Recording Challenge #6 - I’m All About Dat Bass

[CrowsofFritz]

Wow, [mention]liv_rong[/mention] that sounds fantastic! I love the tone and the melody. Are you gonna add vocals to it? I feel like I could really work with that.

[liv_rong]

Wow, @liv_rong that sounds fantastic! I love the tone and the melody. Are you gonna add vocals to it? I feel like I could really work with that.

Cool, thanks! No for the vocals but after Im done with it I can send you the stuff if you want to mess around with it.

[CrowsofFritz]

Thanks so much!

[vomitHatSteve]

@vomitHatSteve yours is cool too, I was surprised how good the bass was without aything else but ti works well. Cool drum pattern too!


But ya'll arent going to do another one for this challenge?

Ehhh... Maybe? I'll have to see what my schedule looks like over the next few weeks.

[liv_rong]

Well I thought I would do this today but I wasnt happy with the way it was turning out, so Im going to let it marinate a bit.

[Lt. Bob]

I got one coming if I can find a 'lead' bass sound I like. Tried to get a distortion but everything sucks so i'm gonna maybe go clean w/echo.
If I don't get it done tonight then it's Thursday cause a friend is playing tomorrow so I'm gonna go play with him

[heatmiser]

You guys work fast!

Still trying to nail down #5.

[CrowsofFritz]

You guys work fast!

Still trying to nail down #5.

I’m just really bored lol

[Lt. Bob]

okely dokely ...... here's mine.
My usual process .... turn on recorder ... play first thing that comes to me ..... add some other stuff ..... good enough? .... Good enough.

Guys .... i really didn't have time, so I rushed thru this.
I have a dead mom-in-laws home FULL of crap to deal with but my gig got rained out so I figured I wouldn't have done anything anyways so I did this.

It's all bass all the time.
I wanted the lead bass to be distorted but it sounded like shit and I tried a buncha ways ...... amps ... pedals .... but I still have some ideas I may try in the future.
But I couldn't get a distorted sound that didn't bum me out for this one.

So I went with the bass thru a Guitar Fetish delay pedal which sounded good and this is actually the first take until around 2:40 when I played something so egregiously wrong that it wasn't good enough, even for me! I punched in and played on out.

I also thought the lead should be with a pick but it just didn't feel/sound right so it's all fingers.

I sorta like some of it ,...... I may update the mix before the night's up.

[Tadpui]

[mention]Lt. Bob[/mention] that's great man! Reminds me of something that would happen in the middle of a Phish concert What the heck time signature is this in? I tried counting along but I kept getting lost. Is that really a bass that's playing lead? Sounds like a softly picked clean electric guitar. What bass is that?

[Tadpui]

[mention]CrowsofFritz[/mention] dude that's bad ass! The vocals really sell it. I agree with the Sabbath references, but it's new and cool. I'd listen to the whole thing even if it were 6 minutes long. Good choice on the guitar tone, the fuzzy nasty grit fits right in. Well done.

[mention]liv_rong[/mention] Nice bass tone. Is that direct, or through an amp? The high end on it sounds very nice. I always end up with a flabby dark mess when I record bass direct. Interested to hear what you come up with around that bass idea.

[Lt. Bob]

It is bass .... it's a Schecter 5-string.
Just playing with my fingers way up the neck and rolling off all the bass (active bass) and turning the treble all the way up .... and running thru the pedal into an Art ProChannel channel strip.

You can count the time various ways ..... you can actually count it in 4.
But what the bass that laid down the pattern is doing, is a measure of 3/4 then a 2/4 and then another 3/4 and repeat.

And I used the first bass part I came up with to dictate the song so the rhythm simply follows that.
The bass that starts off for the first couple of measures is a single bass and that's the one that set the pattern and then I added everything else to fit.

To play the lead I was listening for that first bass part bass mainly, but also in the rhythm there's a *boom chick chick boom chick boom chick chick* that constitutes a single pattern ...... that's what you hear at the very beginning before the first bass comes in.

.
There are also a few sections that are more 4/4 .... but the majority is the 3/4 2/4 3/4 thing and after about 2 minutes it's that the rest of the way.

[Tadpui]

[mention]Lt. Bob[/mention] OK I can kinda follow the 7 count. But I lose it when it leans towards a 4 count. Impressive stuff!

I wrote a 5/4 song once, but I could never play the damned thing

[Lt. Bob]

Lt. Bob OK I can kinda follow the 7 count. But I lose it when it leans towards a 4 count. Impressive stuff!

I wrote a 5/4 song once, but I could never play the damned thing

5/4 is tough
I play Take Five and even after many decades of playing it I have to think about what I'm doing

[CeeBee]

But ya'll arent going to do another one for this challenge?

My bass is in bits in the basement, don't know when I am going to get round to putting it back together.

[CrowsofFritz]

[mention]Lt. Bob[/mention] That sounds great! I miss my ART gear.

[mention]Tadpui[/mention] Thanks! I'm sure I'll come back to it at some point when I'm really bored haha.

[vomitHatSteve]

That's mellifluous, Bob!

I don't know why Tad would be so rude as to compare it to a meandering phish jam!

[heatmiser]

[mention]Lt. Bob[/mention] - Another bright, clean capture! I like that you took the bass challenge one step further with a lead bass, which I thought sounded quite nice actually.

[Lt. Bob]

Thank ya'll.

I just try to make sure each instrument can be clearly heard .... that's always paramount to me.
I hate it when there's a cool part or vocals or harmonies in someone's tune but you can't really hear them.

There are situations when I'll have a pad or something that I don't want to really hear per se.

But in general my mixes go for the idea that you should be able to choose one of the parts and listen to it and clearly hear every little thing it's doing but if you switch your attention to any of the other parts, you can just as clearly focus on it ...... or any of them.
..... and most of the time I find the lower registers get congested so I pull some frequencies down but never by any 'rule' .... not even my own.
it's always by what I'm hearing and I don't second guess myself either ....... I know what I want and that's to be able to differentiate between all the parts.

With my age and certainly some hearing loss I try pretty hard to not overcompensate on the top end.
But I imagine that despite that I still mix on the bright side.
But I do still listen to a lot of music and I have a high quality stereo and run it flat so I know how my favorite sounding records sound to my ears and I go for that.
Mixwise I'm a big fan of Steely Dan's sound ..... also there's some awesome mixes on some of the Manhattan Transfers records ... especially to learn about mixing vocals.
Another good one for learning about vocals (whether you like the music or not ) is Take 6.

But the Manhattan Transfers stuff is just over the top in terms of being about to clearly differentiate between each of a very large number of instruments and yet still be able to hear every note each of the singers sing.

A couple of their albums are eye opening just from the recorded sound POV.

[CeeBee]

@[mention]Lt. Bob[/mention] I like bass when it's played like that, a bit like a Georgian chant.