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| From | Jaimie Vernon <bullseyecanada@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: Bass Players |
| Date | Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:28:38 -0500 |
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Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:46:28 Mark wrote:
>
> All this discussion/feudin' regarding Adam Clayton and Michael Anthony's bass playing abilities started me to think about the role of the bass player in the band. I did attempt to play bass guitar in my youth, and have always had a special place in my heart for the instrument. When I first hear a song, I always try to pick out the bass parts.
>
> What I have noticed (and I sure others have as well) is that often the bass just sounds as if it is buried deep in the mix. And I am not sure if this is the result of the musician's skills (or lack of them) or is just the result of the mixing process. For example, one of my fav bass players is Annie Holland of Elastica (RIP). Her bass playing just punches right through the guitars and drums and hits you right in the stomach. However, I am not sure if this the result of how the Elastica recordings were mixed or if it is due to her playing technique. Maybe is it a combination of both.
>
> Anyway, I've always been drawn to recordings where the bass playing was an integral (and noticeable) part of the band's sound and I was wondering if anyone has any opinions on the subject.
If you can't *hear* the bass in the song then it's been deliberately mixed that way. My complaint about modern producers is that bass parts are now relegated to merely a sonic tone on recordings. You can only hear the parts if you're listening to the CDs on stereo systems with booming sub-woofers. Gone are the days when the bass line carried the song ("Day Tripper" by the Beatles, "Money" by Pink Floyd.....or, gasp, "With Or Without You" by u2). Bass players have become kick drum enhancers....and not melody line creators. This may not be true of a lot of the power pop we listen to, but out there in the commercial world of knock-off major label production it is the norm.
I lament Cheap Trick's "Gonna Raise Hell" as one of the last great bass 'playing' songs.....you could hear every fret move on Petersson's 8 string beast. And this is before audio recording techniques became high art.
Jaimie Vernon,
President, Bullseye Records
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