# Joey Sturgis Bass Tone



## FrakTheGods (Sep 21, 2013)

I'm looking to create a bass tone like the one in this video, any hints/tips on how to achieve this sound?

thanks


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## Daybreak (Sep 21, 2013)

That sounds an awful lot like Zombass 3. However, the key to getting these kind of bass tones is essentially two things:

Having two or more different bass tracks - Like one for sub, one for grit, one for dist etc. What I tend to do is having 2 channels - One for just the sub, where I'm running it through a typical normal bass amp to give it a punchier and tighter lowend, then low-passing at around 300 Hz. Then another dist track, where I essentially run it through the same guitar amp my guitars are through, to add some extra glue between the instruments. Don't overdo it on the gain here, it won't make it fatter. And high-pass this around 500 Hz.

Compression - Compress it to hell and back, and then to heaven and back also. Then a little more. Seriously, if the meters not moving and it doesn't sound obviously crushed, you have succeeded. Kind of.


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## Taylord (Sep 21, 2013)

It's a vst called Texas Grind, which is the same idea as zombass. 
FOR SALE: Texas Grind Kontakt Bass Instrument - Ultimate Metal Forum

Sounds really good, and the guy above me gave pretty good advice. Fresh strings I think really helps, but most people can't afford to change $30 bass strings every couple of days, so this kind of thing seems like a cool alternative.


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## Alphanumeric (Sep 21, 2013)

Chango - Zombass

Joey - Lately, UAD nigel.

Otherwise, mostly plugins, If you can mic a bass amp like an ampeg, D112 mic, use this for the sub track and LP at the low mids,

for the grind, something like a sansamp, a real one, RBI, PSA, the pedal, and there's a plugin that comes with Pro Tools, or a free 3rd party one called BOD, HP this track in the mid mids, dial in a lot of mids and preamp gain though, 

compress each track individually, eq, compress again, parallel comp each, sum them together and bus comp, as many stages as you can without going into double digets. 

And use a pick haha


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## Nozzle (Sep 21, 2013)

No idea why anyone would want that 'bass' tone. It sounds horrible.


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## Captain Butterscotch (Sep 21, 2013)

I love the crap out of this bass tone.


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## Nozzle (Sep 21, 2013)

Doesn't even sound like a bass.


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## Daybreak (Sep 22, 2013)

These kind of bass tones glue VERY well with guitars though, so in the full mix you would only hear it as one instrument (one big fat guitar), so you really can't judge this bass tone all by itself.

Needless to say, it's obviously not suited for anything other than metal really.


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## RG7 (Sep 22, 2013)

I tried to have a go at this bass tone...except with real bass. 

https://soundcloud.com/teledjent/the-bass-test-joey-sturgis-tse

does it sound similar? I turned down the distortion for extreme clarity.


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## Kroaton (Sep 22, 2013)

Sounds close, though can't really tell with how low it is in the mix and how loud the guitars are.

Can you post just the bass track (or bass + drums) and your chain > settings?


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## patata (Sep 22, 2013)

HOLY SHIT
I mean it's so ....ing heavy it's not even funny.

Fresh strings are probably the 30-35% of your tone.If you can't afford to change every few tracks,boil them with a drop of dish washing soap for like 10 minutes,dry them and you're set.
They sound like new.

I also guess a lot of treble because attack.

EDITick hard


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## Nozzle (Sep 22, 2013)

Daybreak said:


> These kind of bass tones glue VERY well with guitars though, so in the full mix you would only hear it as one instrument (one big fat guitar), so you really can't judge this bass tone all by itself.
> 
> Needless to say, it's obviously not suited for anything other than metal really.



Yeah but real engineers producing real records almost always get a straight up kick ass bass tone. I find the method of splitting two tracks to be a convoluted mess for when you don't know what you're doing. Granted it works for some styles, but I never find myself being interested in the type of music that employs these techniques. Hence dislike


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## patata (Sep 22, 2013)

I think Merrow mentioned that:
''The simpler the mix is,the better it is''


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## wrongnote85 (Sep 22, 2013)

that is the worst sound ever.


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## Larcher (Sep 22, 2013)

Not everyone digs aggressive bass tones, that's understandable.

However, as Daybreak mentioned, these kind of tones will work very well in metal/post/metalcore.

This tone is dope.


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## JohnIce (Sep 23, 2013)

When someone asks how to get a tone, I don't see the point in arguing why he should NOT want to get that tone  

For compression, I'd suggest using two compressors before any distortion and whatnot. Both set with ultra-fast attack and release, but the first one just grabs the peaks and the second one compresses a couple of dB the whole time. Getting your bass this brick walled with just one compressor could prove difficult, and may just end up in over compressing and losing bottom end and causing pumping and well, stir shit.  Keep in mind all basses are different and some sound very even from the start. I auditioned an Ibby SR bass and a top-end Warwick on the same recording and the Ibby needed WAY more compression to sound as even as the Warwick.

It also sounds like this bass has been pitch-corrected. Unless it's got a very long scale length and super heavy strings that don't budge when you play, but considering how hard the pick attack is I'd guess that the bass has been melodyne'd or otherwise tuned to make the pitch dead-on.


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## Narrillnezzurh (Sep 23, 2013)

JohnIce said:


> It also sounds like this bass has been pitch-corrected. Unless it's got a very long scale length and super heavy strings that don't budge when you play, but considering how hard the pick attack is I'd guess that the bass has been melodyne'd or otherwise tuned to make the pitch dead-on.



It's actually programmed through Kontakt.


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## JohnIce (Sep 23, 2013)

Narrillnezzurh said:


> It's actually programmed through Kontakt.



Not so surprising then  I could imagine one getting close to the same results though with a real bass tone-wise but the pitch thing will be hard to escape.


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