Mixing Aggressive Rock Bass Guitars: StudioRack Unchained

Aug 06, 2020 | 12,707 Views

Learn how to mix aggressive sounding bass guitar tracks to complement the energy and impact of heavy rock productions. Producer/mixer Chris Baseford (Rob Zombie, Shinedown) shows you how, using his custom “Bass DI/Amp” mixing chain for StudioRack.

Chris Baseford about his ‘Bass DI/Amp’ StudioRack Chain

“What I love about StudioRack is it enables me to do what I’ve been doing in Pro Tools for years but simplifies it all within one plugin.”

“The plugins I use in this chain start with NLS Channel for adding some console saturation, then Bass Rider for evening out levels, before hitting the parallel splits used for processing both DI and amp recorded signals.”

How to Simplify Parallel Compression for Vocals: StudioRack Unchained

“For bass guitars, I like recording both a DI and Amp feeds within a stereo track. StudioRack’s parallel splits enable me to pan both channels up the middle and process both channels independently with different plugins within the stereo channel, though everything sums to mono.”

“I then have two extra racks, one for blending in a touch of LoAir subharmonic processing, the other for a multiband split which enables me to use two types of GTR distortion on different frequency bands.”

“All these racks then sum into the API 560 and CLA-76 for adding a touch of color and dynamics, and L1 UltraMaximizer for keeping everything under control.”

‘Bass DI/Amp’ – Macro Controls

Rider Target controls sensitivity value in Bass Rider
Rider Output sets makeup gain in Bass Rider if required
DI Level sets output level of the DI feed
Amp Level sets output level of the Amp feed
Dist Level sets output level of the multiband GTR3 rack
Sub Level sets output level of the LoAir rack
API 560 HF high frequency boost
CLA-76 parallel compression level

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