Bass EQ guide

Billy Decker says he always high-passes at 70Hz.¹

Boost the fundamental.² Andy Wallace uses a Neve 1073 EQ and boosts 35Hz all the way. This is ~16dB of gain on Lindell 80.³

If the fundamental is still too soft, maybe Add a sub bass with midi.

Consider cutting the low-mids if it’s too muddy or nasally.⁴

Bring out the first harmonic around 300 to hear the bass on small speakers.⁵ Andy Wallace boosts somewhere around 200-300Hz with an SSL EQ.³

Bruce Swedien boosts around 800 Hz on a bass to add definition. For Marc Daniel Nelson, this is often all he does.⁶ Sara Carter does this same, on an SSL EQ.⁷ This is that nasal, honky sound that can often help basses speak through small speakers. It also can bring out the finger noise.⁸ Warren Huart likes 750, 850, 1k, or 1.5k.⁹ Following this with some compression can situate the boost a little better if it starts getting to be too much.¹⁰

Brighten it between 1.6k-2k.⁵

Give your high-pass a little resonance to boost the fundamental. Do the same with your low-pass to boost the attack.¹¹ I like to use Volcano 3 for this.