5 Minutes To A Better Mix: Bass Saturation - TheRecordingRevolution.com

Part 12 of 31 - In this video I show you how to use saturation or distortion to enhance your bass guitar sound in the mix. By bringing in the mid range presence with distortion, you can both hear the bass as well as feel the bass.

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Category:

Music

Tags:

• mixing
• bass
• guitar
• saturation
• distortion
• protools
• pro tools
• tutorial
• tips

[loicwall]

your use of an aux, pre fade, seems at odds with what you said about gain staging. Your gain staging vid also seems flawed because lowering the fader is simply lowering the output volume of the channel going to the bus or 2 bus, rather than adjusting the input level of that channel. you could be clipping a plug and not realise it in this way, don't you agree?

[recordingrevolution]

@loicwall Not at all. What matters is what is hitting the 2bus. You can look at your plugins and see if your audio is clipping them at all and adjust the input knobs on the plugins themselves.

[waterkeeper03]

gave the bass a nice "warm" feel in the full mix. almost analog or "tube-ish" from a direct line recording.

nice tip!

[MrBrennanMichael]

@MrBrennanMichael That having been said, I completely respect and appreciate all the information in this video and your other videos as well. Keep up the good work!

[MrBrennanMichael]

I find that simply duplicating the bass guitar track is much better and easier. If you set up a send and aux track situation, the Saturation track will be receiving the signal of the original bass track AND the plugins that are in the signal chain. Having mixed bass both ways, it seems to me that you have much more flexibility if you duplicate the tracks, allowing yourself to truly mix both tracks separately of one another. (And duplicating is much easier for beginners.) haha

[BlynkMusic]

@jrhager84 Agree with you completely.. to many people take words/techniques for gospel!

[jrhager84]

@loicwall

Don't you think "damage" is a relative term? I mean, what IS distortion on a guitar? My point is, if it *sounds* good, it IS good. Why don't people understand this very basic principle???

[royerobley]

@recordingrevolution Based on the other inaccurate comments made by another user in your mix bus compression video, I think it's safe to assume it's Pick On Graham Week.

[loicwall]

@recordingrevolution Right, but not all plugs have input and or output meters or gains. So you might boost with an eq, not realise you're pushing the next plug too hard and then lower your fader to get your level to the 2 bus. The damage would still've been done pre fader is what i'm saying.

[owenkilleen]

best vids on mixing on you tube,