►► Mixing Cheatsheet w/ Multitrack Download! → Get FREE access to the Crisp & Clear Heavy Mix Formula HERE:frightboxrecordingacademy.com/heavy-mix-formula/
Ibanez Gio! I purchased an Ibanez Gio guitar from a dear friend and dropped Seymour Duncan Black Winters pickups in it. That guitar now is my go to for high gain tones.
I always split my bass track into a low and high version. The low version is only frequencies below 200 hz. The high version is everything above 200 hz. I compress the hell out of the low version but keep it clean. The high version I distort. I know this is a pretty common trick. And it works pretty well. But it seems to be a bit different from what you're doing. You have one clean, full-bandwidth version, and one distorted version that is tightly band-passed. I'm going to have to try that. I probably don't need to be distorting 200 hz to 800 hz like I've been doing. I bet my tone would be even better if all the distortion was concentrated on 800 hz to 3k or so.
I've been producing for 15 years and I'll never get used to the dumb look people give me when I ask them to put on fresh strings before the session. It's literally the most important thing!
the 1st mistake is to underestimate the role of bass in the whole mix in any genre. the 1st thing for all of us, guitar players, to take care of, before even starting the guitar session. very nice tip, have your own bass guitar, never rely on your bamd bass player))) Bobby is the best, as usual
Thank you for all you do! I'm new to mixing, and got a one man band. This is extremely helpful, and nobody drops this much knowledge for free. Appreciate it!
Excellent advice! The fresh strings are SO crucial. The distorted trick is pure gold. I’m a big fan of that. D.D. Verni from Overkill is one of the pioneers of the clanky sound that people are using today.
Bobby you're a catalyst IMHO on the net for info in this genre . Also thanks again for personally helping me with guitar tone I had in November. Your very appreciated. 👍Joe
This is my favorite channel of this type. I also like Raytown Productions. Some of the more prominent RU-vidrs teaching this stuff are close-minded jerks. I won't name them, but they seem to think there's only one approach to making great-sounding stuff. They create hard-and-fast "rules" that aren't useful or accurate to the way music is actually mixed in the real world.
I've been watching lot of studio tips channel for a couple of years and I wonder why your channel only been surfaced to my suggestions recently. Like your way of conveying your points. Easy and straight to the point. Love it! What is the name of that horror movie in the intro? They look super creepy and that bass line kinda elevate it
i just want to say thank you so much the mix formula, ive been working on a song for my own project, i was using jst bus glue instead of L1, cla76, and pro q, the real good basics, all in one plugins do all, but not good at each, and made my mix muddy and was using it as a crutch, went back to the basics with just eq, compression, and limiting, and man does my stuff pop now, less is more, and thank you so much for this!! id love to see something like a mix formula for a synth/sample bus as well as the master bus. cheers!
Excellent tips. I picked limiting bass and other things up from Joel Wanasek, and he limits the absolute crap out of bass and other things sometimes. But the first two are more of recording tips. Good tips for sure, but done at the recording stage. Also your bass is absolutely crushing! :D
I agree, but I decided to include them because people will often skip those steps and think they're having a mix issue with their bass...when it's really a tracking issue.
If you're on a budget... you CAN boil your bass strings for 10 minutes and it'll sound like new strings but I would only do it for 1 track... do like 3 complete takes tune after every take and make sure whoever is tracking the bassline can play it in their sleep, confidently... I've done it many times and you do get very very closely similar results from actually putting brand new strings on....but after a few takes the new string tone goes away pretty quickly.... that's why I only suggest boiling bass strings for 10 mins if you're broke and cant afford to drop 50 bucks on bass strings and if you're only doing it for 1 song...but better make sure whoever is tracking the bass can nail the part solid and give you at least 3 tight and consistently clean performances back to back...but I'm telling you only do it if your desperate and it's only 1 song! Lol I've done that a lot actually I'm doing it right now Haha facts
I've been playing bass for a few decades now, and am almost fanatical about thoroughly wiping down my strings after playing (sometimes using a little denatured alcohol on a rag, which dissolves the oils and "gunk" from the skin, and evaporates extremely quickly... just be careful, as it can cause some damage to certain susceptible instrument finishes). This helps keep the strings sounding crisp, clear, and "alive" for longer. I used to break my bass strings a lot, too, but doing this, as well as using either the Dean Markley cryogenic strings or Earnie Ball cobalt (both of which have great, but somewhat different, tone) seemed to delay the inevitable... As for compression, in my younger days I never used compression, I relied entirely on my right hand to control the dynamics of my playing, but now that I'm a dad and don't have nearly as much time to practice, I absolutely apply some compression to my bass playing, recording and live.
Great video! So are you doing any submixing with the two bass tracks? Or are all the plugins on the bass tracks themselves? I noticed when talking about filtering theres like 4 plugins on each track but when you get to distortion, I only see the API and L1
As a bass player it makes me cry inside when I hear that metal bassists don't change their strings. Shit, I change my strings monthly.. fresh strings for gigs too
@@joshdouthwright best story! In my old band the bass player chained his pickups because e tought his bass sounded strange! End of the song was he had his strings for over 6 months 😂 and was suprised when he first played with fresh strings
also ask a question for those nonbass player if same as me: which PU postion i need to use? bass's nobs seems are much more complex than guitars so I don't know how to adjust them, unlike guitar, everything pick bridge position (for me at least), nob all cranked up
For more clank, I go for the bridge. For a warmer tone, I go for the neck. I sometimes will blend the two until I find a sweet spot for the production.
When I mix bass I like to compress on the track itself then using the limiter in the submix. Does it make a difference putting the limiter and compressor on each track itself
Yes, because the limiters would be processing the main bass and the distorted track together. With that being said, if you dig the sound...keep rocking it!
Hi Bobby. Thank you for this excellent video. I really enjoyed learning your technique! I have been on the hunt for the ultimate bass tone for Metal for some time and this video really helps. I notice that you have a certain pug in on track 1 of the BASS DI. It shows a REQ6. Could you tell me what it is? Is it the added distortion? I also noticed on Track 2 of the bass DI you compress then EQ and then use a limiter. Have you tried EQ and then compression? Thanks again!
Does anyone know if you still need to add the compression and limiting if you use something like Neural's DSP Parallax. It seems to be a bit too much, but i don't really know.
Any tips for getting that Sean Malone fretless bass tone on the Cynic music? I'm that kind of metal bass player and can't find much info on this type of tone.
I got black salt audios low control for $20 But I can't seem to dial it in right yet. Still getting used to it. I assume it takes the place of compressor and limiter
1st time commenting.....i took a home recording i did into this guys beutiful awesome studio....my song came out horrible imo compared to my mix and seperate master....guy spent alot of time on my ez drummer 3 drums.....dont they need minimal processing?....wasted my money ...ugh...i thought my mix sounded good...just wanted radio quality...grrr
Did you listen to his portfolio first to make sure that he was a skilled mix engineer? Unfortunately, nice gear doesn't equate to pro-quality production.
Was the person even familiar with the genre of music u gave him? And did u give him some reference to what kind of sound u were after? Surely u had the right for revisions?
I've spent thousands of dollars on their plugins, so I was extremely upset when they dropped the news. They did the right thing by listening to us and bringing back perpetual liscenses.
@@greghillmusic For those who wonder, Waves is a plugin vendor. Very big one, too, or least has been. A few days ago they announced that theyd move to a subscription license, dropping perpwtual licenses that users would already have bought. Naturally, their customers were angry about their licenses being revoked. This to such an extent that Waves reconsidered and announced that while the subscription plan is still gonna happen, they are reinstating the perpetual licenses alongside it. For some, the damage is already done and theyre planning to phase out Waves plugins. Others settle with the new plan but might not support Waves as much as before. We will see how the company fares in the future
I think that the bass helps to make the guitar sound bigger/louder. Maybe there are other reasons as well, but the base is often a big part of the perceived guitar sound
@@FrightboxRecording I understand that bass has alot to do with tone, I'm asking did you use a limiter on those aswell or just a multiband (andy sneap) for the the chugs
