[Jesse Lewis]

Following!!! 🙂

[Paul Tucci]

Drew,

There’s nothing like a big ol’ bass bomb from Phil or an acoustic bass to grab peoples’ attention. There’s a certain joy to be had with a big PA and subwoofers 🙂 . That acoustic bass can own the low end, especially in your genre.

So the lowest fundamental of an open E on the 4 string bass is 41Hz. Capturing it is a different story. You have to have those freqs recorded on tape/in the computer before you can can process them to fit in the music. EQ alone may not work if the relative level of 40 is way lower than the 100Hz area as your graphs showed. Multi-band compression won’t help much if there’s precious little content down there.

One trick I’ve used in similar circumstances is when the kick drum doesn’t really have deep bass but I want deep bass (without utilizing a sample) is to low pass a duplicate channel of the problematic instrument so that only low freqs are present. Then drop it down an octave via whatever tuning effect you have available. Where you low pass (high cut) the dupe channel is critical. If you want more below 50 Hz, I’d aim that low pass filter at 100ish Hz with a steep filter. Feather the newly created deep bass into the mix against the original. High passing (low cut) the original bass channel may clear some mud from the combination of sounds. It’s a cheat but effective if you can’t capture the low end off the pickup or microphone of the original recording.

PT

[Dana Nielsen]

Hey Drew!

Such a great question, AND a great challenge. Upright bass is a beast that can be difficult to wrangle, especially when you want sub-y low-end out of it.

For me, this process begins with mic placement. (I know … “yawn.” And prob also “too late,” as you’re working with already-recorded tracks, but bear with me. Perhaps these ideas will help your next recording. Plus, I’ll include some mixing tips that’ll help pre-recorded bass as well.

My Best Microphone? My Ear.

I always start by listening to the player in the room. This is my method for recording any instrument. I pretend my ear is the microphone (or ears, plural, if I’m placing a stereo mic). I move my head around like a weirdo while the musician plays, and I find the spots that sound the best to me, and I put the mics there. Works every time.

My Go-To Two Mic Upright Bass Technique

For an upright bass I’m usually looking for a two-mic setup: one large-diaphragm condenser near the f-hole to pick up the deepest, richest, sub-iest sound my ears can locate; and one LDC on the neck facing down(ish) around where the neck meets the body of the instrument to pick up the mid-range definition, which helps define the bass “note” especially on small speakers. As long as those two mics are in-phase with each other I can adjust them during mixing to suit each individual song. A slow ballad might favor the F-hole low-end bloom, whereas an uptempo song might favor the neck mic so that the notes pop out nice and clear, and the tempo doesn’t get weighed down with sluggish low-end.

Bass Bussin’

Regardless the tempo, both of these mics (and sometimes a D.I., too, if available) will get bussed to a mono Aux Input, where I’ll apply any additional EQ and compression. EQ’ing and compressing the combined signal helps avoid EQ phase weirdness btwn mic’s, and helps solidify the instrument’s envelope (attack, decay, sustain, release). As an added bonus it also sums things down to one fader for easier balancing and automation.

Parallel Extremes When Needed

From there – if needed – I might add a couple “parallel” processes by sending the Bass buss (via pre-fade send) to an aggressive compressor Aux Input, and/or an amp sim Aux Input, and/or a subharmonic effect Aux Input (this is similar to what @detective recommended in his helpful post – thanks, Paul!). Sending the bass buss to multiple returns using a “pre-fade” aux send, allows me to turn the original dry Bass buss fader all the way down while I dial in my aggressive parallel effects returns. I always go “aggressive” with parallel FX ’cause otherwise what’s the point? The beauty of parallel is I can add these faders to the dry Bass buss in small increments. Kinda like adding a few dashes of ghost pepper hot sauce to huge pot of chili. A little goes a long way, and its potency is what makes it so useful in a large batch– err, I mean so useful in a dense audio mix.

Hope these tips help, Drew! Feel free to share a sample of your current mix as well as a sample of one of your fav references, and maybe we can get some more ideas flying. Good luck! 🎚️⚡️

[Dana Nielsen]

Oh, one last thing about adding low-end EQ to stuff like bass and kicks …. try reducing the frequency above where your boost is at. This often helps me get a more focused sound and eliminates mud. Like, try a low shelf boost at 100Hz in tandem with a significant bellcurve notch reduction at say 200Hz, or wherever the mud or resonance is building up.

Hi pass is also your friend for low-end, backwards as that sounds. i.e., try boosting 60Hz with a steep hi pass filter at 40Hz for example. You’ll be able to push that 60Hz harder without the sub frequencies below 40 eating up all your mix headroom and destroying your speakers. 🤘

[Drew B]

Thanks, Paul & Dana.

I’ll start by saying – WOW – what amazingly insightful responses!

The micing tips will certainly come in handy in the future.

In this case, it seems like both of you have hit on the issue around if it’s pre-recorded and there’s nothing there to boost…which as I listen back on my tracks seems to be the case.

Ironically, I had tried a couple of subsynth generator options (like bx_subsynth and a similar Waves plugin), but both gave a bit of an EDM feel to a bluegrass tune 🤣. Because of the sine wave tone of the sub more so than the level itself.

So, I’m very keen to try the doubling & octave down treatment. Very similar to the subsynth concept but almost simpler in a way. Will try that in combination with some of Dana’s EQ tricks and report back!

Thanks!

[Paul Tucci]

Drew,

Happy to help and look forward to putting an ear to your creation. Do me a favor though, if Dana and my name are in the same sentence, please do put his name first. Know what I’m sayin? We are, after all, in his house. 🙂

-PT

[Dana Nielsen]

😂😂😂

You’re too kind and too funny, Paul.

No need to list me in any particular order, @drewb – It’s a team effort here! 😂 🥰

[Dana Nielsen]

Right on, Drew! Happy to help!

And, while I do use SubSynth quite often (love that plugin), I know what you mean … it can quickly add the wrong vibe to a natural-sounding acoustic record. In those cases I might try only using the highest frequency knob of the SubSynth (50-60hz if memory serves) as that tends to sound less like an octaver. Or I might try waves R-Bass as an insert on the bass bus, which works a bit differently – more psychoacoustic than synthetic octave.

Happy bass-boosting! 🔊