Bass tracking tips/tricks

U47 on an ampeg always works. Center of the dust cap about 8-10" back. Adjust amp to taste.

Kick is always lower, bass is high passed around 75hz, find a place to cut some honk around 200.

Get a good tone with mid harmonics and without resorting to turning up the lows, they won't translate on any modern listening device anyway.

For a 60-70s alike Base it always is for me my Hofner straight into my 1073 from there I use Eq and sometimes compression to taste.
I do not know if they had DI signals back in the days. But it works. I always get this flat base sound.

For tracking:

I like to track with a DI splitting the signal, so you get one "clean" DI sound...and one affected if you have effects (distortion/compression/chorus, etc.)

I love to reamp bass when I'm given the chance to really dial in great tones FOR the songs against the drum tracks.


For Mixing:

In terms of dominant frequencies, I think Bass is one of the few instruments where I typically don't notch a little 250Hz out by the end of the mix...because it allows the one instrument that doesn't really feel muddy in that territory to shine. I also tend to cut a little 800Hz-900Hz out so it conflicts with the mid-range of a male vocal less in the mix. This is less important if a woman is singing.

Bass tones can really vary...if you've got a brighter sound going on 1.5kHz to 2kHz, or even 3kHz can be a good midrange point to push lightly...usually with a wider bell curve sliding up to 3kHz if the bass needs to be brighter like a guitar (especially if there's distortion engaged.) 4kHz can work too...but usually that's where I like the top end of my guitars to get pushed a bit...so if you go all the way up to 4kHz on the top end of a Bass...maybe bring things down to 2kHz or 3kHz on your guitars so they stand out a bit. 5kHz is where I notchout cymbals...and 6kHz is where I notch out the beater on a kickdrum...I typically cut 7kHz out of everything just a bit when it's possible...and boost a bit of 8kHz on the guitars and strings to add in subharmonics lightly to the upper mid-range.

I tend to EQ my two DI tones against each other so the one that's more natural is giving me most of my sub low end boosts. If a shelf curve starting at 200Hz gets engaged here I will typically let it boost down to 24Hz with a sharp Hi-Pass filter lopping off what I just don't need. However sometimes I use the Maag EQ4 (I have the native version by Brainworks) to boost a bit of 10Hz or so even if I engage that Hi-Pass...subharmonically it really adds something.

My more distorted bass track tends to get treated mostly like a lower pitched guitar tone...blending with the natural sound. If I can reamp my basic DI...I will run things twice or with an ABY switch on two amps to distort one. I pretty much always use a distorted bass tone in everything...but the percentage of what gets used lowers or increases depending on genre. If it's smooth Jazz for example, a trace amount of that fader will go up just to add a tiny bit of brightness, bite, and meat in the low mids. But in a rock song I might favor the distorted tone and only use enough of the clean one to give me back a bit of sub lowend to push the beat.

Every song is different with Bass that way.

I guess I am going for a completely different sound. Bass goes lower than the kick and owns the very bottom end for me. I also distort it (bass) a lot at mix time. The 2nd order harmonics make it cut the track without it having to be too loud in the mix and you don't hear it distort at all. It just sounds very full. I also find some frequencies between 600-900 that will cut my tv and ipad speakers well and be audible in the mix on phones and things. Having a sub and tiny speakers on hand really help resolve questions in the bass.

R

Just saw what Randy posted.
Just another proof that there are very different approaches that can lead to good results.

Distortion is the key to a punchy bass sound. Sounds awful soloed but killer in a busy mix. Run it through that Sta Level and absolutely punish it. Should be pretty close to done.

no substitution for a great player, great bass. A DI and Amp combo is always the goods. The bottom precedent is dictated by the song, bass, and kick drum. A 26" kick with a jazz bass is all about the kick being on the bottom(think zep), a P-bass with a small kick is all about bass on the bottom, and this is the most common i've seen. I rarely roll off a bass any higher than 30hz. The right amount of distortion gives you midrange presence on a lap top, but i will blow that off if it interferes with other stuff because i could give a rats ass about someone listening on a lap top or cellphone 8) and i really like my bass to drop to the floor, midrange tends to lift the bass up between the speakers...mehhh....

a great way to get kick and bass to work together is to key a multi band comp on the bass track with the kick, and just duck the freq's that mask 8)

^^This^^ can work surprisingly well.
I've been using the amp section of a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe as bass head into an old Carvin 18" "W" style bass bin. I mic that about a foot out from one of the ports with an AKG D-12E. Give a really warm tone that kind of reminds me of some of the bass tones John Paul Jones was getting on the earlier Zep albums. Not a particularly modern sound -not a good match for slapping, popping or Funk-Fingers- but very smooth terra-firma.

I still think the Hi-Z input on a Great River NV is one of the best bass DI sounds that I've heard yet.

This and also take a DI signal when you have a DI.

Cowboy:

When you say "distortion" are you talking about pedal distortion or compressor distortion? Or both?

Swurve I always use comp distortion. 2 birds with one stone kind of thing but I guess a pedal would work. Kinna the same sound without the note length a compressor adds.

I tend to avoid DI's most of the time, I see lots of amateur players with crappy basses and a DI can accentuate all the problems. Studio standard rig is an Ampeg V4 on a Sunn 6 x 10" cabinet, which is all fairly mid-forward sounding. AKG414 has lived there for awhile, good results from a Joly MJE-K47H also. If there's time/space/reason to go with two mics, it's usually an EV 666 because of the forward 2nd/3rd octave focus it brings. The 666 can be great if the overall approach doesn't call for much fundamental frequency, 666 on both bass and kick can be a classic sound. Sometimes I'll use a crossover approach and split bass in the 90-120Hz range, process or pan differently.