http://stabilitynetwork.blob.core.windows.net/g-tunes/20130622_Anti_18_TheWeight.mp3
 
Thanks to everyone who has been helping me. Here is another track from the bar recording I made in June. I'm still working/struggling to get a bassy enough sound for the band.
 
I want the band to like the mix without reservation.
 
I also want to finish mixing the 3 hours of music within this lifetime. :-)
 
In this track, I tried this advice...

ugp
One of my favorite tricks effects is to add distortion to only the upper freq than add back to the original, gives you that top-end sizzle, you can vary the amount, the frequency, the placement..., but as they say 'too much of a good thing'

 
On the bass track, I put compression (PC76 S-Type) 65% Wet 8:1. I also put a tube PC plug.
I sent the bass out to 2 busses with LP64_Multiband with compression and boost disabled - threshold 0 ratio 1 gain 0.
1 of the busses solo'd Low and Low-Mid ending at 500.
The other bus solo'd mid, high-mid and high. On this bus, I added the Saturation Nob just above 9 PM set to neutral.
Both of these busses went to a third bus on which I added some EQ with very low - low-pass and some high pass to cut some of the fret rattle.
 

Image of some of the settings on the bass...
 

The bass sounds fine to me in this and has good separation from the other instrumentation and vocals. The guitars have a few mistakes in various places, but other than that it sounds like a live recording. It does not sound mastered, as of yet.
 
Peace and Blessings, John

Bass sounds ok, but why use 2x of LP-64 multiband compressors
who is not compressing at all ?
just a waste of resources ! Any trick i do not know here ?

At least i would run a compression on  "one band " ( 125/140hz -700 hz range )  reducing the lvl
with compression about -2 to 5 db at that range " depends on the taste "
to get rid of some " box-iness " sound and maybe do the bass more tight..
just my suggestion or thought if u will.....
And with just 1 compressor ..

I also do not cut under 10k because even a bass have air up to that frequencies, small but still noticeable.

Soundblend, I'm only using the compressors to separate the low end to one track and the high end to the other track.
 
I'm solo'ing the lower two bands on bus 1 and the upper 3 bands on bus 2 ... adding saturation only to bus 2 so I'm only adding saturation to the upper bands.
 
Then I bring them back together in bus3 and apply EQ with high pass and low pass as shown in the image.
 
TheGuitarPlayer, I do have multiband compression and EQ on the master bus, but that's it. I'm lost in the mastering world. I just try to not make it sound worse.

Ok, i have not tried that way of managing a signal before
i need to have a look into that myself, and see how that works out. 

I guess there's a lot of  techniques i do not know of,  :-/

Hmm by using this technique, what will happen to the sound ?
More definition on the high frequencies ?

I know it is hard to mix, i guess the ppl in the band look for a kind of " punchy " 
and kinda tight type bass sound, with a good low end to it ?

Well, if you just split it out and bring it back together, NOTHING happens. That's the great part.
 
When I add the saturation, it gives me total control over WHAT GETS SATURATED.
 
It's important when using this trick that the ranges solo'd on the two paths match exactly. Otherwise you lose something.
 
So yes, you get a bus with just High-End bass sounds that you saturate. You could then use the fader on the second bus to raise the high end if you want, but I just used the Saturation Nob. You can use Tube Distortion in place of the saturation if you want.
 
Another use of this technique is to pan ranges of frequencies differently on the same track or the master. So...
 
If you take you master bus and split left and right, and split the ranges of each channel, you can use the channel tools to reduce the stereo spread in the bass end in exactly relative position to the high end. You can just make a little tightening if you want.
 
Then, it can sound like the bass is panned left or right, but a lot of the work is being done closer to center.
 
cool?

It is kinda the same technique on vocal , where you double the vocal track
then on the second track remove the low end ,add a HP filter ( up to 2khz )
and put some distortion to it and maybe an EQ to boost the High's, then adjust the volume on second vocal track
to add the " shine " and definition.

yeah a cool and great way to enhance the sound. 

On the bass, low end ( talking bass guitar ) , it is probably good to use a M/S EQ and drop some db down on
the Side channel on the " in the box " and " problem " frecuencies.
then on the MID channel boost around 60 - 95hz and maybe some other place where you want some character ?
It may also be needed to drop a few db in the Mid band to... it depends ( if there's a conflict with frequencies )
in a vocal or similar, to make a tad of room for the vocal etc.

anyway's hope you find a solution, just need to keep trying different techniques.

reminding me... i need to buy the Fabfilter Pro Q EQ again ;-)

The bass sounds pretty good.  I can certainly hear the saturation on the top end like what you intended, and it sounds good.  I'm not sure the bass player will like that as it does affect the tone, maybe you already discussed it with him?  There is some low end on the bass maybe around 200 that could be cut a bit to my ears.  To me the bass / kick relation could be improved.  I would like the kick to be up in the mix - punchier, and the bass could be a little in  lower relation to the kick.  I like the bass to be a solid "brick" (compressed) and the kick to punch through that brick.  That just how I like it though - it is a personal choice. These are just the things that came to my mind after first listen.

Ok gs, now I'm back and might be able to shed a little light on this for you.
 
First off, in my opinion you shouldn't need a multiband on anything unless there is a specific "surgical" need to do so. I like how you are experimenting with things though...but again, you're (imho) over thinking and over-processing on this.
 
The first thing to decide is do you want a kick drum with boom and a bass with a little more high end clack or do you want a kick that has more beater attack and a bass with more of an "ooom" type low end sound? From there, that blueprint there can help you sculpt the mix a bit better because you know what you're shooting for coming out of the gate.
 
In this song example you posted, I don't hear anything blatantly wrong (other than a few subjective things which I'll share in a bit) with the bass but as Geno has mentioned, the kick drum is non-existent and needs some thrust to it. See, when you create a mix, the sound of the low end on the whole comes from the relationship of the kick and bass guitar.
 
Together that team is what makes up the low end. Doing this to a single instrument is moot. Several instruments make up the low end in a mix and even more so in a mastered mix. It's sort of like how guys are using reference material to mix better when in reality, they are referencing mastered material. This is why so many home studio guys or newer engineers are totally getting lost and over processing trying to come up with the perfect mix. What you hear on a finished mix from a reputable engineer is NOT what you hear on the master as you know. The mix is usually flat and well balanced. It doesn't have accentuated lows etc like you've heard me mention before.
 
In a sense, the mix you've presented here, would *almost* be a good candidate for a mastering engineer to turn into a great final product. You need some kick drum work though and a little more tweaking to cut some of the mids you have going on here and this would be pretty good. Bass seems a bit muddy with the drive on it to me and could use more definition and a little "clack" at about 2.5 k in my opinion. It "ooms" a little too much for my liking and seems a bit too comped.
 
Remember when I talked about a bass with more low end and a kick with more beater etc? The low end is the toughest because you have to decide if you want a little sub low harmonic, or a major thrust. This is what YOU have to decide in this particular mix. What you choose here with the kick drum helps define your bass choices.....or in your case, if you leave the bass as is, it *should* define your kick drum.
 
Right now, your kick drum is doing nothing in terms of thrust. With your bass as low endy as it is, you're going to have to select a kick drum frequency that either has a little sub low harmonic in it, or a low end thrust point that is higher than the bass low end so that they don't mask.
 
OR, you'll need to back down some of the bass guitar lows and bring in kick drum lows. It's ok to have the bass guitar as 2nd in command of low end. Though that is usually not the classic rock way, there's nothing wrong with allowing the kick to rule the low end roost. A prime example of that is Living Color's "Cult of Personality".
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xxgRUyzgs0
 
Give it a listen when you get a minute. You have more low end in your tune than they do....but what do you hear every time? Right...that consistent kick drum thrust. The bass is there...but you hear it more and feel it just a little. That mix sounds exactly the same on any system I listen on. That kick and bass just works so well. Take notice there is no low end kick thrust on it...yet it sounds huge and hits you in the throat instead of the stomach.
 
My point in sharing that......you don't need as much low end as you think to make things have impact. When the relationship works right....the stars align man. :) Now, you may not like this mix....and that's ok. But I just wanted you to hear how the opposite (kick ruling the roost) can have impact too.
 
In your case, you need a happy medium of kick thrust and low end on the bass. 60 Hz to 110 Hz usually gets you your thrust power with tight Q's on 50 Hz for a little sub if needed. But...you gotta be careful there because it's too easy to go over-board with it. Best to leave that stuff to an ME when it comes to the sub harms for enhancement.
 
If I'm you in this situation, I'm going for kick drum thrust between 60-80 Hz and will cut down/high pass the low end on the bass until it works with the kick...and I'm removing that tube thing. You've made things a bit too warm all across the board in my opinion...tube drivers etc...mask the brilliance of digital and remove the high frequencies that I personally find musically stimulating. Subjective, but that's how I'd attack it.
 
You made a mention in that other thread that someone from the band came to your studio and mixed a song with you telling you how much bass they wanted in things....and when they listened on their system, it had too much bass or something, right?
 
What were your thoughts on that mix when you listened to it on your system? If it sounded wrong to you, it was wrong. If it sounded pretty good yet sounded bad on other systems, time for monitor tuning and some room tuning. It's up to us to tell the clients "yes, I know what you want but this will not sound good sonically" when you know it will suck. Yeah, they are paying for it, but they usually don't know about this stuff like you and your name goes on it too...so it has to be a 2-way street as much as possible.
 
Anyway, I hope some of this helps. Keep up the great work man.
 
-Danny