I struggle to some degree with each bass recording I make to get the sound I’m really looking for. Here is an example of a bass track tone that I strive for; full, fat and fabulous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAQ5SqUOX4g

Like any other aspect of music, I’m sure there is a tradecraft used by those that do it well. I’ve become aware of 4 major approaches to EQ bass.

1. Dynamic Equalizing. Studio One has a “Pro EQ” plug-in that’s my standard go-to. I think this is basically pass-band filtering where I roll off the muddy super low end and I roll off the high end that might contain finger noise and other high frequency artifacts.

2. The Ampere (or other) Plug-in. This gives you a choice of common amps and cabinets but so far I haven’t been able to get results any better than approach #1.

3. Dual Channel Bass. This I leaned about recently where you make a copy of your bass recording and on the original you high-pass filter and on the copy you low-pass filter. I haven’t tried this yet but it appears similar to approach #1. See this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJICf83SQP0

4. Compression. Also haven’t experimented with this yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFNMd1J8Bwc

Of course, these approaches could be combined in any number of ways but I’d like my workflow to be as simple as possible, ideally using just one approach. And there may be overlap amongst these approaches. There may also be other major approaches that folks use.

What I don’t want to do [at least for now] is to use Melodyn or any other software to post-process my notes one by one or quantize my bass recordings; I want “me” in my recording performances as much as possible. I realize that playing technique is important, but that's another subject entirely. I'm also aware of volume automation and use that frequently. For now, I'm searching for ways to increase the fatness and tightness of my tone in a consistent way across recordings.

I know this is a BIG subject but any helpful suggestions/examples are welcome.

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BiaB 2025 Windows
For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.