Strugle to get full modern bass sound

[Kfir]

Hi All
I have mean guitar tone but my bass sounds thin and lack of punch in the low end, anyone can share with me a good preset?

 

[Ba55Man1ac]

Not sure if this is your style, but worth a watch.

 

[GK Breivik]

What’s your genre @Kfir? Is your bass set up properly with the correct relief and pickup height? Fresh strings also often help a lot. The FM3 sound very much like going into a high quality clean preamp, so it should be possible to do most kinds of tones from there.

 

[Intoodeep1113]

What sort of speakers are you listening through?

 

[Necr0lancer]

Comp (studio FB 1) > EQ > drive (optional) > SV bass 2 > USA bass cabs. Sometimes I throw an additional comp at the end. For the cabs, I'll use two cabs with two mics. One cab I'll use whatever feels right and the other cab I'll use the tweeter option with the volume adjusted for taste. The tweeter will add that extra crispy high end that's very modern.

That works in most situations for me ¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[Necr0lancer]

For some extra sauceiness, take advantage of the preamp simulation in the cab block. Particularly the modern 1/2 options. Those sound absolutely fantastic. The tube preamp is great too. The preamp simulation really glues everything together. ** Chef's kiss**

If you're wearing headphones and want some dimension to your sound, add a reverb at the end of the chain and select recording studio C. Set the mix to taste. Ideally very low like 5%. You can also use the room level in the cab block if you want to save CPU.

 

[alex1fly]

Hi All
I have mean guitar tone but my bass sounds thin and lack of punch in the low end, anyone can share with me a good preset?

I'm a gigging bassist and had the same problem. Even with others' presets, Leon Todd's tutorials, and my own experimentation, I couldn't get my sound to be anywhere near as thick-and-rumbling-yet-clear-and-a-bit-chewy as my rehearsal rig or my gigging rig. And with those rigs I just power them up and they're perfect - no pedals or anything else in the signal chain. I have no doubt it COULD be dialed in in the FM3, but I'd already spent several hours over several sessions working on it so instead of recreating the wheel my solution was to run a bass Sansamp that I had laying around in front of the FM3 for bass guitar tones. Sounds phenomenal now. There's also the bass amp pack (Austin Buddy?) that might be worth exploring.

 

[Kfir]

What sort of speakers are you listening through?

Audient ID-22 + Dynaudio BM6 mkiii

I'm a gigging bassist and had the same problem. Even with others' presets, Leon Todd's tutorials, and my own experimentation, I couldn't get my sound to be anywhere near as thick-and-rumbling-yet-clear-and-a-bit-chewy as my rehearsal rig or my gigging rig. And with those rigs I just power them up and they're perfect - no pedals or anything else in the signal chain. I have no doubt it COULD be dialed in in the FM3, but I'd already spent several hours over several sessions working on it so instead of recreating the wheel my solution was to run a bass Sansamp that I had laying around in front of the FM3 for bass guitar tones. Sounds phenomenal now. There's also the bass amp pack (Austin Buddy?) that might be worth exploring.

Hi I can invest in Sansamp pedal if this is what will give me tone I'm after, I didn't like the Austin buddy presets..

What’s your genre @Kfir? Is your bass set up properly with the correct relief and pickup height? Fresh strings also often help a lot. The FM3 sound very much like going into a high quality clean preamp, so it should be possible to do most kinds of tones from there.

Yes my bass after setup, I'm into progressive metal bass sound.. with a regular Ampeg bass amp my Ibanez bass sound beast.

 

[RevDrucifer]

Two things that got me where I wanted to go-

The right IR. I wasn’t getting what I wanted with the stock IR’s. I know I bought Dr. Bonker’s bass cab pack which has some great ones, a York Audio 8x10 if I remember right and also had the IR’s that came with AB’s bass presets. It’s been a while since I’ve looked, but there’s one IR in the AB pack, I think it’s called Secret Weapon(?) that was great, but for the most part, the York 8x10 pack has been my go-to.

Using both an amp block and a direct signal w/ a compressor on it coming out the same output. I tend to approach that like Dug Pinnick sets his rig(s) up; all the dirt has the low end chopped off entirely, it’s just mids and treble while the DI is handling all the low end. I still dial a good amount of high end in the DI, but a lot is coming from the distorted amp. If I remember right, the clip below is a mix of a boosted JCM800 into a York 8x10 IR w/the DI.

I also track a separate DI going into Logic, I’ll almost always end up tossing the CLA-Bass plug-in on that for a really clean, compressed to hell and back tone.

I’ve posted this a lot over the years, so forgive me if it’s been seen before, but this was pretty much my ideal bass tone for the heavy stuff.



I believe I posted the preset in AxeExchange but it was for the AxeFX III and I didn’t include the IR due to it being a 3rd party.

Also of note; I’ve got 3 different basses, a Warwick 5-string, Peavey Millenium 5-string and the Spector Pulse. Each bass sounds entirely different with the same preset and only the Spector has that perfect balance of balls and top end. You can hear it unplugged just the same, you can breath on the Spector’s lowest string and it sounds like an anvil getting dropped on an empty steel cargo container.

 

[utkanos]

Two things that got me where I wanted to go-

The right IR. I wasn’t getting what I wanted with the stock IR’s. I know I bought Dr. Bonker’s bass cab pack which has some great ones, a York Audio 8x10 if I remember right and also had the IR’s that came with AB’s bass presets. It’s been a while since I’ve looked, but there’s one IR in the AB pack, I think it’s called Secret Weapon(?) that was great, but for the most part, the York 8x10 pack has been my go-to.

Using both an amp block and a direct signal w/ a compressor on it coming out the same output. I tend to approach that like Dug Pinnick sets his rig(s) up; all the dirt has the low end chopped off entirely, it’s just mids and treble while the DI is handling all the low end. I still dial a good amount of high end in the DI, but a lot is coming from the distorted amp. If I remember right, the clip below is a mix of a boosted JCM800 into a York 8x10 IR w/the DI.

I also track a separate DI going into Logic, I’ll almost always end up tossing the CLA-Bass plug-in on that for a really clean, compressed to hell and back tone.

I’ve posted this a lot over the years, so forgive me if it’s been seen before, but this was pretty much my ideal bass tone for the heavy stuff.



I believe I posted the preset in AxeExchange but it was for the AxeFX III and I didn’t include the IR due to it being a 3rd party.

Also of note; I’ve got 3 different basses, a Warwick 5-string, Peavey Millenium 5-string and the Spector Pulse. Each bass sounds entirely different with the same preset and only the Spector has that perfect balance of balls and top end. You can hear it unplugged just the same, you can breath on the Spector’s lowest string and it sounds like an anvil getting dropped on an empty steel cargo container.

This sounds great, I can't seem to find a York 8x10 though for sale, do you have more details on that one? I found an Ampeg 410 pack though

 

[Admin M@]

I've asked Danny Miranda from Blue Oyster Cult for some comments here. He's been touring and recording with the FM3. I know he uses custom presets, but they started life as members of the Austin Buddy Bass pack.

 

[Intoodeep1113]

@RevDrucifer that sounds sick!

 

[RevDrucifer]

This sounds great, I can't seem to find a York 8x10 though for sale, do you have more details on that one? I found an Ampeg 410 pack though

Oh my bad, I could have sworn it was a York, I just checked my IR folder and my download folder but I can't find the source of the IR. I've got 45,000 of them and I'm horrible with organizing them, they're just in a file called "Bass Cabs". Here's a screenshot of the folder with the rest of the IR's in the same pack, maybe someone will recognize the file name.

 

[utkanos]

I spent some time last night playing around, I want to try the "dual amping" Rev mentioned (like Dug and many others do) but I got a pretty great bass tone on my PJ with flats using the USA 400 amp and an 8x10 cabinet. The Suhr Riot with the bass bands bumped a bit and not mixed super heavily into the stream was perfect for a bit of grit while still maintaining the low end. If anything I had to dial some bass flub out, so I wonder how much of this is your settings, pickups, etc OP. Tell us more about the bass you're using and which amp model you tried. I made a good SVT preset, but honestly the USA 400 with a good cabinet just sounds better in every way for my personal tastes. Adding the bright switch gives a bit of finger noise/movement that feels very amp-like.

 

[Dmiranda]

I've asked Danny Miranda from Blue Oyster Cult for some comments here. He's been touring and recording with the FM3. I know he uses custom presets, but they started life as members of the Austin Buddy Bass pack.

Hi everyone!

I have been working with the FM3 for a little over a year- and gradually adding it to my live rig as well as my studio Rig. I couldn’t be happier!

Now the FM three is the only thing I use both live and in the studio.

A lesson that I’ve learned with any block, is to not overdo it—

Meaning don’t turn up the low end all the way don’t turn up the distortion all the way etc.

knowing that every block that is added can have The tendency to make the sound smaller and more narrow as easily as it couldn’t become bigger and wider—

It is a tightrope for sure -just as any complex amplifier or any pedalboard .

Overloading gain stages and going into the red , Will slowly but surely rob your tone!

What helped me out was picking the right amplifier to start with and the right cabinet—

Getting the right IR for you is very important-and maybe wait until you get a sound to your liking to start incorporating compression -because used incorrectly it can rob your dynamics, and that sets off a whole load of problems. I love the speaker impedance control— I find that to be one of the more musical components of the Fractal system !

I have a direct signal running parallel at all times— that is crucially important to me and not to forget that you can always blend the amp sound into the direct sound and vice versa! Hope this is a good start and I will be posting some sound examples!

 

[Dmiranda]

Hi everyone!

I have been working with the FM3 for a little over a year- and gradually adding it to my live rig as well as my studio Rig. I couldn’t be happier!

Now the FM three is the only thing I use both live and in the studio.

A lesson that I’ve learned with any block, is to not overdo it—

Meaning don’t turn up the low end all the way don’t turn up the distortion all the way etc.

knowing that every block that is added can have The tendency to make the sound smaller and more narrow as easily as it couldn’t become bigger and wider—

It is a tightrope for sure -just as any complex amplifier or any pedalboard .

Overloading gain stages and going into the red , Will slowly but surely rob your tone!

What helped me out was picking the right amplifier to start with and the right cabinet—

Getting the right IR for you is very important-and maybe wait until you get a sound to your liking to start incorporating compression -because used incorrectly it can rob your dynamics, and that sets off a whole load of problems. I love the speaker impedance control— I find that to be one of the more musical components of the Fractal system !

I have a direct signal running parallel at all times— that is crucially important to me and not to forget that you can always blend the amp sound into the direct sound and vice versa! Hope this is a good start and I will be posting some sound examples!

Also the first thing is to pick an amp that best suits your sound -
The AustinBuddy stuff is amazing!!
I chose the SVT— and I go between 410 cabinets and 810 cabinets.
I put the Darkglass Drive before the amp

 

[la szum]

Two things that got me where I wanted to go-

The right IR. I wasn’t getting what I wanted with the stock IR’s. I know I bought Dr. Bonker’s bass cab pack which has some great ones, a York Audio 8x10 if I remember right and also had the IR’s that came with AB’s bass presets. It’s been a while since I’ve looked, but there’s one IR in the AB pack, I think it’s called Secret Weapon(?) that was great, but for the most part, the York 8x10 pack has been my go-to.

Using both an amp block and a direct signal w/ a compressor on it coming out the same output. I tend to approach that like Dug Pinnick sets his rig(s) up; all the dirt has the low end chopped off entirely, it’s just mids and treble while the DI is handling all the low end. I still dial a good amount of high end in the DI, but a lot is coming from the distorted amp. If I remember right, the clip below is a mix of a boosted JCM800 into a York 8x10 IR w/the DI.

I also track a separate DI going into Logic, I’ll almost always end up tossing the CLA-Bass plug-in on that for a really clean, compressed to hell and back tone.

I’ve posted this a lot over the years, so forgive me if it’s been seen before, but this was pretty much my ideal bass tone for the heavy stuff.



I believe I posted the preset in AxeExchange but it was for the AxeFX III and I didn’t include the IR due to it being a 3rd party.

Also of note; I’ve got 3 different basses, a Warwick 5-string, Peavey Millenium 5-string and the Spector Pulse. Each bass sounds entirely different with the same preset and only the Spector has that perfect balance of balls and top end. You can hear it unplugged just the same, you can breath on the Spector’s lowest string and it sounds like an anvil getting dropped on an empty steel cargo container.

Duuuuude!!!!

 

[utkanos]

So I spent a pretty significant amount of time working on a bass patch that I plan to share here, unfortunately it relies on a paid-IR so I cannot share that, but I will drop the settings here either way.

tl;dr

• Bi-amping is the way to go here!
• Split your input into two paths in the software
• On the first path, put a Filter block and a Compressor block, then wire it back to Output (this is your DI tone)
• On the second path, put another Filter block, a Drive block, an Amp block, a Cab block (and I added a Chorus and Reverb block but you dont need to), then wire that to Output.
• In the first path for your DI tone, I put a Lowpass in the Filter block with about 500 cutoff, to just get the low fundamental tone. I run this into the Optical compressor (though the stomp ones are good too) and punched up the level a bit. I did 3.5 on the compression
• In the second path for your distorted/amp tone, your filter block should be a Highpass and you should lop off the low end to taste. I used the Suhr Riot (L) drive with the gain maxed out, going into the Amp block using the USA 400 2 amp (you should use 1 if you have an active bass), 2 for passive) and then into an 8x10 cabinet in the Cab block. From there it goes into a Chorus (Dimension 3) and a Reverb (studio) before hitting output.

Sounds complicated but it's not, but the end result is absolutely massive.. plus you can disable the Drive/Chorus as needed in the scenes and you get the best of both worlds.. pure DI tone blended with an amp sound (and effects if you like). I am using this with a PJ bass with flats and it's such an awesome sound. I got a lot of good ideas from Leon Todd here so thanks to him as well.

 

[stub]

That's a very sensible approach-- to make the "DI" path basically preserve the low-end from anything that might compromise it. And run the mids and top through "character development" of any sort.

I'd probably tend to be subtle about the compression on that lows path- so nothing robs the punch of the attack. I'd probably use it for tracking, and disable it for live.

 

[utkanos]

That's a very sensible approach-- to make the "DI" path basically preserve the low-end from anything that might compromise it. And run the mids and top through "character development" of any sort.

I'd probably tend to be subtle about the compression on that lows path- so nothing robs the punch of the attack. I'd probably use it for tracking, and disable it for live.

Absolutely, the compression is light, not enough to destroy dynamics but enough to level out the E string (or B) being too boomy compared to the rest of the instrument. There's nothing worse than a boring squashed bass sound, but it does provide a bit of squish to even things out. I have the mix on the compression quite low too. I'll post my setting later and would super appreciate any feedback or comments!