EQing Bass Guitar in the mix

[RawDepth]

It clearly depends on the sound of the song, but quite often I find that rolling off the highs and some mid gives a sweeter and softer sounding bass. If you do this, however, you do need to pay closer attention to the lows and low-mid then.

(Was just wondering how other people prefer to approach the bass.)

I recently recorded an active bass direct through a $29 Art Tube MP Studio mic pre. I was surprised. It actually came out sounding pretty good.

Tips:
- Never EQ/mix bass without a sub in your monitoring room.
- Never EQ the bass while solo'd. As with all instruments, EQ while listening to it in the mix, or at minimum along with drums and one guitar.

[stainless]

as to the sub... I would caution against a sub in an untreated room

I start with the drums and then add the bass...once I get a good balance/level between them, I'll bring in keyboard s(if present) then rhythm.... solo/lead guitar should never interfere with the bass

and I typically compress bass between 4:1 and 6:1 fast attck and medium release

if the bass is wimpy, I'll EQ and boost around 100 - 160 Hz... but preferably the bass player has the tone when it's recorded

but that's just me!

[kip4]

yep similar treatment depending on the recording but mostly boost around 80 hrz
sometimes use a preset in cubase sx multiband compressor to make it stand out against the rest of the mix

[kip4]

i used to use a sub bass speaker in my monitering too until i realised when i changed system( ie put it on cd after mastering that my car stereo and house stereo ) it was lacking in bass because those systems hadnt got the sub bass so i had to remaster them and put more bass in the mix to compensate. I also found most people listen to cd on systems without subs and on a mp3 player too.

[stainless]

the purpose of a sub in your mix room is to allow you to better hear the bass in your mix-  the situation you've described with "missing bass:" elsewhere from where you mixed it is indicative of poor acoustics in the mix room- lack of bass traps and/or insufficient diffusers (standing waves)

I'll wager I needlessly spent (well OK I acquired some nice gear) several thousands of dollars trying to hardware/software "fix" why my mixes sounded great in my control room and any of the following elsewhere.

thin/lacking bass

muddy as all hell

boomy/too much reverb

I did learn how to compensate somewhat... but this worked against me when played on good mixers in an acoustically pleasing room...

then I finally (and reluctantly I'll admit) researched traps, diffuser, baffles and other methods of acoustic treatment and after a some trial and error... got the acoustics under control such that my mixes translate well to other systems

It's unfortunate that it can't  be a requirement of all novice recording-ites that they must first treat the room- it would save money and frustration in the long run

[kip4]

here here mate i wish i could afford to spend a great deal to acoustically treat my room but until that time i'll struggle on and learn the hard way

[JohnRick]

Perhaps a bit old, but still...

I like to double the basstracks and process them differently. Treating the bass as separate instruments if you will, where I have the low end, the string work and one for rounded distortion (and possibly more) I basically highpass around 40Hz most of the time, even if that's not carved in stone of course.
 
If necessary I then Melodyne away to get rid of any timing (and sometimes tuning) errors between kick and bass.
 
After this I like to compress the bass quite hard though, usually with some SSL-comp with a ratio of 10:1, with slow attack and release to really keep the wavelength firm. You could also bring out the attack with some transient modulator from, say, Sonnox or SPL.
 
I usually like to boost around 120 Hz if needed and maybe add some Waves maxbass for subtle bottom. Around 200 Hz I tend to find annoying frequencies where I often cut narrow. My kick normally resides around 60-80 Hz. As per Maserati's advice  I also like to emphazize the importance of treble in the bass. Between 800-1200 Hz I find I could do some very slight boosting to bring out the string sound. In quite a few takes there is also some noise from the pick-ups around the baby-frequencies (3KHZ+/-) which I normally can cut away (or notch).
 
Distortion-wise I turn to Soundtoys Decapitator, put on the doubled track and blended to taste. Optionally using an amp-sim - often Softubes Bass Amp Room - to get it dirty.
 
Then automation...