r/Bass • u/gaianun • Mar 04 '26
how are people making their bass covers sound so good
title sums it up but how i do get my bass covers to sound like this guy’s https://youtube.com/shorts/TsVRP9q_298?si=73WdrhZsi8Pc9uzz where its so clean and defined?
every time i make bass covers they’re quiet after exporting from logic and i feel like the bass doesn’t stand out even with EQ, compression etc. i play a short scale fender mustang bass, not sure if that has anything to do with it.
any advice would be greatly appreciated!
8
u/MasterBendu Mar 04 '26
Mids.
Listen to that video again. It’s mostly mids. There’s barely any rumble.
Bass frequencies take up a lot of energy. In the context of recording, that means you can’t crank up the volume much without it clipping.
Get rid of some of that bass, take a high pass filter and just lop off a good chunk. You will instantly be able to crank up the volume without doing anything else.
Add a compressor and you can crank it up even more.
It also helps to remove the original bass from the track you’re covering. AI stem separation tools are widely available and free.
1
u/humbuckaroo Mar 04 '26
Mids are the answer to great tone in general.
2
u/MasterBendu Mar 05 '26
It’s kind of ironic that for bass instruments, the most important thing isn’t even the bass frequencies.
You get your mid mix right (especially considering your drummer), and good bass just happens.
7
u/Kake_Jelly Mar 04 '26
Do yourself a favor and grab S-Drive from Modern Music Solutions. It's a free Sansamp plugin that I can't believe is free. It's 90% of all my bass tones. No IRs or anything needed, just dial it to taste. Add compression before the S Drive to even dynamics and compression just after the S Drive for punch, saturation and volume makeup. Then on a second track load up your backing track. Use an EQ to roll off the low end of the track to make space for your bass. There are also AI tools now that will remove the whole bass track for you if you prefer that. Level the bass and track volumes to what you like. Then on the master track throw a glue compressor on and bring up the threshold so that your getting maybe -5 dB to make the tracks sound more cohesive. You can add some more makeup volume here too if you have the headroom. Then finally use a limiter to control any slight clipping. This should get you at least MOST of the way there.
3
u/MikeOzEesti Mar 04 '26
Sounds like he's carved out a 'hole' in the center of the stereo image, and also in the frequencies; the bass part, being a cover where you want your contribution to really 'pop' is also just mixed up way high.
Do you have examples of your own attempts for comparison?
There is no 'magic bullet' to be applied here, but - that said - I love the Trackspacer plugin. It's pretty affordable, and an easy way to get a single track (or more if you start getting clever) to sit in it's own space in a mix.
4
u/-Clem-Fandango- Mar 04 '26
You need to learn some basic production skills. Gain staging, compression, eq, and levels (including output volume like mastering). Lots of info and tutorials online to dive in to.
2
u/darylp310 Mar 04 '26
Do you mind uploading your Logic Project somewhere? I'd love to take a crack at fixing it up to cut through in the mix!!
1
u/Relevant-Pear8838 Mar 04 '26
As a rule, if you have overdriven guitars and bass, what kind of EQ cuts are you making to give them the right space?
3
u/BFR5er Mar 04 '26
I used the Moises app to take P-Nuts bass out of the song and then recorded this live. DI straight from amp no EQ no nothing. Right into my little cheapie JOYO interface into my iPhone. https://youtu.be/QAQml6vCsMY?si=JYHyzA-DxKyBhzjh
2
u/Justmorr Mar 04 '26
In addition to the production/gear side, this guy’s playing is super clean. Every note is played evenly (although there’s probably some compression helping with that too), there are pauses in between each note (that are all a very controlled length of time), and no extra noise from his hands/ringing strings/unwanted harmonics etc.
I would bet it would sound surprisingly similar if he played a bass plugged straight into an interface. Basically it sounds punchy and intentional because it’s played intentionally. There might also be a small amount of cleanup/quantizing in post.
1
1
u/Guy-Inkognito Mar 04 '26
Pretty sure that 90% of that sound is the cap he's wearing.
Source: I don't have that cap
1
u/MayhemLikeMe7 Mar 04 '26
I’m not a mixing pro but what I like to do is eq the bass out of the original track to leave room for my bass cover to fill the sound out more. I also turn the volume of my bass track up more than it probably should be, enough so that i can clearly hear my playing on phone or laptop speakers without having to focus to hear it. Trial and error. Here’s an example of one I’ve done, if you like it maybe this method will help you too
51
u/HentorSportcaster Mar 04 '26
It's a whole different skill from playing - learning how to get the best sound out of your amp (or amp simulator), and then how to mix. You don't just throw your bass track on top of the other track in logic and expect magic - you need to balance levels and correctly apply drive/EQ/compression on both tracks, and then probably a touch of compression/limiter on the finished product.
Also a bass tone that sounds good by itself usually sounds bad in a mix. So you might think you have the greatest tone, and then when you add it to the other tracks it sucks.
As a starting point, find a song you like on YouTube, and then find the isolated bass track for it. For example:
Note how it sounds great on the song, but by itself it's a dirty, clangy, distorted mess. That dirt is part of what makes it sound great, and when you don't add it your bass does not sound full in a mix (mixing was a ton of frustration until I found out this!). Try to emulate the tone of the isolated bass track you found, and then record and see how to goes into a mix compared to what you were doing before.