It's a classic trope. The bassist is supposed to be the guy who isn't very good at guitar so he picked the "easier" instrument. Another one my buddy (a drummer) told me. What do you call the guy that hangs out with the band? A drummer...
@@cjbrewer3843 I play the drums, guitar, bass, some vocals, and i swear to good bass is so fucking cool man, shame its looked down upon. I love making disgusting tones, has to be my fav instrument i play. yeah it may be easy but it sounds dope as hell, and it gives the song a backbone.
I read this and looked over at the Squier Classic Vibes Jazz Bass two feet from me. It plays really well, period. It was like $300. I've played American Fender basses that were marginally better but not marginally priced. These CV Squier basses are real bargains.
I own 2 basses. One being a Fender Player Precision bass, and one being a Squier Affinity Jag bass. I would take the Affinity Squier over the Fender any day of the week.@ph-fi7qo
As a bassist, I have never felt attacked by Glenn. Why? Because I knew my shit. One of the best compliments I have ever received was from an audio engineer where after recording a few tracks he said the following to me, "I feel like the Maytag repair guy. I don't have to fix anything."
People take themselves too seriously. Gotta be willing to laugh at yourself. Anybody who has recorded with a good engineer should understand where Glenn is coming from. Be prepared, know your shit, play in time and tune, and trust the guy you're paying to make you sound good. If you don't trust your producer/engineer enough to take their advice, you hired the wrong person.
@@A_WaLLinger ...not a bassist... lol, no, he's a professional listener and a damned good one. He has the advantage of subjective AND objective listening that he's honed pretty expertly. Shit, he even shared examples that are proof enough. I've played with plenty of folks, including bassists, who have very little insight into the actual sound they're putting out. Enter Glenn (or anyone who critically listens) and bye-bye ego. And the dude's entertaining as fuck :) By the way, I'm not a bassist or guitarist, but guess who my band mates would come to for setups... Hmmm, seems like doing what works gets results ;)
Try living in a small town where the only music store doesn't stock anything for 5 string. Cries in $60 + customs fees special order Kalliums that take 3 months to get here. switched to DR because they're easier to get, but still take weeks and weeks and still cost around $60 by the time they get here.
Glenn, amateur bassist that he is, clearly doesn't understand the required commitment to develop finger calluses, nor the forearm strength and conditioning required to spend all day on Pornhub.
I also play bass and I agree. His harsh criticism of bass players is a good thing for that reason. Now let's usher in a new era where guys who play bass aren't just 'The Shitty Guitar Player'. An era where bassists know how to dial in a tone and take care of their instruments!!! Where we practice every day beyond just a couple of covers for fucks sake! As a community, us bass players should be working hard to refine our craft and taking pride in doing so, not bitching at the engineer in an effort to justify getting it wrong so you can avoid working harder at it.
@@45scienceproject I´m a guitar player and I also play the bass guitar on my on records. I like my sound and I play how I want a bass guitar sound and I´m happy with it. When I go to the rehearsal with my metal band and listen to the bass player, who is a real one, I know that I can´t play bass guitar. But I secretly watch him playing and learn and one day, one day, maybe haha. What I want to say is, as a guitarist and home producer I have a lot of respect for bassists!
Glenn, regarding the noise from the bass that goes away when you touch something metal, there is a solution to this that doesn't require software, or touching the bridge on a long sustaining note to get rid of the noise. And the solution is that the instrument isn't shielded or grounded properly. And to fix that, you need to take the instrument to a professional and have that issue addressed. Basically checking the bridge ground, and a rewiring or two will resolve the issue. Sure, it cuts into the budget of a bass player's extra-curricular activities, like eating paint chips, but it'll make the bass sound even better.
In electromagnetically noisy environments even this will not be enough, while you have the bass apart for rewiring consider spending the $10 and and the hour or two on aluminum tape and shield the cavities and pick guard. Don’t buy into the myth that you absolutely need expensive copper tape if you’re on a budget, however, it’ll be easier to solder the tape to ground if you do pony up for copper. Don’t forget to test for continuity between each piece of tape as you go and when complete.
another idea that would work well for studio engineers who have people who come in with noisy basses keep an esd wristband handy that way you can make them wear it and clip it to the bass and it should keep them connected no matter what they do while playing
Easily fixed , that's for sure! I am however amazed at "younger" guitarists (all, not just bass!) not being able to do basic stuff like this? I see other RUclipsrs using solderless upgrades and such because they can't solder, seriously? Get a decent iron and a multimeter and learn how to use them, it's not that hard (or expensive) honestly. Being able to easily fix dry,broken joints, reterminate cables etc is a very handy skill and can save you a lot of time. Maybe im just jaded because ive been using these items since single digit age.
I think part of the "play with your fingers" mindset is used to force usual guitarists to treat the instrument differently. On a side note, I think muted bass has its uses, they're just not the same as muted guitar.
Getting two different bass with flatwounds and NEW roundwounds have helped me so much in the range of music I can tackle. Appropriate bass tones are just as important as your technique.
Granted, I'm a bassist, but it's pretty amazing to me how often I've played with guitarists to whom these points apply. It's often a part of sessions to sit in a control room with a drummer listening to guitarists flub overdubs and waste money. Yes, I change my strings regularly, practice, write songs, tune, keep unplayed strings muted, etc. and so on.
As a bassist and taken on the rhythm guitar- or even the organ-role, I've experienced exactly when Glenn has been referring to. Bassist who can't even tie their own shoes, missed band rehearsal because of drug abuse, and then blaming the lead singer for not being able to show up, because the lead singer didn't pick up the bassist at his home, which they hadn't planned beforehand. Then there has been others who insisted on playing a certain way, playing the specific part as "something similar", but way out of sync with the rest of the band, because it sounded cooler to them, but leaves the rest of the band experiencing sea sickness on land and a completely unrecognizable part, groove, and coherency. Ending up rehearsing the same part each and every session for hours because they didn't bother to learn it the way the writer intended, and a completely unlistenable song, and the bassist blaming the drums for not keeping time... I've played with guitarists that have done the same, but only now realized that there were a lot more bassists who acted exactly like what Glenn describes.. And those people are worse to work with than an "expendable" guitarist. Good bassists are hard to come by, and I think Glenn really appreciate these heros that take their instruments, especially the bass seriously, because bass plays such an important role in a band setting.
The problem with metal music is that the bass player, usually, is the one that didn't make it as a guitarist. In other genres there is much more respect for this instrument.
Glenn, I'm a bass player and I still love your channel! I have to say I agree with every single point you made in this video. After playing for more than 30 years I feel like I have learned a lot and it all agrees with what you said. I remember the first time I was in a studio and the engineer hooked me up to a direct box. I swallowed my pride and just went with it. Turned out he was right just like you are saying. It worked so well I never questioned it again and as a matter of fact I do the same in my home studio now. The other point you made about noise hit home too. The same day I learned about the direct box I plugged in my favorite bass and the jack was noisy but I really wanted to use that bass. The engineer looked at me and was like "No way man." Again I took his advise and pulled out my MIM Fender P-bass and played my ass off. At the end of the day he said since I was so easy to get along with he would have me back to be a studio bassist. I was thrilled. My point to writing this is that I'm happy you gave us pain in the ass bass players a really useful video with great advise. Thanks brother and as always F you Glenn!
@@alexcrouse nope I don't have premium as I'm busy spending my money on useful things like recording equipment etc. Feel free to make a donation towards my premium RUclips account lol also I'm unable to work due to physical issues from drumming and working and also mental health issues due to people being dicks on the internet and in real life. P.s Those things I'm holding are called drum sticks. Hope you continue to improve your bass skills haha (just joking man)
Especially in the live world do you need to run a clean DI and then whatever affects the one on bass. That way you can get all that low end from your B string, and still get all that distortion and all your other effects coming through the PA at the same time and yes, there are tools to manipulate the time alignment of the multiple channels, so yes, even in the live world always give multiple channels of bass. Even go as far as doing direct out of the amp head and put a mic on one of the drivers. It will sound so much better.
I love how most of this video could also be called "how to not suck at playing bass". on another note: I kinda wanna record a track at Glenn's studio. Must feel like the final boss for bass players. If he doesn't pull his hair out, screams at you or throws you out of the studio you can finally call yourself a decent bass player. I want to be able to call myself a decent bass player.
Actually, I want to work with Glenn because I would love to watch some of my people be yelled at. Lol. It would soooo be worth the expenses (including transportation/feeding them/hotel/etc).
I like the advice to record at 48 kHz, unless the engineer requests something else. 48 transcodes to 96 perfectly because the sample points align. But transcoding between 44.1 and 48 causes a misalignment, smearing and artefacts. Small but they're there. Any track that might one day require a remix to Dolby Atmos should be recorded and mixed at 48kHz, as Atmos does not work at 44.1.
Yeah that is one song. Imagine Orion played with full palm mutes. That's what he meant, obviously. It has it's uses, but don't do that shit everytime the guitar player does it. Open notes accompany palm mute chugs WAY better than palm muted bass. Listen to any breakdown and replace the bass with palm mute bass. It will sound like shit.
@@maximiliangfrorer1039 OH, come on, he palm mutes through all the songs on rust in pieace.. Not in their entire lenght, but he used palm mutin over there and over there, and guess what? It works. But of course, you have to know where to use it and most importantly, where not.. :)
Went to play bass with old friends at the high school reunion last weekend. So I took Glens's advice and bought some Dunlop (Marcus Miller) roundwound super-brights. Watched Marcus and some technique videos to improve and practiced like crazy, kept the finger exerciser in my car for the commute. I literally had not played with these guys in 30 years, and hadn't picked up the bass in many months prior. Survived with flying colors and had a blast! Many thanks for the advice!
No other moment in Metalocalypse made me laugh out loud harder than seeing the DAW timeline for the bass track made of a million pieces of processed single notes stitched together by their producer, and his exhausted face after having to do that
Glenn Fricker is the metal scene equivalent of Sgt. Gunny from Full Metal Jacket: *"Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn."*
Hey Glenn! I've just started to record at home, having said that I'm definitely not a professional by any means, but I've learned lots of things mostly from your videos. I've just wanted to say thank you for the tons of information I've received from your channel! Keep up the great work!
@@cavanray5327 100% worth it. It cost me a good bit but I absolutely love it. As for multi-scales, they're becoming more common and that's a really good thing for string selection and overall pricing.
Palm muting is an actual technique. But definitely doesn't work in metal and less in the example you showed. But in lest heavy things, muted basses are actually common some times and sound amazing. But it's in very different genres. For example, regardless of your opinion on the song, Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People has a very VERY recognizable bassline and it has palm mute in it.
Except for Ellefson. He might be an exception to the rule, but still a reason why it shouldn't be a rule. What Glenn should be saying is that you aren't Ellefson if you need to be getting advice on how to record, so take the safe approach.
@@Goabnb94 *It's NOT an exception to a rule. Palm muting works great for metal bass, Ellefson is just the most famous example. Anyone can make it work, if they play accurately in tempo.* This video is otherwise good, but that part is just plain wrong. Sure, if you're sloppy, then palm muting bass sounds like shit, because it won't be in sync with guitars and ruins the whole chug. Then it's better just to play open strings, so your sloppy timing is more hidden. But if it's in perfect time, it IMPROVES the chug. Also, if the guitarist 100% downpicks, bassist has to 100% downpick too for their palm mutes, again otherwise it sounds like shit. Most bassists simply can't downpick at 200+ bpm thrash metal tempos like thrash metal guitarists can, so they need to stick with open strings. Good finger style bassists do a similar thing, where they kill the note that was just played with the next finger, creating a different kind of "chug". But it's about twice as hard to play, compared to letting the strings ring. Letting them ring is the easiest way, and if you aren't a great bassist, better stick with that. But for a good bassist these are all valid techniques to separate the notes, and make it sound more aggressive
I assume you're all right. I'm a noob overall, but even I know that palm muting is an actual technique that can work on bass. I'll just take your word for the other stuff you said because again, I'm a noob (relatively)
@@shredd5705 it's not about having better palm muting technique. Palm muting on bass inherently cuts almost all the 1.5-2.5kHz high-mid grind out of a good metal bass tone, and those frequencies are critical in getting the overall mix in a metal record to sound huge and to avoid muddiness. That's not to say palm muting is always wrong, but if you're using it all the time then you're probably making your mix engineer's job way harder. Even if your technique is flawless and your muting is super-tight, they've still got to find those upper-mid frequencies in the guitars or whatever else and that can mess with the balance of the whole mix. At the end of the day, technique should always serve the record. If that means having the bass play perfect palm muted 32nds in unison with the guitars for that section then go for it, but if the bigger picture is that overall mix would actually sound better still with the bass just playing unmuted 16ths or 8ths that harmonically complement the guitars then all that muting technique is meaningless.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I’m happy to say I’ve always had some new sets of bass string on hand and has brand new strings for pretty much all the bass takes I’ve tracked. Thanks for the tips, Glenn
These short videos have been extremely helpful getting me back into the "mix" of things. It's been years since I've played or recorded with a band. However, I've been inspired to put out an album next year. So, these tips have been essential. Thank you sir.
2:10 a mate of mine found a Yamaha TRBX305 in a garbage bin. It had no strings and no nut, but it was flawless otherwise. I took it to my local luthier, bought the bass from my mate for like 50 bucks, the luthier put new strings, made the setup and a new nut. Despite having a slight bowing on one side in the higher parts of the strings it was a killer 5 string bass that I basically got for around 140€. Bare in mind that his bass is around 375 new
as a Producer and bass guitarist, I'm SO happy to hear you say 'NEW bass strings". Not just in metal, but in ANY genre, round wounds just sound better and have a more solid fundamental when they're NEW. Every session I've done with top shelf studio players began with them putting on a brand new set; every day. You might be amused to hear the real Jamerson story, which is that James was a double bass (upright) player and really just hated being 'forced' to play the electric bass at all (which he called the "pussy bass"). So when forced to 'play the pussy bass' he lodged his protest by refusing to ever change the strings. That's the real origin story for the silliness that amateur players use an excuse.
As a bass player, I agree with this video other than palm muting. It shouldn’t be used for lines like you showed but it has a place to get super lows like a drone. You actually get a deeper resonance from the string if done right. Dave Ellefson is the master of it on tracks like Symphony of Destruction
Nah Glenn's right. The verses on Symphony Of Destruction sound like shit and it's because of the palm muting. Open sustaining notes would make everything better.
I have a little addendum to your "retune after every take" tip: if you're gonna record over multiple days, ALWAYS make sure the instrument is properly set up at the beginning of the day, after you arrive at the studio. I learned this the hard way when recording my band's first LP. We tracked drums, guitar and bass at the same time (the rest of the tracks would be recorded later). The second day of tracking, the engineer kept stopping us mid-song because my bass tracks were out of tune, even though I had tuned the bass to perfection before each take. It turns out, the temperature and humidity changes had messed up the neck bow and the intonation, and that's what needed to be fixed. Cheers from Spain, and ROCK ON, GLENN!
muting is the number one thing that i am grateful to have learned. didnt think about it when i was a kid playing in the garage, striving to be heard on my little 50 watt peavy combo amp. i tell every young player i talk to. learn how to play clean. that sympathetic string vibration takes effort to control.
I'm a bassist. I always loved Glenn's videos because I know it's just adding humour to the actual tips, *BUT* I'd love a full video without humour only talking about bass recording and more tips for bassist. A lengthier video
You may want to get tips from bass players that actually know what they are doing... According to Glen Geezer Butlers and Steve Harris's tones would be shite in the studio.
As a bass player that is in several bass groups and the new vs. old strings. Personally I like new strings, get the best tone out of them. My strings are around $45 due to the 37 inch scale. Not many manufacturers make that extra long B string. The 34" scale of my other basses the strings cost $28-$35. All the cost is okay and I'm poor on Social Security. Change your strings!
For real on the inexpensive bass tip. The most noticeable improvement when spending more on bass is in sustain, (as the bridge gets more massive or even through-body string mounts the more you spend) the by far *least* important metric especially for any kind of uptempo music. And of course there's also a lower limit to know you're at least avoiding getting microphonic pickups. The buzz when not touching metal on the bass is because the ground wire isn't touching the bridge, very typical QA issue at factories. Simply unscrew the bridge and pull the wire out further from the body or add some copper foil. That's like the laziest problem to leave as-is after buying a bass.
For years I used a MIM P Bass with Dimarzio Model P's and Rotosound RS66 through a A Designs REDDI when recording for other people. Worked out great. Sean Hurley is session bass player to watch. Usually brings three instruments to a session, P with flats, P with Rounds, and a semi hollow Gibson. Mic's an Ampeg B15 and DI using a Noble Amp DI. You got be accommodating when doing a session on bass, and learn the stuff inside out.
Well said Glenn, also I'd like to add that Jamerson was playing 50 years ago and his personal preference of not changing strings in order to "keep the funk in", was NOT meant as advice to other bassists, He was simply explaining HIS sound.
Most bass players are ignorant to the fact that in later years, Jamerson had some trouble getting sessions because of those old strings he refused to change.
. Exactly. As the 70's rolled in and music styles changed, roundwound strings became the popular thing whereas flats had more or less fallen out of favour with bassists. Slapping and popping doesn't quite work on flatwounds.
Even the low end Fender products are good. I have a Squier VMJ made in Indonesia similar to that Mexican Fender. I have one I picked up when they came out. Very good for the price. Put some Rotosound Swings on it and it's better than my Schecter.
I have to admit, it was kind of nice to hear you say "make sure you're touching your bass at all times to minimize noise," because I've been banging my head against the wall thinking I was doing something wrong that was causing that noise. It's weirdly reassuring that it's just a reality and the solution is just "keep a finger on it."
I think it sounded cool by itself! But I think what Glen is saying that when you palm mute you lose some bottom end that fills out the entire mix. If say, it's a stylistic choice where just the drums and bass playing are playing a less densely populated section of a song, you can probably get away with it. But if your guitars are chugging along and you palm mute your bass to match those guitars, you end up with a weak sounding bottom end! It's also about the context of the parts in the song.
He's talking about bass for metal. My sister played bass for my group(I was lead guitarist) for a while. She would always palm mute and use jazz and blues techniques during aggro punk and metal songs which drove me up the wall. I had to sit her down and explain that aggressive music needed an aggressive pick attack,she refused to use a pick or roundwound strings,refused to learn basic metal/heavy rock playing fundamentals. Needless to say she doesn't play for us anymore or even at all.
That's what I was gonna say. I think that segment needs a redo honestly since in the context of what was played it simply worked. Now understandably, if the song doesn't call for palm mutes then by all means leave it out but otherwise if it adds something to the sound do it.
The irony of bass playing. When it comes to playing music, “It's all about the rhythm”. A band is only as good as its bass player and drummer. No fantastic guitar solo or vocal can bail out out a bad rhythm section. I'd almost go as far to say, the most talented person in the band should be on bass, not the other way around.
I got a cort b5 bass which I picked up for £350.....its a very well made Bass with great bells and whistles.....gets the job done very well on stage and studio
I've been a bass player longer than I've been playing guitar and mixing music. A lot of these points are 100% on point. Sure, boosting treble on the on board EQ sounds nice, but it just becomes annoying when you're trying to slot the bass in the rest of the mix. New strings also give more definition to not just top end, but your bottom end as well. Would touching the instrument to lessen the likelihood of noise work for guitar as well?
This is the best video for me as I am in the process of recording the Bass currently. thanks for discussing the hum and grounding it by touching the guitar. I wondered why the bass is so noisy. also I will be sure to check that I am doing this: 24 bit 48 Hz, and definitely the part about just inputting the signal, and dealing with virtual amps and effects later. will dfinitley be coming back to this presentation for further reference.
Hey Glenn! As always, great advice served with a super-sized side of laughs. Regarding #12 (watch for noise): A neat trick I learned years ago uses a spare length of light gauge electrical wire stripped at both ends...one end taped to the bridge and the other end to the player’s wrist/arm/whatever (Band-Aids work great there)...just make sure the bare wire is in contact with the bridge and the skin. Works like a champ.
Glenn, you are so right about the importance of string muting. This is a huge difference between amateur and pro players, and cleaning up those ringing strings will make even simple bass lines sound so much punchier and dramatically clean up mixes. Especially after compression and/or limiting, those sympathetic rings really come forward and screw things up. Pay close attention, bass players, this is a potential session killer!
Basically, do what you do well. Your performance determines how dedicated you are to your individual craft. A rule that applies to any and all career choices. I think it’s a great idea to learn how to play as many basic Rock instruments as possible. This way you gain an appreciation for what the other person is doing and you’ll also have a better understanding of how to translate an idea to them when necessary.
I must say #11 caught me off-guard. I want to buy a nice active jazz bass for the versatility in tone (especially when playing gigs with other people's gear) and never ocurred to me they might just make the mixing job harder instead of easier.
You can still get something out of that active jazz bass, @drakonyanazkar. After all, it produces why less noise for the same signal! This is especially nice for all single coils - like the jazz bass. I have a PJ bass - and whenever I dial in the Jazz bridge pickup, I get a nice sound... and noise. So you might still make that jump for this reason alone. (And it isn't cheap pickups. It's Quarter Pound passive set by Seymour Duncan.)
Hey Glenn. I know you love that Jazz. A measly seventy bucks for an American Fender bridge will sharpen that thing right up and make it even more metal. Saddles don't move when you dig in. It's the single easiest way to improve the tone of your bass.
It sounds like you're getting guys in your studio who don't actually play bass. They're probably just guitarists who say, "I can do this, how hard can it be?" As a guitar player, I have major respect for a good bassist. Almost as much as a good drummer. (And both always bring pizza to the session, because it's their job)
To be fair, he's dumping on the third best guitarist of the band. Those oddballs who chose to learn bass, rather than had bass thrust upon them, they're a different breed.
Yes, from my experience, the bass players are usually the ones who have an idea about arranging, recording, music theory etc. (whereas the others are doing drugs)
he means that first bassists you had just because they were friends who were too clumsy to try to learn guitar, so they bought a bass... and then (as the guitarrist) you had to transcribe their parts to them because they could come up to what to play on a 4 chord progression... The ones who CHOSE to play bass after Les, Steve, Flea or any actual bass player... AND the ones who had to turn to (also) playing bass because of the bassist was nowhere to be found... those do not count
@@0000song0000 you are absolutely right. I chose to play bass because of Cliff, Flea, Steve Harris, Justin Chancellor and a lot of others, I love the bass. I can come up with great lines for any progression, no matter the speed, I love being in the background and supporting the band and holding together with the drummer. I will never regret starting on bass.
I’ve had the same experience with my Mexican J Bass. I got mine on Facebook marketplace. It was in rough shape. It was rusty, poorly wired, and had a big curve in the neck. With the pickups replaced, light sanding of the frets, and a few months of getting the neck to settle into place, it’s become my favorite bass I’ve ever owned.
Oh my god, a video made, just to answer my questions! Can't wait to watch it, btw Glenn, thank you for the help with the reflections in my studio, it was great talking to you on the smg discord! edit: Every point rings true! All of this i have been telling my peers and students for years.
As a bass player(🤓), the only time palm muting sounds between decent and good is on the E string, but it needs to be directly on top of the saddle! Palm muting the A string in terms of tone as well, especially when you did it "wrong" on bass.
Use a foam mute UNDER the strings, at the bridge. That’s what all the great reggae and R&B bassists do. You want the punch of the note, not just a dull roar of all the strings vibrating. Especially when you’re playing really load music.
we all know glenn is the only reference that exist in the whole 7 billion people in this world. Dynamics is not important with all the record he mixed that nobody heard of.
In fairness he mainly does it during faster sections to get rid of the low rumble and tighten things up instead of just muting everything the guitar does
Okay, exception to the rule, if you can play like Dave Ellefson, you're allowed to palm mute. I'd wager he's using a palm mute like a volume pedal; a nuanced approach rather than hamfisting his palm onto the strings.
I have one more... dunno if that applies to metal that much but I figured it makes for a more consistent low end if all basic notes are played on the same string . It is less convenient and you might have to rebuilt some runs and fills but it pays off when mixing.
This is a great call, I'd say a must for doom metal and slow breakdowns. Obviously, fast metal riffs that depend on open strings or steppy melodies are going to present a challenge. I've always tried to arrange riffs so at least the root note in every bar is on the same "reference" string. I personally find even simple metal bass lines, slavishly following the root of power chord riffs, can be sonically overpowering. I hear a lot of stuff where I would personally just play it all on the low B or E for an even tone, and play fewer notes to give it some push-and-pull. Similarly, on the occasions that I want to be noticed, i might deliberately change position so I'm playing near the nut of the D or G string, rather than high up on the E or A. My shitty bar band doesn't do metal, really, but we do play _Paranoid_. I hated the brittle sound of the opening riff on both my basses. Moved it down a string and up 5 frets? Liked it much better. This is also why I like a precision-style split pickup: I try to even up the relative volumes and characters of the strings by tilting the pups, therefore adjusting the distance between pole piece and string. Not sure I'm very successful though! 😅
Glen. The only man on RUclips who has such intensity that it gave him a six-pack on his FOREHEAD. ✌️✌️🤘🤘🙏🙏👏👏🤣😂 but I honestly believe his wisdom is extremely valuable. Rock on
Listening to this again while doing some chores, I received a monster brand cable, that even specified for bass a few years back, it's better shielded and quieter than my other cables, I use it for my guitars too, also noticeably quieter. Before this experience I would have been sceptical of a difference
I love every sound guy's insistency on going direct in for bass. I've never once heard a producer match anything close to what I'm trying to go for. I imagine guitar players would pitch as much of a fit if you just told them to go direct and bypass their tube fed triple rectifier they spent thousands on, hours on crafting their ideal tone, and hand complete and total control of their tone to somebody else that's gonna make it sound like it's running through a Line 6.
Out of those three, Lemmy was the only one I would say approached the bass like a guitar. Busy bass is not a guitar style. In fact, the crappiest bass players out there will approach the bass like a guitar in that ALL they do is play the root note of what the guitar is playing. Transition notes, counter melodies, and fills ARE bass playing.
@@TheMemo659 Agreed. Chris Squire and Entwistle didn't play or phrase anything like a guitar player. A punchy sound, forward in the mix, is not 'playing like a guitarist', either. Lemmy, on the other hand, explicitly stated that he was in effect playing rhythm guitar on the bass. His bass sound is supposed to have been an engineer's nightmare for exactly that reason.
@@MykEviiL Cliff still approached it as a bass player. The only thing guitar-like about Cliff, imo, was his tone, and his ability to solo like none other. His knowledge of music, and certainly his ability on piano, helped him to understand what role his chosen instrument played in his music.
@@MykEviiL It's a very definite sound, and there's nothing wrong with it per se. It works in the context of Metallica, just as Lemmy's sound worked in the context of Motorhead.
Palm muting on bass can add dynamics if you know what you are doing. I play finger style, but when I play bass with a pick sometimes I palm mute when the song calls for it. Not nearly as common as guitar, but it has it's place.
2:43 I just spent a day at a music store looking for a new bass guitar. I played just about everything and there were a few really nice ones (namely a few J-basses and most stuff made by Ibanez). Later that day I had a bass lesson and used one of my teachers' J-basses because I couldn't bring my own one (nor did I want to. Unfortunately it sucks.) and basically went like: "Oh wow this is by far the best bass I've played today. And I've played like 10 different basses!" As it turns out, it was a 350EUR Squier he had set up by a luthier he's known for about a decade. Setup really is everything. That thing also sounded amazing, I really was blown away by how good it was. I really want to try out Sire too though, from what I've heard online they're also amazing.
For recording any instrument with any pedal or distortion on it, I Highly recommend a splitter or DI to have a direct Clean recording and one with distortion. there are many benefits to this. If you just want to try out what a different pedal would sound like, it is possible to do so. you can also control how much of the clean signal is passing to the mix, basically a Mix knob. and if you want to cheat you can even have the recording duplicated but with a different pedal attached to it and keeping both.
Fingers matter the most! I had a bass track recorded by Mike LePond. It mixed by itself. The direct track sounded perfectly, I just boosted a little 120hZ, about a db or so. Mike REALLY knows what he is doing!!
I also do it on Type O Negative songs, Primus stuff, tons of Jazz, King's X, Motley Crue, Jason Newstead has done it many times to achieve what he called "low end crunch". Bass players have many tricks up their sleeves but I don't really think that most guitar players know what they actually do, the ones who practice and are good at playing the instrument that is. Most people who are primarily guitar players use it as a sound enhancer or "filler" for their own guitar sound.
Great tips as always, but I'd say palm muting on bass *can* sound good if done correctly. Experimenting with muting is very cool and there is a lot to be discovered (even in heavy metal). I do mutes with the fretting hand when I lean hard on the low C to keep the string from going out of control [no one ever complained yet]. Sometimes I touch/not touch a string with my fretting finger to get a "puk" sound. In short: Try stuff out, listen to what you do, explore the instrument.
There was a well-known bassist who did use palm muting quite frequently, it's a solid technique if you pull it off right every time. That means equal attack, equal muting, every note. Master the technique if you intend to use it. You may wonder who the bassist is? Go and watch Gary Moore's "Out In The Fields" with the late great Phil Lynott playing bass. Phil Lynott also used left hand single note muting to sharpen up his 8th and 16th note basslines and combined this with a small element of palm muting to get a very staccato, accurate note placement whether playing "in the pocket" or syncopating in some way. The key is to apply the right pressure, you can play it as a tight mute but really the best way to use it is to add dynamics to a piece such as a swell or decrescendo. I was a session player in the 90's and played on all sorts of different things from radio jingles to theatrical production background music and the thing I would say to anyone who wants to play bass full-time is develop your bass toolkit so you have these sorts of techniques available to you. Practice them. Break them down. Focus on every note and be strict with yourself. You need to get your mind right so that when you switch on, brain goes into pro-mode.
"Don't palm mute your bass!!!!"......Dave Ellefson: "What do you mean I can't palm mute my bass?? I palm mute it every day!"... is coming to get you mate. You are about to get professionally muted :) Dave doesn't kid about :) lol....(I am willing to take Junior as the awesome exception of the rule)...
i would also suggest to check each string if it is the same volume in your headphones. if not then adjust the string height closer or further from the pickup(s) at the bridge as needed.
Dammit Glenn, You forgot one of the most important things that most bassists are unaware of: Intonation! I know that there are not many bassists that go beyond the 7th fret on any of their strings, but even on the 3rd fret bad intonation is noticeable and no amount of retuning will fix bad intonation. A sincere fuck you from a DDD*! (*Dutch Destroyer of Distinction)
These are some great tips and a feel a lot of these points around preparation fall under the general "be a professional, idiot" banner. Having your shit together and being fully prepared makes such a massive difference to how smoothly and enjoyable the recording process is. In my own experience, if I'm tracking bass for a song and it takes more than 2 hours to get the dry tracks all done I haven't done my work beforehand.
Well said, I agree on most points except the last one and maybe the tuning after each take thing: I have a good instrument and it needs tuning once a week at worst... Maybe on a cheaper instrument you need to tune every time.
I have learned alot being a studio bassist. Understanding dynamics as far as using a pick when finger players may not have controlled attack. TRUST the engineer!
"No, an augmented chord. Two major thirds. Look, just raise the top of that G chord by a fret. Yeah it's dissonant. Trust me, I'll hit the E and then you can improvise in E minor while the resto of us...."
There's bands where the bassists is the most talented musician. Like Iron Maiden. Saying this as a guitarist, bass is underrated and actually very hard to play accurately (long distances between frets, takes more finger strength, good bass arrangements can really make or break a song)
Some good tips here, and I love the “my wife left me for a bass player” energy on display.
hahaha - I was just thinking that. I find his shitting on we bassists routine kind of funny.
It's a classic trope. The bassist is supposed to be the guy who isn't very good at guitar so he picked the "easier" instrument. Another one my buddy (a drummer) told me. What do you call the guy that hangs out with the band? A drummer...
@@cjbrewer3843 I play the drums, guitar, bass, some vocals, and i swear to good bass is so fucking cool man, shame its looked down upon. I love making disgusting tones, has to be my fav instrument i play. yeah it may be easy but it sounds dope as hell, and it gives the song a backbone.
@@nostrum7278 Bass is easy if you make it easy. The bass can add more than just a simple backbone too
It's all in good fun, he has some excellent bass players on this channel
The Squier Jazz bass might be the most underrated bass of all time. A definite must have for all bass players.
I have played plenty of Squiers that were great, but also plenty that were utter crap. Your mileage may vary.
Squires always require additional love and attention whether right away or a couple years after purchase, but honesty totally worth it.
I read this and looked over at the Squier Classic Vibes Jazz Bass two feet from me. It plays really well, period. It was like $300. I've played American Fender basses that were marginally better but not marginally priced. These CV Squier basses are real bargains.
Squire jazz bass owner and it quickly became my go to
I own 2 basses. One being a Fender Player Precision bass, and one being a Squier Affinity Jag bass. I would take the Affinity Squier over the Fender any day of the week.@ph-fi7qo
As a bassist, I have never felt attacked by Glenn. Why? Because I knew my shit. One of the best compliments I have ever received was from an audio engineer where after recording a few tracks he said the following to me, "I feel like the Maytag repair guy. I don't have to fix anything."
Because Glenn is not a bassist, he doesn't know much about bass guitars. Forgive the ignorant.
@@A_WaLLinger but he knows whats the best to RECORD it...
true, but no need generalize. He just needs to be more humble and wise.
People take themselves too seriously. Gotta be willing to laugh at yourself. Anybody who has recorded with a good engineer should understand where Glenn is coming from. Be prepared, know your shit, play in time and tune, and trust the guy you're paying to make you sound good. If you don't trust your producer/engineer enough to take their advice, you hired the wrong person.
@@A_WaLLinger ...not a bassist... lol, no, he's a professional listener and a damned good one. He has the advantage of subjective AND objective listening that he's honed pretty expertly. Shit, he even shared examples that are proof enough. I've played with plenty of folks, including bassists, who have very little insight into the actual sound they're putting out. Enter Glenn (or anyone who critically listens) and bye-bye ego. And the dude's entertaining as fuck :) By the way, I'm not a bassist or guitarist, but guess who my band mates would come to for setups... Hmmm, seems like doing what works gets results ;)
“Those things bassists claim are too expensive aren’t that expensive”
Me: *cries in $40 Ernie Ball flat wounds*
My diaddario chrome flats were 75 after tax at gc
My Dunlop Flats were $56
Me: cries in $100 la Bella flatwounds
*cries in 6 string bass*
Try living in a small town where the only music store doesn't stock anything for 5 string.
Cries in $60 + customs fees special order Kalliums that take 3 months to get here.
switched to DR because they're easier to get, but still take weeks and weeks and still cost around $60 by the time they get here.
Glenn, amateur bassist that he is, clearly doesn't understand the required commitment to develop finger calluses, nor the forearm strength and conditioning required to spend all day on Pornhub.
HAHA!
I've got a penis pump with an actual barometer. :/ ...
Like, a peak limiter.
Award for Savage Comment Of The Day goes to...
As you don't know how to be a recording engineer.......
P.s. pornhub won't help you
@@ioflowboy whoosh
I have to say something
The bassist of the band I’m currently recording is probably the most hardworking and awesome musician I’ve ever met.
I owe a lot of my bass playing proficiency to Glenn. Watching his videos has taught me everything to NOT do with my instrument of choice.
Same, and I try to not be a bad guitarist
he's the kevin samuels of bass players.
Most hate him but the ones who listen actually improve.
I also play bass and I agree. His harsh criticism of bass players is a good thing for that reason. Now let's usher in a new era where guys who play bass aren't just 'The Shitty Guitar Player'. An era where bassists know how to dial in a tone and take care of their instruments!!! Where we practice every day beyond just a couple of covers for fucks sake! As a community, us bass players should be working hard to refine our craft and taking pride in doing so, not bitching at the engineer in an effort to justify getting it wrong so you can avoid working harder at it.
Send a link to those videos
@@45scienceproject I´m a guitar player and I also play the bass guitar on my on records. I like my sound and I play how I want a bass guitar sound and I´m happy with it. When I go to the rehearsal with my metal band and listen to the bass player, who is a real one, I know that I can´t play bass guitar. But I secretly watch him playing and learn and one day, one day, maybe haha.
What I want to say is, as a guitarist and home producer I have a lot of respect for bassists!
Glenn, regarding the noise from the bass that goes away when you touch something metal, there is a solution to this that doesn't require software, or touching the bridge on a long sustaining note to get rid of the noise.
And the solution is that the instrument isn't shielded or grounded properly. And to fix that, you need to take the instrument to a professional and have that issue addressed. Basically checking the bridge ground, and a rewiring or two will resolve the issue.
Sure, it cuts into the budget of a bass player's extra-curricular activities, like eating paint chips, but it'll make the bass sound even better.
In electromagnetically noisy environments even this will not be enough, while you have the bass apart for rewiring consider spending the $10 and and the hour or two on aluminum tape and shield the cavities and pick guard. Don’t buy into the myth that you absolutely need expensive copper tape if you’re on a budget, however, it’ll be easier to solder the tape to ground if you do pony up for copper.
Don’t forget to test for continuity between each piece of tape as you go and when complete.
another idea that would work well for studio engineers who have people who come in with noisy basses keep an esd wristband handy that way you can make them wear it and clip it to the bass and it should keep them connected no matter what they do while playing
@@thatfatguy4508 nice idea
Easily fixed , that's for sure! I am however amazed at "younger" guitarists (all, not just bass!) not being able to do basic stuff like this? I see other RUclipsrs using solderless upgrades and such because they can't solder, seriously? Get a decent iron and a multimeter and learn how to use them, it's not that hard (or expensive) honestly. Being able to easily fix dry,broken joints, reterminate cables etc is a very handy skill and can save you a lot of time. Maybe im just jaded because ive been using these items since single digit age.
@@dunxyI agree. Soldering is hard and frustrating... until it's not
As a bassist myself, I gotta say, I haven't met many guitarists that play bass well.
I haven’t met many bassists who could tie their own shoes.
I think part of the "play with your fingers" mindset is used to force usual guitarists to treat the instrument differently.
On a side note, I think muted bass has its uses, they're just not the same as muted guitar.
@@CyberChrist I always find it funny, because I can play guitar really well. 😎
But 90% of them think they do!
as a guitar player that occasionally plays the bass, I agree...hahahaha
Getting two different bass with flatwounds and NEW roundwounds have helped me so much in the range of music I can tackle. Appropriate bass tones are just as important as your technique.
Yep
Granted, I'm a bassist, but it's pretty amazing to me how often I've played with guitarists to whom these points apply. It's often a part of sessions to sit in a control room with a drummer listening to guitarists flub overdubs and waste money. Yes, I change my strings regularly, practice, write songs, tune, keep unplayed strings muted, etc. and so on.
As a bassist and taken on the rhythm guitar- or even the organ-role, I've experienced exactly when Glenn has been referring to. Bassist who can't even tie their own shoes, missed band rehearsal because of drug abuse, and then blaming the lead singer for not being able to show up, because the lead singer didn't pick up the bassist at his home, which they hadn't planned beforehand. Then there has been others who insisted on playing a certain way, playing the specific part as "something similar", but way out of sync with the rest of the band, because it sounded cooler to them, but leaves the rest of the band experiencing sea sickness on land and a completely unrecognizable part, groove, and coherency. Ending up rehearsing the same part each and every session for hours because they didn't bother to learn it the way the writer intended, and a completely unlistenable song, and the bassist blaming the drums for not keeping time... I've played with guitarists that have done the same, but only now realized that there were a lot more bassists who acted exactly like what Glenn describes.. And those people are worse to work with than an "expendable" guitarist. Good bassists are hard to come by, and I think Glenn really appreciate these heros that take their instruments, especially the bass seriously, because bass plays such an important role in a band setting.
I'm a bassist first and a failed guitarist second
Im a bassist and I can’t read this post
I didn't even consciously know about muting open strings but when he mentioned it I realized I totally do that.
The problem with metal music is that the bass player, usually, is the one that didn't make it as a guitarist. In other genres there is much more respect for this instrument.
15 things to avoid while recording bass
1: The bassist
Applies to numbers 2 through 15 as well.
slow clap
And then?!? Shall the thin-stringer play it?!? Guys who fiddle and shread around and play like pussys?
@@Asgaia what you don't know is that the thin stringer has been recording your bass parts all along
@@Asgaia shred* but no worries, bassist must be your first language.
Glenn, I'm a bass player and I still love your channel! I have to say I agree with every single point you made in this video. After playing for more than 30 years I feel like I have learned a lot and it all agrees with what you said. I remember the first time I was in a studio and the engineer hooked me up to a direct box. I swallowed my pride and just went with it. Turned out he was right just like you are saying. It worked so well I never questioned it again and as a matter of fact I do the same in my home studio now. The other point you made about noise hit home too. The same day I learned about the direct box I plugged in my favorite bass and the jack was noisy but I really wanted to use that bass. The engineer looked at me and was like "No way man." Again I took his advise and pulled out my MIM Fender P-bass and played my ass off. At the end of the day he said since I was so easy to get along with he would have me back to be a studio bassist. I was thrilled. My point to writing this is that I'm happy you gave us pain in the ass bass players a really useful video with great advise. Thanks brother and as always F you Glenn!
"If your cable starts doing this." Then an advert plays LMFAO
😂😂😂😂
my cable is always trying to sell me colgate to be fair! spot on as always glenn!
You don't have Premium? Must be a bass player...
@@alexcrouse nope I don't have premium as I'm busy spending my money on useful things like recording equipment etc. Feel free to make a donation towards my premium RUclips account lol also I'm unable to work due to physical issues from drumming and working and also mental health issues due to people being dicks on the internet and in real life. P.s Those things I'm holding are called drum sticks. Hope you continue to improve your bass skills haha (just joking man)
Unwanted noise? Perfect demonstration.
Especially in the live world do you need to run a clean DI and then whatever affects the one on bass. That way you can get all that low end from your B string, and still get all that distortion and all your other effects coming through the PA at the same time and yes, there are tools to manipulate the time alignment of the multiple channels, so yes, even in the live world always give multiple channels of bass.
Even go as far as doing direct out of the amp head and put a mic on one of the drivers. It will sound so much better.
Jokes on you Glenn, I CAN'T READ!
You smell bad, too!
@@SpectreSoundStudios If I could read whatever your reply is, I bet I'd be so mad right now..
@@patrickhunter I'll translate for you, buddy: BRR BRR DENG! DENG! BRR BRR!
I love how most of this video could also be called "how to not suck at playing bass".
on another note: I kinda wanna record a track at Glenn's studio. Must feel like the final boss for bass players. If he doesn't pull his hair out, screams at you or throws you out of the studio you can finally call yourself a decent bass player. I want to be able to call myself a decent bass player.
He's too tough to pull his hair out, although he might pull someone else's hair out!
Actually, I want to work with Glenn because I would love to watch some of my people be yelled at. Lol. It would soooo be worth the expenses (including transportation/feeding them/hotel/etc).
It's been years since that first video about how to not completely suck at bass, and I'm still glad to hear I'm doing it right.
I like the advice to record at 48 kHz, unless the engineer requests something else. 48 transcodes to 96 perfectly because the sample points align. But transcoding between 44.1 and 48 causes a misalignment, smearing and artefacts. Small but they're there. Any track that might one day require a remix to Dolby Atmos should be recorded and mixed at 48kHz, as Atmos does not work at 44.1.
My bass player sold his house to buy drugs, he just asked if you can record another video teaching how to record on the streets
Im fairly certain it is but I really hope this is a joke for his sake hahahahaha
They let bass players buy houses?
Get bass traps. Lots of bass traps.
@@TheFinerPrint And rat traps for food.
@@gckbowers411 you gotta catch the bass player first.
Dave Ellefson's track on Symphony Of Destruction has a tonne of palm muting, and it sounds great
Yeah that is one song. Imagine Orion played with full palm mutes. That's what he meant, obviously. It has it's uses, but don't do that shit everytime the guitar player does it. Open notes accompany palm mute chugs WAY better than palm muted bass. Listen to any breakdown and replace the bass with palm mute bass. It will sound like shit.
Yep. Fricker really has no idea what he's talking about.
@@maximiliangfrorer1039 OH, come on, he palm mutes through all the songs on rust in pieace.. Not in their entire lenght, but he used palm mutin over there and over there, and guess what? It works. But of course, you have to know where to use it and most importantly, where not.. :)
_"Don't palm mute on bass recordings!"_
David Ellefson: 😶
Yeah, there is palm mute in metal bass. Mutes (not only with palm) are also really important in jazz, pop, funk and so on).
True, but muting is used for different reasons than just your basic chug.
@@Mikey__R I guess
@@Mikey__R "Just your basic chug" STILL happens to be one of those reasons.
Oof, bad timing to bring up Junior.
Went to play bass with old friends at the high school reunion last weekend. So I took Glens's advice and bought some Dunlop (Marcus Miller) roundwound super-brights. Watched Marcus and some technique videos to improve and practiced like crazy, kept the finger exerciser in my car for the commute. I literally had not played with these guys in 30 years, and hadn't picked up the bass in many months prior. Survived with flying colors and had a blast! Many thanks for the advice!
Turns out Skwissgar Skwigelf recording all the tracks himself was a meme ahead of its time.
Murderface's bass playing was "almost listenable" according Nathan & Swisgaar by the end. They were going to turn him up on the next album.
Guitarists taking bass duty in the studio has been a thing for decades. The incompetent bassist cliche exists for a reason.
damm man, now I wanna watch all the Deathclock serie again xD, loved when Skwissgar recorded in the air to avoid the ground noise jajajajaj
@@sonidodemoniacostudios7752 Then in the submarine!
No other moment in Metalocalypse made me laugh out loud harder than seeing the DAW timeline for the bass track made of a million pieces of processed single notes stitched together by their producer, and his exhausted face after having to do that
Never realized how Important the bass was to a song till I started recording my own stuff, it can really create/change the feeling of a whole track
Destroyer of Distinction, reporting for duty!
Wait I was supposed to bring a bass ???????
@@gilbertspader7974 What’s a bass?! Isn’t that a fish?
Djentstroyer of djentstinction
I just need to EQ right I don’t really NEED new strings??? These are barely 8 years old!!
I play bass and sing. I get double the destruction! HA HA! ha. Kill me now.
Glenn Fricker is the metal scene equivalent of Sgt. Gunny from Full Metal Jacket:
*"Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn."*
Underrated as hecc
Truer words have rarely been spoken.
Sgt Gunny? You mean GySgt Hartman??
Sgt Gunny? You mean GySgt Hartman??
Hey Glenn!
I've just started to record at home, having said that I'm definitely not a professional by any means, but I've learned lots of things mostly from your videos. I've just wanted to say thank you for the tons of information I've received from your channel! Keep up the great work!
Glenn: "Bass strings are cheap."
Me: *Cries with my Dingwall and sweaty hands*
Worth it though right? Wish I could own a dingwall or mutliscale, but I'm happy with my 1991 Cort artisan 5 string.
@@cavanray5327 100% worth it. It cost me a good bit but I absolutely love it. As for multi-scales, they're becoming more common and that's a really good thing for string selection and overall pricing.
Wait till Heavy Metal discovers the beaty of upright basses.
The $12(guitar) to $35(5 string bass) is so barely noticeable my wallet wants me to buy ten packs
Palm muting is an actual technique. But definitely doesn't work in metal and less in the example you showed. But in lest heavy things, muted basses are actually common some times and sound amazing. But it's in very different genres.
For example, regardless of your opinion on the song, Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People has a very VERY recognizable bassline and it has palm mute in it.
Except for Ellefson. He might be an exception to the rule, but still a reason why it shouldn't be a rule.
What Glenn should be saying is that you aren't Ellefson if you need to be getting advice on how to record, so take the safe approach.
@@Goabnb94 *It's NOT an exception to a rule. Palm muting works great for metal bass, Ellefson is just the most famous example. Anyone can make it work, if they play accurately in tempo.* This video is otherwise good, but that part is just plain wrong. Sure, if you're sloppy, then palm muting bass sounds like shit, because it won't be in sync with guitars and ruins the whole chug. Then it's better just to play open strings, so your sloppy timing is more hidden. But if it's in perfect time, it IMPROVES the chug. Also, if the guitarist 100% downpicks, bassist has to 100% downpick too for their palm mutes, again otherwise it sounds like shit. Most bassists simply can't downpick at 200+ bpm thrash metal tempos like thrash metal guitarists can, so they need to stick with open strings. Good finger style bassists do a similar thing, where they kill the note that was just played with the next finger, creating a different kind of "chug". But it's about twice as hard to play, compared to letting the strings ring. Letting them ring is the easiest way, and if you aren't a great bassist, better stick with that. But for a good bassist these are all valid techniques to separate the notes, and make it sound more aggressive
Not to mention that irrespective of it being guitar or bass, there are a ton of people who assume palm muting is an on or off only proposition.
I assume you're all right. I'm a noob overall, but even I know that palm muting is an actual technique that can work on bass. I'll just take your word for the other stuff you said because again, I'm a noob (relatively)
@@shredd5705 it's not about having better palm muting technique. Palm muting on bass inherently cuts almost all the 1.5-2.5kHz high-mid grind out of a good metal bass tone, and those frequencies are critical in getting the overall mix in a metal record to sound huge and to avoid muddiness. That's not to say palm muting is always wrong, but if you're using it all the time then you're probably making your mix engineer's job way harder. Even if your technique is flawless and your muting is super-tight, they've still got to find those upper-mid frequencies in the guitars or whatever else and that can mess with the balance of the whole mix. At the end of the day, technique should always serve the record. If that means having the bass play perfect palm muted 32nds in unison with the guitars for that section then go for it, but if the bigger picture is that overall mix would actually sound better still with the bass just playing unmuted 16ths or 8ths that harmonically complement the guitars then all that muting technique is meaningless.
Your energy in this video is this voice in my head all day while dealing with clients . I am a field engineer. It's so frustrating .
I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I’m happy to say I’ve always had some new sets of bass string on hand and has brand new strings for pretty much all the bass takes I’ve tracked.
Thanks for the tips, Glenn
These short videos have been extremely helpful getting me back into the "mix" of things. It's been years since I've played or recorded with a band. However, I've been inspired to put out an album next year. So, these tips have been essential. Thank you sir.
Great point about onboard EQ's! I never thought about that before. Now that I own a bass with one of those, definitely going to pay attention to that.
2:10 a mate of mine found a Yamaha TRBX305 in a garbage bin. It had no strings and no nut, but it was flawless otherwise. I took it to my local luthier, bought the bass from my mate for like 50 bucks, the luthier put new strings, made the setup and a new nut. Despite having a slight bowing on one side in the higher parts of the strings it was a killer 5 string bass that I basically got for around 140€. Bare in mind that his bass is around 375 new
as a Producer and bass guitarist, I'm SO happy to hear you say 'NEW bass strings". Not just in metal, but in ANY genre, round wounds just sound better and have a more solid fundamental when they're NEW. Every session I've done with top shelf studio players began with them putting on a brand new set; every day.
You might be amused to hear the real Jamerson story, which is that James was a double bass (upright) player and really just hated being 'forced' to play the electric bass at all (which he called the "pussy bass"). So when forced to 'play the pussy bass' he lodged his protest by refusing to ever change the strings.
That's the real origin story for the silliness that amateur players use an excuse.
As a bass player, I agree with this video other than palm muting. It shouldn’t be used for lines like you showed but it has a place to get super lows like a drone. You actually get a deeper resonance from the string if done right. Dave Ellefson is the master of it on tracks like Symphony of Destruction
Late to reply, but I just watched this and checked if anyone mentioned Ellefson - he does it amazingly!
Nah Glenn's right. The verses on Symphony Of Destruction sound like shit and it's because of the palm muting. Open sustaining notes would make everything better.
WOW glenn, the "other than a naked woman thats not a family member comment", straight up brought the minigun to a knife fight on that one LOL
I have a little addendum to your "retune after every take" tip: if you're gonna record over multiple days, ALWAYS make sure the instrument is properly set up at the beginning of the day, after you arrive at the studio.
I learned this the hard way when recording my band's first LP. We tracked drums, guitar and bass at the same time (the rest of the tracks would be recorded later). The second day of tracking, the engineer kept stopping us mid-song because my bass tracks were out of tune, even though I had tuned the bass to perfection before each take. It turns out, the temperature and humidity changes had messed up the neck bow and the intonation, and that's what needed to be fixed.
Cheers from Spain, and ROCK ON, GLENN!
I have an inexpensive Squier Affinity series bass and I love it.
muting is the number one thing that i am grateful to have learned. didnt think about it when i was a kid playing in the garage, striving to be heard on my little 50 watt peavy combo amp. i tell every young player i talk to. learn how to play clean. that sympathetic string vibration takes effort to control.
I'm a bassist. I always loved Glenn's videos because I know it's just adding humour to the actual tips, *BUT* I'd love a full video without humour only talking about bass recording and more tips for bassist. A lengthier video
Devoid of character?
Zzzzzz
You may want to get tips from bass players that actually know what they are doing... According to Glen Geezer Butlers and Steve Harris's tones would be shite in the studio.
As a bass player that is in several bass groups and the new vs. old strings. Personally I like new strings, get the best tone out of them. My strings are around $45 due to the 37 inch scale. Not many manufacturers make that extra long B string. The 34" scale of my other basses the strings cost $28-$35. All the cost is okay and I'm poor on Social Security. Change your strings!
For real on the inexpensive bass tip. The most noticeable improvement when spending more on bass is in sustain, (as the bridge gets more massive or even through-body string mounts the more you spend) the by far *least* important metric especially for any kind of uptempo music. And of course there's also a lower limit to know you're at least avoiding getting microphonic pickups. The buzz when not touching metal on the bass is because the ground wire isn't touching the bridge, very typical QA issue at factories. Simply unscrew the bridge and pull the wire out further from the body or add some copper foil. That's like the laziest problem to leave as-is after buying a bass.
For years I used a MIM P Bass with Dimarzio Model P's and Rotosound RS66 through a A Designs REDDI when recording for other people. Worked out great. Sean Hurley is session bass player to watch. Usually brings three instruments to a session, P with flats, P with Rounds, and a semi hollow Gibson. Mic's an Ampeg B15 and DI using a Noble Amp DI. You got be accommodating when doing a session on bass, and learn the stuff inside out.
Well said Glenn, also I'd like to add that Jamerson was playing 50 years ago and his personal preference of not changing strings in order to "keep the funk in", was NOT meant as advice to other bassists, He was simply explaining HIS sound.
Most bass players are ignorant to the fact that in later years, Jamerson had some trouble getting sessions because of those old strings he refused to change.
. Exactly. As the 70's rolled in and music styles changed, roundwound strings became the popular thing whereas flats had more or less fallen out of favour with bassists. Slapping and popping doesn't quite work on flatwounds.
This was awesome. 🤘🏼💀🤘🏼
Yeah, fair play. That Jazz bass sounds nice.
Even the low end Fender products are good. I have a Squier VMJ made in Indonesia similar to that Mexican Fender. I have one I picked up when they came out. Very good for the price. Put some Rotosound Swings on it and it's better than my Schecter.
I have to admit, it was kind of nice to hear you say "make sure you're touching your bass at all times to minimize noise," because I've been banging my head against the wall thinking I was doing something wrong that was causing that noise. It's weirdly reassuring that it's just a reality and the solution is just "keep a finger on it."
am i the only one who loved the bass palm muted? real british pop vibe, really dig it
I think it sounded cool by itself!
But I think what Glen is saying that when you palm mute you lose some bottom end that fills out the entire mix. If say, it's a stylistic choice where just the drums and bass playing are playing a less densely populated section of a song, you can probably get away with it.
But if your guitars are chugging along and you palm mute your bass to match those guitars, you end up with a weak sounding bottom end!
It's also about the context of the parts in the song.
He's talking about bass for metal. My sister played bass for my group(I was lead guitarist) for a while. She would always palm mute and use jazz and blues techniques during aggro punk and metal songs which drove me up the wall. I had to sit her down and explain that aggressive music needed an aggressive pick attack,she refused to use a pick or roundwound strings,refused to learn basic metal/heavy rock playing fundamentals. Needless to say she doesn't play for us anymore or even at all.
@@harrymanbach oh oh, family troubles :)
That's what I was gonna say. I think that segment needs a redo honestly since in the context of what was played it simply worked. Now understandably, if the song doesn't call for palm mutes then by all means leave it out but otherwise if it adds something to the sound do it.
The irony of bass playing.
When it comes to playing music, “It's all about the rhythm”.
A band is only as good as its bass player and drummer.
No fantastic guitar solo or vocal can bail out out a bad rhythm section.
I'd almost go as far to say, the most talented person in the band should be on bass, not the other way around.
I agree. The bass glues the whole song together
I got a cort b5 bass which I picked up for £350.....its a very well made Bass with great bells and whistles.....gets the job done very well on stage and studio
I've been a bass player longer than I've been playing guitar and mixing music. A lot of these points are 100% on point. Sure, boosting treble on the on board EQ sounds nice, but it just becomes annoying when you're trying to slot the bass in the rest of the mix. New strings also give more definition to not just top end, but your bottom end as well. Would touching the instrument to lessen the likelihood of noise work for guitar as well?
This is the best video for me as I am in the process of recording the Bass currently. thanks for discussing the hum and grounding it by touching the guitar. I wondered why the bass is so noisy. also I will be sure to check that I am doing this: 24 bit 48 Hz, and definitely the part about just inputting the signal, and dealing with virtual amps and effects later. will dfinitley be coming back to this presentation for further reference.
Hey Glenn! As always, great advice served with a super-sized side of laughs. Regarding #12 (watch for noise): A neat trick I learned years ago uses a spare length of light gauge electrical wire stripped at both ends...one end taped to the bridge and the other end to the player’s wrist/arm/whatever (Band-Aids work great there)...just make sure the bare wire is in contact with the bridge and the skin. Works like a champ.
Glenn, you are so right about the importance of string muting. This is a huge difference between amateur and pro players, and cleaning up those ringing strings will make even simple bass lines sound so much punchier and dramatically clean up mixes. Especially after compression and/or limiting, those sympathetic rings really come forward and screw things up. Pay close attention, bass players, this is a potential session killer!
Basically, do what you do well. Your performance determines how dedicated you are to your individual craft. A rule that applies to any and all career choices.
I think it’s a great idea to learn how to play as many basic Rock instruments as possible. This way you gain an appreciation for what the other person is doing and you’ll also have a better understanding of how to translate an idea to them when necessary.
9:39 Glenn being a better bass player than 90% of all "bass players" in the world. ;)
I must say #11 caught me off-guard. I want to buy a nice active jazz bass for the versatility in tone (especially when playing gigs with other people's gear) and never ocurred to me they might just make the mixing job harder instead of easier.
You can still get something out of that active jazz bass, @drakonyanazkar. After all, it produces why less noise for the same signal! This is especially nice for all single coils - like the jazz bass. I have a PJ bass - and whenever I dial in the Jazz bridge pickup, I get a nice sound... and noise. So you might still make that jump for this reason alone. (And it isn't cheap pickups. It's Quarter Pound passive set by Seymour Duncan.)
I got a cheap cable tester from amazon a few years ago. Xlr and 1/4 inch. One of the best purchases ever for me.
Hey Glenn. I know you love that Jazz. A measly seventy bucks for an American Fender bridge will sharpen that thing right up and make it even more metal. Saddles don't move when you dig in. It's the single easiest way to improve the tone of your bass.
It sounds like you're getting guys in your studio who don't actually play bass. They're probably just guitarists who say, "I can do this, how hard can it be?"
As a guitar player, I have major respect for a good bassist. Almost as much as a good drummer.
(And both always bring pizza to the session, because it's their job)
i'm a Bass Player who also does recording and mixing for me and my band, and even then, it's so funny watching you spitting hate on bass players xD
To be fair, he's dumping on the third best guitarist of the band. Those oddballs who chose to learn bass, rather than had bass thrust upon them, they're a different breed.
Yes, from my experience, the bass players are usually the ones who have an idea about arranging, recording, music theory etc. (whereas the others are doing drugs)
He blasts everyone, very equal opportunity person. I can see in his profession though that he runs into all kinds of idiots.
he means that first bassists you had just because they were friends who were too clumsy to try to learn guitar, so they bought a bass... and then (as the guitarrist) you had to transcribe their parts to them because they could come up to what to play on a 4 chord progression...
The ones who CHOSE to play bass after Les, Steve, Flea or any actual bass player... AND the ones who had to turn to (also) playing bass because of the bassist was nowhere to be found... those do not count
@@0000song0000 you are absolutely right. I chose to play bass because of Cliff, Flea, Steve Harris, Justin Chancellor and a lot of others, I love the bass. I can come up with great lines for any progression, no matter the speed, I love being in the background and supporting the band and holding together with the drummer. I will never regret starting on bass.
I’ve had the same experience with my Mexican J Bass. I got mine on Facebook marketplace. It was in rough shape. It was rusty, poorly wired, and had a big curve in the neck. With the pickups replaced, light sanding of the frets, and a few months of getting the neck to settle into place, it’s become my favorite bass I’ve ever owned.
Oh my god, a video made, just to answer my questions! Can't wait to watch it, btw Glenn, thank you for the help with the reflections in my studio, it was great talking to you on the smg discord!
edit: Every point rings true! All of this i have been telling my peers and students for years.
As a bass player(🤓), the only time palm muting sounds between decent and good is on the E string, but it needs to be directly on top of the saddle! Palm muting the A string in terms of tone as well, especially when you did it "wrong" on bass.
Use a foam mute UNDER the strings, at the bridge. That’s what all the great reggae and R&B bassists do. You want the punch of the note, not just a dull roar of all the strings vibrating. Especially when you’re playing really load music.
i just watched a dave ellefson interview and he talked about palm muting his riffs a lot
we all know glenn is the only reference that exist in the whole 7 billion people in this world. Dynamics is not important with all the record he mixed that nobody heard of.
In fairness he mainly does it during faster sections to get rid of the low rumble and tighten things up instead of just muting everything the guitar does
According to Blabbermouth, lately he was palm mutting something else
I was looking for this or make my own comment "Say that to David Ellefson!"
Okay, exception to the rule, if you can play like Dave Ellefson, you're allowed to palm mute. I'd wager he's using a palm mute like a volume pedal; a nuanced approach rather than hamfisting his palm onto the strings.
I have one more... dunno if that applies to metal that much but I figured it makes for a more consistent low end if all basic notes are played on the same string . It is less convenient and you might have to rebuilt some runs and fills but it pays off when mixing.
This is a great call, I'd say a must for doom metal and slow breakdowns.
Obviously, fast metal riffs that depend on open strings or steppy melodies are going to present a challenge. I've always tried to arrange riffs so at least the root note in every bar is on the same "reference" string.
I personally find even simple metal bass lines, slavishly following the root of power chord riffs, can be sonically overpowering. I hear a lot of stuff where I would personally just play it all on the low B or E for an even tone, and play fewer notes to give it some push-and-pull.
Similarly, on the occasions that I want to be noticed, i might deliberately change position so I'm playing near the nut of the D or G string, rather than high up on the E or A.
My shitty bar band doesn't do metal, really, but we do play _Paranoid_. I hated the brittle sound of the opening riff on both my basses. Moved it down a string and up 5 frets? Liked it much better.
This is also why I like a precision-style split pickup: I try to even up the relative volumes and characters of the strings by tilting the pups, therefore adjusting the distance between pole piece and string. Not sure I'm very successful though! 😅
Glen. The only man on RUclips who has such intensity that it gave him a six-pack on his FOREHEAD. ✌️✌️🤘🤘🙏🙏👏👏🤣😂 but I honestly believe his wisdom is extremely valuable. Rock on
Too many emojis
Listening to this again while doing some chores, I received a monster brand cable, that even specified for bass a few years back, it's better shielded and quieter than my other cables, I use it for my guitars too, also noticeably quieter. Before this experience I would have been sceptical of a difference
I fukn love these vids. Hope each one hits at least a million views.
13:10 my bass picks up crazy noise , like people talking on a phone upstairs it’s wild
I love every sound guy's insistency on going direct in for bass. I've never once heard a producer match anything close to what I'm trying to go for. I imagine guitar players would pitch as much of a fit if you just told them to go direct and bypass their tube fed triple rectifier they spent thousands on, hours on crafting their ideal tone, and hand complete and total control of their tone to somebody else that's gonna make it sound like it's running through a Line 6.
As a bass player I love hearing you come down on us. Thank you
You can approach the bass like a guitar (see John Entwistle, Lemmy, and Chris Squire) but you can’t play the bass as though you’re playing a guitar.
Out of those three, Lemmy was the only one I would say approached the bass like a guitar.
Busy bass is not a guitar style. In fact, the crappiest bass players out there will approach the bass like a guitar in that ALL they do is play the root note of what the guitar is playing. Transition notes, counter melodies, and fills ARE bass playing.
@@TheMemo659 Agreed. Chris Squire and Entwistle didn't play or phrase anything like a guitar player. A punchy sound, forward in the mix, is not 'playing like a guitarist', either. Lemmy, on the other hand, explicitly stated that he was in effect playing rhythm guitar on the bass. His bass sound is supposed to have been an engineer's nightmare for exactly that reason.
@@innocentoctaveMetallica said they liked cliff because he was playing things on the bass that sounded like a guitar.
@@MykEviiL Cliff still approached it as a bass player. The only thing guitar-like about Cliff, imo, was his tone, and his ability to solo like none other. His knowledge of music, and certainly his ability on piano, helped him to understand what role his chosen instrument played in his music.
@@MykEviiL It's a very definite sound, and there's nothing wrong with it per se. It works in the context of Metallica, just as Lemmy's sound worked in the context of Motorhead.
Palm muting on bass can add dynamics if you know what you are doing. I play finger style, but when I play bass with a pick sometimes I palm mute when the song calls for it. Not nearly as common as guitar, but it has it's place.
This makes me glad the only complaints my bandmates raise is when I'm out of sync
That's everything when you play bass
2:43 I just spent a day at a music store looking for a new bass guitar. I played just about everything and there were a few really nice ones (namely a few J-basses and most stuff made by Ibanez). Later that day I had a bass lesson and used one of my teachers' J-basses because I couldn't bring my own one (nor did I want to. Unfortunately it sucks.) and basically went like: "Oh wow this is by far the best bass I've played today. And I've played like 10 different basses!" As it turns out, it was a 350EUR Squier he had set up by a luthier he's known for about a decade. Setup really is everything. That thing also sounded amazing, I really was blown away by how good it was. I really want to try out Sire too though, from what I've heard online they're also amazing.
Glenn and bass players go together like peanut butter and tuna
Don't knock it till you try it!
OK,
no,
don't
For recording any instrument with any pedal or distortion on it, I Highly recommend a splitter or DI to have a direct Clean recording and one with distortion. there are many benefits to this.
If you just want to try out what a different pedal would sound like, it is possible to do so. you can also control how much of the clean signal is passing to the mix, basically a Mix knob.
and if you want to cheat you can even have the recording duplicated but with a different pedal attached to it and keeping both.
I love that the basses Leo Fender designed in the 50s are still relevant for some waaaaay diffrent music
I wonder how many Jazz players actually play his Jazz Bass. I couldn't name a single one.
Fingers matter the most! I had a bass track recorded by Mike LePond. It mixed by itself. The direct track sounded perfectly, I just boosted a little 120hZ, about a db or so. Mike REALLY knows what he is doing!!
The only time I ever palm mute on bass is when I’m playing symphony of destruction lmao😂
I also do it on Type O Negative songs, Primus stuff, tons of Jazz, King's X, Motley Crue, Jason Newstead has done it many times to achieve what he called "low end crunch". Bass players have many tricks up their sleeves but I don't really think that most guitar players know what they actually do, the ones who practice and are good at playing the instrument that is. Most people who are primarily guitar players use it as a sound enhancer or "filler" for their own guitar sound.
Great tips as always, but I'd say palm muting on bass *can* sound good if done correctly. Experimenting with muting is very cool and there is a lot to be discovered (even in heavy metal).
I do mutes with the fretting hand when I lean hard on the low C to keep the string from going out of control [no one ever complained yet]. Sometimes I touch/not touch a string with my fretting finger to get a "puk" sound.
In short: Try stuff out, listen to what you do, explore the instrument.
My songs are either to bassy or you can’t hear the bass at all
There was a well-known bassist who did use palm muting quite frequently, it's a solid technique if you pull it off right every time. That means equal attack, equal muting, every note. Master the technique if you intend to use it.
You may wonder who the bassist is? Go and watch Gary Moore's "Out In The Fields" with the late great Phil Lynott playing bass.
Phil Lynott also used left hand single note muting to sharpen up his 8th and 16th note basslines and combined this with a small element of palm muting to get a very staccato, accurate note placement whether playing "in the pocket" or syncopating in some way.
The key is to apply the right pressure, you can play it as a tight mute but really the best way to use it is to add dynamics to a piece such as a swell or decrescendo.
I was a session player in the 90's and played on all sorts of different things from radio jingles to theatrical production background music and the thing I would say to anyone who wants to play bass full-time is develop your bass toolkit so you have these sorts of techniques available to you.
Practice them. Break them down. Focus on every note and be strict with yourself. You need to get your mind right so that when you switch on, brain goes into pro-mode.
"Don't palm mute your bass!!!!"......Dave Ellefson: "What do you mean I can't palm mute my bass?? I palm mute it every day!"... is coming to get you mate. You are about to get professionally muted :) Dave doesn't kid about :) lol....(I am willing to take Junior as the awesome exception of the rule)...
That's because it sounds like Punk-Rock which was the basis for Trash that he, and the other Dave created.
i would also suggest to check each string if it is the same volume in your headphones. if not then adjust the string height closer or further from the pickup(s) at the bridge as needed.
Dammit Glenn, You forgot one of the most important things that most bassists are unaware of: Intonation!
I know that there are not many bassists that go beyond the 7th fret on any of their strings, but even on the 3rd fret bad intonation is noticeable and no amount of retuning will fix bad intonation.
A sincere fuck you from a DDD*!
(*Dutch Destroyer of Distinction)
These are some great tips and a feel a lot of these points around preparation fall under the general "be a professional, idiot" banner. Having your shit together and being fully prepared makes such a massive difference to how smoothly and enjoyable the recording process is. In my own experience, if I'm tracking bass for a song and it takes more than 2 hours to get the dry tracks all done I haven't done my work beforehand.
Fuck, that reminds me, I haven't changed my bass strings in like 5 years, I should get to that
😆
Well said, I agree on most points except the last one and maybe the tuning after each take thing: I have a good instrument and it needs tuning once a week at worst... Maybe on a cheaper instrument you need to tune every time.
9:35 Glenn, you ARE a BASS PLAYER!!!
I have learned alot being a studio bassist. Understanding dynamics as far as using a pick when finger players may not have controlled attack. TRUST the engineer!
Destroyer of Distinction just happens to be my new band name
The palm muting thing surprised me .. surely its a taste thing? [edit, what about ACDC? eg Thunderstruck intro]
The funny thing is that in my band, the bass player is the most qualified person to play music cause he actually went to school for it
Cliff Burton moment
"No, an augmented chord. Two major thirds. Look, just raise the top of that G chord by a fret. Yeah it's dissonant. Trust me, I'll hit the E and then you can improvise in E minor while the resto of us...."
There's bands where the bassists is the most talented musician. Like Iron Maiden. Saying this as a guitarist, bass is underrated and actually very hard to play accurately (long distances between frets, takes more finger strength, good bass arrangements can really make or break a song)
This is the best music related channel ever , no bs, straight to the point !
If there was a "faster click on a video world record" that would be me.