PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production The Tradecraft of Bass EQ and Mixing

The ability to add the unique sounds from any popular tube amp to a signal chain using digital versions of those amps and/or circuits has existed in the marketplace for several years now.

I agree.

I’m sensing we are on the glide slope of diminishing returns. (Am I coining a new phrase here ?) But before we reach the soft landing and the end of the runway, I’ll put forward a perspective that might trigger a thought or two.

When us engineers face a daunting challenge we often plumb the depths of the applicable fundamentals and first principles that are at play. In this case I believe they are physics (sound) and computer science (DAW Plug-ins). If we were to closely look at the raw bass recording waveform signal I think we would find frequency content that ranges from 20 Hz to several KHz. And buried in this signal we have unwanted noise and distortion as well as desirable tones and their desirable harmonics. The task is to convert this (largely) chaotic and complicated mess of desirable and undesirable sound energies that are represented by a stream of bits and bytes into a much different and desirable stream of bits and bytes that approximate a target sound; the bass in Rain On Me for example. From the responses so far, quite a daunting task for us all.

But enter powerful 21st century audio processing software such as the EQ3 Equalizer within Studio One. This Plug-in doesn’t just have 1 band of EQ capability, not just 3 bands of capability but 8 bands of EQ capability. Five of which have independent controls for Q, Gain, Frequency, Threshold and Range. Moreover, there are slope adjustments for the low-cut, low-frequency, high-cut and high-frequency bands. In other words a boatload of processing potential; and there are many other processing plug-ins available.

If we consider the 4-string electric bass, it has the capability to produce frequencies between about 40 and 400 Hz. If we consider its desirable harmonics, this range may extend to 4000 Hz. In any given bass recording I’ve made I can see energy in my waveform beyond 2000 Hz. Middle C is around 262 Hz. I understand that a vastly different instrument, the alto flute can also play Middle C. I propose that in principle, with the right tools and skills one could process a bass guitar waveform to produce a good approximation of the alto flute. I believe this might be called “sound design” or perhaps "synthesis". So if this is possible across musical “species”(electric bass to alto flute) how much easier it must be across musical “siblings” (bass 1 to bass 2) ?

Also note from the above that it doesn’t matter what amp we pre-process the waveform thru or even if we use an amp at all. The downstream processing will be able to boost it, alter it, shape it or attenuate it.

So I’m thinking that this task is boiling down to 1 simple question.
What skill level do we have with today’s powerful audio processing tools? If we have the skills we can do what I’m asking, if we don’t, we can’t.

If this makes sense I have 2 options. Either to spend the required time to learn the necessary EQing/processing skills or to do the best with the skills I currently have. I’m leaning toward the later as time is valuable.

When I first posted this question I was hoping someone would say “Yeah, this is a no-brainer, just do a, b, c and d.”
Nonetheless, I’ve learned something from this thread and hopefully others have too.

Bass guitar 4-string offers fundamentals from 41Hz-392Hz with overtones and harmonics spreading up to 4kHz-5kHz.
Most recordings dilute bass below about 60Hz becasue it's can overwhelm an amp as well as compete with a kick drum. Mind you for the last decade kicks have had the batter head click accentuated, (a hangover from modern "metal"), and the bottom end of it almost obliterated...I REALLY dislike that sound and it is prevalent in BIAB RealDrums.

Pop n rock bass tends to accentuate some of the harmonic/overtone growl to cut through the mix and give solid spatial clues while tightening, (reducing and compressing), the bottom end so that there's still some oomph. John Entwhistle's tone is a good example of a toppier bass in a mix.
I miss the days of live gigs and the thud of bass in my chest when on the "dance" floor.

One thing you might like to experiment with is the JS Spectrum Matcher. It's a Reaper community plug in but will run in other DAWs. You can run it with a bass sound you like and drape it over your recorded track to "correct" it. It works pretty well & I've done it with a couple of my songs but, by & large, I'm pretty happy with my own tone.