Bass tone match, what am I doing wrong?

SlugAlex

Member
Hey guys, I would love some help with this problem I've been having. I have tone matched a bunch of guitar tones and they usually turn out great, but for some reason I have never successfully tone matched a bass. It never sounds like the recording. I have multitracks that I use to tone match. Is there a different approach to tone matching bass? Any help is very appreciated, thank you!
 
You're always going to have problems with low (or clean) distorted tones (guitar or bass)... the dynamics are just too much for the tone match to get you something remotely close. Same thing happens with vocals... It can get you close but it never sounds identical like a distorted tone because it has a narrower bands of eq to have to work with. I know I'm f*cking up the technical terminology but high gain = high accuracy tone match, low/no gain = low accuracy tone match. Technically it's still highly accurate but the dynamics are just too much as I mentioned. I hope that made sense.
 
I understand what you are saying but I have seen and heard other people successfully tone match bass guitars, and I just would like to know the approach, it does strike me as being more complex than tone matching a high gain amp!
 
I understand what you are saying but I have seen and heard other people successfully tone match bass guitars, and I just would like to know the approach, it does strike me as being more complex than tone matching a high gain amp!
Have you set the tonematch resolution to high? And tried Live mode instead of offline?
I ask you this because Live setting lets you export ultrares tonematches and the resolution is something critical for the lowest frequencies: 1024 samples can't contain a full cycle of a wave under about 50 Hz, 2048 can go as low as 25 Hz, with ultrares you're fully covered instead ;)

Also notice that the tonematch will always work at low resolution IIRC, you have to export the IR to hear it at full resolution
 
Thank you for the reply! I have it set to high, but i have NOT tried live mode! Usually the tone doesn't even sound close to the one I'm trying to match though, not just the low end. I assumed it had something to do with the fact that what I am trying to tone match is another basses DI signal (with effects on it). Essentially I would like to tone match bass tones from some of my favorite artists. I have mogg files, and isolated studio bass tracks that I want to match. Some of which seem like effected DI, and some that sound like Bass amps. Does the bass I am playing maybe have anything to do with it? I will give live mode a try though!
 
Thank you for the reply! I have it set to high, but i have NOT tried live mode! Usually the tone doesn't even sound close to the one I'm trying to match though, not just the low end. I assumed it had something to do with the fact that what I am trying to tone match is another basses DI signal (with effects on it). Essentially I would like to tone match bass tones from some of my favorite artists. I have mogg files, and isolated studio bass tracks that I want to match. Some of which seem like effected DI, and some that sound like Bass amps. Does the bass I am playing maybe have anything to do with it? I will give live mode a try though!
I think the problem is not the fact that it's a bass DI track, I've successfully matched guitar and bass DI in tghe past. The issue is with the effects in those track, tonmetach is just a sort of auto-eq that compensates for eq differences between two sound, it cannot guess what fx are on and apply them for you, you have to achieve a similar sound first with amp, drives and whatever fx is used.
What kind of effects are on that track? Maybe we can help you identify them
 
Well the effects on these tracks seem rather basic, but I am a complete beginner when it comes to bass tones. I would love suggestions on how to get close to these tones so I maybe could successfully tone match them! I got some YouTube links I will post below with the isolated bass tracks. I only have a fender squier j bass, but i was thinking of using trilian Bass software as my local source. That would give me some options when it comes to bass tones, that might get me closer to the sound I'm looking to achieve





 
Ignorance and MB sounds like a p bass to me, ignorance has some fuzz blended with a cleaner tone as well. Maybe try the pi fuzz in parallel with the sv bass model?
 
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