are you guys serious? Of course some notes on bass sound louder than others. Don't tell me you've never encountered that...
It can actually happen on all instruments, but most often with bass.
I think it has to do something with the harmonics but I'm not sure.

Anyway, the "most musical way" to deal with this (according to Bob Katz) is explained here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evJo5_qt6mY

So just go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_key_frequencies and look up the note that is causing the problem and write down the frequency of it, insert an EQ and cut (with a very narrow Q) at that frequency. How much? Until it sounds about even as the others.

Ever since I saw that video I do it the same way, but before I used to do it with a compressor. You can really compress the fuck out of bass before it starts to sound weird.


btw, someone mentioned looking at it with a spectrum analyzer. Be careful with that, because it's not the best representation of the actual volume. A 0db sine wave will "look" the same volume on the meters when playing A2 and A6 but A6 of course sounds louder. That's an extreme example, but it gets the point across.

edit: forgot to add that as far as synth basses go, you might have to search for the frequency that's making trouble by hand, since you are overlaying different waveforms and different octaves. So if you're playing A2 for example, 110Hz might not always do the trick, because there are a lot of different harmonics produced by different waveforms/octaves etc...

Last edited by vikernes on Sep-10-2009 at 00:52

quote:

[b]Originally posted by vikernes Anyway, the "most musical way" to deal with this (according to Bob Katz) is explained here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evJo5_qt6mY

Top link - thanks mate.

Hey - I went to Great Exuma in the Bahamas not so long ago btw.

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Originally posted by johno27 Sampling bass patches can work very well as previously mentioned as it ensures that every note played is essentially using the same "source" audio.

This is why Nexus is excellent for bass.

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Originally posted by Pjotr G I suspect that you 'evening out' the notes, would mean that you are compensating in the track for your speakers and your room. These are the factors that make different notes at the same volume sound at another volume. Have you checked on different speakers / in another room?

This.

Last edited by meriter on Sep-12-2009 at 06:54

If the notes are separated from each other by silence, you can simply import the bassline into an audio editor and manually adjust them.

I get this issue lots when mastering peoples tunes. The key is to fix it in the mix with an eq, but it ends up in the mastering stage too.

Key follow or compression rarely help a resonating bass note. What you need to do is find the note and notch out that resonating frequency for that note. there's a few ways of doing this. 1) is to strap an EQ to that bass channel, set a notch filter of 10q (in other words, a thin bandwidth) sweep through the frequencies, find the evil one and tame it as need.

2) the other method is if you know what note is resonating, just set your EQ to that Freq and notch it out. For example if the bass is resonating the note "C" then you'd notch out 65Hz, 130hz... If it's the "A" note, it would be 55Hz, 110hz... etc.

good luck,

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quote:

Originally posted by ONDRAY I get this issue lots when mastering peoples tunes. The key is to fix it in the mix with an eq, but it ends up in the mastering stage too. Key follow or compression rarely help a resonating bass note. What you need to do is find the note and notch out that resonating frequency for that note. there's a few ways of doing this. 1) is to strap an EQ to that bass channel, set a notch filter of 10q (in other words, a thin bandwidth) sweep through the frequencies, find the evil one and tame it as need. 2) the other method is if you know what note is resonating, just set your EQ to that Freq and notch it out. For example if the bass is resonating the note "C" then you'd notch out 65Hz, 130hz... If it's the "A" note, it would be 55Hz, 110hz... etc. good luck,

That soundslike expert advice, cheers mate.

PS - to some who keep mentioning monitors and rooms - NO NO NO and and extra side helping of NO. This is about many a bass line where only CERTAIN notes resonate too loud WHEREVER THEY ARE PLAY'D.

People who don't know this problem need to listen better - this problem occurs on lots of basslines, in fact on nearly every one. If you say you have'nt had this problem, you ai'nt listened to your stuff deeply enough.

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quote:

Originally posted by Richard Butler PS - to some who keep mentioning monitors and rooms - NO NO NO and and extra side helping of NO. This is about many a bass line where only CERTAIN notes resonate too loud WHEREVER THEY ARE PLAY'D.

Yes, if it resonates everywhere at a certain frequency, and other songs don't, then there's a problem.

However, it is good to be aware of the frequency balance of your room. Many rooms will have problem spots, and if you're not aware of them you may try to correct bass problems which aren't there. That's not the case for you in this instance, but it's still good advice for people reading a thread about this issue.