Traditionally, bass players didn’t use as many effects as guitarists, but I’m on a mission to change all that.

Used badly, bass effects can render your tone unsubtle and tiring to listen to, and result in you being totally lost in the mix. But use them well and you can achieve sonic nirvana and create brave new bass tones of your very own.

I think much of the bad rap comes from the terrible mess that guitar effects can make of a bass signal, but specialist bass manufacturers now make superb ranges of pedals, turning all that tradition on its head.

Boom and Bust

The place to start, before applying any effects, is your EQ. Setting the bass, mid and treble balance on your bass itself (or your amplifier) gives you control of the trade-off between articulation and low-end thump which is always key to a good bass tone. For example, dub bass calls for a thick, gloopy, neck pickup tone that will flap the bass bins and get the reggae girls bogling.

Players who favor high-register melodic or chording approach, like Chris Squire of the band Yes require a toppy sound without too much low end getting in the way of the speedy runs.

In this example I play a Sting style dub reggae riff with a dub tone, and then with a trebley tone

In the second example, I play an intricate and fast Chris Squire-style riff first with the dub tone, and then again with the trebly tone

As you can hear from that example, each tone suits a particular style of playing. There is no bass tone magic bullet!

Squish

Many bassists use a compressor or limiter. Unlike with guitar, which uses these to increase sustain and make picking sounds clean and level, on bass it is normally used to tame the percussion-like peaks that result from slap techniques.

A compressor (more precisely called a “dynamic range compressor”) is a device that Click to read the rest…

Missed the start of the series? Catch up here.

Last time around we looked at the basic controls of the compression effect, a core part of dynamics control in audio. This week we’ll look at some specialised variants: Limiters, Expanders, Gates, and Multi-Band compressors. Then… more listening!

Limiters

Limiters are in essence compressors with very high ratio settings – as high as “Infinity:1″!

The primary use of a limiter is not to manipulate, change or restructure a signal’s dynamics, but rather to contain them! It limits the peak of the signal from exceeding a predetermined setting. This is usually done to prevent overloading or clipping a recording device/mixer or P.A. system. A good limiter has no sound of its own. You shouldn’t even know it’s on. The only way you would know, is if it was turned off and you heard the clipping and distorting that it was protecting you from. Past that, once turned on, you would simply miss the clipping and distorting, and nothing more. Limiters are (or at least should be) the ultimate silent partner.

Note: Limiters are one of the key ingredients used AND abused in mastering studios.

Limiter Examples

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Missed the start of the series? Catch up here.

Compressors, limiters, single band, multi band, soft knee, hard knee, ratios, attack, release… on and on and on.

These terms sound more like medical tools/procedures used in gastrointestinal bypass surgeries!

Despite some of their more gruesome sounding names, these are all terms related to, and describing dynamics – and dynamics control in audio. Let’s define a few items of interest.

Core Definitions in Dynamics

“Dynamics” in its simplest and most functional definition means this:

Dynamics: An audio signal’s lowest and highest points (with regards to volume), and the subsequent and continuous raising and lowering of those points, with consideration to everything else in between.

or:

Dynamics: The proportion/relationship between the loudest and softest parts of that audio signal.

A simpler definition is this:
Click to read the rest…