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In The Studio: Treating Bass Like Another Guitar In A Rock Mix (Video)

Mixing the bass like a fourth guitar to create a wide, high and heavy wall of guitar sounds.
This article is provided by the Pro Audio Files.

So I’m going to be talking about mixing the bass in an alt-rock type of record. Sort of calling upon a mid-90’s alt-rock/pop sort of sound.

These multi-tracks can be downloaded from David Glenn‘s website, he’s a friend of mine, a fellow contributor to The Pro Audio Files, and an excellent teacher. I really recommend checking out his stuff.

So this is going to be about considering the bass in this particular style of song as the fourth guitar.

So traditionally, your arrangement would be something like a lead guitar, you’d have a couple of rhythms, and then you’d have the bass, and that makes your big guitar sound.

It’s supposed to sound like a big wall where you have it very low, very high, very wide, and it’s just huge guitars all over. Those are the four main components. So I think of the bass as a fourth guitar.

I mean, technically it is a guitar of course, but I think of it to blend it in with the higher register guitars.

Watch the video and see what I mean and how it works…

Matthew Weiss engineers from his private facility in Philadelphia, PA. A list of clients and credits are available at Weiss-Sound.com. To get a taste of The Maio Collection, the debut drum library from Matthew, check out The Maio Sampler Pack by entering your email here and pressing “Download.”

Also be sure to visit The Pro Audio Files for more great recording content. To comment or ask questions about this article, go here.

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