bass recording

[EVT]

Hi everyone,
Always an issue to have the bass sit well in the mix. Everything sounds good and then when I punch in the bass... ugggg...
My bassplayer has an Alembic brown bass... high end.. but it sounds bad in the mix no matter what setting can't get it to sit well...
then we tried a dan electro longhorn bass... and right away.. it just fit in like butter in comparison to the alembic...
the style we are playing is like pop/with a bit of an edge...
What are some basses that are used for in studio use that are easy to work with mixing wise?
fender, sadowsky... etc.any other ideas recommendations?
thanks
evt

[jokerjkny]

compression?

[EVT]

I am recording bass into a fishman platinum bass eq... then into the safesound p1... then into a fostex 16ex digital recorder.
the fishman is meant to go between the bass and the amplifier as well as being a di... it doesn't color the sound any... it gives extra eq options)

[loudboy]

I've got a Longhorn, and yes, it does sound great in most mixes. Very deep and rich.

Alembics and many other high-end basses may not work well in a standard rock/pop mix because the sound is very hi-fi, or too big. It steps on the frequency ranges of the other mix elements. Gary Tallent (E-Street Band) had a great quote, when asked what kind of bass he used - "I'm not sure, it has four strings, but I only use the bottom two." That's the key, really - staying in the appropriate range.

The other "failsafe" bass is a Fender Precision. You have to really try to screw up one of those. <g> I've never tried it, but many really like flatwound strings on a P-Bass.

Loudboy

[SturmerChilton]

Originally posted by loudboy
I've got a Longhorn, and yes, it does sound great in most mixes. Very deep and rich.

Alembics and many other high-end basses may not work well in a standard rock/pop mix because the sound is very hi-fi, or too big. It steps on the frequency ranges of the other mix elements. Gary Tallent (E-Street Band) had a great quote, when asked what kind of bass he used - "I'm not sure, it has four strings, but I only use the bottom two." That's the key, really - staying in the appropriate range.

The other "failsafe" bass is a Fender Precision. You have to really try to screw up one of those. <g> I've never tried it, but many really like flatwound strings on a P-Bass.

Loudboy

That's a great point that I hadn't really thought of, but yeah, I guess your Victor Wooten and Marcus Millers (although he plays a Fender of some sort) have a different sonic area covered by the bass than does a pop group. I always imagined it would be hard doing a hip hop or dance track that had tons of bass anyways.

[EVT]

thanks everyone for the replies...
You've given me a lot of info. to think about.
We picked up a 79 precision bass and WoW! It sounds excellent in the mix without driving me crazy.. I just eq'd it to sit well in the mix while playing the other tracks through my monitors... and it sounds great!!

Another mistake I made in the past was that I was trying to do everything with headphones (even final mixes), and I was having a lot of trouble getting it to sound good out of anywhere else.
I am now using my monitors (tannoy reveals) much more even when laying down tracks I adjust eq to have the instruments sit well.. but this is especially needed for bass.
thanks again,
evt