Cutting through or making your presence felt

[Mr. Foxen]

No idea which section to put this in, might fit in all of the gear and technique ones at once. Got a lot of dense guitar going on, and having some trouble making myself heard, check new recording posted up on myspace on sig. This wasn't aided by the lame borrowed marshall 2x15 cab that just wasn't dealing with the downtuning. Any tips, gear or technique or eq setting wise? You might hear where I start playing near the bridge and use a bit more nail to get some clank at one point, but that not really the sort of sound I'm after.

[Shockwave]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='191948' date='May 4 2008, 11:59 PM']No idea which section to put this in, might fit in all of the gear and technique ones at once. Got a lot of dense guitar going on, and having some trouble making myself heard, check new recording posted up on myspace on sig. This wasn't aided by the lame borrowed marshall 2x15 cab that just wasn't dealing with the downtuning. Any tips, gear or technique or eq setting wise? You might hear where I start playing near the bridge and use a bit more nail to get some clank at one point, but that not really the sort of sound I'm after.[/quote]

More growl and a light overdrive maybe. Depends what you we're playing with on the recordings.

The best way to cut through in my opinion is new light gauge stainless steel strings. Lots of Zing.

Otherwise Just boost your Mids but you probably new that already. Maybe in the recording the guitars could be panned left and right and the bass near dead centre.

Or use cabs with 10's inside. I play with a Low B and my 4x10 marshall handles it fantasticly.


Wait you have a 2x15 marshall bass cab?



I maybe in touch... ;-)

EDIT: After Listening to the music I would say get more clang into the bass sound, New strings More low mids. WITH a very light overdrive.

Edited May 4, 2008 by Shockwave

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='Shockwave' post='191949' date='May 5 2008, 12:04 AM']More growl and a light overdrive maybe. Depends what you we're playing with on the recordings.

The best way to cut through in my opinion is new light gauge stainless steel strings. Lots of Zing.

Otherwise Just boost your Mids but you probably new that already. Maybe in the recording the guitars could be panned left and right and the bass near dead centre.

Or use cabs with 10's inside. I play with a Low B and my 4x10 marshall handles it fantasticly.


Wait you have a 2x15 marshall bass cab?



I maybe in touch... ;-)

EDIT: After Listening to the music I would say get more clang into the bass sound, New strings More low mids. WITH a very light overdrive.[/quote]

Light strings aren't really an option when downtuned to A. The marshall 2x15 was borrowed from the practice space, am going to make sure I get 10s next time of take my 4x10 with me, and add another cab. I was using my stereo bass with one channel clean into the sansamp and one through both valves in my DHA, and a wah, which is what was doing all the feedback stuff that was cut out of this recording (15 minutes is too long for myspace).

[Shockwave]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='191956' date='May 5 2008, 12:12 AM']Light strings aren't really an option when downtuned to A. The marshall 2x15 was borrowed from the practice space, am going to make sure I get 10s next time of take my 4x10 with me, and add another cab. I was using my stereo bass with one channel clean into the sansamp and one through both valves in my DHA, and a wah, which is what was doing all the feedback stuff that was cut out of this recording (15 minutes is too long for myspace).[/quote]

Hmm, Well i use 30-50-70-90-110 For tuning to B with a 5 string. Just enough tension imo.

After another listen, Quite frankly You need to be turned up in the overall recording. Then again the music doesant exactly lend itself to bass. The guitars have really taken over the recording here. Really layered sound.

That 2x15 sounds like RS studios.

Edited May 4, 2008 by Shockwave

[Jase]

Low A, wow must be like playing bungee ropes.

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='Jase' post='191967' date='May 5 2008, 12:37 AM']Low A, wow must be like playing bungee ropes.[/quote]

They are dead thick, reasonable tension though, I like high string tension, and the sustain is necessary.

[LukeFRC]

if i was doing a live mix of your sound i would cut the mids of each guitar at different points and boost at others but have them all at diffferent points. ie one of the big mid freqs the bass sounds nice at cut the guitars there to create space for it.
if you just turn it up it's just more mush.
on my imac speakers though i cant hear the very low bass freqs

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='191988' date='May 5 2008, 01:23 AM']if i was doing a live mix of your sound i would cut the mids of each guitar at different points and boost at others but have them all at diffferent points. ie one of the big mid freqs the bass sounds nice at cut the guitars there to create space for it.
if you just turn it up it's just more mush.
on my imac speakers though i cant hear the very low bass freqs[/quote]

Not convinced I want to tell Ben to turn anything down on his guitar.

Edited May 5, 2008 by Mr. Foxen

[WalMan]

Are you talking about so that you cut through to your ears in the room or in the recording? I should have thought if you are all detuned like that then the guitars are getting into your territory. So in a multitrack recording, or live mix you might want a high pass filter on the guitars set at around 300hz to cut out some space for you

If I read it right the recording was a single mike in the middle of the r/h space, which will not help for the recording.

[bass_ferret]

[quote name='WalMan' post='192064' date='May 5 2008, 09:36 AM']If I read it right the recording was a single mike in the middle of the r/h space, which will not help for the recording.[/quote]
Thats a polite way of saying you may as well record it on your phone. Save up and book some studio time if you are serious about a demo.

[XB26354]

Light or heavy strings won't make a difference in your music. New strings will have more zing, but if you really want to cut through that mix you'll have to go to a studio and get each track balanced properly as bass ferret says. Most recordings use some kind of complementary eq so that each instrument has it's place. A good engineer might cut a narrow band of low mids from the guitars slightly, and boost the bass at the same place. The same would apply when getting the kick drum and bass to sit together. It may also help when recording to pan the guitars slightly, leaving the centre for bass and kick drum. Live, you may have to insist that the guitar player cuts a little bit of low mid

[Basszilla]

I quite like this. Being a bit fan of Pelican it sounds great. I would say more compression on the bass and guitars to give more control of mix placement.

Perhaps you could try tuning slightly higher than the guitars? Like drop D or something? Use your A string as your open A? Should give you more tautness and brightness in the mix?

[Adrenochrome]

I wouldn't generally disagree with any of the advice above. The guitars are slightly too high in the mix. IME when I DI my bass for recordings I always get a much more defined sound even if it's not any louder. I've used a Marshall 2x15 before and it was muddy (far more so than my Peavey bw 1x15). Any sort of multitrack recording should get your bass more present in the mix.

[Bilbo]

If this is done on one mic, you are lucky to even get what you have. Just think of all those frequencies coming at the poor little thing! I would suggest you have too muh of a clash betweem the tones of the guitars and the bass. The bass needs some frequency seperation from the guitars if it is tpo be heard. You may need to take some mids OFF your sound so it sinks to a lower place than those guitars. There is a lot of spillage across the mix - everything sounds like everything else (not really but you getmy point).