Bassjon Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Hi all! I have been experimenting in my 'studio' writing songs that are all bass led - no guitars at all. As you can imagine, this brings up all kinds of trouble, I'm at the mixing stage and nothing 'sits' right. I thought since a lot of bands tune their guitars so low these days I may as well just use bass! So anyway, any studio boffs out there have any recommendations as to what frequencies I should cut/boost to give the tracks some depth. It sounds good on my monitors but a lot of home speakers don't have good bass response, so I just wondered if anyone knew of any other bands that use just bass/drums vocals format, and if there is a general rule of thumb when it comes to mixing the bass so it's upfront but not booming? The only band I know of that works like this is DFA 1979 but I'm not mad on the distortion! Ta, love n stuff Bassjon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Freemans had three bassists (Peter Hook, Andy Rourke and Mani) and Primary by The Cure was two basses with no keys or guitars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Bloody autocorrect. That'll be Freebass, not Freemans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Neds Atomic Dustbin had 2 basses. Lemmy plays 'rhythm bass', no distortion but lots of Mids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassjon Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 [quote name='Maude' timestamp='1449525159' post='2924426'] Bloody autocorrect. That'll be Freebass, not Freemans [/quote] Ooh I'll have a listen to that - sounds right up my street. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Colin Hodgkinson with Back Door. Bass, drums and sax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chriswareham Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Someone has mentioned Primary by The Cure, but it's worth checking out the album Faith which that track was from. Most of the songs are either Fender Precision and Fender VI, or the Precision and some minimal keyboards. The title track in particular features the Fender VI as lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 You probably need to pick one part to be the proper bass, and cut most of the low end from the other parts. Can you post it up for us to listen to? It'd be easier to give advice that way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charic Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 Lots and lots of distortion, then a bit more distortion, maybe a touch of overdrive and then some distortion By the end of that you won't be able to hear any bass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybone Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 Evil Blizzard... 4 basses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonBassAlpha Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 Morphine, bass (fewer than regulation number of strings iirc) drums and sax, quite sparse though. Royal Blood, using all kinds of octavers etc. is how it can be done in a rock context. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismuzz Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 I would use an overdriven treble/mid heavy sound (this will smooth out the peaks without making it sound tame), blended with a clean low/mid sound to fill the mix out. Maybe add some light chorus and/or flanger to give it more texture.. but there are many approaches that could work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Rhythm bass is bloody hard work when you try to do it live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Royal Blood? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 [quote name='MacDaddy' timestamp='1449527448' post='2924450'] Lemmy plays 'rhythm bass', no distortion but lots of Mids. [/quote] No distortion?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Cop shoot cop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colgraff Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 [quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1449668034' post='2925758'] No distortion?! [/quote] No distortion in the sense that he doesn't use pedals. The fuzzy sound comes from the amps being cranked up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassjon Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 [quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1449618850' post='2925358'] I would use an overdriven treble/mid heavy sound (this will smooth out the peaks without making it sound tame), blended with a clean low/mid sound to fill the mix out. Maybe add some light chorus and/or flanger to give it more texture.. but there are many approaches that could work! [/quote] Brilliant, thanks! I remember Cop Shoot Cop, wow! thats going back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 [quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1449680782' post='2925942'] No distortion in the sense that he doesn't use pedals. The fuzzy sound comes from the amps being cranked up. [/quote] IIRC in an interview with BGM he said no distortion just cranked mids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chriswareham Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 [quote name='MacDaddy' timestamp='1449782356' post='2926872'] IIRC in an interview with BGM he said no distortion just cranked mids. [/quote] Lemmy's settings are pretty much full gain, full mid, no bass or treble. The result is overdriven, so I guess it's down to the difference between overdrive and distortion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rOB Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 (edited) I'm trying to put together a bass, drums vox band at the moment. Working hard on variety of sounds with a limited palette. In studio, I'd suggest boosting mids as mentioned above. Edited December 11, 2015 by rOB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybone Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 TBH, the distortion that Lemmy achieves isn't "full gain", but full volume. It's a lesson I've learned over the years of playing with guitar amps & the near endless search for the "perfect" distortion sound. Using full gain, and most OD/Dist/Fuzz pedals loads the pre-amp, and creates a "spiky" or "jagged", rough sounding distortion that's not very pleasant IMO. Using a valve driven power amp, at full volume, creates a much smoother sounding distortion, usually described as "creamy". Mixed with a medium/medium-high gain, it gets that aggressive sound that's just gorgeous IMO. When I was playing guitar in one band, we played a few All Dayer's, and I had the other guitarists asking how I got that sound. Anyway, new discovery for me, but I heard "Clatter" over the weekend and was very impressed. A 2 piece band, just bass & drums, check out "Tree of Secrets" on You Tube. [url]http://www.clatter.com[/url]. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssentialTension Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Bass VI, neck and bridge pickups on, strangle switch engaged, thin pick. Play rhythm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassjon Posted December 15, 2015 Author Share Posted December 15, 2015 [quote name='Skybone' timestamp='1450087870' post='2929358'] Anyway, new discovery for me, but I heard "Clatter" over the weekend and was very impressed. A 2 piece band, just bass & drums, check out "Tree of Secrets" on You Tube. [url="http://www.clatter.com"]http://www.clatter.com[/url]. [/quote] Yeah they're really good! nice find Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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