so still basically the same thing, guess how that audible mid bass frequencies are named?

 

The first step to getting a good bass starts with orchestration. Leave space for it in the arrangement, and a good audible bass is not down in the infra and sub bass part of the audio spectrum, it is in the audible part it has presence in the 180 - 240 cycles per second range and upper harmonics.

The easiest interaction you can have between low percussive and bass is time and attack, meaning that the two sounds of bass drum, tom, or even snare in some instances do not line up in time perfectly, even a few milliseconds here and there separate them well. Bass sustain also enhances this, compression can help here.

The easiest and simplest interaction you can have low and mid low melody elements and bass is a simple triad, the bass and melody rely on chord structure and when they overlap the bass plays the lower not in the triad, while the melody plays the upper two (think String Quartet.) Combine chord structure and timing and you can get more and more complex arrangements.

Good bass starts with good arrangement.

 

I've used LFMaxPunch on some things. I like to run the bass DI and then through Nebula using Henry Olonga's Gallien Kruger presets. I do run it through an ART MPA II, but don't drive it too hard so it shouldn't be adding a great deal of harmonics.

 

One that I use a lot these days is the CLA Bass. That one is really great

 

@Producer , I know, thats why I can't live without either.

 

I like to find the lowest note in the song, so for default Bass guitar = E1 = 41.2 Hz. I'll put a pretty steep slope HPF and roll it up to find the lowest note often and then once it is cutting off that note, I'll roll it back so that the lowest note feels/sounds good. This is for BODY/FEEL or musically the fundamental or root of the chord progression.

Next I will duplicate the bass track or create an FX send (esp if you are live mixing) and add an amp simulator, saturation, sansamp, overdrive pedal - whatever provides that more "guitar" part of the "bass guitar" to work with - or simply bring up the mic'd bass cabinet. Using a LFP, I'll sweep down to find the "top" of the body/fundamental bass original bass track. Next I'll flip the LFP into a HPF at the same cutoff frequency, thus cutting out all or most of the low, warm end of the duplicate track that is already being delivered by the original bass track.

You now should have two bass tracks - 1) the original with non musical notes frequencies rolled off (maybe not entirely, but enough that the fundamental/root note is the "loudest" part of the sound, not the subwoofy noise part, the kick can handle this arena) - and 2) a very mid-range/high frequency, percussive, punchy, almost guitar like track. Then spend time blending up the 2nd "definition/transient" track with the 1st "body/sustain" track to make sure you can not only feel but also hear the bass in your mix. Furthermore, you can bring up the cutoff frequency for the HPF on the 2nd track to focus on frequencies above the muddy, boxey mid-range frequencies instead of doing the normal cutting with another EQ or changing the original bass track.

Hope this helps, I've had a lot of luck with this method in live sound making a bass cut through a PA system, especially the string and slap sounds.

 

Really great ideas here