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Losing Low End with Bass Overdrive? Here are Some Tips You Can Try

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Losing Low End with Bass Overdrive? Here are Some Tips You Can Try, Reprinted Courtesy of carvinaudio.com

One of the biggest obstacles bassists face when trying to make a dirty or overdriven bass tone sit in a full band mix is preventing the loss of low end in their sound. Sure, a dirty bass tone can really liven up your band’s mix and fatten up the overall sound, especially in a power trio setting or for heavier styles of music, but the last thing you want to do as a bassist is compromise on holding down the low end. Many overdrive pedals, even those intended for bass, have varying degrees of low end loss which may serve as a deterrent to many players considering an overdriven bass sound. Fortunately, there are ways to beef up your bass tone with overdrive while still keeping the low-end fundamental intact.

Why Does Overdrive Cause Low End Loss?

When you run your bass through an overdrive pedal, you are compressing and clipping the signal- such is the nature of any overdrive or distortion. The resulting compression may cause an apparent drop in volume or low end response compared to a clean bass signal. The clipping depending on how it is achieved and how it is filtered creates harmonics. Except for some circuits that use tubes or JFETs, the harmonics are all higher frequencies (or octaves) than the original bass tone. This will drown the lower tones out, leaving you with a bright or mid range heavy tone.

This is especially pronounced if you are using an overdrive pedal intended for guitar, many of which have trouble retaining the low end or they are filtered for guitar.

Also the clipping squares off the low notes, so they don’t ring out as they would without the added overdrive.

With tubes and JFET transistors, the square law effect is in play, so if the circuit is done correctly you get a lower note harmonic from the math. This is why Carvin Audio bass amps all have a JFET discrete front end, and most models except the BX250 and MB Series have a tube driving the amplifier to warm up the tone.

Tips and Tricks for Making Overdrive Work

  1. Adjust Your Amp Settings: Low end loss is definitely an issue if you are switching your overdrive on and off during a song. Any EQ tweaks you make to your amplifier to compensate for reduced low end from your pedal will affect your clean tone once the pedal is switched off, and possibly your DI signal as well if your bass amp is DI’ed. However, if you are using an overdrive pedal as an always-on component of your tone, feel free to use your amplifier’s EQ controls to further tweak the sound to your liking.  The Carvin Audio B1000’s sub bass control is especially useful in this scenario, as you can bring back in any of the sub-lows that you have lost by using an overdrive pedal.B1000 Bass Amp with Sub Bass Control
  1. Make Sure You Have the Pedal Set at Unity: As mentioned before, applying overdrive, distortion, or fuzz on bass will make you perceive the mids and highs more prominently. This in turn may cause you to think the pedal is louder than it actually is, since these frequencies are more easily audible by the human ear. In most cases, unity gain on your overdrive pedal will be much louder than your clean signal, so if your low end isn’t cutting through, or your sound is dropping out when you engage the pedal, try raising the volume on your overdrive pedal. It may provide you a quick and easy fix!
  1. Use a Clean Blend: A clean blend allows you to mix your clean tone with the distortion pedal of your choice, keeping the punch and low end intact while adding dirt. This design is used on many bass overdrive pedals and is extremely effective. An independent clean blend pedal can really extend the usability of any dirt pedal. If you have a guitar distortion that you like that loses low end, try running it through a clean blend pedal.

For some players, a clean blend creates too much separation between the clean signal and the distortion, creating a sound that’s somewhat disjointed. This is much more common with fuzzes and heavier distortions. However, in most cases, a clean blend is a great solution for an overdrive sound. In the case with heavy distortion, turn the clean high end and mid down if you can. Then you can just blend a clean low end. This may lessen or even solve the disjointed sound.

  1. Try Using Less Drive: A little goes a long way when it comes to bass dirt. If the low end punch of your signal is dropping out, try using as little gain as possible for a slightly overdriven sound. This will keep most of your clean signal intact and add only a little bit of grit, which may work way better in a dense mix. On many popular bass recordings, the bass is slightly overdriven rather than a full-blown distortion, and it really helps the bass to stand out. To see proof of this concept in action, check out the isolated bass track to Rush’s “YYZ” performed by Geddy Lee here.

Visit online at carvinaudio.com

Bass Edu

Premiere! Bass Playthrough With Foetal Juice’s Bassist Lewis Bridges – From the Album, Grotesque

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Premiere! Bass Playthrough With Foetal Juice's Bassist Lewis Bridges - From the Album, Grotesque

Premiere! Bass Playthrough With Foetal Juice’s Bassist Lewis Bridges – From the Album, Grotesque

Bassist Lewis Bridges Shares…

“Gruesome’s sparse intro marks a stark contrast from the intensity of the rest of the album.  The original intention was to keep the bass simple but colourful, however as I worked on it, the lines grew more expressive and the more striking flourishes began to emerge.  The intensity builds into a harmonic minor passage that takes us into the drop — a signature death grind cacophony.  This is where Foetal Juice thrives.  You’re getting a full-on right-hand barrage to in the face to take you into a groove-laden mulch-fest.

I owe my throbbing bass tone to the Darkglass Alpha Omega pedal borrowed from our sound engineer, Chris Fielding (ex-Conan), mixed with the clarity of the tried and true Ampeg SVT CL.

As mentioned earlier, colourful basslines are important, especially in a one-guitar band. Chucking some funny intervals and odd flourishes here and there brings life into the brutality. There’s no point sounding brutal if it’s not gonna be fucking evil too!

Recording this playthrough was hard work. This was not the fault of James Goodwin (Necronautical), who was kindly filming and is ace to work with, but because in true Foetal fashion, we had stinking hangovers — and that jam room was hot!”

Follow Online

FB @FoetalJuice
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Foetaljuice.bandcamp.com

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Bass Edu

Bass Lines: The Circle

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jaime Vazquez

Bass Lines: The Circle…

Hello bass players and fans of bass! This month we’re going to study “The Circle.”

The Circle of Fourths can also be called “The Circle of Fifths or just The Circle.

Practicing the scales, chords, and ideas in general via the circle has been a common practice routine for jazz musicians and highly recommended.

It is a disciplined way of working through all twelve keys.

Plus, many bass root movements to jazz and pop songs move through sections of the circle.

Fig. 1 – “The Circle”

See you next month for more full bass attack!

#bassmusicianmag, #basslines, #bmmbasslines, #groovemaniac, #thecircle, #thecircleoffourths, #thecircleoffifths,#scales & #chords.

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Bass Edu

Approach Notes – Part 5

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James Rosocha

Continuing our lesson of Approach Notes, Part 5…

In continuing with the concept of approach notes being applied to chord tones, this lesson approaches the root, third, fifth, and seventh degree of each arpeggio inversion by incorporating a double chromatic approach from above, and a single chromatic approach from below. 

The first examples approach the root of a G major 7th arpeggio as a double chromatic from above and a single chromatic approach from below -before continuing to the third, fifth, seventh, double chromatic from above/ single from below to the root, continue to the third, fifth, and come back down.

The next example approaches the first inversion of G major 7th arpeggio.

A double chromatic from above/ single from below approaches the third, continue to the fifth, seventh, root, double chromatic from above/ single below to the third, continue up to the fifth and seventh, and back down.

The third example approaches a second inversion of a G major arpeggio.

A double chromatic from above/ single from below approaches the fifth, continue to the 7th, root, 3rd, double chromatic from above/ single from below to the 5th, continue to the 7th, root, and back down. 

This final example approaches a third inversion of a G major 7th arpeggio.

A double chromatic from above and below approaches the 7th, continue to the root, 3rd, 5th, double chromatic from above and below to the 7th, continue to the root, 3rd, and back down.

Be sure to pace yourself with these lessons to avoid burning out.

Being overly ambitious with your practice schedule can lead to unrealistic expectations. Try learning one approach note concept and one chord type a week. Change your practice routine as necessary and tailor it to your needs as a musician. Good luck!

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Bass Edu

BASS LINES – The Blue Notes (Minor Blues Scale)

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jaime Vazquez

Hello bass players and bass fans! Happy New Year 2024!

In this issue, we are going to study the blue notes.

In blues, jazz, and rock, a blue note is a note that (for expressive purposes) is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical context.

The blue notes are usually said to be the lowered third(b3), lowered fifth(b5) and lowered seventh(b7) scale degrees. The lowered fifth(b5) is also known as the raised fourth(#4). Though the blues scale has “an inherent minor tonality, it is commonly ‘forced’ over major-key chord changes, resulting in a distinctively dissonant conflict of tonalities”.

Blue notes are used in many blues songs, in jazz, rock and in conventional popular songs with a “blue” feeling.

Formula:

The A Minor Blues Scale

1 – b3 – 4 – (#4/b5) – 5 – b7

A – C – D – (D#/Eb) – E – Bb

The grades(blue notes):

b3, (#4/b5), b7

C, (D#/Eb), Bb

See you next month for more full bass attack!

#bassmusicianmag, #basslines, #bmmbasslines, #groovemaniac, #thebluenotes, #minorbluesscale & #bluesscale

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Bass Edu

BASS LINES: Staccato for Bass

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jaime David

Staccato for Bass…

Hello bass players and bass fans! In this issue, we are going to study the technique known as staccato.

When we talk about the staccato technique, we are referring to a form of musical articulation.

In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence.

* In 20th-century music, a dot placed above or below a note indicates that it should be played staccato.

* The opposite musical articulation of staccato is legato, signifying long and continuous notes.

Fig. 1 – An example of a normal notation.

Fig. 2 – Is the same example but now with the staccato articulation

Fig. 3 – A basic groove played and written in a normal notation.

Fig. 4 – The same basic groove using the staccato technique.

So, at the end of the day, you as a bassist will decide what type of technique you will use depending on the effect you want in your performance.

See you next year for more full bass attack!!! Happy Holidays & New Year 2024!!! Groove On!!!

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