So I just had the sudden urge to make nice deep low notes, so I picked up my bass, stuck a cable into an input of my soundcard, resulting in bass coming through my right speaker, and played along to U2's "A Man and a Woman" for most of an hour, learning the parts as I went.
As I've been working on mastering lately, I've been focusing in on bass sounds and how the tone of the recorded bass affects how the whole low end of a recording fits into the mix. Obvious, but then one of those things that's a revelation all over again when you focus on it more specifically. To me, anyway.
I was working on a song the other day that had a wonderful, low sub-bass tone. And I was using a Sting album and the U2 album for some referencing. The U2 has much more low end overall, and I found that to be a better reference for this particular song, even though the frequency contour is also very different in some other ways. But listening to "A Man and a Woman," which was one of my favorite songs from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb ever since I got it, I was reminded all over again what a beautiful song it is, and how nice a bass tone the song has, and I still heard some more sounds/parts in it that I hadn't heard before. Impressive, for an album I've listened to quite extensively for most of a year.
So I put that song on, and played along with the bass part, which is simple, lots of space, and very, very effective. Figured out some of the articulations that make it so smooth, rolled off the tone of my bass some, since my bass doesn't have nearly that kind of deep, round tone, and really enjoyed it. I wanted to sing too, but I'm not good at singing and playing, especially where the rhythms are so beautifully counter to each other like the bass and vocal of this song. Which is part of why the song grooves. But, I was far inside the song for a good little while there, feeling the push and pull of the guitars strumming and the vocals counter to the bass phrases, and the bass locking to the kick drum. Strangely, or maybe not so, I was even hearing the lyrics more clearly than when I usually listen and sing along, even realizing what one particular line was that I never knew what was being said before. Of course there are lyrics with the CD, but I just had never pulled out the booklet and looked to see what that line actually was.
What a nice little zone. Although I really do need to get back to work on web site updates now.
As I've been working on mastering lately, I've been focusing in on bass sounds and how the tone of the recorded bass affects how the whole low end of a recording fits into the mix. Obvious, but then one of those things that's a revelation all over again when you focus on it more specifically. To me, anyway.
I was working on a song the other day that had a wonderful, low sub-bass tone. And I was using a Sting album and the U2 album for some referencing. The U2 has much more low end overall, and I found that to be a better reference for this particular song, even though the frequency contour is also very different in some other ways. But listening to "A Man and a Woman," which was one of my favorite songs from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb ever since I got it, I was reminded all over again what a beautiful song it is, and how nice a bass tone the song has, and I still heard some more sounds/parts in it that I hadn't heard before. Impressive, for an album I've listened to quite extensively for most of a year.
So I put that song on, and played along with the bass part, which is simple, lots of space, and very, very effective. Figured out some of the articulations that make it so smooth, rolled off the tone of my bass some, since my bass doesn't have nearly that kind of deep, round tone, and really enjoyed it. I wanted to sing too, but I'm not good at singing and playing, especially where the rhythms are so beautifully counter to each other like the bass and vocal of this song. Which is part of why the song grooves. But, I was far inside the song for a good little while there, feeling the push and pull of the guitars strumming and the vocals counter to the bass phrases, and the bass locking to the kick drum. Strangely, or maybe not so, I was even hearing the lyrics more clearly than when I usually listen and sing along, even realizing what one particular line was that I never knew what was being said before. Of course there are lyrics with the CD, but I just had never pulled out the booklet and looked to see what that line actually was.
What a nice little zone. Although I really do need to get back to work on web site updates now.