Impressions asked

[klinkepeter]

 
Hey fellows, tell me ur impressions about the bass sound, we are in the middle of mixing and some of us have a different impression about the sound especially while slapping. I personally like it a lot, when i slap it might be a little bit to crispy?

[artswork99]

I like it a lot too Peter.  Crisp when it needs to be to cut through and nice round wave tones throughout.  I can see some thinking it might be thin at the more aggressive areas of your slap and I imagine that is where any overtones may diminish - cuts right through - everyone with those different tastes.   The band is so nice and expressive, really enjoyed the tune.  Great job!  Art

[musashi]

The sound is just where it should be. Some non-bass players may prefer what they tend to refer to as a rounder tone...  My experience has been that it is not the tone, but rather what one keyboard player/producer I once worked with said-- he didn't like all the fret noise.  Of course, it isn't fret noise but rather the personal expression of the player that he was objecting to....  It is vibrato.  You do it at 6:11 in the video.  Abe Laboriel has been doing it his whole career.
 
You may want to bump up a hair at 700 Hz or so to round out the midrange just to soothe the naysayers.  I am, of course, reminded of Lee Sklar's bass from back in the day that had the pot on it he referred to as the producer's knob.  Whenever some non-bass player would request (or demand) a change in the bass tone, he would tweak this knob.  They would be satisfied that the bass player had bent to their will.  Of course, the knob wasn't connected to anything and the tone remained what the bass player intended.
 
No one tells the sax player what reed to use, nor the guitarist what gauge strings to put on the guitar.
 
Your critics need to respect your Voice.  Not everyone has one.  You do.  Long story short, you are the bass player.  You are the expert on bass tone in your situation.  There is nothing wrong with your sound.  In fact, everything is as good as it gets.

[musashi]

And, yes, to echo Art, the band and the recording sound amazing. Well done, Peter.

[cozmik_cowboy]

I am, as a rule, not crazy about slap bass, but for me that's where your tone works best.  Overall, though, were I at the board I might go with Muashi's 700 Hz suggestion, and I'd definitely bump the bass-channel fader up - probably 2-3mm (and elbow the light geek & tell him/her to spend a few candlepower on the horn section), and that's about it.  Very nice tune!
 
Peter

[rustyg61]

Peter, tone is in the ear of the beholder. You have guys like Chris Squire & Geddy Lee who made their legend pumping out the high end raspy thin tones of the Rickenbacker to all the Motown guys who put the P Bass on the map with it's fat round bouncy tone. It's all good & all a matter of personal preference. I prefer a little fatter tone, so if I was setting your tone I would have the low channel on my SF-2 set for low pass around 110 - 120 hZ & open the threshold up to 50-75% to give it some fullnees.

[klinkepeter]

thanks guys, there are some good ideas about what could be done, Peter.   if u like, i'll post some more tracks in the next weeks, i have some interesting sound variations with an octaver and touch wha.....

[mike1762]

I remember a funny story about Tommy Tedesco: He was on a session and the producer asked him to do the part over with cat-gut strings.  So he puts his guitar down and picks it right back up and recuts the part  The producer loved it.  He asked the producer if he'd like to hear the part with a 12-string.  Sure says the producer.  So he puts his guitar down and once again picks it right back up and does the part again.  Even better says the producer...