Behind The Mixer

Learn Church Audio Artistry | Church Sound

Topics: ,

Photo provided by Genkaku

Many a new bass player starts with thumping out the notes in the chords of a song.  They are mixed then as low-end filler.  As they progress in their skill as a bassist, are you still mixing them as an afterthought?  Check out these eight key frequency ranges you can use to bring out the great sonic character of a bass.

Sitting in the sanctuary, I watched the worship band practice.  Most everyone sounded great.  And then there was the bassist.  He was playing the triad notes of the chords in the song’s chord progression.  Nothing inspiring.  He was, at most, adding to the low-end of the song.  This was 20 years ago and before I started working in audio, but I could tell what was lacking.

Years later, I’ve seen this same bassist and he’s become a great bass player.   He can play funk, pop, rock and county.  Each of these styles has a different bass sound.  And each of these requires a different type of mixing.

Let’s get to proper mixing

The sound of the bass is more than just a low-end addition.

The sound of the bass affects;

  • the sound of the instrument
  • the sound of the song
  • the feeling of the congregation about the worship

If you’ve ever listened to a bass solo in jazz or even in rock or county, it’s obvious that the bass has a distinct sound.  This comes from how the musician is playing the bass but also the genre of music.  Therefore, let’s look at how you can get the best sound for the instrument, for the song, and mix it in a way that supports the worship experience.

The Frequency Range of a Bass

The low E on the bass runs around 40 Hz.  Now just up two octaves to another E and you have 165 Hz.  This doesn’t mean the bass frequencies only exist below 200 Hz.  Just like any instrument, by the time you look at the fundamentals and the harmonics, you can be looking frequencies as high as 6-7 kHz.  It’s easy to think of the bass only as “low end” but as you can see, it’s so much more than that.  Let’s examine how you can alter these frequencies for a better sounding bass.

The Eight Key Ranges

There is a lot you can sculpt with bass EQ – well, there is a lot more frequency range than you might think.  Without going overboard, here are eight ranges and the type of work you can perform in each area.

  1. Boomy (40 Hz – 90 Hz)
  2. Fat (75 Hz – 150 Hz)
  3. Thin (40 Hz – 180 Hz)
  4. Power (40 Hz – 150 Hz)
  5. Impact (40 Hz – 150 Hz)
  6. Clarity (190 Hz – 800 Hz)
  7. Presence (800 Hz – 6.5 kHz)
  8. Attack (120 Hz – 4.1 kHz)

Those first five are all sub-200 Hz.  However, look at what you can do above that.  Presence and attack can reach as far as 6.5 kHz.  Then we have what might be the most important of all; Clarity.

Using a digital mixer with the ability for multiple areas of boosts and cuts, you can do a lot.  But what can you do with the analog boards?  Analog boards come in a variety of EQ designs, from a single sweeping mid design to sweeping mid’s for “high mids” and “low mids.”  In the case of the single sweeping mid, focus on clarity and/or presence.  In the case of mixers with the two sweeping mid’s, you’ve got quite a bit more to work with.  In the end, when you have limited EQ control, focus on clarity, presence, and the fat/thin.

If you aren’t sure where to start, start by listening to a collection of songs that the worship teams cover.  Listen to the sound of the bass.  Make notes on how it sounds.  Now, you’ve got a sound goal.

A tip on bass EQ…don’t forget about the volume control.  I’d had times where I liked the mix but it seemed it didn’t fit.  Cutting a few dB’s put it perfectly into the mix.

The kick drum

Sculpting the sound of a mix means mixing instruments against each other.  In the case of the bass, much of that work will be done with the kick drum in mind.  The bass and the kick drum can support each other and take turns driving the song, from one song to the next.  You’ll want to know the role of the bass in each song so check with the musicians.

Compression and gating

You may or may not have at your disposal, the ability to work with compression and gating with regards to the bass.  If you do, start by using these features to separate the sound out from the kick drum.  A natural part of the EQ process is mixing against the other instruments and compression and gating is another tool you can use to do that.

Summary

As you can see, the bass guitar has a wide range of frequencies that are used and you have a lot you can do with them.  Not only will EQ bring out the right sound but compression and gating can also help significantly with the sound.  The bass is just as important as a rhythm guitar and, with a little work, you can make your mixes sound even better!

Question: What do you find the hardest about working with a bass sound?

Reader Interactions

Thought? Questions? Comments?

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.

Comments

  1. This is fantastic. Doing articles like this for all the instruments in a typical worship band would be amazing (if you haven’t already).

    Reply

  3. Hi, thanks for the range-list.
    I’m currently working (well stuck^^) on a song of mine and the bass-line just won’t be as present as i need it to be (Funk-Rock). The bass-line has a wide range from low F up to 2 Octaves above. The only way to hear the bass-line seems to be adding tons of mid-range. But that kinda kills the sound of the Instrument.
    Also in the bridge-part the bass-line plays way deeper than before which makes it disappear in the mix even with a bad but present mid overdose.
    So basicly it’s a range like in “Californication” by the RHCP. At the moment I’m trying to find a solution the SCARBEE midi-basses. Maybe they lack range and I should record the bass myself again? Thx for your time.

    Reply

  4. My biggest problem with the way people try to mix the Bass Guitar, Keyboard, and Drums is that they all cover overlapping frequencies. Generally, the Drums can be brought under control if they are electronic or if they are acoustic a cage helps immensely. The Keyboard generally has to be throttled back on the left hand since so many of the units seem to be programmed for solo playing and thus way too much bass there. The Bass Guitar player generally has an idea of what they want the sound to be so the mixer operator needs to work with the player to not muddy or brighten the sound up over what makes the Bass Guitar player happy.

    Since I was first a Drummer and then went onto Bass instruments and have worked for 40 years in Electronics related to Broadcasting and recording studio work I have tons of experience with having to fight with board operators that have their own idea of what something should sound like and have it turn out sounding terrible. Please remember what a real drum sounds like and thus not make it sound like a tubby bomb. Remember that many of us that are playing Bass Guitar are now using 5 and/or 6 string Basses that actually hit 30 to 15 Hz so do not roll off the lower notes. On the Bass Guitar please use a subsonic filter below 14 Hz if you please. On the Bass Drum consider a hard limiter to prevent the subsonic frequencies from beating the woofers to death.

    I remind everyone that if the Musicians are happy your job will be much better but if you can not have a happy Musician then have a happy audience. You can generally show the Musician that the audience was happy so they should be too. Hopefully.

    Reply

  5. Can you define (in simple terms;) what “gate” is and “compression”. I use a digital board and play with these but need to know how to define them to others clearly.
    Thanks and great mixing help.
    Lori

    Reply

    • In simple terms, a gate allows for only passing sound through the channel when the volume exceeds a specified level. For example if a singer was standing next to a drum set, you don’t want to hear the drums when they aren’t singing, so you’d set a gate.

      Compression is the control of how loud a channel will go and reducing the increase of volume based on your settings. For example, if the vocalist is known to sing a lot louder during the chorus, you can apply compression so whenever their vocal exceeds a specific level coming in, you compress how much is coming out. For example, if you set a threshold of 86dB and a compression ration of 2:1 then if they singer at 88dB, only 87dB is coming out. If they sang at 90dB, only 88 would come out because for every 2 decibels going in, your ration cuts the output above the threshold in half.

      See these articles:
      https://www.behindthemixer.com/audio-gating-guide/
      https://www.behindthemixer.com/how-use-compression/

      Reply

  8. Nice article. We have Aviom personal mixers, but the guitar players rebelled so now they are using QSC K10 1000 watt powered speakers instead of in-ears. Great monitors but the stage volume for the bass player is the most challenging. I’ve put the speaker on a stand to get it closer to the musician, but the stage volume is often so high I can turn off the house, except the wash sound is a muddy mess.

    It seems that bass sounds are hard to localize. Some people suggest putting the speaker farther away may actually help. I’m already using the high pass filter on the monitor speaker amp to minimize the standing waves to no avail. I’m considering using a version of the “Butt Kicker” on the bass player platform, but I am concerned that will make noise too.

    Any suggestions?

    Reply

    • Honestly. Most people have the same problem. And unless you have a large room and layout is such that musicians can have amps, then my answer is no rebels on the stage :) Our musicians don’t have a choice. Its a noiseless stage for the benefit of everyone. I don’t believe that the musicians should decide those things. Those decisions need to be laid out by the leadership. Later we started using a click and loops, so everyone has to be on ears.

      Reply

      • One point for the monitor situation is the lag when using digital PA systems. I play using my Bass Amp as a monitor when the stage volume is low because the digital converter lag in the PA system causes timing errors with the musicians if the lag is much of a few usec. If the stage level is high I revert to closed back headphones that reproduce down to 10 Hz so I can hear my instrument clearly and not be blasted by the stage volume. Click track is GREAT if you can get people to stay with it.

        Reply

  9. Good article! Here are a few other tips based on my experience. I find that every bass instrument is different as is the players using them as Chris said. The more experienced players tend to play softer and get a much mellower “solid” tone. As EQ goes though, I tend to use a high pass fillter at about 40-50 HZ to make room for the kick (which still allows some sound below that since a typical HPF is not a brick wall). Also, most speaker systems don’t do well below 40 Hz anyway so all of the extra low end energy just creates a lot of amp drain and tends to unnecessarily overdrive the system. Then (depending upon the instrument) I will add a bit of a boost between 60- 80 Hz and cut a bit between 120-160 Hz to kill the muddy harmonics I just created by the previous boost (this of course is not only instrument dependent, but also house dependent). I do like to add a wide boost at about 1KHz to get a bit more of the attack/bite. All of these TEND to be subtle, and all of it depends upon the instrument. Many instruments have one strong frequency at which they resonate, and I will first use a narrow frequency band, boost it quite high and sweep it to find the resonance, then cut it to taste. Hope that was helpful!

    Reply

    • Just do not forget the Bass Guitar Players that use 5 to 7 strings and reach down to the real bass notes at 15 through 40 Hz. Down to low f# is a real note that I use myself sometimes and I have to use my own Bass Equipment to get that low, the PA system will generally only get to 30Hz cleanly. Remember too that a Bass Drum should not be swamping all of the bass frequencies with mud. Listen to some acoustic Bass Drums without amplifier and speakers and you will soon learn how to clean up the Thud Bombs from the Bass Drum. Point of information I have learned is that many 4 string Bass Guitars have a resonance on the G string generally centered around C to D so it is easy to throttle with EQ. Good luck on the mixer.

      Reply

  11. I don’t really understand the 8 key ranges… Does it mean that you tweak 40 hz – 90 hz if you want to adjust the boominess of the sound? So why does power, impact and thin have roughly the same frequency range which you should tweak? Let’s say you tweak 140 hz, what does it affect? The power, impact or thin? Sorry but I’m not very good at these audio stuff…

    Reply

    • AudioRookie, that’s a very good question because those frequencies do overlap. You are basing your EQ changes on a specific sound. Each bass will sound different. One might have a naturally boomy sound while the other might sound a bit on the thin side. As the bassist runs through an amp or effects pedal, they can send you a variety of sounds. Listen to the bass in a jazz song and compare it to the bass in a rock or (ugh) rap song. Both are basses, but each are unique. Therefore, where you might cut one bass at 80 Hz, you might have to cut another at that same point. You are mixing those EQ points so the sound fits the style of music and sound good in the mix.

      Reply

  12. thank you for the information as a seasoned bass player preparing week after week to have the praise and worship songs ready for Sunday i am constantly looking for ways to be better prepared thank you and god bless

    Reply