MaxxBAss and R-Bass

[ryanoliver]

Anyone here use these two plugs and how do you feel about em? My understanding is that they reproduce a lower octave using algorithms as well as increasing the harmonics of the selected region. All I know is my bass sounds thin without it. Also, when I'm recording heavy rock stuff I find myself pulling out a lot of low mids to sound like pro rock. Am I alone on this?

[brandondrury]

Anyone here use these two plugs and how do you feel about em?

I've used the R-bass many times. It's a useful tool. It does something quite a bit different than EQ does and it can be very useful. I've had great luck with it on snare drums in the past. I certainly don't use it every session or even every month, but it has been good to me.

All I know is my bass sounds thin without it.

That's a problem I've never had. I always seem to have plenty of low end. Are you recording with an amp or DI?

Also, when I'm recording heavy rock stuff I find myself pulling out a lot of low mids to sound like pro rock. Am I alone on this?

This isn't a question of pro or not. This is a tonal choice. Much of the modern rock sound is very scooped...in some ways dramatically more than that of most metal guitars. Sucking out 400Hz is a common thing for me when dealing with the high gain stuff. This is not an "audio engineering" thing so much, but more of a bass player tone kind of thing.To make room for the big guitars you've got to make room for them and it's generally best (in my experience) to give a lot of that 400Hz stuff to the guitars as that frequency can stack on you in a hurry.

Brandon

[String7th]

I normally use R-bass plug in the kick, or on synth stuff like bass drops.
If you are using R-bass on bass guitar you will need to use it before compression and either get a sub, or set the amount by loud headphones. If you are going down past 40hz, you will have no clue what's going on. A work-around is looking at a spectrum analyzer.

Max-bass would be better for bass guitar because it it more subtle and goes higher in the midrange than R-bass.

[paul999]

I use the Maxxbcl digital hardware. The maxxx bass portion of the hardware I tend to use the exact opposite way that you've described. If I do demo work and the bass is thin I will add some while mastering. I have used it on snare, kick and bass but rarely. In a pro setting I tend to look at it as a last resort and I am pretty sure I've never actually used it in a pro recording. Lots of guys use it with beautiful results but for me I don't feel the air move the same way. For low end I usually use fat mics, thick compressors and then use subtractive eq.

[rickyd]

R-bass is nice on snare and kick, but for some reason I don't actually like it on bass-guitar. It really fills the drums out nice if you use it right.

[brandondrury]

but for some reason I don't actually like it on bass-guitar.

Yeah, it would have to be one thin bass guitar to work well with Rbass.

Brandon

[paulwalshmusic]

I have used both, what they both can do is give the 'ilusion' of bass fundemental frequencies by generating harmonics associated with the fundemental.
The 'ear/brain' hears the harmonics and presumes the fundemental is there. It similar to some optical illusions where the eye/brain sees something that isnt actually there.
I have found them particularly useful when playing back through small speakers. The impression is that there is a deep bass fundemental there, that in fact the small speaker is actually incapable of producing.