cut through the mix, today!
Understand the mix and make it work for you.
As a musician and artist it is normal to find yourself in a constant search of what many call “your own sound”, trying to get better at what you do, battling to beat your technique and trying to adapt yourself and your playing to achieve musical values that we may consider fundamental to our craft. One of those is showmanship: that fun moment when you get to finally display the outcome of all those practice hours, classes and workshops and show the mastery you have of your instrument for your enjoyment and that of those in the crowds.
While this is incredibly gratifying I guarantee that unless you figured this out at a very early stage of your musical journey, just like me you’ve come to find yourself incredibly frustrated when after a gig your friends, family or any member of the crowd shows you a phone made video and you realize that your bass didn’t cut through the mix and instead you hear a muddy wall of undefined low-end sounds that fades into nothingness.
As bassists we want a defined round and warm tone that is both “low endy” but also “punchy” and powerful enough to be heard and make the people in the audience groove to the feel of your fingers, jive to the sound of your walking or head bang to your slapping.
Now obviously the first step is knowing your technique since while music often feels unreal the truth is no magic will happen just by owning a good instrument and/or good equipment; in other words: YOU MUST KNOW WHAT YOU DO before you do it.
Set aside a good technique and knowledge of your instrument, I’ve come to realize the rest mainly (not exclusively) depends on two elements:
The guy behind the soundbooth: Your sound techs, designers, engineers and roadies by association MUST be your allies. Believe it or not it is best to get along with them as they are in control of whatever we are not when we perform. Communicating exactly what you want from them in terms of Levels, EQ, dynamic range and effects is fundamental, so know your craft and learn to tell it professionally. On the other hand, valuing a good sound tech opinion is useful and often underrated, ideally they may know the venue and gear they’re working with, but even if they don’t chances are they have a better sound perspective of what any person in the crowd will hear during an actual performance and that insight is gold.
Know your gear and build a solid chain of effects, compression, EQ and preamp. This is rather important as here’s where our technical knowledge enters action, spend time home or in the studio building up your on stage desired sound from the output level of your bass to the pre amplified EQ you can be in control, make sure you know what you want to give for a signal to your sound guy before entering any stage, DO NOT TRY AND FIGURE IT OUT DURING SOUNDCHECK as that will only delay any workflow and will give you an inaccurate perspective of your sound as it will always change from venue to venue.
So what is my sound formula for live shows?
Well, first know this is a basic standard linear effects chain I have built that will always work for me and 99% of the times will cut through any mix with the basses I take out for gigs which are:
A 1968 DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) or the commonly Called Eastern (communist) Germany acoustic Upright bass that has undergone several repairs and restorations (most recently this 2024 at laudería Paxche) and travelled from communist Germany during the Cold War to my practice room in Mexico City.
A synth bass: NOVATION BASS STATION II.
A Leo Fender Musicman Stingray 5 bought brand new in 2018.
Ok so this is the chain of effects:
A Tuner/mute pedal: I use the TC Electronic polytune mini which is incredibly accurate and has a fast response even with the batiments of my upright bass. (It’ll catch any purposeful detuning of my synths). It'll also prevent the rest of my band members from hearing when I tune between songs and helps avoiding undesired harmonics when I’m not playing.
An Envelope filter. I have many and they’re just fun to have for funky lines or even some solos. Slapping with it is fun!
An Octaver. I use the analog BOSS OC 2 and I like it as I can have a clean signal with a small lower octave boost (never more than a quarter) which truly helps stand out my bass when a venue has solid Subwoofers. It is also a fun effect to play with
Maybe the most important of them all a COMPRESSOR and here I will always use the MXR Bass compressor with a quick release, a slow attack and a fair input/output mix with little compensation to get the punchy kick of my basses while avoiding the muddy feel of a draggy sound.
Finally my beautiful Tone Hammer bass preamp. I love especially this one as after trying many others this proved to be one of the most versatile and intuitive, it also works as a DI and can go forever without battery relying on phantom power. Its sound is warm and sticks to the wood of your instrument (if that makes sense for you).
Spend time designing your sound before jumping onstage and tell me what’s the outcome.
Aaahhh and also get this: LOUDER DOES NOT MEAN YOU’LL BE HEARD BETTER.
Ok thanks, reach out!
