dual mids appreciation

[shakinbacon]

The more I analyze bass tones I like from albums and try to emulate them, the more I appreciate the tone control on the Bongos. In particular the High and Low mid controls. For the first time I'm getting a tone I like playing live. Its deep, wide and cuts... and it sounds not so hot when played solo.

As many have said, the mids are very important (ironically) in getting a good bass tone in a mix.

Those of you with 25th Anniversary and Big Al's probably know what I'm talking about.

Let this serve as a big booty kissing thank you to whomever (Dudley?) zero'd in on the Bongo's eq control. It is well thought out, has a ton of headroom and lots of subtle tonal variations. I'm finally starting to get the hang of it.

 

[keko]

As many have said, the mids are very important (ironically) in getting a good bass tone in a mix.

+1

There's nothing ironically in that to me!
That's all just an electro-acoustic reality!

 

[adouglas]

It took me a long, long time to reach that conclusion. Years.

And it only happened when one day I decided to stop listening to MY tone and listen to the whole band instead, as if I were listening to the radio.

I think that many if not most of us focus so much on ourselves that we often lose track of the big picture.

The same goes for bass lines.

Example: My band recently picked up Money (That's What I Want), an old Barrett Strong song that was famously covered by the Beatles in the early days.

Naturally I did the obvious eighth- and quarter-note bass treatment and the overall song sounded... well, like a bunch of aging white guys doing a bar-band cover.

Then I listened closely to the original recording and realized that the REAL bass line very slow, lazy and loaded with half notes. And also very muffled and wooly. So I did that instead and BAM! Perfect. Getting the heck out of the way let the drums, piano and vocal really pop out.

But soloed it sounds like crap... the line is completely unrecognizable.

 

[adouglas]

By the way, here's something I've been learning slowly as I record more of our practices. (I don't have the patience and devotion to sit down and learn proper recording technique in a dedicated way, so I've just been picking up bits and pieces as I go.)

One thing that drives me nuts when trying to learn bass lines is how the bass is obviously there, but still hard to make out somehow. You just can't tell what's going on.

Turns out that the recording engineer will routinely kill all the low end on the bass so it won't get in the way of the kick drum.

So on those recordings.... you're just hearing the low mids and up anyway.

 

[kevins]

whoever chose those frequencies on that bongo eq, kudos, they picked the perfect ones. utterly perfect!

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

I am looking forward to enjoying that feature in a few months!