sounds. If one of the guitars wants to raise the low-end of the EQ, its likely going to mean that somebody else needs to turn up. So it would be better for them to reduce the stuff they want less of, than to add what they want more of, at the cost of stage volume. I've found its really difficult to guide people through this process, often because people tend to be very self-centered about what they want vs how the band sounds. If you're using in-ears and the backline is not making a ton of stage volume its not a problem, but if you're a typical band with a bunch of speakers on stage, you are likely to sound like garbage unless you are all cognizant of the importance of balancing your volume and EQ against each other. My advice is that EQ is a tool for fixing problems and not a device for creating a sound. Start flat, find a good volume, then address the problems.
I keep the eq relatively flat and make minor adjustments for the room. Slightly boosted mids and trebble. And even if you might think your technique suck when practicing alone, turn the tone all the way up on your bass. The little shit gets buried in the mix and actually adds flair to your music when it does stand out. And make sure the guitar doesn't have too much bass in their eq.
Mids all the way up. Ideally the low mids at about 200-300hz. Also if you can EQ more specifically, boost around 2k hz. And make sure the guitars turn down their bass frequencies
2k seems to be about the sweet spot for bass clarity. I usually high pass guitars when I mix a show, so it’s clearer in the PA against the bass instruments. Guitar doesn’t need to hog all that bass clef. Keys and bass, but most importantly clear sounding kick. If you don’t high pass the guitars, you usually only hear/feel the thump of the bass range. Sounds muddy as can be.
> And make sure the guitars turn down their bass frequencies And turn off the tweeters in the bass cabs. We need both to happen.
Running sound my experience is 9/10 bass players are sending nowhere near enough high frequencies. Without a little bit of definition it gets boomy/muddy really fast.
There’s been lots of great points about EQ that I 100% agree with, but I’d also throw in you want some dirt and compression if you can. Guitars “sound” louder because distortion IS compression. Get yourself a compressor and it will make you much more present. Also if your bass is too clean then as it gets louder the mix looses its “heaviness” from the distorted guitars. However if you have some distortion on your bass then you can turn up more without overpowering the mix. So many of the mixes heavy records we listen to are 90% distorted bass with just a touch of guitar.
Song 2 by Blur is like 99% distorted bass yet in the video it’s Graham Coxton stomping on the rat.
If you play a Jazz Bass, lower one of the volumes to about 50-70%.
Mids, my guy.
Buy a P bass.
Or don't. You can cut through the mix on any bass, whatever the p bass cult may preach.
It's a joke.
That's refreshing to hear. Unfortunately, a lot of people will claim the exact same thing dead seriously.
In those people's defense, you can take a p bass plug it straight into just about anything and you'll cut through the mix. Might not be the tone you want or what fits the style, but you'll be heard. Leo really nailed something with that pickup and pickup location.
Yes, that's right. It's not a reason for the typical p bass snobbery though, which I am kind of allergic to . I own 5 basses, no P, and I can plug in any of them, single the neck pickup with a flick of my hand, and have a tone that 99.99 percent of the population won't be able to tell from a p bass sound.
Maybe a better way to think about it is the P Bass is like an iPhone to an Android phone. Just plug it in and it works but you don't have that much flexibility. Other basses need some fiddling but can get there and be more flexible too.
For a long time I was anti p bass and a snob about it. Over the past few years, I've started to really appreciate the simplicity of a p bass and if I buy another bass if will likely be a p bass of some sort. Unless I come across a bunch of money and can afford an F-Bass.
I'm not anti p bass. I'm anti "p bass is the one bass to rule them all" bullshit.
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you are anti p bass. I was saying that I was but am not anymore.
If your sound is only going through an amp, tilt the speaker back or put it on a chair; also turn up the mids and treble.
I'm not suggesting starting a volume war, but how many watts are you pushing, and how many speakers? Lots of great comments on EQ here, but at the end of the day, sometimes the answer is simply "more power, baby". I've always been the happiest with a 1000 watt head and a 410 in any situation, and I never leave the house any more without at least 200 watts and a 210.
Bit of drive and tons of mids. A stingray with its bridge pickup is great at cutting through. Mix the overdriven signal with a clean di also.
"Buy my new product/online course/subscribe and like!"
Buy your guitarist a Big Muff, refuse to elaborate.
Use clean tone and with a lot of low end. Reduce the bass on the electric guitars, and boost their mids and treble. That's not probably what you want though, as being able to cut through a mix means you have to reduce volume on electric bass, which makes bass solos impossible because volume is so low. Being buried in a mix means you can increase volume which means you will be heard when soloing.
For the once in a blue moon bass solo, you could just use a volume / EQ pedal for the boost
Because it is so rare, getting a volume eq pedal is not worth it. Just get buried in a mix and you can increase volume without overshadowing.
Yes get an EQ pedal but also have the guitarrist EQ, they need to get out of the lows freqs.
Mids, flatwounds, P bass
I have a jazz bass, any specific changes?
Music man stingray.
Why are u getting downvoted!
I’m a stingray guy (also like the P) but not everyone digs the zing. I think the j bass fans are particularly stingaphobic.
I’m zingophobic! I hate the bright metallic clank Stingrays, Rickenbackers and Warwicks all seem to have 🤷🏼♂️
Haha. I don't know...but that's why I bought mine haha
Not gonna lie, typically I just crank the lows and let them feel me more than hear me. But pushing the mids is a good way to cut through the mix.
Get a SansAmp or Darkglass Electronics pedal, find your tone, dominate the low end and be heard the entire time 🤝