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Bass as rhythm guitar !


Bassjon
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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

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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!

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[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

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[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.

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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].

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[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

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