Bass with active preamp, what to do

M

MetalGarret

Inspired
So earlier this year I came on here and someone helped me deduce that I have a preamp on my Peavey Fury IV bass guitar. The original reason why I came here for help was because my bass was having some overkill low end and I couldn't cut or compress it very well without losing the bass's punch. Now I've been toying around with the settings between the bass, mid and treble knobs on the bass as well as the presets on the Axe fx 2. I can't seem to find a good balance. I'll either have decent low end with not enough punch or I'll cut too much low end. I've tried comparing my bass with that of John Myung's off of DT's Images and Words album using a bass stem of his from Metropolis part I (off YouTube) and throwing a frequency analyzer on it to see what I'm suppose to hit in that low area. But it looks like I'm there but I don't hear or feel it. It's very odd.

So my questions are: what are the key factors here? and also, if you do have a a bass with active pickups and preamp, do you bother with an amp or cab in the preset?
 
Could you post a clip of what looks "correct" on the frequency analyzer versus the Mynng clip so we can hear what you ware talking about in terms of tonal differences?

Some people love direct bass sound without amp & cab, just using a little compression and maybe a dirt pedal or eq.

Other people of love the sound of amp and cab in their presets.

Some people love a bi-amped setup in their presets.

What works for one person in one context might not work in another context with a different player.

It's all about what works for you in terms of how you sit in the mix in your band's songs playing the parts that you play.

That being said, did you try adjusting the pickup height or the setup? If you are battling that much to get a balanced tone, even with an active preamp, it's possible that string or pickup height may be part of the issue.
 
Here's a snapshot. Im on the left. Myung is on the right. I've tried basically all those approaches you mentioned and I keep circling back to the same results. Clearly I'm not learning something.
 

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MetalGarret said:
Here's a snapshot. Im on the left. Myung is on the right. I've tried basically all those approaches you mentioned and I keep circling back to the same results. Clearly I'm not learning something.
Click to expand...
From the picture, it appears you have much more in the 21-125Hz range, and he has a much sharper dip after 250Hz.

I'm looking at this from my iPhone and I am in no way an expert on frequency analysis... But that difference may explain what you are hearing.

Maybe add a PEQ at the end of your chain to sculpt that more?
 


Here's the result of your suggestion. Let me know how it sounds on your system. It sounds ok but I feel like it could still use a bit of something.
 
MetalGarret said:
But it looks like I'm there but I don't hear or feel it. It's very odd.
Click to expand...
That's because your hearing his bass that's been mixed for that particular song. Depending on the mixing engineer, there could be a couple of different compressors, EQ, limiting, ect. That's why you're not going to "feel" the same.
 
Ok. But I feel the same punchiness in all good mixes when it comes to this heavy of music. So there's an element I'm definitely not getting or understanding.
 
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