AUDIO
MIXING MASTERY : THE WORLD OF BASS , PART 3 | Jeff Hawley
For longtime readers of the ‘ Audio with Jeff Hawley ’ series in Worship Musician , you may recall a deep dive into various considerations around mixing bass guitar in a live or studio setting . In late 2020 , Part 1 of the series presented a few different DI and miked versions of the same bass performance , with different engineers taking a swing at how they ’ d place the bass in the mix . Part 2 of the series followed with some discussion of aligning the bass guitar with the bass drum and the lowfrequency range of a mix to achieve maximum sonic cohesion . This jump back into the series will reference a few different tracks to see how we might consider splitting the bass into its constituent parts to get different sorts of vibes going — from a ‘ dub ’ bass fundamentalforward take all of the way over to a plinky and aggressive sort of sound .
If you think about different famous bass tracks over time and across genres , it seems that there isn ’ t just one single go-to bass sound that works in every scenario . Trying to fit Paul McCartney Hofner ‘ violin ’ bass sounds into a modern alt-rock track isn ’ t going to work very well in most cases . Deep and moody Creedence Clearwater Revival bass sounds ( performed by the very groovy Stu Cook ) aren ’ t generally going to work out for edgy rockin ’ contemporary Christian settings . In many cases , I find that it can help to think about bass sounds as being two ( or more ) different instruments in the mix — the lowest core fundamental low end that
provides a grounding tonal ‘ home base ’ for the track and a more punchy and present attack on the top end that helps brings clarity and rhythmic energy .
LEAN INTO THE FINGERBOARD SOUND : Since it is always tricky to put these sorts of sounds in descriptive terms that land for everyone to grasp readily , let ’ s jump to a few actual sonic examples . One good example of treating the upper-frequency fret or string noise as a unique standalone element is evident in an old jazz funk track I recorded years ago on an upright bass , a song called ‘ Prayer ’ with the band Liparis Nervosa . In this case , the particular style called for less of a low-end heavy approach and more attention to the sound of
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