mixing bass with hard snappy plucks

[TapeOpLarry]

If you get a chance when tracking people that play like this grab a screwdriver and set the bass pickups deeper into the body/pickguard.

[digitaldrummer]

I just had a picky/plucky bass track I recorded this past weekend. The bass player was a guitar player, doing his own bass tracks. He's a fantastic guitar player and we both know that his bass technique is not as good as his guitar.. but that's what we had between us lol. We were going into a Empirical Labs EL9 (Mike-E) and during tracking I had some light compression/saturation going on but I also hit the "HF Emphasis" button, which help soften the click of the pick. One track (and I think it was recorded before I hit that button or maybe he was just playing more aggressively) was still too clacky. I did initially try the Flux Bittersweet, but it was not helping. I tried Waves C4 (multi-band comp) but didn't completely cure it either. Then I put a Plugin Alliance Ampeg SVT-3 Pro plugin on there, EQ'd it a bit and no more clicky clack. it was a rock track and it sounded great for song. The amp sim seemed to soften that attack quite a bit even without scooping out mids and highs. I've noticed a real amp does something similar (where the same guitar will sound kinda bad via DI).

[Recycled_Brains]

This makes sense too, but I also feel like this isn't just a gain/volume issue. Even if you turn down the transient, it's still there and is more manageable, but it's still not going to sound soft. Just quieter.

I know what you mean. It's called "bass playing technique."

haha, yes, the real solution is "Redo that part, and take it easy for fuck's sake!"

[Nick Sevilla]

This makes sense too, but I also feel like this isn't just a gain/volume issue. Even if you turn down the transient, it's still there and is more manageable, but it's still not going to sound soft. Just quieter.

I know what you mean. It's called "bass playing technique."

haha, yes, the real solution is "Redo that part, and take it easy for fuck's sake!"

It also will take less time. But what do I know, I only play a surgeon on TeeVee...

[drumsound]

I know what you mean. It's called "bass playing technique."

haha, yes, the real solution is "Redo that part, and take it easy for fuck's sake!"

It also will take less time. But what do I know, I only play a surgeon on TeeVee...

I had a kid in last night doing the "pop" with the snare. I asked him to be careful because that can be problematic. Much to my delight, he was conscious that it can be problematic and did his best not to do it. I did go in and clip gain 2 or 3 right after the takes. It's so great when players have the facility to take simple directions like that.

[crow]

I sometimes use one of reaper's built-in crossover plugins (or just eq's) to separate the bass' frequency ranges to different tracks, and compress them differently. I find I can use a faster compressor on the high end and control the snapping and clacking of a vigorous punky bass line without having to eq it out of existence.

You could also just copy the bass track and Hi/Lo/band-pass each to represent one range and compress/eq each to taste (which I think is how you've been known to do it, IIRC, Larry?)

I became such a fan of doing this that I set up a one-practice bass rig of Ampeg rack preamp->DBX Crossover->coupla compressors->GK & Ampeg 8x10 for lows / Marshall Half-stack for highs. Whoa nelly it was fun! But I'm not the bass player usually and I didn't want to get addicted to such a byzantine setup.

[Recycled_Brains]

haha, yes, the real solution is "Redo that part, and take it easy for fuck's sake!"

It also will take less time. But what do I know, I only play a surgeon on TeeVee...

I had a kid in last night doing the "pop" with the snare. I asked him to be careful because that can be problematic. Much to my delight, he was conscious that it can be problematic and did his best not to do it. I did go in and clip gain 2 or 3 right after the takes. It's so great when players have the facility to take simple directions like that.

Revel in that victory. Lately I've been trying really hard to explain the counter-intuitive nature of drum heads and how they sound bigger when you're not obliterating them. It almost never works. One thing I do, when I actually remember to, is to have them record 4 hits on each drum before we start doing takes, because during the setup they never play as hard as when the band is all-in. Gives me something to use later to replace the hits that sound all choked off and weird.

[drumsound]

It also will take less time. But what do I know, I only play a surgeon on TeeVee...

I had a kid in last night doing the "pop" with the snare. I asked him to be careful because that can be problematic. Much to my delight, he was conscious that it can be problematic and did his best not to do it. I did go in and clip gain 2 or 3 right after the takes. It's so great when players have the facility to take simple directions like that.

Revel in that victory. Lately I've been trying really hard to explain the counter-intuitive nature of drum heads and how they sound bigger when you're not obliterating them. It almost never works. One thing I do, when I actually remember to, is to have them record 4 hits on each drum before we start doing takes, because during the setup they never play as hard as when the band is all-in. Gives me something to use later to replace the hits that sound all choked off and weird.

I should get into that habit! It's also helpful if there's a crackle or other weirdness electronic issues.

[vvv]

I try to remember to do that with a cuppla-5 different velocity hits on each drum, and the cymbals

The crashes can be good for covering a variety of glitches, even if just temporarily.