What effects do you use for a Rock Bass sound? Chorus, Flange?

I USE ZERO EFFECTS ON BASS.

save compression, and limiting.


it's fine to use them for 'effect' at short periods of time, but any time effect will wash your sound out and diminish both the tone and the impact.

batsbrew


I USE ZERO EFFECTS ON BASS.

save compression, and limiting.


it's fine to use them for 'effect' at short periods of time, but any time effect will wash your sound out and diminish both the tone and the impact.

Bat - Thanks for you comments.  What you said is exactly how I've been doing it for years.  I was working on Journey's Don't Stop Believin and I tried their old technique of putting a chorus on the bass and I was amazed.  Keep in mind that I'm only using a hint of chorus - not the full effect (not as much as they used)
 
When the effect is full - it does wash out the sound.  But when I cut the effect down significantly, the bass tone comes alive.  Maybe it is something with Trilian's chorus, but it does not wash out the tone or diminish the impact.  It seems to enhance it.

bitflipper


Effects on bass are dangerous. Chorus can be nice but it really takes the punch out and doesn't work for aggressive tunes. I like to use distortion, though, to add some upper harmonics that give the bass a more melodic presence.

Since we're talking sampled bass rather than real guitars, another trick is to clone the bass track and drive another sample set in parallel. This isn't my invention, it's actually a very old trick. The second patch is usually a regular guitar or a muted guitar patch, optionally tuned down if the sampler allows that.

Thanks Bit.  That's a good idea about the cloned bass track.  
 
Here's an example of what I've done - You can't really hear the chorus and the bass seems to be very solid and well defined.  No? 

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9429511
 
Any suggestions on how to make it sound better?

A lot of funk players use one of these on some songs:

Bit - Pink4 sounds excellent.  That's a great song.  And it is a great example of a good tight bass.  Very nice bass sound.  And great mix.  what to you mean it's a down tuned gretsch?  So it is two bass instruments layered?

It's actually close in tone to mine.. Here is another one of mine that is a better example of tight base with the same setting as my previous.  It kicks in right away.  I'm using trilian's smoke amp sim which sounds pretty good to me.  I'm really impressed with Trilian.  I'm using 17% mix of their ultra chorus.
 Even with just 17% it thickens the bass.  Maybe the chorus has a bump in gain, and I'd get the same presence if I just turned up the output a little.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10389337

mike_mccue


Wow, I haven't heard the wall since the late 1970's... your versions sounds great.

I love the vocals.

I think what you are really looking for in the bass guitar is waiting to be discovered in your choice of kick drum tuning.

best regards,
mike

Mike - Thank you for your comments.  (The wall was one of my favoirites from the 70's)  Yes - the kick and the bass are totally integral.  In this case I'm using the stock Superior Drummer 2.0 kick drum (which I love)  with very little EQ and very little compression.  Prior to SD2 I was using Addictive Drums.  I like the SD2 kick better than AD's kick which I had to use tons of EQ and compression to get to sound good. 
 
You are right - With both kicks I've always had a problem getting the bass to be defined.  I now feel I've accomplished that with 2 changes: 1) a significant bump in the midrange frequency of the bass and 2) a "tad" of the ultra-chorus.  Now I can hear the bass like never before.  What do you mean about the tuning of the kick? 
 
After hearing Bit's example and reading the responses on this post I'm realizing that I don't need the chorus although a "touch" of it isn't hurting. 

Geno

Zero FX on Bass for me too.

FX on a bass, in my opinion, totally ruin the sound of a bass. It would be like building the foundation of a house out of Styrofoam.... 

I tend to agree with many of the others on here ..... unless it is a bass solo type thing . I tend to avoid effects with Rock Bass

 A little dirt with the gain in the sound, but minimal reverb so you get a bass sound that is solid, clear note seperation and holds the groove.

Sidenote -- The older I get, the less I fend myself using lots of effects or heavy compressions

Must be me coming full circle in life and realizing I like the way stuff like Led Zepplin, Dio, Black Sabbath and other albums sounded compared to the way CDs are recorded and engineered today with excessive proccessing and effects.

I think when I was younger I thought effects were the secret to good recordings ...... now I have learned better,  well played instruments with their full tonal ranges and dynamics are usually more musical sounding than feeling you need to use every effect in your DAW.

what to you mean it's a down tuned gretsch? So it is two bass instruments layered?

Exactly. Two instruments layered. Except one isn't actually a bass patch, it's a regular (muted) guitar sample transposed an octave down. There is a small amount of chorus on both patches, which I added later because the bass initially was actually a little too punchy and I wanted to mellow it out.

A thought on chorus on bass: chorus is ultimately a subtractive filtering effect, so it only works when you have a lot of harmonic content for it to massage. If the bass is too round and mellow, chorus can suck all the color out of it. The initial transient, which has the most high-frequency content, tends to lose out the most. That's why a little distortion in front of the chorus helps by providing the chorus with more upper frequencies to work with.

What's really needed, but does not yet exist to the best of my knowledge, is a delayed chorus. IOW, a chorus with an adjustable attack on the wet/dry mix so you can bring it in gradually after the initial transient. This would allow more liberal use of chorus on things like bass without hurting transients.

The bass in your track sounds perfectly fine, though it's hard to tell with SoundClick's MP3s.  Trillian's basses really shouldn't need anything else.  They're about as perfect as you can make a bass.

An 1176 compressor, my tool of choice for real  bass recordings, would brings out the harmonic content in the bass a bit more. 

Although I am not authorized to speak for bapu, I suspect that his official position on this would be to ask why you aren't using a real guitar?

bitflipper


Although I am not authorized to speak for bapu, I suspect that his official position on this would be to ask why you aren't using a real guitar?

Zactly.

chuckebaby


i would climb to the top of the highest mountain and ask bapu.

Or just drop by the coffee house?

chuckebaby


you tried ampeg svx??

If that was to me: yes I own it. I've used it once or twice.

OK - after reading all the great feedback - I removed the chorus from the bass yesterday.  If you listened today the chorus is gone. 

Mike - Thank you.  I've only been working with Superior Drummer 2.0 for about 2 months now and I love it.  For the previous 3 years it was Addictive Drummer for me.  And I had a very low tuned kick (about 50hz).  I never was happy with my AD kick and I tried a ton of different settings and tunings.  Now I'm using SD2 and the kick sounds so good with hardly anything done to it.  It has a higher thud (77hz).  Thanks for the ideas - I still have a lot to learn - I'll try different tunings.

jsaras - thanks for your comments.  I'm glad you think that about Trilian bass.  I'm actually using the ProChannel 76 compressor on the bass.  Isn't that supposed to be a model of the 1176?  What settings would you use?

bapu - listening to 2012 as I type this.  Pretty cool stuff there - nice job.  I think the bass sounds great.   Thanks for sharing your settings.

Thanks to everyone for your feedback - I've got a lot of ideas now.  It seems that Bit is having great success with just a little bit of chorus (to the point where you don't hear the chorus effect).  And Bapu's uses chorus on a solo and it sounds great.  Mlockkett's technique of creating a send for a chorus of flanger is good to - that way I can automate and bring in that sound in different areas of a song.  And skullsession - I'll check out the sansamp bass driver.

Geno