Let Us Talk About The Differences In Perceived Recorded Bass Tone, And Actual

Re: Let Us Talk About The Differences In Perceived Recorded Bass Tone, And Actual

I would like to know where these isolated tracks are coming from - studio school where someone's dumping curriculum tracks online, or are these software rips from the mixes?

On the subject of the subject, I found the Chris Squire Roundabout isolated bass track to sound nearly identical to the mix, so there's also the aspect of getting the entire band tuned and toned around each other, including drums (blankets, specific heads and shells, etc), unless, as I say, these tracks are being ripped from the final mix somehow.

A lot of the times it would be from Rock Band or Guitar Hero games that got a hold of the master tracks and were able to create beats for individual instruments. They are separate in game and can be isolated in the practice modes so the game software contains the isolated instruments. The first 2 Guitar Hero's were covers though, they didn't get a hold of the master tracks until game 3. Rock Band always had the masters. I also know there are plenty of online magazines for bass players that will post isolated songs which are obtained legitimately from the masters as well.
 
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Re: Let Us Talk About The Differences In Perceived Recorded Bass Tone, And Actual

The one that always surprised me was Interstate Love Song. The tone is downright nasty in the iso track, but I guess they buried it just right in the mix so you can't tell.

 
Let Us Talk About The Differences In Perceived Recorded Bass Tone, And Actual

That STP raw bass track seems to be missing a lot of EQ and whatever else was added to it as part of the song mix. I'm no expert but I bet it's not an apple to apple comparison. It's less mixed to more mixed.

The AIC bass sounds like what I expect isolated.

One other thing that may be a factor is the listening volume of the isolated tracks is much higher than the mixed volumes. Simply turning the isolated volumes down made even the STP line closer than when I first listened to it.

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Re: Let Us Talk About The Differences In Perceived Recorded Bass Tone, And Actual

Jolly - Glad you noticed this. I hope all the bedroom shredders learn this when they go out to jam...

Everything needs to be heard in context, simple as that. Just like how a bassline can sound ok on its own, but sounds great when played along a tight drum groove...I wish more musicians knew this and tweaked in a band setting rather than just riding the volume knob.
 
Re: Let Us Talk About The Differences In Perceived Recorded Bass Tone, And Actual

+1 To this.

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Re: Let Us Talk About The Differences In Perceived Recorded Bass Tone, And Actual

My my. It is beginning to look as if JJ is experiencing a lost weekend. :D

Back in post #16, I asserted that all recorded music is artifice. By way of illustration, this morning, I overdubbed a motif in a Project that sounds like a fuzzy Rock Organ but is actually Chapman Stick through a Garageband amp modelling preset of a "Tweed" guitar amp and a Leslie cabinet. With a further overdub of background hiss, whooshing and tonewheel leakage noises, the illusion will be complete.
 
Re: Let Us Talk About The Differences In Perceived Recorded Bass Tone, And Actual

My my. It is beginning to look as if JJ is experiencing a lost weekend. :D

Back in post #16, I asserted that all recorded music is artifice. By way of illustration, this morning, I overdubbed a motif in a Project that sounds like a fuzzy Rock Organ but is actually Chapman Stick through a Garageband amp modelling preset of a "Tweed" guitar amp and a Leslie cabinet. With a further overdub of background hiss, whooshing and tonewheel leakage noises, the illusion will be complete.
Life got in the way. Family, Thanksgiving, work, and recording was a little more important to me than this thread.
 
Re: Let Us Talk About The Differences In Perceived Recorded Bass Tone, And Actual

No Treble.
 
Re: Let Us Talk About The Differences In Perceived Recorded Bass Tone, And Actual

I listened.
 
Re: Let Us Talk About The Differences In Perceived Recorded Bass Tone, And Actual

recording my own personal bass tone never quite worked out for me in a studio. That being a real live bass stack, not modelled.

Difficult to know what your bass tone is without some idea of the gear involved, your control settings and playing style(s).

Your rig could sound fine right up until the moment when some studio staffer chooses the wrong microphone to point at it.

None of the folks I ever recorded with, just couldn't quite get, and understand my tone.

The two most obvious interpretations of this statement are that either your tone is highly unusual or that the folks with whom you have recorded simply didn't listen closely enough.

I never figured out what the problem was.

Possibility #1 - The studio staff are locked into old habits and working practices for recording conventional electric bass guitar sounds. If they are accustomed to P, J,'Ray, Rick or modern active instruments, they may have a standard approach to recording that "always works."

Possibility #2 - Your sound is so unconventional and original that even the most experienced studio sound engineer has no idea how to even begin to capture it on recording equipment.

Possibility #3 - You have hearing damage but have not realised it.

Possibility #4 - You sometimes record in - how can I put this tactfully? - an altered state. How things sound under the influence and how they sound whilst sober might be different.

Many musicians spend a lifetime pursuing the idealised sound(s) in their head. In my opinion, it would be a struggle to pursue the musical idea in yo' head whilst you have chosen to get yourself out of it.
 
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