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Where did my tone go?


markdavid
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Hi All
Was having a band practice the other day and we recorded some of it , I dialled in a nice gritty overdriven tone, I was initially planning on just having a tiny bit of overdrive but once the rest of the band came in the overdrive effect almost seemed to dissapear and I ended up cranking the drive a lot higher, eq wise I boosted the highs to about 3 o click (+12db) and the mids i turned the selector to 2khz and up to about 2 o clock (+9db) and cut the lows to about the 10 o click position (-9db)
In practice it sounded great, gritty and never lost in the mix , however when I played back the recording the bass tone was quite dark and lacked bite, seemed to be all lows and low mids, I know there is a simple explanation to this , just wondering what it is , thanks

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Overdrive literally blurs the notes, making them less sharp sounding, so adding in highs/high-mids is def the way to go. I`ve found that when I get to a point where I think the bass is too toppy/middy on-stage, or nearby when I`m rehearsing, that is the sound that will be right, out front in the audience. The frequencies you`ve boosted should have been ideal for what was wanted, maybe boost them a bit more, or up the mid-freq to say 2.5khz or even 3khz.

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[quote name='markdavid' timestamp='1486404573' post='3231527']
Hi All
Was having a band practice the other day and we recorded some of it , I dialled in a nice gritty overdriven tone, I was initially planning on just having a tiny bit of overdrive but once the rest of the band came in the overdrive effect almost seemed to dissapear and I ended up cranking the drive a lot higher, eq wise I boosted the highs to about 3 o click (+12db) and the mids i turned the selector to 2khz and up to about 2 o clock (+9db) and cut the lows to about the 10 o click position (-9db)
In practice it sounded great, gritty and never lost in the mix , however when I played back the recording the bass tone was quite dark and lacked bite, seemed to be all lows and low mids, I know there is a simple explanation to this , just wondering what it is , thanks
[/quote]

Is that when you are listening to the recorded bass in isolation or in the full recorded band mix?

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[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1486472374' post='3232060']
Is that when you are listening to the recorded bass in isolation or in the full recorded band mix?
[/quote] Full recorded band mix , when I was playing the parts live the bass was actually pretty gritty sounding but listening to the recording it sounds kinda dull, my guess is that the bass was reverberating off the walls/floor and the treble frequencies being directional were being killed by this reverberation but this is just a wild guess

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[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1486481715' post='3232167']
is it just a mic in a room though? 'cos where the mic is will make a hell of a difference
[/quote] Yes just a mic in the room, that was why I thought maybe it was due to the treble frequencies being directional vs bass frequencies being omni directional , really I should have miked two locations in the room

Edited by markdavid
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If you have a full band in a room and you're trying to record it with one or two mics, you might get a good overall sound after lots of experimentation, but I doubt you'll ever get an accurate idea of what your bass sounds like. You really need a multi-track setup so you can take a DI or have your cab close-mic'd

If it sounds good when you're stood next to your amp, i'd trust that. Whether or not your sweet gritty tone will ever make it to FOH at a gig seems to be pot luck (unless you take your own soundman)

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