Am I taking the easy way out w/ this mix?

I can overuse EQ with the best of them.

One bad chord over an entire song sticks out like a sore thumb- esp if in the first 20 seconds.

Phil Spector spent 10 hours trying to get one Ramones chord right.

Terminate with extreme prejudice.

You need start thinking about transitional EQ. Automate the problem spot with EQ to meet the needs of the track. Static EQ doesn't always work. Ugh, see that Sharke just covered it.

It still may be worth finding out why they clash. Is the bass player playing the right note? I had a situation like this and it turned out to be a wrong note from the bass.

Could you steal the same chord or bass note from the same place in another chorus and use it there.

Automation of the offending sounds just for the duration of the problem.

I have dropped out a bass note altogether in a situation like this and it cured the problem and was not missed or it was not noticed.

I'm with Jeff...  is it not possible to play a different bass note and eradicate the EQ problem by not having a problem in the first place?  If the EQ ain't right, the woooomf ain't right, the harmony ain't right, wouldn't there be peace in the valley by playing a harmonically pleasing note?

Just curious.

As for EQ Automation ... I do that a lot, especially on my vocals and acoustic guitar.

Bristol_Jonesey

If it's just a single flubbed bass note, you can easily isolate it into it's own clip and use V-Vocal to correct it

That would work. When I do that, I snip the note out of the clip, apply trimming just to that little snippit, then enable V-Vocal.

if you have Melodyne Editor (not the cheap version like I have) then you can even manipulate individual notes of a chord, so even if it's the guitar, you can change notes in the guitar chord at that point.  if it's the bass that's off then as others have said, it's an easy fix with melodyne or v-vocal.

The bass note is actually right on spot, everything is in tune - both the guitars and the bass hit the same D flat.

Hitting that note higher on the bass would probably make the whole thing sound a bit weak and wouldn't work in that context. Lower, well I'd need a 5 strings. Plus, the guitars and bass need to come together at that particular point.

The bass all by itself works relatively fine - nothing unusual. Same for the guitar - I mean there is a bit more energy/resonance on that chord, but it's not unless you combine both bass and guitar that it all goes woooomf. 


Because that D flat sounds a bit fuller on the bass and the guitars have more resonance in the low mids. 

I have a hi pass on the guitars set at around 120 IIRC, and a dip in the bass somewhere between 120 and 200. That was the best "compromise" to make room for both and that balance works well for the song - but for that one chord.

But the more I think about it, the more I realize that the song probably calls for spot automation, structurally speaking.

The verses are very sparse and consist of drums, bass, and a harpsichord - so the bass needs to fill quite a bit of space to glue everything.

The bridge and chorus are much more dense - bass shifts to 16th notes, the double bass drum pattern kicks in and the guitars - 4 tracks of hi gain stuff.

Actually, it's almost surprising that I managed to find a basic static EQ set up for the bass which would (almost) work throughout the song. :s

Yep. Well they do sound fine on their own and manageable in context if one of them is muted. 

I was familiar w/ the occasional louder note on the bass (perceived loudness), but in this case, it's one of those occasions where both the guitar (or I should probably say amp/cab) and bass exhibit the most density in the same spot. 

Eq'ing the bass wouldn't fix but a few seconds sweeping between 160 and 200 on the guitar and the oooomf vanished. 

I'm guessing that using a different amp or cab or maybe just a different pick up - or more or less gain - could have resulted in something entirely different.