Want big bass on every note?

Want big bass on every note? 07 Dec 2016 Sound Radix's pitch-tracking EQ to the rescue.

A critical task when mixing bass is defining the balance between each notes fundamental frequency and its harmonics. In subjective terms, the fundamental frequency is where the instruments low-end weight resides, while the harmonics (at whole-number multiples of that frequency) determine the character of the instruments timbre - in other words whether the tone seems warm, brassy, piercing, or whatever. Within this context, its quite common to see engineers reaching for mixdown EQ as a means of rebalancing a bass guitars fundamental frequency relative to its harmonics... but its more easily said that done!

The problem is that a notes fundamental and harmonic frequencies all depend on its pitch, which changes frequently in almost all musical arrangements. As such, a simple EQ curve wont suit all the notes equally well. So, for example, take this unprocessed bass-guitar recording:

Now let me try adding a bit of extra weight to the sound using a static EQ shelving boost of 4dB at 60Hz:

That works fine for the lower notes, but the higher ones now sound lightweight by comparison. So lets move the same EQ shelf higher up the spectrum instead, to 120Hz:

Now the higher pitched notes also have the extra sense of weight, but the lower notes are beginning to sound a bit woolly, because that same EQ setting is boosting some of their lower-frequency harmonics too. Clearly, static EQ settings arent ideal in this instance, because you can only achieve sufficient fundamental-frequency boost on all notes at the cost of timbral inconsistency. Or, to put it another way, both these settings sound like youre applying EQ - not as if the instrument itself had a naturally weightier sound in the first place.

This is where SurferEQ 2 Boogie can help out, because its mid bands special Surf switch allows you to EQ the bass guitars fundamental frequency directly. In other words, by following the instruments pitch in real time. For best independent control over the fundamentals level, Id suggest choosing the narrowest EQ bandwidth (push the bands Q slider all the way up) and setting the bands frequency multiplier to 0.9, so that its peak has less effect on the first harmonic. Heres a screenshot showing those settings in action:

The 'Surf' band lets you track and EQ the fundamental frequency, rather than an arbitrary part of the low-end spectrum.

...and it sounds like this:

This processing now gives all the notes the same amount of weight, but without appreciably changing the apparent timbre of the instrument as it moves through its pitch range.

Sometimes, though, the fundamental frequency of a bass part isnt just too quiet or too loud, but is actually inconsistent in level. Fortunately, here too Surfer EQ 2 Boogie can provide a nifty workaround, because it allows you to effectively remove the unreliable fundamental frequency, clearing the way to replace it with a more consistent synthetic substitute. For example, if I take the same bass guitar part and use Surfer EQ 2 Boogies mid-band to apply a narrow 20dB cut in place of the former 4dB boost, as shown here:

...you get the following result:

Although all the bass guitars subjective weight has been removed, the essential character of the instrument is unchanged. As such, I can now program a simple sine-wave synth to recreate the missing fundamental frequency with absolute mix consistency, as you can hear in this final example:

Words: Mike Senior

LINK:	https://uk.focusrite.com/news/want-big-bass-on-every-note...
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