Bass tracks do not have as clean a sound as other instrument tracks.

[Gerry 1943]

For one reason or other, my bass tracks do not have as clear/clean sound as my other instrument tracks.

For lack of a better explanation, there seems to be a buzzing/vibrating sound. Were as my other instrument tracks are clean and crisp.

What may I be doing wrong??????

 

[Amberwolf]

What fx are you using?  

What instrument is being used?

Are you using any EQ to filter out any frequency ranges that conflict with other instruments?

Are you using a separate bus for the bass tracks to feed, or does everything just go straight to the master out from your tracks?

 

 

[Bristol_Jonesey]

Nowhere near enough information.

What sort of bass? i.e. did you record a real bass yourself or is it synth/sample based?

If you recorded it, how did you do it? Mic up an amp? DI? Straight into your interface? Amp Sim?

What levels are showing on the track? What Fx are you using? 

[Bass Guitar]

I use the Free Ample P bass lite. Yes seems like it was recorded ( the samples) possibly using a Tube Amp so it definitely has a fuzzy sound. But in a mix it sounds pretty good to me. 
 

Other things come to mind is that you are creating way too much sub bass. Open the Pro Channel EQ and the fly out spectrum graph. 
That or Span. 

[mettelus]

+1 to the above, we definitely need more background to understand this better. Also, are you referring to the bass track when soloed or when mixing? An audio snippet of whichever case would help even more than trying to describe in text.

[Amberwolf]

IT coudl also be related to whatever the problem you had in this thread was

which you never did come back to resolve.

[Gerry 1943]

In reply to Amberwolf, by the way much appreciated you and all other feedbacks, all I am using is Toontrack EZ bass with NO FX, NO EQ and no separate bass track.

I have used this type of set-up before and never remember having this issue.

Regards

 

Gerry.

 

[AB99]

I am just using that EZ bass.  Which type of bass did you select?  I am working on something today with it, so I am happy to see if I have that issue as well.

[Glenn Stanton]

some instruments include, "ahem", realism, and sometimes you can turn it off (like the Ample series let's you get rid of most), and some (like the EZ series which seems plagued by it) limit how much you can turn off. so bass strings hitting the fingerboard or frets (DB or precision for e.g.) esp at higher velocities and of course output volume and gain controls can all contribute to noises. 

[AB99]

I just used Izotope declicker to get rid of some of the click.   Sort of a pain but it worked.  Not a Sonar issue. at least for me.   Of course, I do not know what the OP is experiencing.

[msmcleod]

@Gerry 1943 - try adding a reference track (i.e. any commercial song in a similar genre to your song), and play that.

If the buzzing/vibration is also apparent on that, then it's something wrong with your monitor system - speakers, any EQ that's on them etc.

If it goes away, then look at your mix.  Try to match your bass to the reference track.

Bass is notoriously difficult to get right, especially if your room/monitors aren't up to the job.  I'm sure it's got more difficult now that everything is digital, and I guess it makes sense - back in my 4-track/8-track cassette days, the bass would start to roll off at 40Hz, so it kind of corrected itself.

Smaller speakers will struggle to reproduce 40Hz  (a low E on a bass guitar is 41.2Hz), and what you're actually hearing is harmonics and your brain is making up the rest.  This is how earbuds / small headphones / iPhone speakers give the illusion of bass.  Typically a small amount of saturation/distortion on the bass is enough to let those harmonics poke out.

However, it might not actually be the bass track that is the issue.  Your other tracks may have a bunch of bass information that is interfering with the bass in the mix, and you're having to boost the bass track way too much to hear it.

Try using a high pass (low cut) filter on any non-bass tracks.

What I tend to do is, for each track:

1. Solo the track
2. Using the ProChannel EQ, engage the High Pass Filter and slowly raise the frequency until I can hear a difference
3. Back off the frequency back slightly so that difference is gone
4. Repeat for all the other tracks.

Note that this is just a starting point.  You may want to high pass further, (or even low pass in some instances) or use the EQ to carve out frequencies to thin out some tracks / boost certain frequencies to make them more prominent - but only do these further refinements with all the rest of the tracks playing.

 

[mettelus]

13 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

especially if your room/monitors aren't up to the job

This came to mind for me as well. Does this also exist in an export that is played on another system? As mentioned above, if you could post a short snippet (like 8-10 seconds) so we could hear it for the situation you are experiencing, it would make things far simpler on our end to better help you.

[AB99]

It would also help me to know which bass selection is being used in EZbass.  I have it setup right now.  And as I said, the acoustic basses have clicks and noises that are in the samples.   I wish they made those noises a parameter because EZbass, in general, is a great program!