Metal bassists - What sort of tones are you using?

[janmaat]

Only recently joined a heavy project. I am using that EBS microbass which allows to mix an effect loop with the dry and add some overdrive to the whole. Actually used a Boss MT2 for the dirt in the effect loop. OLP Stingray. A wah pedal too. Sounds awesome.

[spiderjazz]

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1333115971' post='1597690']
I think I need a new laptop, as running my DI is gash at the moment - something to investigate this weekend. I'm still a little back-to-basics of mic and amp
[/quote]

My laptop is old by most standards, first generation dual core, about 4 years old I think. With the right software and settings, you should be able to have no problems recording and running a few tracks. Reaper is very CPU friendly, might be worth trying it out. You could record a DI and an amp track and blend them together afterwards for the best of both!

[Doctor J]

A lot of what you do with your tone in metal will depend on what the guitarists are doing as it is, unquestionably, a guitar driven style. With my last gig I was playing guitar so left the low end to the bass and had quite a mid focused guitar tone without too much gain on it and, surprisingly, frequently got compliments from other guitarists. We were tuned to B with some tunes in dropped A so keeping some sort of clarity was important to me. We had recorded quite a few tunes before getting a full time bassist so I played bass on several recordings too. I just went straight into a first series Ashdown ABM, on the solid state channel but with the dirt from the valve turned all the way up and bypassed the EQ, instead using a tiny bit of low and high end boost on the bass, a Bacchus 5 string Jazz, no effects or anything other than the dirt from the amp and hitting the strings rather hard. I kept the action low to get a bit of fret grind in there which I find helps the bass cut through. As I said, the guitar was, on its own, quite a weedy sound, but the bass and guitar tones were set up to work together and the overall effect had a nice punch to it. You really need buy-in from your guitarist to be able to do it that way though, the bedroom tone just doesn't work in a band context and they need to embrace this
[url="http://www.justinmaloney.com/anbd.zip"]http://www.justinmaloney.com/anbd.zip[/url]
[url="http://www.justinmaloney.com/anbwt.zip"]http://www.justinmaloney.com/anbwt.zip[/url]

That chug tone you put up there sounds ace with the kit, I'd like to hear how it works with your guitarist and an acoustic kit.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Doctor J

[TommyK]

[quote name='spiderjazz' timestamp='1331502311' post='1573940']

[b] [size=3]Metal bassists - What sort of tones are you using?[/size][/b]

[/quote]

Def (tones)....??



....I'll get me coat.....

[Chest Rockwell]

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1332088187' post='1582995']
Ah, Chesty - I like that, right up my street! £3? Bargain!
[/quote]

cheers matey the 2nd EP's much better tho


edit : ooh, just realised the first one was free! so er, yup, enjoy!!

Edited April 24, 2012 by Chest Rockwell

[PauBass]

[quote name='Chest Rockwell' timestamp='1331556554' post='1574627']
exactly. A lotta people ask me why I dont get a 5 string, then I tell them it's drop B (BF#BE) and they reply 'Oh'. it's not just having one phat string, they're ALL phat

personally sound-wise I've kinda gone with the non-scientific 'plug in a Big Muff, that sounds fuzzed up and meaty' and left it at that. im long overdue for some sounds homework, but between what you get on stage/different cabs, i'm never really fully in control so as long as it's fairly reliable, I'm happy. We usually get complimented on sounding meaty/rumbling/fat, so thats cool

I would also suffer from distortion getting covered by the two guitars as they're distorted too, but I'm pretty damn low n bassy, so there should be (even more) low end there.

[url="http://thorun.bandcamp.com/track/god-particle"]http://thorun.bandca...ck/god-particle[/url] my bass kicks this one off. Probably our best riff to highlight my dodgy timing, it's an odd bastard and im always glad when the band kicks in around me!!!


to answer the OP, Distortion 3 sounds Awesome to me!!! \m/
[/quote]

Awesome tone dude!... Is that how you got that bass sound on the recording? Just a big muff?

[Chest Rockwell]

[quote name='PauBass' timestamp='1335343548' post='1629424']
Awesome tone dude!... Is that how you got that bass sound on the recording? Just a big muff?
[/quote]

hey, only 4 months late with a reply!!

the answer is 'yes'!

(through a compact and OTB)

[LeftyJ]

I play in a modern female-fronted metal band. I usually play a 5-string custom Ellio Martina (basically a Jazz on steroids, with custom large singlecoils and an Aguilar OBP-3 preamp) or a Stingray 5 through Ampeg tube preamps (usually my SVP-PRO, with an SVP-CL as backup) straight to the PA. It has a great overdrive section which I usually set to a mild drive. I keep the EQ section slightly scooped. I have to compete with two 7-string guitars through an ENGL Powerball and a Mesa Mark 4, and the Ampeg provides massive bottom end and nice cutting highs so I have no trouble being heard. And because I don't use any cabs onstage (neither do our guitarists), sound engineers are usually very happy too . We bring our own engineer whenever we can, so we can be sure we sound exactly the way we want to.

[chrismuzz]

People are often strongly opposed to scooping the mids of your bass tone... But the reality is that most metal guitarists nowadays have discovered that frequency range. I scoop my mids a little and fit in the mix perfectly every time!