When there's drums in the bass mic

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floid
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When there's drums in the bass mic

Post by floid » Sat Mar 28, 2020 11:57 pm

I've been archiving old cassettes, and came across a tune from last century. It's just drums and bass, recorded live with two dynamics. Lofi crunchy. I've fleshed out an arrangement, but now the mix is killing me
The main problem is the bass mic: it's sort of a cleanish grind pop punk sound, (that being the thing at the time), but the low notes are too boomy, the highs too trebly, and there's enough bleed from the drums that anything I can think of to try to even things out ends up sounding either trashy or dull. Trying to keep from turning it into sausage and still have it hold steady in the mix.
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Re: When there's drums in the bass mic

Post by kslight » Sun Mar 29, 2020 5:19 am

Sometimes a light touch of de bleed within RX is useful. Or perhaps duplicate the track and make a couple versions, one with heavier de bleed and or filtering...

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Re: When there's drums in the bass mic

Post by digitaldrummer » Sun Mar 29, 2020 7:48 am

or try a multiband compressor? And do anyEQ moves while both the bass and drum tracks are active(vs. just bass solo'd). Maybe the bleed can work?
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Re: When there's drums in the bass mic

Post by vvv » Sun Mar 29, 2020 11:52 am

While multi-band compressors are fun, I always get better results in these instance by doing what I think kslight references; I split the two-mix into filtered tracks, starting with typically a mono low track of about 400Hz and down, then a stereo band pass of about 100Hz-4kHz, and then a stereo high track of about 2.5kHz.

Those edge frequencies are adjusted as needed, particularly on the low mono track, which often is mebbe 110Hz and down.

Then I EQ and gate the low track so I just have - to the extent possible, kick.

I then try to EQ each of those tracks (ex., boosting or cutting at 90Hz seems to be something I do a lot on Zoom H2 tracks on that bottom mono), compress (might be a little smashy on the low mono, less so on the mid and less yet high) and mix 'em down in parallel.

I usually start with 3 freq-split tracks, as above, but sometimes 2 works better, and very now an then I use 4, either for a real kinda sub-bassy thing under 60Hz, or a lotta top, say 4.5kHz or even higher (least like'y, that toppy split).

Another variation is to get that low mono track (always) and add just parallel to the original two mix, which might be high passed, or the low and the mid and add those to the original.

Finally, if you can band-pass to get a pretty strong mostly bass guitar track, you can try adding a touch of chorus to that, and parallel it back in.

I've done all of those things above because I like jams, and i usually record 'em with a Zoom H2, and often have no time or ability to check placement of the recorder - it's just put in the middle, wherever that might be.
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Re: When there's drums in the bass mic

Post by Snarl 12/8 » Sun Mar 29, 2020 8:59 pm

Get the bass mic where the bass in it sounds as good as possible, regardless of what the drums sound like after that.

Then you bring up the drum mic, eq it such that you're cutting out whatever frequencies are "too much" in the bass track until overall it's the right amount of everything.
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Re: When there's drums in the bass mic

Post by vvv » Sun Mar 29, 2020 9:02 pm

Reading Snarl's( :worthy: ) post I realize it might be that you have a separate bass track and a separate drum track?

I read it as a stereo track with bass heavier on one side (why I said, "I split the two-mix)" ... :oops:

If so, just ignore where I said, "stereo" in my prior post, and try what kslight said about frequency-splitting the bass track, and then mebbe consider applying some of what I babbled above.

And then carve the dominant "stable" frequency area of the bass track out of the drum track.
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Re: When there's drums in the bass mic

Post by vernier » Wed Apr 08, 2020 8:24 pm

Snarl 12/8 wrote:
Sun Mar 29, 2020 8:59 pm
Get the bass mic where the bass in it sounds as good as possible, regardless of what the drums sound like after that.

Then you bring up the drum mic, eq it such that you're cutting out whatever frequencies are "too much" in the bass track until overall it's the right amount of everything.
Yep .. good idea.

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Re: When there's drums in the bass mic

Post by Elfael » Tue Apr 28, 2020 7:49 am

floid wrote:
Sat Mar 28, 2020 11:57 pm
I've been archiving old cassettes, and came across a tune from last century. It's just drums and bass, recorded live with two dynamics. Lofi crunchy. I've fleshed out an arrangement, but now the mix is killing me
The main problem is the bass mic: it's sort of a cleanish grind pop punk sound, (that being the thing at the time), but the low notes are too boomy, the highs too trebly, and there's enough bleed from the drums that anything I can think of to try to even things out ends up sounding either trashy or dull. Trying to keep from turning it into sausage and still have it hold steady in the mix.
Bleed is cool - gives you that old Motown vibe!

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