Thursday, April 17, 2025

34 thoughts on “Can you actually hear the bass in metal?!

  • To me at least it’s when the lead/rhythm guitar and bass start playing within a certain range of each other that the bass gets drowned out. Bass obviously a lower frequency instrument it’s overpowered easily with higher frequency guitars.

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  • Example of a metal band where the bass is VERY prominent is tool. Or intronaut. Both insanely good bassists who get the amount of attention and respect they deserve.

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  • I think what people are noticing is the types of tones metal bassists are using these days. They're typically very dirty and blend in with the guitar, so if you didn't know any better you would just think it is guitar. That's especially true with bands that are tuned down.

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  • Listen to the bass player from Cannibal Corpse that dude is an absolute machine???? I said that comment before the end of the video and then Webster shows up???? makes perfect sense

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  • "Mix" is usually the key word here. The bass isn't sticking miles out on the mix it's there to underpin everything

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  • That was Cannibal corpses bass player but he wasn't playing CC in that clip

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  • I'm a guitarist that started playing bass in a second band recently. Boy oh boy does the 4 string add magic to the mix, everything loses punch and depth as soon as you stop playing.

    All bassist jokes aside, it's an awesome instrument! Love playing both the bass and the guitar 🙂

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  • It really depends on the band and the bass line.
    Aside from lead lines, it can be harder to hear Cliff on the early Metallica albums. He's mixed pretty far down.
    Also if the bass is in unison with the guitar it can be harder to pick out what frequencies are the bass vs the guitar vs how they blend.
    Iron Maiden is a bit unique in that Steve Harris writes a lot of the music.
    When the "loudness wars" started happening I feel like bass also got the short end of the stick. With a more dynamic recording you can hear instruments move in and out of the mix.
    I could write an inappropriately long essay on this

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  • Lol as I see subjects in metal.is still the same since 20 years , I bet there is still the old finger vs pick debate. That's why metal is almost dead . Time to go forward maybe

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