Why blame the bass player?

One of the most frequent complaints about Rock bands is the guitarist's volume and how irritating it was at last night's concert. Although, I do agree that almost every amateur band does have this problem ...and when dealing with guitarists on an ego trip, it's hard to convince them that they're doing something wrong. It's amazing how it's never one's own fault when something doesn't sound right, but I guess it's just too easy to find faults elsewhere and not in one's own playing or sound.

All this said, let's take a look at just how important the bass player's sound and groove style is in a piece of music:

The bass player can make or break the sound of your band -it's that important!. It fills in all the fundamental tones necessary for the listener to feel the pressure of a chord so melodic instruments will sound 'pleasant' to the ear. Imagine an electric guitar playing a high note all by itself at high volume -if you're listening (not playing), you'll probably squint and turn away from this 'noise' -especially if it's insistant or repetitive, but when this same note is played in the context of a song at the same volume with the bass filling in the empty backround, it 'makes sense' and is no longer irritating to you.

A seasoned bass player will equalize his sound before a show so it doesn't sound out of place but 'fills in' what's missing in other instruments. The bass & bass drum combination is crucial for good sound and needs to be well squared up before you move to on to doing the sound for other instruments. If this is well done, it provides the foundation of your sound and you'll notice that all other instruments will fall into their place more easily.

As a matter of fact, when I do small venues, I place a mic in the bass drum only and work the bass and bass drum first in the PA system then add in the guitar and other instruments and leave the vocals for last. A good sound consists of at least 60% bass and bass drum and 40% of everything else. This gives you the power you need for good sound projection -the audience will definitely appreciate it because the sound will make them feel like dancing to the beat instead of reeling away from an irritating melodic instrument sound. Your overall sound should be warm (even if you're playing heavy metal!). Irritating noises cause hearing fatigue and cause the 'Honey, I'm bored. Let's go' syndrome and you'll lose your audience due to a deficient sound (sound familiar?)

So, how can I help my bass player to do his/her job getting the sound you're after? Get them to experiment with the EQ on their bass amplifiers and realize what each frequency band does to the overall sound of the group. Hopefully, they'll realize that frequencies below 60Hz, if over emphasized, will cause a boomey sound which is inadequate for most (if not all) playing styles. First, start with a flat EQ (all sliders and/or EQ knobs set to zero), remove any boomeyness in the sound, then move on to giving the sound some body, if necessary (the 60 to 100Hz region is where it's at for this).

Then, the 125 to 600Hz region needs to be experimented with to see which frequences may have to be brought up or down a bit (this depends on the acoustics of the hall and will vary). Then work on definition; the 800Hz region is the definition of the instrument and this is entirely up to the bass player to decide how much is necessary for them to define what note they're playing. Anything else the bass player does from there on up is not usually a concern for other band members.

OK, now the bass sounds nice and solid and combines beautifully with the bass drum ...what now? Well, let's talk about groove. A typical groove is eighth notes (even more typical for amateurs) ...yeah, the good ol' 'do-do-do-do', which is beautiful for a lot of accompaniments, but not for all.

If you're doing Reggae, for example, it's not what you're after. Have your bass player experiment and listen to songs in the style you're playing to find out what those bass players are actually doing to make certain songs sound the way they do. Turn up the bass and turn down the highs on your hi-fi system if you really need to hear it better. This is fundamental to make a song sound the way you want it to. If you take the time to analyse the bass & drum parts and get them right, you'll find it's easier to fit the rest of the instruments into their places.