Memphis May Fire’s Bass Tone: Kellen McGregor’s Real & Programmed Blend

Getting a metalcore bass tone that’s both thunderous and articulate can feel like a dark art. How do you get it to sit perfectly with detuned guitars and pummeling drums, providing weight without turning into a muddy mess? We got an inside look at how Kellen McGregor of Memphis May Fire tackles this challenge, blending real bass with programmed elements to craft their signature low-end. Spoiler: it involves meticulous attention to detail, smart layering, and some killer plugin choices.

If you've ever battled the "programmed vs. real bass" dilemma, Kellen's approach offers a "best of both worlds" solution. Let’s dive into how he builds that perfect metalcore bass sound, as demonstrated in their Nail The Mix session.

H2: Taming the Beast: Prepping the Real Bass

First things first, Memphis May Fire tracks live bass with their bassist, Cory Elder. Kellen notes Cory is a "ripping" player who plays incredibly hard. This aggression is awesome for energy but presents a common challenge: pitch.

H3: The Tuning Tightrope Walk

When a bassist digs in hard, notes tend to go sharp. To counteract this, Kellen and Cory proactively tune the bass slightly flat. It’s a simple but effective trick to keep things more in line from the get-go.

Even with this precaution, Kellen emphasizes that Melodyne is pretty much always part of his workflow for live bass, especially for riff-heavy metalcore. While some might fear making things too perfect, Kellen argues that if you have live overheads and other humanized elements in the mix, a "robotic" and super-tight bass actually helps. It needs to lock in dead-tight with the kick drum, ensuring every 16th note is audible and consistent. People won't complain about it sounding "too perfect"; they'll just hear a killer, impactful bassline.

The goal for the tracked real bass, captured through an Avalon DI box, isn't to be the entire bass sound, but to provide the top-end "scrappiness" and authentic pick attack that’s hard to replicate with samples alone.

H2: Layer Cake: Building the Bass Tone with Multiple Sources

Kellen went through three variations of bass for the record before landing on a multi-layered approach. This involved combining the strengths of the real bass performance with the consistency of virtual instruments. Here's the breakdown:

H3: Layer 1: The Real Bass – All About That Scrappy Top End

The Melodyned real bass DI forms the first layer. Its primary role here is to deliver that aggressive, percussive pick sound and high-end grit.

• FabFilter Saturn 2: Kellen uses Saturn to add drive, specifically engaging the "British Rock Amp" model. The saturation is focused on the mid-to-high frequencies, leaving the low end relatively clean from this plugin.
• Stock EQ: Next, some surgical EQing. This involves:
  • Slicing out unnecessary low-end.
  • Notching out "funky frequencies" – for example, addressing pick scrape around 360Hz.
  • Taming any harsh high-end "sizzle."
• Limiter: A healthy dose of limiting ensures this layer is super consistent and doesn't jump around in volume.
• Another Stock EQ: Even after limiting, which can bring up new frequency issues, Kellen adds another EQ for further refinement. This might involve cutting around 300Hz or tackling other resonant frequencies that pop out. The focus remains on that "scratchy, percussive nature with distortion."

H3: Layer 2: The "Scratch Print" – Extra High-End Distortion

To get even more controlled aggression in the highs, Kellen creates a dedicated "scratch print" derived from the real bass DI:

• FabFilter Saturn 2: This time, Saturn is used for "heavy saturation" on everything from 160Hz upwards.
• Filter: A steep high-pass filter is applied, focusing the energy way up high (Kellen mentions around 1kHz to 7.5kHz).
• Limiter: Again, limiting is applied with settings almost identical to the main real bass layer for consistency.
  Kellen mentions he prefers doing this kind of aggressive shaping in the box with plugins rather than wrestling with pedals or external gear like a Kemper, as it offers more control.

H3: Layer 3: Consistent Mids with Nuclear Bass

For the core midrange of the bass tone, Kellen turns to a virtual instrument: Nuclear Bass by Submission Audio. He mentions it's his go-to MIDI bass due to its great sound and his familiarity with it.

• Darkglass Plugin: The dry DI from Nuclear Bass is then processed with a Darkglass bass amp sim plugin. Kellen keeps the drive fairly moderate and the blend not quite at 100%, as other layers are already providing distortion. This track is often printed to save CPU.
• EQing Nuclear Bass: Even though it's a sample, EQ is crucial. Check out these EQ strategies for mixing modern metal for more general tips. For this track, Kellen:
  • Adds a touch of low warmth around 110Hz (though he later mused if this was the best call).
  • Does a clever trick around 75Hz: a steep cut and a wider boost. This is often done to carve space for the kick drum while retaining fundamental weight.
  • Cuts mud around 200Hz and some pick-scrape-like frequencies around 360Hz.
• Waves MV2 Compressor: This plugin is used to "slam" the Nuclear Bass layer, evening out the dynamics. Kellen cautions that with low-level compression like MV2 offers, you need to be mindful of it bringing up unwanted string noise or low-mid "floppiness." For more on metal compression secrets, look here.
• Final EQ Touch-up: Post-compression, another EQ makes cuts below 83Hz and above 850Hz, along with further notches at 187Hz and 250Hz. The logic here is to control problematic frequencies before heavy compression, then clean up anything exacerbated by it.

Kellen's reasoning for using programmed mids even with a great real bass performance? The real bass provides the authentic character and scrappiness you can't fake, while the programmed layer delivers unwavering consistency in the body of the tone.

H3: Layer 4: Sub Power with Omnisphere

The final layer is all about that deep, consistent sub-bass. For this, Kellen uses Spectrasonics Omnisphere, specifically a patch called "Slap in a Sub."

• The same MIDI performance used for Nuclear Bass drives Omnisphere.
• Filtering: Most of the high and mid frequencies are filtered out, leaving just the low-end rumble.
• Waves Renaissance Bass (R-Bass): To enhance the sub, R-Bass is added, centered around 62Hz, to give it a bit more oomph.
• Gain Plugin: A simple gain plugin is used for a final level boost, likely a late-stage mixing decision for fine-tuning.

H2: The Bass Stack: Gluing It All Together

All four of these distinct bass layers are then routed to a bass bus (or folder stack) for collective processing. This is where the individual parts become one cohesive monster.

• FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (EQ): The first insert on the bus is Pro-Q 3. Kellen uses it to:
  • Control any upper-mid notes that poke out too much.
  • Scoop out "mid-range ring" to improve clarity. He mentions this makes the bass sound more "scooped," which is a common goal in metal.
  • Address a bit of build-up around 160Hz.
  • Balance the note definition (around 100-120Hz) with the deep sub frequencies (40-60Hz).
  • Apply a steep high-pass filter. Kellen notes that very steep filters can sometimes subtly boost the frequencies right before the cutoff point, which can be a neat psychoacoustic trick to tighten the very low end.
• Waves L1 Limiter: Just a touch of limiting here, barely tickling the peaks. The bass is already pretty controlled by this point, so this is more about final leveling.
• Mono Check: He makes sure the bass is firmly in mono. A wide stereo bass can cause phase issues and eat up headroom.
• Trackspacer (Sidechain Compression): This is a crucial step for modern metal. Kellen uses Trackspacer by Wavesfactory, sidechained to the kick drum.
  • The Trigger: He first prints his main kick drum sample (a "Lime Kick") to a separate audio track. This track is then sent to "no output" but is used as the external sidechain input for Trackspacer on the bass bus.
  • Settings: The Trackspacer is set to a relatively low mix (around 17%), with a fast attack and fast release. It's focused on ducking the low frequencies of the bass whenever the kick hits.
  • Mid-Side Mode: For extra safety, even after making the bass mono, he sets Trackspacer to only affect the "Mid" signal, ensuring no weird stereo artifacts.

This sidechaining carves out just enough space for the kick to punch through cleanly, making the low end tighter and more impactful.

H2: The Perfect Metalcore Bass Tone? It's a Process!

As Kellen McGregor demonstrates, achieving that "perfect" metalcore bass tone for an artist like Memphis May Fire isn't about one magic plugin or setting. It's a meticulous process of:

1. Managing the source: Careful tuning and liberal use of Melodyne on real bass.
2. Strategic layering: Combining the authentic character of real bass with the consistency of programmed elements (Nuclear Bass for mids, Omnisphere for subs).
3. Purposeful processing on each layer: Using EQ, saturation, and compression to shape each part for its specific role.
4. Cohesive bus processing: Using EQ, limiting, and crucial sidechain compression to glue it all together and make it sit perfectly in the mix.

This detailed approach ensures the bass is huge, clear, and perfectly locked in with the drums – a foundation every heavy mix needs.

Want to see Kellen McGregor build this exact bass tone from scratch and mix an entire Memphis May Fire song? You can grab the multi-tracks and watch his full mixing session over at Nail The Mix. It’s one thing to read about it, but seeing it happen in real-time is where the real learning kicks in. If you're serious about elevating your metal productions, Nail The Mix offers a unique chance to learn directly from the pros who are shaping the sound of modern metal. Ready to Unlock Your Sound and Mix Modern Metal Beyond Presets? This is how it's done.