Let's talk about mixing bass guitar

It really is all about the bass guitar and its tone. I did a rock EP with a J-Bass and while on some tracks it worked, on some it was simply just not right. The voicing of a bass guitar, the amp and the notes, their place on the neck and the use of things like chords and even the size of the register used by the bass are critical. For many tracks I found switching to my flatwound Harley Benton worked better. Intonation is also crazy important.

I'm not a high-pass guitars guy either - though I sometimes add a resonant HPF if I want more low end but no sub-bass/IMD partials below the fundamental. The old "Give the kick its 1st, 3rd and 5th harmonics and cut the rest" trick can help with kick/bass melodrama. I don't go nuts with this and a gentle complementary EQ on the bass, maybe 1dB or 2dB, can really help with out mushing either too much. Kick drums in modern rock don't require any midrange, so don't give it to them.

Doubling some bass parts with synths can help if you want a really solid low end but compressing the bass isn't working. Melodyne can rip the Audio into MIDI data in less than 5 minutes. Apply a VSTi of your desired bass synth and go. A little editing of the MIDI to add some swells or FX in some productions can add a little ear candy for minimal investment. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

One great trick is pre and post distortion EQ - if adding fuzz makes your bass flabby then notch the problematic frequencies (Usually 1/2 or 1/3 of the frequency of wherever you're hearing this nasty build up) and attenuate them. Then make up for that on the other side + any other colouration you need. If you can imagine a clipping circuit having a threshold on a per frequency basis, you can see that reducing energy in a given band reduces the harmonics produced by that band. It's usually too much around 300Hz, so I usually end up pulling between 80 and 150 hz.

Again you can get creative with resonant low and hi pass filters and envelope triggering them/automating them etc. for different effects.

LA2A and 1176 styled comps are my go-to for bass.

If you haven't used Variety Of Sound's Tessle SE, you haven't lived.

Harmonics. The reason that the bass might be audible on small speakers and still sound very low is not that the speakers can reproduce low frequencies, it's because of psychoacoustic/harmonic synthesis. You use distortion to create multiples of the fundamental frequency. Running hard through a tube preamp is a good example. There are plugins that do the same thing but allow you to tailor the harmonics.

Check this out:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_fundamental

round bass: P or J bass, 70hz HPF, 100hz boost pre-compressor, 300hz cut, 600hz boost maybe, 2khz boost or cut, 5khz LPF
punk bass: P or J bass, 70hz hpf, 150hz CUT, 300-600cut, 5khz boost.

Heavy rock is more like the punk bass. The 150hz cut is crucial because you boost guitars in that region.

I find more straight rock just needs HPF on the guitar and bass to fill in, but I almost always use the missing fundamental approach for bass.

Great answers guys! I have very little to add here but thought it might bear mentioning that I usually try to keep the low end boosts and cuts (35hz-120hz range) at different frequency points on kick and bass. So if I'm boosting 40 and 80 on the kick I won't boost those exact frequencies on bass. Same for cuts. At least that's what I set out to do.
I get some mileage out of the old low shelf/high pass combo on bass too. You boost a shelf at say, 100hz and set a high pass at 35-50hz and then a cut up above the shelf, right at its shoulder frequency. Doesn't always work but its one thing that has worked for me.

Funny you should mention this. I'm having a particularly hard time with the bass on a track I've finished. I just can't seem to get it right, full, and solid. I'd say it's mainly the tone of the bass itself, then the player. My bass tracks are adequate at best. I use a Mexican P-Bass. I prefer the tone of a Jazz bass, but I don't like how it feels. I am a guitarist after all. When a friend who's a good player uses the same rig on one of my tracks, it's definitely better, but the tone still sucks. Another friend has a 1960's Jazz bass I used once. I just hit a note, and it sustained forever. THAT track sounded pro. So, I'd say the quality of the bass is primary, then the quality of the player.

I would like some help with plug-in choices though.. I have a nice Ampeg B-12 bass amp in my closet, but I usually use the Ik Multimedia Ampeg bass plug, it sounds almost identical, except there's no hum, I plug directly into the Warm Audio ToneBeast, find a setting I like, go into the Apollo through UAD's console, to my DAW. I could print with UAD plugs from UAD's console if I want to. Then, I have plug-ins galore, one of the Waves bundles, that cost like $5,000, Kush Clariphonic, Elysia MusEQ, ReLab verb, UAD's Fatso, and use Logic X. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

What's the style of the track?

I'm outside now, can post a link to Dropbox or soundcloud late this evening when I get home.

Will post some links when I get home later this evening

Stay away from Musicman basses. Find a Fender or Lakland, I usually track a DI, sansamp, Ampeg SVT or B15 via the Kemper and I also use a real bass amp in a room with a B52a. I track them all through the VCC N and Mpx plugs, use the faders to get a balance, group them and hammer them with an LA2a. Sub stuff really depends on the tempo of the song and often for my style I roll off at 50hz and cut in the 150-250hz range. I also LP at 8khz and sweep to find where it can be audible in the 500-1000hz range, where this is depends on the guitar tone for me. There's a freeware Sansamp plug that I doubt anyone could pick out against the hardware unit and there's also the CLA bass plug that has some cool features. Sometimes a light chorus sounds really good and the Waves Bass Rider is kind of cool too if you don't want a squashed sound. This is the style I do which is 99.999999% a picked Fender style bass.

I love bass too. What I really need is a John Paul Jones plugin. That would kick ass.

I think my p-bass is just too boomy in the bottom. I tried replacing the pups to the fender 62 reissue but the problem, though better, persists.

I think it is just a duff bass (1997 USA standard)

I think the problem is with the block of wood itself. Played at the bridge with or without a pick it just has too muich low end mung which is a pita to eq out and make sit right in the mix. It just does not sound like other p basses I have tried.

Top o' the morning gents, giving some thought to the question of the kind of bass sound I'd like, I realized there isn't an easy answer. I figured if I post a few examples of what I think is a good bass sound, perhaps you guys might be able to point me in the right direction. First, I can plug the bass into the Ampeg BA12 and mic it, ( noisy), or take the direct out of that bass amp, without miking, then I can go either directly into my Apollo interface or into the Warm Audio ToneBeast pre, and then to Apollo. Also, I can print with any of the UAD plugs or add most of the available Waves plugs to the track after recording. When a DI was mentioned earlier, should I use a DI as well as the other gear mentioned? ? I think I have a good quality, but old DI in my audio closet, but haven't used it in ages.

I figured if I posted a couple of links to some bass sounds I like, perhaps you guys might be able to point me in the right direction.

First, ignore the thumping bass in the intro, in the rest of this thing, the bass just sits and fills perfectly, and I'd love to know the signal chain on this one. For rock tracks, country rock tracks, this is killer, ( to me):


I've posted a couple more links below, they're close to my type of sound..