Bass EQ

What kind of music? Different kinds have completely different EQ settings. A lot of rock might live in the 100-200hz range with peaks around 600/800 and 2k. Heavy/hard/nu-metal stuff might have a bump in the 60-80 range, a cut in the 200 range and a bump in the 300-600 range for growl because the guitars in this case might carry the weight of the low end.

Also, don't forget to play with effects. Lots of bass is recorded with just the slightest distortion so that it has a bit more midrange harmonics for your ear to pick out.

Currently, I run a channel EQ into a DBX160 then back to another channel EQ. I CUT below 80ish and then push a wide 80-100hz boost and maybe a 600-800 boost into the compressor to get it "pre-loaded" and then use the second EQ to cut the honk (somewhere in 600-2k) and mud (somewhere in 150-500) out. Don't be afraid to cut a small notch out of the middle of the region you just boosted either.  That will take some of the "pointy" sound of that pre-boost out.  Also, don't be afraid to cut frequencies that you wouldn't normally think to cut.  I'll frequently cut slices out of the bass regions to get rid of that boomy-ness that might build up in the mix.

Oh and this is done to a mic'd cab. DI will sound sweeter to the ear when solo'd but doesn't sit as nice in the mixes with guitars IMHO.

Lastly, I use a gate with a 50hz sine running through it and use the bass as the sidechain trigger. I mix the sine in maybe 25db lower to suppliment the low end. I do this because most basses give you a strange flabby low end that can't be EQ'd well.

YET another thing you can do is called "missing fundamental" mixing. It works well for music that needs a lot of low end but you can't reproduce it or it's not there to begin with. Essentially it means making strong harmonics in multiples of the frequency you are missing. The brain will interpret these and you'll "hear" the missing frequency. Again, try some 2nd order distortion (tube breakup) on bass and you'll notice it feel fuller on the bottom. There are also plugins that do this exact thing as well.

A bass player I know used to get squires and stick the Fender Original 1962 P Bass Pickups in them. The Squire pups were soooooooooo thin and wimpy compared to the American made pups. Very big difference.

I have no problems with punch or cutting through using a cheap Presonus tube preamp/compressor, but I also use active basses. I'd try a Tubeman or a Mesa Boogie V Twin preamp. The Mesa is designed for guitar but a lot of bassists love them. Sometimes I use a pick even though I'm not a pick player.

JK, is your bass a P or jazz? my guess is P, if it is, the sound of your voice says j bass to me all the way, if you are using a J bass, then ignore me as usual

Not following the blue site anymore

Honestly, this has a lot to do with it...

A couple years ago I had a Squier P and thought that it just sounded flabby and lacked definition.

Over the years, I went through a number of basses that I banged around on and eventually sold. I had an active Warwick Corvette 6, passive Warwick Fortress Flashback, passive Jazz with an 83 fretless Jazz Bass Special neck, Musicman Sterling H, an Alembic Epic fretless 5, junker Ibanez, and a fretless Yamaha.

Now, I've got a Lakland DJ5 and think it sounds boss. The active basses sounded great on their own, but weren't great in a mix. I was always looking for a Jazz or P sound. I also still have the Univox Hi-Flyer strung up with a set of flats, which sounds pretty cool.

A bass player that I work with has a few 70's Fenders that kill too. 78 Jazz, 78 A-neck P, 78 fretless P. They all smoke.

I've heard a lot of good about the Squier Vintage Modified series, but don't have experience. I expect that they are "good for the money".

I've also played a ton of basses in stores. IMO, there is huge fluctuation in sound bass to bass, just like guitars. Some sing and some squawk.

A very good post here.  I've found that carving out around 50 on the bass and boosting at the same freq on the kick brings back the attack.  The first thing I do is solo the kick and set a very sharp Q, then do a maxed out sweep.  You'll hear the sweet spot for each kick immediately.  Then treat the bass at the same freq as the kick.  That gets your attack taken care of.


But I think I know what JK is looking for here and it's the same thing I constantly look for.  Modern Country is doing some of the best bass I've ever heard these days.  It is so prominent in every mix yet so nonintrusive.  It just sits there and underpins a vocal.  I think compression is the key here but I can't figure out how to do without loosing too much so I like this thread a lot.  I need to learn more about this.

Johnkenn one thing I have noticed is when I went a Shecter Stilletto 5, it got better pretty quick.  I also have a Squire P bass that doesn't quite get that modern country vibe done.  

Still there just something "not quite right"  about my bass tracks and I'm jonesing to get this fixed.

Maybe not the best example but a good one. 

I thought of a few things. I think the best bass mixes I've had were J and P basses through amplifiers when I go back and think about it. They DO tend to have a bit more midrange to them so they have a bit more definition in the mix.

Definition in the mix. I had to think about that one too and last night I did some playing around recalling past bass tracks in the studio. I found that if you just want *low end*, then most basses I've recorded are good(that is if I recorded them good..). If you want "Punch" you are going to need transients and harmonics, which mean midrange, but not too much high end.

Do this. Mult your bass signal to two tracks. Hard HPF one around 500hz (try to find the dead spot with an EQ sweep) and then hard LPF the other somewhere around 250hz. Now compress them separately. Use something like 2:1 on the HPF section but bring the threshold down enough to be compressing almost everything. Use something like 4:1 on the LPF section but use a slower attack and only compress the peaks a couple dB. Use surgical EQ to cut the honk out of the midrange and the mud out of the low end. Now you can mix the EQ ranges up and down to get more or less of each.

Also, do you have a sample of what you are mixing, John? Can we hear your problem? Maybe then we can offer a bit more tailored advice.  Hell, if you post some tracks, I can run it through my gear and see what I can get out of them..

I'd say your pretty close svart. I wonder if they are automating the bass line in the mix as well sometimes? Just too perfect for a compressor only. At least I can't get compressors to ride that good.

Cowboy, it may be multiple compressors in series. I've not had too much issue with bass linearity, but vocals always have that problem. I used to manually do volume evolutions on vocals to get them a little more linear so the compressor didn't have to work to the point of being audible, but I solved that by going with a set 1176/LA2A series on the vocals. The 1176 catches the peaks and does about 3db of compression on peaks, while the slower LA2A does about 3-5 more dB of compression on more of the volume related changes. Now I don't have to do so much manual volume adjusting. If they only used older compressors to get that steady volume, I'd bet that's how they did it. If they used more modern compressors that have digital sidechains, or used plug-ins, it's possible it's done with only one compressor.