Get We Came As Romans’ Bass Tone: Joey Sturgis’s DI & Tuning Tips

Ever wrestled with getting a bass tone that truly slams in a heavy mix? You’re not alone. Getting that foundational low-end right is crucial, especially in modern metal. We got a peek into how a pro like Joey Sturgis approaches this, specifically for a track by We Came As Romans. Forget overly complicated chains right off the bat; Joey’s method emphasizes a pristine starting point and meticulous tuning. Let’s break down how he lays the groundwork for an incredible bass tone.

If you want to see Joey mix the full We Came As Romans track and explain every decision, check out the full session on Nail The Mix.

The Unshakeable Foundation: A Flawless DI Signal

Before you even think about amp sims or distortion, Joey Sturgis stresses the importance of the raw material: the Direct Input (DI) bass signal. For the We Came As Romans track, the goal was to capture the cleanest and most well-edited bass performance possible. This isn’t just about hitting the right notes; it’s about clarity, consistency, and a performance that’s tight.

Why Your DI is King

A noisy, poorly played, or badly edited DI is like building a house on shaky ground. No amount of fancy processing will truly fix fundamental issues. A clean DI provides:

• Maximum Flexibility: You have a pure signal to shape with amp sims and other processors without fighting unwanted noise or artifacts.
• Clarity: Ensures every note is distinct and contributes to the low-end power, not mud.
• Tuning Accuracy: A clean signal is easier for pitch correction software to analyze and process effectively (more on that in a bit!).

So, rule number one: ensure your bass DI is top-notch. This is the standard you should aim for.

Pitch Perfect: The Non-Negotiable Tuning Step

Here’s a truth bomb: an out-of-tune bass will sabotage your mix, no matter how killer the rest of your instruments sound. Joey encountered a slightly pitchy bass DI in the We Came As Romans session and immediately prioritized getting it locked in. This isn’t a “nice to have”; it’s essential.

Navigating Pitch Correction Tools

Joey explored a few options, which is a common scenario for many producers.

Initial Passes with Autotune

His first instinct was to reach for Antares Autotune. He started with the “Bass Instrument” mode, setting Tracking to 100 and Retune Speed to 0 for an aggressive correction. When that proved a bit too much or had trouble detecting the octave, he experimented with relaxing the Tracking to 50 and the Retune Speed to 10, and even tried the general “Instrument” mode. This trial-and-error is part of the process!

A Quick Look at Cubase VariAudio

For Cubase users, VariAudio offers built-in pitch manipulation. Joey briefly opened it, using “Pitch and Warp” to analyze the bass. While you can quantize pitch and straighten notes here, he noted it can involve a lot of manual “babysitting” for each note, which wasn’t the route he preferred for this task.

Melodyne for Surgical Precision

The winner for this particular bass DI? Celemony Melodyne. Many engineers swear by Melodyne for bass, and here’s a glimpse into Joey’s workflow:

1. Transfer/Scan: First, get your audio into Melodyne.
2. Algorithm Check: Ensure it’s in a “musical” or “melodic” algorithm, not a percussive one, for proper note detection.
3. Automatic Correction: Joey used Melodyne’s “Correct Pitch” function, initially pushing the Pitch Center and Pitch Drift sliders to 100% to see how tight it could get.
4. The “Straight Lines” Trick: To get those notes super tight and remove excessive pitch modulation (those squiggly lines), a cool trick is to select all notes (Cmd/Ctrl+A) and then double-click on the Pitch Modulation tool. This snaps them much straighter. From there, you can dial back the overall correction percentage. Joey suggested around 50% might be a good balance, retaining some naturalness while ensuring tightness.
5. Verify Notes: Always double-check that Melodyne has correctly identified the notes and that they conform to the song’s key and the guitar parts.

Tuning the bass meticulously ensures it locks in perfectly with the guitars, creating a powerful and cohesive low-end. If your bass isn’t in tune, it’s fighting the rest of your mix.

Sculpting the Core Tone: Amp Sim Simplicity

With a clean and perfectly tuned DI, Joey moved on to shaping the actual tone. For this demonstration, he opted for a straightforward approach without his usual track duplication trick, just to show how quickly a solid tone can be achieved.

Firing Up Pod Farm

The weapon of choice here was Line 6 Pod Farm. He simply loaded it up and navigated to the bass amp models. The key takeaway? You don’t always need a complex chain of 10 plugins to get a usable, even incredible, bass tone. A good amp sim, fed with a great DI, can do a lot of heavy lifting. The focus was on finding a suitable bass amp model within Pod Farm to provide the core character.

While Joey didn’t dive deep into specific EQ strategies for the bass tone itself within this segment (as the amp sim handles much of the initial shaping), remember that EQ is vital for making the bass sit with guitars and carve its space.

Compression: For the Mix, Not Just the Tone

An interesting philosophical point Joey made: he doesn’t consider compression part of the tone itself. Instead, compression is a tool to make the bass sit correctly in the song, especially against the drums.

Fitting Bass into the Mix

After establishing the fundamental sound with the amp sim, he’d then add compression. This stage is about controlling dynamics, ensuring consistency, and helping the bass punch through without overwhelming other elements. For more on how pros use compression in metal, check out these metal compression secrets.

The process involves listening to how the bass interacts with the drums and the rest of the arrangement, then applying compression to achieve the desired glue and impact.

Building Your Own Incredible Bass Tones

As Joey demonstrated, starting an incredible bass tone isn’t about secret plugins or overly complex routing from the get-go. It’s about:

1. Pristine DI Quality: Garbage in, garbage out. Start clean.
2. Meticulous Pitch Correction: Use tools like Melodyne or Autotune to ensure your bass is perfectly in tune.
3. Effective Amp Simulation: A good amp sim like Pod Farm can provide a fantastic core tone quickly.
4. Purposeful Compression: Use it to integrate the bass into the mix, not just as a “tone shaper.”

These fundamental steps, as shown by Joey Sturgis working on a We Came As Romans track, will set you on the path to powerful and professional-sounding bass.

Want to see how Joey takes this foundation and builds the entire mix for this We Came As Romans song, including all his guitar, vocal, and drum processing? You can watch the full, in-depth mixing session and download the multi-tracks to practice yourself over at Nail The Mix.

And if you’re serious about taking your metal productions to the next level, from tracking to mastering, explore everything Nail The Mix has to offer. For a deep dive into modern metal mixing techniques beyond just presets, be sure to check out our Unlock Your Sound guide.