http://stabilitynetwork.blob.core.windows.net/g-tunes/20130622_Anti_11_GoodLove.mp3
 
I keep being pushed to add more and more bass by everyone band I record. It confuses me. To me this bass is overpowering. I'm not sure it's enough for the band...
 
It's so much compared to the other instruments I took a picture of my desktop and posted it for the band to see...
http://stabilitynetwork.blob.core.windows.net/g-tunes/20130622_FlyingPig.htm
 
Could I get some feedback from others who mix? Is this amount of bass normal?

To me, the bass is not overpowering at all...  

Ok. TY. I'll continue to push it. Must be my ears. I have even been called the guy who hates bass. It's my shame. :-(
 
 

 more likely, it's your reference monitors... it could be your ears, and that would be a shame... I doubt that... keep at it...

There are ears? And then there are visual tools and matching EQs as well, "both" should be used. i.e., Ozone has a really cool feature where you can zoom in on a part on a reference track, where the bass (or whatever freq) sounds the way you want it? And it gives you a visual reference between that (the track you pick for reference) and the track you are trying to mix. 
 
There are really too many tools to get it wrong.

The bass is a bit loud actually. I am one who believes that bass levels can be a bit softer and still be very effective. But there are other problems apart from the bass level and this is with the groove itself. I am just not that thrilled with how well the band is playing the groove itself. It feels a little sloppy to me but that is just me I suppose.
 
Did you record a multi of this live because the mix is not great either. Drums are way back. I would get the drums and percussion happening right up front first and then bring other stuff in. Drums and persussion are pushed way back. Bass and other instruments are swamping things. Maybe with the drums and percussion up front the groove might sound better too. It means that the other players that are a bit too loud are the ones who have less of the tight groove happening.
 
Once drums are in a mix you have to ask yourself two things. Do I want them up front or not. Most often it will be up front. I need to really hear the kick, snare, hats, toms, OHeads etc... On a VU meter the drums should be pushing 70% to 80% of the full scale movement before anything else even comes in to the mix.

Thanks to all for your answers!!
 
@Notnat, I did a white noise test on my room only just a few weeks ago and I adjusted the crossover for the sub and the volume of the sub based on what my Omni mic was picking up and delivering to the spectral analyzer. I then tuned an EQ setting for my interface and saved it. I will keep working on listening better. To me, the bass is washing out things I want to hear (like the kick etc). Before this mix, I had tried lifing the high pass filter up to like 70, but I really didn't like that either because a lot of the bass sound I wanted was lost.
 
I don't know what type of stereo the band is listening to the recording through. I just get their requests for more bass (in every mix).
 
@TheBand, A spectral analysis that spans time like Ozone's would be an interesting thing to review. I don't own any non-Sonar plugs except M-AutoAlign which I use to resolve phase issues with live recordings.
 
@JeffEvans, I'm with you on this. My initial mix had WAY more drums. Subsequently I tried lifting the bass above the kick with the high pass. Yes, this was a live recording of the band. This is a video of a different song from the same night... http://youtu.be/YyrKrDALLdc.
 
At the bottom of this link, you can see how everything was miked up. http://forum.cakewalk.com/m/tm.aspx?m=2847415&p=2.
 
I'll continue to let different instruments take focus on different tracks. I don't think I'll push the bass this hard on every track, though.

For me the bass  is a tiny bit " over-powered " , as someone said: the drums is to far back there (too low ). Guitars is also a bit to loud " present "

In other words : Bring the drums up , Backing vocals ... , also a tiny bit on main vocals.

The overall sound is not good, its to mutch going on from 100hz to 1khz
you need to clean that up on every track.

The problem when recording Live or in a Recording room is: " Bleeding "
When recording you use alot of microphones, all those pick up what they can.

Lets take the vocal mic as an example:
Ok it is supposed to, record the vocal only ! but of course there is other instruments in the room
that this mic record also.
you do not only get the " vocal " , but the guitars / drum's and bass in that recording as well.
this happens to every instrument that is recorded with a mic.

This is a problem, you can not get rid of the sound from other instruments in the Vocal mic.
this will give you a problem when mixing each track.

In a Recording-studio: you can to eliminate this by a far amount , by using screens/walls/boxes
or even put the musicans in diffrent rooms.

In a live situation it is harder to do this, it would look funny to put musicans in boxe's on the stage ;-)
All you can do there is to use the mixer as good you can to get the best sound.
there's so many thing's that a mic is recording Live.
The artist, the monitor sound, other instrument's , reflections of the room etc.

I have no experience mixing and recording live, so i will just leave this as is.

Jan

Thanks sound blend, I'll give those recommendations a try.

If you struggle with the bass when recording live from an Amp only.

Do this both live and in a recording room.

1. Get an active 2 channel DI box, plug the bass to it, on the output: 1 channel to the mixer. ( Clean DI signal )
2. The next output from the DI, to the bass amp.
     using a Mic on the bass amp to the mixer.

now you have 2 channels with bass, both from a clean DI signal and the Amp.
the DI signal you can " enhance " to your likings, to add to the bass Amp signal
to get the most puncy and good sound.

A DI signal is a straight clean channel, without any " leaking " of other instruments to it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DI sound can be a bit lifeless and boring , so if you want more sparkle try add a preamp
or some coloring processor, in between the DI and your mixer, before it hit the mixer channel.