What do you do with your Bass Frequencies?

Tremonti

Tremonti

Fractal Fanatic
Curious what you all do with you bass frequencies. Again no right or wrong answers here. Just wanna know how you tame and tighten? Write also style of music, amp model, and FRFR or amp/cab. Thanks!
 
I use mostly FRFR systems - a mix of different ones to boot. I play easy listening stuff these days, but I have a LOT of experience with metal, jazz, fusion, blues, prog, instrumental and a lot of island type music that most people never heard before.etc, my current style these days is somewhat Andy Timmons-ish, just without the skill LOL my tones are also similar to Andy, and are clean to country twang. I still jam metal from time to time tho :p

I've found that chopping off bass generously or throwing it away altogether is the solution, live and in studio, no matter the style. If you want that amp in the room vibe, you might want to leave the bass, but otherwise, I start chopping off at 80-100 hz. Sme of the flubby sounds can disappear at about 120-150hz, and things start to tighten up at about 175-200hz, but by that time you've likely lost a lot of chunk. Enter the bass player, who will fill that space easily, in studio or live. Having a keyboardist in my band, it works out well also. YMMV, but generally, if you chop off about 120hz you're saving yourself a load of problems. Again depends on the amp tho.....for eg, any vox amp gets a low cut till about 300-500hz sometimes! :eek:

I sometimes also use a multiband compressor, at times where I want that lower chime....like in the clean solo picking intro to a song or something. I'd apply some pretty decent compression (bout 2:1) on everything below 150hz. I still chop off everything at least at 80hz tho, even when doing this. I also compress some of the highs btw, to tame some of those unruly frequencies.

You can also try boosting about 250hz very slightly to give the guitar back some body and fullness, but be VERY careful - it tends to get muddy REAAAAAAL quick!

All the amp-in-the-room guys will disagree with this, but those who are into production, live mixing, and have a lot of experience in live sound might well say something similar or along those lines too. If you're going for a balls-out amp in the room vibe, disregard everything mentioned and instead, bump up the 63 hz a notch or two, as well as the 250hz slightly.
 
I use a crossover into a bass rig that is in an air tight containment box that has a diaphragm which moves a couple of centimeters in an out that powers a free energy machine that in turn, feeds a garage full of batteries that feed power to the axe-fx. The hard part is starting it up. Gotta kick start it like an old Harley. lol....j/k.
or just cut the bass in the amp block @ 120Hz.
 
One recording I did recently needed the MBC to tighten up the bass. There are a number of threads on that particular topic.
 
Funeral said:
I use a crossover into a bass rig that is in an air tight containment box that has a diaphragm which moves a couple of centimeters in an out that powers a free energy machine that in turn, feeds a garage full of batteries that feed power to the axe-fx. The hard part is starting it up. Gotta kick start it like an old Harley. lol....j/k.
or just cut the bass in the amp block @ 120Hz.
Click to expand...

You know, I actually was reading intently till halfway thru! Got me good there man! HahahA! :D
 
Jon is spot-on. These are the basic rules for mixing/engineering guitar. If you are just jamming "in the room" it won't be satisfying, but if you're mixing this will make your tracks sound polished and professional.

Some other rules-of-thumb:
1. Less is more (as in less gain).
2. Use more tracks with lower gain and stack them.
3. Fit the guitar to the spectrum. You want it to sit above the bass and below the cymbals.
4. Fit the guitar to the sound-stage. Pan off-center and vary the pan of each of the tracks. Only vocals, bass and kick should be in the middle.
 
FractalAudio said:
Some other rules-of-thumb:
1. Less is more (as in less gain).
2. Use more tracks with lower gain and stack them.
3. Fit the guitar to the spectrum. You want it to sit above the bass and below the cymbals.
4. Fit the guitar to the sound-stage. Pan off-center and vary the pan of each of the tracks. Only vocals, bass and kick should be in the middle.
Click to expand...

This!! Mixing in a nutshell.

I actually use hardly ANY gain....my gain's barely past 2-3 but the master is almost always full up. Well except for hi gain amps, which tend to get too messy like that. My fav combination right now is actually the FAS crunch and a vox amp - head turning mids and sparkly chimes. On both, Gain less than 2.5, master full up, mids cranked, bass chopped off, hi cap edged up. It is the MOST compliments I have gotten on my tone since i laid my hands on the axe. I play with a VERY dynamic attack tho, and pick pretty hard sometimes.
 
Jon, do you cut bass by turning up LowCut in Amp, or GEQ in Amp, or LowCut in Cab, or a PEQ at the end, or Global EQ, or something else?
 
I usually use the lowcut in the amp - try to eliminate problems at the source, but I use everything else to tweak to taste. I use PEQ especially as I am one of those who is bothered by certain frequencies - I have unusually sensitive hearing (blessing and curse).
I tried using some of the other methods, but the 'flubbiness' of certain amps remained for some reason. Cutting them off at the amp block or before did the trick. I also use an eq block AFTER everything as well to tweak. That and a compressor at the end, and the guitar sits perfectly with any band I play with.
 
yek said:
Jon, do you cut bass by turning up LowCut in Amp, or GEQ in Amp, or LowCut in Cab, or a PEQ at the end, or Global EQ, or something else?
Click to expand...

That's what I'm talking about. There are a dozen way to cut bass in the Axe. Where do you start Jon? Pre or post amp block?

For my metal sounds I follow the wiki steps. As in a HP filter controlled by the envelope set to dynamically reduce up to around 180-200Hz just before the amp block. Again for metal I'll always cut 63Hz by at least 6dB before or after the cab. I'm going to try the MBC to tighten my lows before and/or after the amp.


I'm a high gain djent djent meedley meedely meedely type player...

Sent from my iPod.
 
P.S. I don't know what is the recommended way - I always just use my ears and go with what SOUNDS right. Pisses off all the sound engineers who 'play it by the book' :D
 
@ Jon: I see now. I started typing my last post before your last post.


I'm a high gain djent djent meedley meedely meedely type player...

Sent from my iPod.
 
Global eq is usually left flat - that's the 'last resort', like if I'm playing thru a system i don't know well, or switching FRFR systems ( I use a few different ones, but my fav is a pair of EV ZXA1s).

Adding the compressor as the last thing also helps with a LOT of issues....like delays together with reverbs tend to 'swell up' and get overbearing, or cause clipping. I set it to 'RMS and peak', with a ratio of about 1.5:1 or to taste. I also use a compressor as the first thing in the chain too - set to peak and knee set to softest, to eliminate those annoying low E 'gongs' :/ still retains a lit of character, and is hardly noticeable - ratio is about 1.5:1 here as well.
 
Tremonti said:
What style of music do you play and what method do you use? FRFR or amp/cab?
Click to expand...

I play pretty much all styles. I've played everything from jazz, country, blues, metal, funk, rock etc. It's not really about style, guitar can't go too low or there is no room for kick and bass. I go FRFR, IEM nowadays.
 
Great Thread guys... I'm curious about bass freq and FRFR. I haven't decided which way I'm going to go, but if FRFR is supposed to cover about 20Hz - 20kHz, do you really need those bottom 40 - 100 Hz if you're going to cut them anyways? In other words, would a speaker that covers 60HZ - 18kHz be as efficient as FRFR if you're going to cut those low frequencies anyways?

Thanks!
 
I think the whole idea of FRFR is to provide the widest range of frequencies so your cab and amp modeling can emulate the natural filtering that occurs in real amp/cabs without offering tonal coloration of it's own.

There is very little use for <100Hz for a guitar in a mix.


I'm a high gain djent djent meedley meedely meedely type player...

Sent from my iPod.
 
nater said:
Great Thread guys... I'm curious about bass freq and FRFR. I haven't decided which way I'm going to go, but if FRFR is supposed to cover about 20Hz - 20kHz, do you really need those bottom 40 - 100 Hz if you're going to cut them anyways? In other words, would a speaker that covers 60HZ - 18kHz be as efficient as FRFR if you're going to cut those low frequencies anyways?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

As others have said (and me), doesn't matter if it's FRFR or a regular guitar rig, anything under 100-200hz should be cut, depending on taste and mix
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom