I'm losing my mind here. I can't for the life of me compress or mix my bass properly. I either lose the low end at parts or it jumps out at me and flubs. I can't seem to keep it level throughout. I've looked up several compression methods and toyed with different presets. I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Have a listen.
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This doesn't sound particularly "bad", but I do hear some issues.
There are three issues I hear:
- The guitar, kick drum, and snare sound like they are compressed or limited to have no dynamics while the bass is playing very dynamically.
- Your bass tone seems to have everything going on in the sub 500 Hz frequency range but has no note definition in 1 kHz to 5 kHz range comparatively, so when you dynamically drop your playing volume versus heavily compressed other instruments in the mix, you disappear.
- The full frequency drums and guitar are leaving little room in the mix for your bass, especially so based upon the arrangement.
If you don't carve out a frequency niche for the bass in the mix out of the other instruments, no magic plug in, no compression side chaining trick, no magic EQ trick on your tone is going to fix it.
You can dynamically ride the fader of the bass track in the mix with automation, but then this is going to be a situation of ever increasing "more me" volume based on your tone, because undoubtedly that volume raise of your bass will masque either the drums and/or guitar.
First thing I always do when I check somebody's mix session of this genre is I solo the following tracks: Kick, Snare, Hat, and Bass. The volume balance should be that I can hear everything clearly of everything all those instruments are playing throughout the song. If I can't hear everything clearly where one instrument disappears for a bit, then I start making EQ cuts in the other instruments in order to let the missing sections through on the MIA instrument. Then I bring in the guitars one by one, check the volume balance and then decide what tracks need EQ cuts in order to for all the parts to be heard throughout the song. Rinse and repeat.
Once you have that frequency spectrum issue settled, then you start applying compression and other effects as icing on the cake. None of those things will truly solve basic EQ and volume balance issues. Think of a mix as a jigsaw puzzle and the instrumental parts as the pieces. Each needs a certain notch in them in order to interlock and show you a bigger picture. I learned that personally from Bob Both, who used to mix James Brown's stuff and the concept works with every genre of music I ever mixed.
Next thing is to look at your tone. As a bass player you should have definition to your notes in order to stick out. A lot of players kill those frequencies because they expose technique issues which yield string noise and and lack of dampening the non sounding strings. If you can have a certain amount of high frequency content in your tone, your notes will be more defined in the mix and less blob like.
Your amp block compression settings are very important and most players forget about them. When we play loud rock music with real bass amps, when we turn up, that amp is compressing us at a certain point to protect the cabinet drivers. Adjust the amp block compression settings so that it feels like a real life bass amp when you play, then EQ your bass mids, & treble accordingly. Get that feel of the amp right and then carve your tone.
Last thing is when you do your solo practices, practice while watching and plugged into a VU meter. You should be able to stay at a consistent level when switching strings and neck positions. It's a pain in the ass when you are first woodshedding this, but if you can master that, then any compression you apply to your tracks is enhancement of the tone rather than correcting technique.
