sound advice on mixing and recording bass

[Fretboardninja]

Greetings from the guitar forum guys!

Ive been recording bass lines for my songs with my friends fender american Pbass just using a direct box to go straight into my mixer.. when im mixing down how can you get a good bass tone that isnt lost in the mix? i cut out a lot of bass from the guitars but its not cutting through... wha eq/compressor/anyother effects do you use and how do you use them? Thanks a lot guys...

oo and btw im going for more of a "metal" type tone if that helps at all...

THanks again :thumb:

[thelowsoundofbass]

Well boost mids that helps you to cut through.

Lowsound

[Fretboardninja]

alright thats cool do you have any specific frequency bands in mind? Im using cubase and have lots of parametric and graphic eqs i can use.

[thelowsoundofbass]

A lot of people say to boost low mids, but IME if you boost the very middle frequancies you will have the greatest luck cutting through. The reason that this happens is gennerly a bass will be better at reproducing tones in that range. Guitars, not matter how the eq is set, produce tone better in the bass and trebel range. This is not always true, but it is a genneral rule to follow.

lowsound

[DaromahBassPlayer]

In cubase, I just mess about the eq (the one when you press the little e button). Fool around with that a bit and listen to it while its all playing so you and get the sound you want through. Boosting mids on its own may sound "nasal" like but in the whole mix gives it a very nice, cutting tone. So if you cannot understand me, mids will be a good place to start especialy middle and higher middle frequencies, but dont make the tone brittle. And also some overdrive adds some lovely overtones :)

Hope I helped a tiny bit

[mrcarter]

Invert the waveform.
It'll be in a spot of the recording not really occupied, so it'll be seperate and come through. That's a piss-poor explanation, but trust me, it'll do it.
Oh, and always record the bass after everything else... it has a tendency to stick out (even though your saying you're losing it in the mix), so it almost always needs a lot of EQing to make it sit. Do what's best to fit the song.