Old 06-05-2020, 01:24 AM   #1
Naji
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Default E-bass is pretty hard to mix

When you watch youtube videos that show how to mix e-bass, they will show that you have to low cut and dip around 60 hz, to give kick some space and boost at around 100hz.
Well, this is how it does not work for me at all.
Some guy from waves, a bass player, gave me some good piece of advice.
Whenever you high pass you will boost other frequencies at the same time and cause even more low end rumble, more mud and boominess.
Kick and bass mask each other, truly speaking that never happens drastically, because they do not play at the same time all the time.
And some masking makes a mix even more exciting and natural sounding.
Use a shelve eq if there is too much low end energy of bass and LC with a none resonant eq only, but not with a strong cutting curve.
And you do not have to make 2 or more tracks for an ebass,eg clean di for low end and amp sound with distortion or saturatiin, this way it could sound not natural and that is not the way you hear a live bass.
Now that I do not use a surgical eq for cutting and boosting any more, only some shelve eq, the bass sounds awesome!

Last edited by Naji; 06-05-2020 at 01:35 AM.
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Old 06-05-2020, 02:48 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by Naji View Post
Now that I do not use a surgical eq for cutting and boosting any more, only some shelve eq, the bass sounds awesome!
thank you Naji,

i will try that(im always end up having 3 or 4 EQ trying to sit
my bass-guitar sound in the mix...



martin
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Old 06-05-2020, 11:20 AM   #3
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thank you Naji,

i will try that(im always end up having 3 or 4 EQ trying to sit
my bass-guitar sound in the mix...
I tried like you with several eqs, but never got satisfying results



martin
If your bass has to be tamed, also some comp with fast attack and slow release, a multiband comp works best on bass, though.
I tried with several eqs, too, never got satisfying results.
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Old 06-05-2020, 12:16 PM   #4
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If your bass has to be tamed, also some comp with fast attack and slow release, a multiband comp works best on bass, though.
I tried with several eqs, too, never got satisfying results.
thank you Naji i will try a multiband-comp
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Old 06-05-2020, 01:32 PM   #5
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Use your ears for deciding where to cut and boost. Typically rolloff at 40 or 50 and if the bass doesnt already sound great, boost a bit at 70, cut some 200 if its boxy and boost some 1 to 2khz for presence. I like tri leveler vst to limit loudness and usually volume automate first before enabling trileveler. Sometimes the automation is plenty.
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Old 06-05-2020, 03:00 PM   #6
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How you filter it depends on the notes in the part, which also depends on how it is tuned and how many strings it has. Then you have to factor in the tuning of the bass drum, and possibly the low tom, if there are synth parts in the bass register, etc. etc...
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Old 06-05-2020, 03:53 PM   #7
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I have an Ibanez 5-string Attack Bass and the most important thing for me is to turn the bass control on it down a little bit so the strings or even in volume. I would do the same thing with EZ bass and make sure that all of the notes have similar volume levels or have the punchyness you want without too much booming notes.
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Old 06-05-2020, 07:52 PM   #8
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I have an Ibanez 5-string Attack Bass and the most important thing for me is to turn the bass control on it down a little bit so the strings or even in volume. I would do the same thing with EZ bass and make sure that all of the notes have similar volume levels or have the punchyness you want without too much booming notes.
Yeah, evenness in volume is one of the biggest reasons why a bass won't sit right in a mix. You can use a hardware compressor like the MXR M87 on the way in then stuff like the POWAIR Leveler, LA-2A, etc. to smooth out the notes.

Really good bass players can control their dynamics to minimize the jumps in volume from note to note. I am not one of those players. Lol
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Old 06-05-2020, 10:57 PM   #9
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Really good bass players can control their dynamics to minimize the jumps in volume from note to note. I am not one of those players. Lol
that's where compressor are our friend..
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Old 06-06-2020, 01:10 AM   #10
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Use your ears for deciding where to cut and boost. Typically rolloff at 40 or 50 and if the bass doesnt already sound great, boost a bit at 70, cut some 200 if its boxy and boost some 1 to 2khz for presence. I like tri leveler vst to limit loudness and usually volume automate first before enabling trileveler. Sometimes the automation is plenty.
That is just how it never works for me. I know the videos show to do that, but cuts and boosts make a mix sound not natural and overdone, that is just my experience. The sound of an instruments should be good the way it sounds. One of the best mixed records ever was MJs Thriller album and if you watch how it was done, almost no compression and eq was used, the key of a well balanced mix is panning and that way you give the instruments their appropriate place in a mix imo. Of course the instruments of Thriller were recorded with the best gear available (amps, mics etc), but on the other side the vocals of one song, I forgot which one, were recorded with a "cheap" Shure SM 58.
You cut and automatically give another frequency region more power, this can lead to mud and boominess. When low cutting or high passing use with q-factor a smooth cutting curve or better a shelvin eq.
Most videos how to use eq were misleading for me with no good results, the best piece of advice I got from waves as I wrote.
If you want to sound like the modern productions, you can hear that everything was done with cutting and boosting to avoid masking. , but what you get is a not natural, super digital sounding mix, I do not like most of the productions today. Instruments have to mask, that's the way it is, they will not mask every second throughout the mix, but masking can make a mix sound way more exciting!
I am not sure if the best bass players are the ones who control dynamics best, they are maybe the best friends of today's sound engineers, where every hit of a kick and snare sounds the same every time it is played and every instrument has to have same overcompressed level throughout the song, maybe just a little louder in refrain. It is the nature if a bass to be very dynamic, so do not kill its nature! Sometimes it has to be tamed a little, of course...
I listened to Aretha Franklin's is it called "Forever and ever"? or Miles Davis So What, the sound super clear and natural, maybe one of the best mixed tracks ever, who was actually the first sound engineer to say that a bass or kick has to be in centre of a mix, by the way?
Bass to the left and hh or percussions to the right work great

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Old 06-06-2020, 03:28 AM   #11
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I am not sure if the best bass players are the ones who control dynamics best...
Yes, they are. Being in control of your dynamics doesn't mean that you have to play at exactly the same level across a whole song. It means that dynamics are a choice, not an accident.
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Old 06-06-2020, 03:43 AM   #12
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That is just how it never works for me. I know the videos show to do that, but cuts and boosts make a mix sound not natural and overdone, that is just my experience. The sound of an instruments should be good the way it sounds. One of the best mixed records ever was MJs Thriller album and if you watch how it was done, almost no compression and eq was used, the key of a well balanced mix is panning and that way you give the instruments their appropriate place in a mix imo. Of course the instruments of Thriller were recorded with the best gear available (amps, mics etc), but on the other side the vocals of one song, I forgot which one, were recorded with a "cheap" Shure SM 58.
You cut and automatically give another frequency region more power, this can lead to mud and boominess. When low cutting or high passing use with q-factor a smooth cutting curve or better a shelvin eq.
Most videos how to use eq were misleading for me with no good results, the best piece of advice I got from waves as I wrote.
If you want to sound like the modern productions, you can hear that everything was done with cutting and boosting to avoid masking. , but what you get is a not natural, super digital sounding mix, I do not like most of the productions today. Instruments have to mask, that's the way it is, they will not mask every second throughout the mix, but masking can make a mix sound way more exciting!
I am not sure if the best bass players are the ones who control dynamics best, they are maybe the best friends of today's sound engineers, where every hit of a kick and snare sounds the same every time it is played and every instrument has to have same overcompressed level throughout the song, maybe just a little louder in refrain. It is the nature if a bass to be very dynamic, so do not kill its nature! Sometimes it has to be tamed a little, of course...
I listened to Aretha Franklin's is it called "Forever and ever"? or Miles Davis So What, the sound super clear and natural, maybe one of the best mixed tracks ever, who was actually the first sound engineer to say that a bass or kick has to be in centre of a mix, by the way?
Bass to the left and hh or percussions to the right work great
The key to Thriller was not panning. It was Toto. You have great musicians play and compose and there's your album. There was compression used on a variety things but it was typically printed during the recording process through outboard gear. So a mic pre or bass guitar might be going through a compressor while it was being recorded so that in the mixing phase no compression was needed. I have studied Bruce swedien and mutt Lange at length and they are both tremendous mixers and engineers and producers. If you can't apply EQ to a bass to improve the sound of it then you're doing something wrong because most bass guitars benefit from the EQ settings I posted above.

Bruce swedien has a great technique of creating a sound that combines real acoustic instruments with synthetic instruments to create a soundscape no one had heard before. They also would reamp synths to get some reverb on them so they didn't just stick out the front of the mix. Unfortunately it's hard to learn a lot about him because he says he mixes by colors and hears the sound in colors so it's kind of hard to get practical advice when someone says mix a little more red into the guitar.

Find some reference tracks of your favorite music that are similar to the style you're doing and go back and forth between that track in Reaper and your own tracks until you can make something that sounds like it. Then you will know how much EQ and compression you're going to need for it to fit into a mix and to get the tone right. Don't overthink it and get paralysis by analysis. Perfect is truly the enemy of the good.

It's also interesting that many of the sounds we have come to love were not examples of some amazing technology but actually the result of the limitations of what they had back then. Reel to reel tape naturally provided compression and saturation so you have to be taking that into account to get a sound like that.

And then there is gullfoss. Get the trial and set the tame and recover to 25% for starters go back and forth between bypass and un bypass. Then get the bright and drag it around to get the balance you want. Best plug-in ever
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Old 06-06-2020, 04:14 AM   #13
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Interesting! well, I heard Bruce Sweden say, that he does not use too much compression and eq generally also refering to "Thriller".
A little comp for the peaks and some shelving eq to tame low end on bass should be more than enough.
If you want to change the sound of your bass, there a tons of different amps, cabs, distortion, saturation or doublin effects or coloring eqs

that is what I added here on a simple bass synth with drums, just to show that you can create with one source sound a very lot of different sounds on bass. Kick and bass never mask each other here, by the way, so why would I make a cut at 65 Hz ???The professional sound engineers will not tell you how to make sit the bass in a mix on a youtube video, they just tell what everybody tells, if they would tell you how it really works, theyīd be jobless. Reality is that almost nothing is added to good recorded intruments. E.g.reverb is one of the plugins that you actually do not need at all depending on your genre or when just a very little bit.
Listen to Bllie Jean on headphones, it is most about panning in a good mix.
Pretty sure that for Miles Davis "so What", no cuts on bass at 60-80 Hz were made in those days,
and no boosts, the instruments were left as they are, the mix quality is highest level!

For my precision bass I use a clean guitar amp "AER Compact 60" now, also for my Fender Strat and acoustic guitar, I also record the clean sound, but always end up taking the amp sound. Also have an old Marshall 50W amp, had Tech 21, but for me a very clean amp works best.

It does not matter, how you achieve the sound you want with surgical eq or without,
I found out for me that surgical eqs with band cutting do not get me the result I want.
Sometimes I use plugins without any settings. just to add some color of
that old gear e.g. API, SSL, Neve...adding some analog sound and kind of saturation

https://voca.ro/bLEvgZOZvk3

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Old 06-06-2020, 04:51 AM   #14
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For me, the most important thing when it comes to bass instrument relationships is to make sure one of them sits on top of the other properly. Only one instrument can occupy the subs, and only one the higher frequencies. Pick which one goes where, and commit to your vision. Having multiple instruments fighting for clarity in the low lows is bound to fail miserably.

If you do this right, you will "feel"/"hear"/"experience" the low lows in all bass instruments properly, without it actually being there (at least in equal amounts) for all of them. It's an illusion, but it always works, as long as the arrangement is right for the song. The lows in the kick will reinforce the illusion of a deep bass guitar or synth, or vice versa.

Also, never EQ or compress according to fixed settings, like "always cut 50 hz on bass" or whatever. It never works, since all workflows, monitor situations, audio sources and all musical contexts, like keys and genre conventions, vary so immensely. I wish I would have listened to this advice 20 years ago, but I'm a bit stubborn that way unfortunately. There are no magic bullets in mixing, if there were, everyone would do it the same way. This is not the case.

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Old 06-06-2020, 04:57 AM   #15
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If you listen to the latest 3 or so Toto albums you'll see their bass goes below 40hz
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Old 06-06-2020, 05:00 AM   #16
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Also, never EQ or compress according to fixed settings, like "always cut 50 hz on bass" or whatever. It never works, since all workflows, monitor situations, audio sources and all musical contexts vary so immensly. I wish I would have listened to this advice 20 years ago, but I'm a bit stubborn that way unfortunately. There are no magic bullets in mixing, if there were, everyone would do it the same way. This is not the case.
I'd read the above a few times and make sure you really understand it. Very, very good advice here.

With regard to getting the bass and kick to peacefully coexist, I usually find myself boosting them at different attack frequencies (like 700 Hz for bass and 1 to 1.5 KHz for kick, obviously depends on the source sound though). Especially on tiny speakers or earbuds, people aren't gonna hear the fundamentals of those instruments anyway, so you often need to boost a mid-range frequency to bring the notes out. Making those attack frequencies different can help with that.
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Old 06-06-2020, 08:18 AM   #17
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Default my e-bass sound

thats what my e-bass sound like, within a song I ve just played for a demo.
it is not so bad, but it can always be improved

https://voca.ro/cTfS29ZXhYo

very good advice, ramses,
but it is unbelievable that one of the most successful engineers uses
hardware preset settings.
Always same settings for guitar, snare, bass, vocals etc.
He just changes and adapts input gain.
I added to all instruments some comp to cut the highest peaks,
except the drums sound the way they sound, you do not have to do anything - SSD5!
For bass Softubeīs saturation knob.
Softube likes crashing Reaper here and then..., so I actually do not like this company,
but their "knob" is great!

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Old 06-06-2020, 08:23 AM   #18
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If you listen to the latest 3 or so Toto albums you'll see their bass goes below 40hz

Well, I think I am not able to hear anything below 40 Hz, I suppose haha
There are also different opinions about which instrument should be the lowest
in a mix, kick or bass, but I think both of them can be as low as possible,
depending on the kick, the bass may be lower or the kick

and I do not really understand this kick drum - ebass discussion anyway.
Two completely different instruments with low ītil high mid frequencies.
They do not fight or mask each other, so why thinking about giving the bass or
the kick the lower part !???

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Old 06-06-2020, 08:54 AM   #19
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The idea that there is one rule for where the bass and bass drum parts lie in a mix is silly.

It all depends on the tuning of the bass drum and the range of the bass part.

I completely agree with Naji that sometimes masking sounds great. A lot of groovy 70's tunes have a bass guitar and bass drum that sound like one instrument a lot of the time. But that isn't always appropriate, and sometimes you want a clear distinction.

Rather than worry about what the "right" way to do something is, just get a good overall understanding of your tools so that you can make your vision of a song happen, whatever that vision entails.
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Old 06-06-2020, 09:26 AM   #20
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Well, I think I am not able to hear anything below 40 Hz, I suppose haha
There are also different opinions about which instrument should be the lowest
in a mix, kick or bass, but I think both of them can be as low as possible,
depending on the kick, the bass may be lower or the kick

and I do not really understand this kick drum - ebass discussion anyway.
Two completely different instruments with low ītil high mid frequencies.
They do not fight or mask each other, so why thinking about giving the bass or
the kick the lower part !???
I normally like them both real low with the bass just barely sitting on top of the kick
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Old 06-06-2020, 10:55 AM   #21
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https://voca.ro/byw39gc6wg1

(second version for mono and stereo)

Haha I listened to my first version on mono-smartphone and could not hear the guitar chords at all.
I ve just noticed that only side signals of acoustic guitar without distortion have been recorded.
Very interesting, if you play or record stereo guitar without mid signal, you wont hear it mono!

Yes of course, it always depends on music genre and what you want and like.
I think for the kick it is maybe better to be a little lower than bass,
but there might be mixes where the opposite position might work better...

I know, that is the expression engineers use "Bass sitting on top of kick.
But neither bass, nor kick is sitting - thatīs the point.
Maybe a pad is sitting, because you might hear it all the time or for a quite long time,
but bass and kick are usually moving, not sitting at all

Last edited by Naji; 06-06-2020 at 12:25 PM.
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Old 06-06-2020, 12:52 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by Naji View Post
https://voca.ro/byw39gc6wg1

(second version for mono and stereo)

Haha I listened to my first version on mono-smartphone and could not hear the guitar chords at all.
I ve just noticed that only side signals of acoustic guitar without distortion have been recorded.
Very interesting, if you play or record stereo guitar without mid signal, you wont hear it mono!

Yes of course, it always depends on music genre and what you want and like.
I think for the kick it is maybe better to be a little lower than bass,
but there might be mixes where the opposite position might work better...

I know, that is the expression engineers use "Bass sitting on top of kick.
But neither bass, nor kick is sitting - thatīs the point.
Maybe a pad is sitting, because you might hear it all the time or for a quite long time,
but bass and kick are usually moving, not sitting at all
Sitting means in the pocket to me.
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Old 06-06-2020, 01:12 PM   #23
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Default are you happy with amp plugins?

I think, I have demoed quite a lot of amp plugins.
Imo amp plugins are still very far from sounding like original amps.
I have every Plugin Alliance amp, they have eg lots of ampeg,
but never use them.
The only amps that are quite ok for me are Le Pou amps and they are free.
They give you good clean sound, most amp plugins have awful clean sounds imo.
I was not even happy with scuffham for guitar.
I mean you can come close to the sound of Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and who knows who,
but I do not want to sound like Hendrix, you would need hardware anyway and Mr. Eddie Kramer.
So I am quite happy now with an AER amp for three instruments: E-Bass, E-guitar and acoustic guitar. I like some Roland amps and thatīs it.
Sometimes I use cab sim, there are lots of free IRs available and load them into Kazrog Recabinet V5.

By the way, I use some Toto songs as reference tracks, their sound quality is awesome and although I am not a MJ
fan at all, also MJ songs. I already mentioned it, especially the instrument panning of Billie Jean is
the work of a master - Bruce Swedien - and the bass simply awesome.
One of my fav bass players is Prince, he even had to teach Larry Graham some of his bass licks haha
Check out 777-9311 (The Time - all instruments by Prince) or Letīs work.
His playing was soooo funky - unbelievable.

My recommendations to check out some plugins that might work for you.
VOXENGO has quite a lot of good plugins, also some freee ones.
Softube - Saturation knob; I know Decapitator is a very popular plugin,
but it makes the bass sound too boomy, it does not go well with low end, I like it on vocals, e-guitar or
some drum instruments sometimes.
Waves - RBass, sometimes I record my bass with very little low end,
if itīs too little, I add some subtle low end with RBass
AIR - Compressor, KillEQ, Tube Drive, Distortion; AIR is one of the best
plugin developers imo; plugins are pretty old, but truely speaking you just need these four plugins and a multiband compressor and your bass will thank it.


Maybe some of you have some good experience with amp plugins. Let us know.
I mean, we all have different taste, different approach, different ideas and demands and also music styles,
what is bad for me, might be good for you!

Last edited by Naji; 06-06-2020 at 02:11 PM.
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Old 06-06-2020, 02:25 PM   #24
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Quote:
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I think, I have demoed quite a lot of amp plugins.
Imo amp plugins are still very far from sounding like original amps.
I have every Plugin Alliance amp, they have eg lots of ampeg,
but never use them.
The only amps that are quite ok for me are Le Pou amps and they are free.
They give you good clean sound, most amp plugins have awful clean sounds imo.
I was not even happy with scuffham for guitar.
I mean you can come close to the sound of Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and who knows who,
but I do not want to sound like Hendrix, you would need hardware anyway and Mr. Eddie Kramer.
So I am quite happy now with an AER amp for three instruments: E-Bass, E-guitar and acoustic guitar. I like some Roland amps and thatīs it.
Sometimes I use cab sim, there are lots of free IRs available and load them into Kazrog Recabinet V5.

By the way, I use some Toto songs as reference tracks, their sound quality is awesome and although I am not a MJ
fan at all, also MJ songs. I already mentioned it, especially the instrument panning of Billie Jean is
the work of a master - Bruce Swedien - and the bass simply awesome.
One of my fav bass players is Prince, he even had to teach Larry Graham some of his bass licks haha
Check out 777-9311 (The Time - all instruments by Prince) or Letīs work.
His playing was soooo funky - unbelievable.

My recommendations to check out some plugins that might work for you.
VOXENGO has quite a lot of good plugins, also some freee ones.
Softube - Saturation knob; I know Decapitator is a very popular plugin,
but it makes the bass sound too boomy, it does not go well with low end, I like it on vocals, e-guitar or
some drum instruments sometimes.
Waves - RBass, sometimes I record my bass with very little low end,
if itīs too little, I add some subtle low end with RBass
AIR - Compressor, KillEQ, Tube Drive, Distortion; AIR is one of the best
plugin developers imo; plugins are pretty old, but truely speaking you just need these four plugins and a multiband compressor and your bass will thank it.


Maybe some of you have some good experience with amp plugins. Let us know.
I mean, we all have different taste, different approach, different ideas and demands and also music styles,
what is bad for me, might be good for you!
Helix with impulses sounds damn good.
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Old 06-06-2020, 02:43 PM   #25
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Helix is line6?! Line 6 is very popular especially guitarists like it afaik.
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Old 06-06-2020, 03:27 PM   #26
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Helix is line6?! Line 6 is very popular especially guitarists like it afaik.
It has bass amps in it too
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Old 06-07-2020, 03:02 AM   #27
Naji
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Watched some Helix videos, sounds great!
We wrote about panning and the use of eq.
As for panning eg in EDM I have heard mixes, where most instruments are in centre of mix, but this is not my approach at all, in this case I suppose, you have to do a lot with eqs.
You will also see a lot of times professional mixers making a cut on drums between 300 and 500 Hz.
I have never seen a band doing that in a rehearsal or gig, I also played in a few bands.
Some say look for the frequencies of an instrument where it sounds boxy and make a cut there.
Well, imo if an instrument does not sound good somewhere in the frequency range, then there is something wrong with the instrument. Instruments are made to sound good, aren't they?
For me panning is the most important thing to give an instrument an appropriate place in a mix and I am still learning to improve.
Prince is a big influence for me, he recorded and mixed a lot by himself, the answer to the question whether a good mix or a good song is more important is simple for me. It is the song, of course and if the mix is good even better.. I mean Prince recorded and mixed with analog gear, and he could not do everything with top notch quality. Susan Rogers, his engineer assistant, says that his recordings sometimes were of real bad quality, but quite a lot of songs were great. Her job was to make the best with sometimes badly recorded awesome songs.
MJ was very different, he spent the money for the best musicians and engineers he could get, and mix quality was the most important thing and promotion.

Last edited by Naji; 06-07-2020 at 03:08 AM.
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Old 06-07-2020, 03:15 AM   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Naji View Post
Watched some Helix videos, sounds great!
We wrote about panning and the use of eq.
As for panning eg in EDM I have heard mixes, where most instruments are in centre of mix, but this is not my approach at all, in this case I suppose, you have to do a lot with eqs.
You will also see a lot of times professional mixers making a cut on drums between 300 and 500 Hz.
I have never seen a band doing that in a rehearsal or gig, I also played in a few bands.
Some say look for the frequencies of an instrument where it sounds boxy and make a cut there.
Well, imo if an instrument does not sound good somewhere in the frequency range, then there is something wrong with the instrument. Instruments are made to sound good, aren't they?
For me panning is the most important thing to give an instrument an appropriate place in a mix and I am still learning to improve.
Prince is a big influence for me, he recorded and mixed a lot by himself, the answer to the question whether a good mix or a good song is more important is simple for me. It is the song, of course and if the mix is good even better.. I mean Prince recorded and mixed with analog gear, and he could not do everything with top notch quality. Susan Rogers, his engineer assistant, says that his recordings sometimes were of real bad quality, but quite a lot of songs were great. Her job was to make the best with sometimes badly recorded awesome songs.
MJ was very different, he spent the money for the best musicians and engineers he could get, and mix quality was the most important thing and promotion.
Carving out frequencies is usefull to make room for other instruments. Check out Annie Lennox song its a thin line. Great job carving so her vocal has a huge space. Its often not that an instrument sounds bad but you are making room for other instruments. Checkout the ride cymbal on Al Dimeola Orange and Blue. It sounds fantastic but is out of the way of everything else.
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Old 06-07-2020, 05:08 AM   #29
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I know orange and blue, I saw Al di Meolo about 4 years ago in Slovenia. Paco de Lucia is my fav acoustic or nylon guitar guitarist, so I like Al and John McLaughlin a lot, too.
Yes, I know what you mean, it is a great album and here also panning of instruments is very special and good, you have guitar on one side and cymbals, shakers or percussion on the other side sometimes or the bass part of guitar and the higher part panned.
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Old 06-07-2020, 05:11 AM   #30
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The reason you dip most drums in the 500 Hz area somewhere is to make room for instruments that really need those frequencies more. There is a fair amount of natural boxiness in most drums, which is not necessarily a problem in isolation, but it can clog up a frequency range which is more important for guitars, Rhodes pianos, etc.

Obviously it depends greatly on the sound source, in all cases. You have to listen closely and try to figure out the best places to dip or boost in relation to all the other instruments in the song.
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Old 06-07-2020, 05:21 AM   #31
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Isn't it strange that we take for granted to use a plugin for drums and also for piano, but with most natural melodic instruments it is still a little strange, isn't it?
Of course there are some great plugins for eg strings or e-bass, but to me the real thing still is different and better.
I mean who has the money and space to book an orchestra? And when you want to record strings you have to know a lot about mic positions.
Well, frankly speaking a real drummer still is better than a plugin, but I am ok with some drum plugins and try to use some real shakers, cabasa or bongos for percussion.

Last edited by Naji; 06-07-2020 at 05:36 AM.
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Old 06-07-2020, 05:24 AM   #32
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Thanks valy. I have also heard that the lower mids are a problematic frequency range, because lots of instruments have some prominent energy there, so maybeyou should make cuts on every instrument between 180 and 550 hz? Not sure..
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Old 06-07-2020, 06:11 AM   #33
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Thanks valy. I have also heard that the lower mids are a problematic frequency range, because lots of instruments have some prominent energy there, so maybeyou should make cuts on every instrument between 180 and 550 hz? Not sure..
Well not all of them, or you'll have a big hole in your mix!

With practice, you'll learn which instruments need some dipping in that area and which don't. Anyways, you have to listen to the sound and decide on a case-by-case basis.

Always ask yourself: What do I want from this sound? And based on that, what can I afford to get rid of that isn't really helping me achieve that goal?

The more you can get rid of in that way, the better, usually...but you have to be very careful. Don't just start carving away frequencies willy-nilly, it can lead to some bad results.
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