Recording bass

[januaryscar]

OK so i m going to re-record my bass parts this weekend after my first attempt was less than successful.

 

The sound i am going for is along the lines of blink 182, green day, motion city soundtrack - pop punk bands. I want my sound to have the 'character' and punch these bands recordings have.

 

I will be recording direct from my SWR bass 350 head - into the mixing board. I will have my precision bass going into my boss compressor then into my sansamp BDDI, then into the SWR.

 

My EQ is currently as follows -

 

on the SWR:

Bass and treble at 2 oclock

Midrange at 12 o oclock

 

on the BDDI:

everything is set to 12 oclock

 

on the compressor:

level: 12 oclock

attack & tone: 2 oclock

sustain: 9 oclock

 

Any hints/tips on how to acheive the above sound with what i ve got would be great. Or any other recording tips for that matter. Its all been trial and error so far - but this will be the final time for our release.

[Lee Knight]

I'd take a DI before the Boss. Then get your amp sounding the way you want with regards to distortion, Boss compression, metallic zing, etc, but keep the lowend flat. Track to 2 tracks.

 

Come mix time, use a lowpass filter on the DI and just use this for the sub freqs. Mix the 2 as you like. Use a nicer compressor for the DI... something that'll give you the steady, fat lows.

[where02190]

Record DI stright off the bass, maybe with a bit of good compression. Then get or make a reamp box and take all the time you need to try infinite combinations of amp sounds without trying to play and record at the same time. get the part right, then dial it in.

[Lee Knight]

Originally posted by where02190 Record DI stright off the bass, maybe with a bit of good compression. Then get or make a reamp box and take all the time you need to try infinite combinations of amp sounds without trying to play and record at the same time. get the part right, then dial it in.

 

I agree. That's what I do but... if you need to hear the amp sound to perform the part correctly, as I suspect might be the case here, you could combine both approaches.

 

Track DI and amp... be prepared to reamp if need .

[the russ]

the bass guitar signal chain does not need to be that complicated, IMO. here's what you do:

 

Pbass -> BDDI -> interface

................... -> compressor (if neccessary) -> SWR head

 

track to 2 tracks

 

track 1 - bass DI. no compressor, no effects, no nothing.

track 2 - mic'ed cab. screw around with the mic and the amp until you get a good sound on tape.

 

cake. between those 2 tracks, you should be able to get something usable. worst case, you can always reamp.

[where02190]

I used to do the Di and mic'd cab tracking, but found I ALWAYS ended up replacing the mic track, so I stopped wasting clients time tracking getting an amp sound. I now just use the reamp box, and can dial up during mixing the exact sound the song requires.

 

AFA needing the tone, as a musician as well as an engineer, I respectfully agree. A good player with a good bass can get a good tone and track without having to run an amp.

[Funkwave]

Although I'm far from a pro engineer, I am a bassist and drummer and have gotten great bass results using the Sansamp driver, XLR out, right into the board.

 

In my opinion, I would save the EQ and compression for the mix, not in the print, Or at least use minor compression going in.

 

It's alot easier to add compression later then to deal with a problem of an unwanted sound after the track is printed.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I agree - be careful not to over-compress on the way in... you can always use more at mixdown, but once something is printed "squashed," it's squashed forever...

[LowandLoudx97]

I find mixing a DI with a mic'd cab sounds pretty kick ass. The mixture between a direct and tight sound with a more body'd and punchy mic'd up cab sound really works and complements each other when mixed together.... We took the DI out of our bassists GK head, and then Mic'd up his 4) 10 inch cab with a beta 52, and his 15 inch cab with a d112.... Mixed them and eq'd them together with some compression and it sounded killer!! Our mastering engineer (ue nastasi from Sterling sound in nyc) Told us that he finds better results making the bass twangy and bright sound ing almost like a guitar to help make them punch and cut through mixes.....

 

you can check out some tunes at the links in my signature...

[Funkwave]

 

Originally posted by LowandLoudx97 Our mastering engineer (ue nastasi from Sterling sound in nyc) Told us that he finds better results making the bass twangy and bright sound ing almost like a guitar to help make them punch and cut through mixes.....

 

 

 

True, but all depends on the genre of music too. If your using multiple scooped metal guitars, you will need to have the bass twangy to cut through the mix. For other genres like funk, etc, you would want to keep a nice fat, rich, bass sound in the track with possibly no EQ at all. If it gets too bottom heavy or muddy, in the mix, you can drop a few notches in the 80-100 hz range.

[where02190]

The key to mixing direct and mic'd bass sounds is time alignment. the mic is by nature of physics always going to be behind the DI. By Magnifying the waveform, you can align the two, and the sound difference is amazing.

 

Lately I find myself using less and less direct, and more amp, and in alot of cases no DI at all, just amp. Something about that sound.....

[Lee Knight]

I tried something different yesterday and it turned out nice. I took a DI. That's it.

 

Then I duplicated the file. 1st file got the fat reggae treatment, low pass, compression. 2nd file got the distorted guitar amp, clacky, middy treatment in Izotope's Trash (Not enough people realize how cool Trash is). Time aligned as Where mentions above, I blended the 2nd in and.... sounds cool. Great even.

 

Nothing new really, but I've never gone about it quite this way before and it rocked.

[where02190]

today I'm mixing some death metal. I tracked bass thru two mic'd cabs, no DI. The bass, (I forget what, some 5 string thing) into a 62' Ampeg B-15, to it's cab with (EV loaded) mic'd with an AKG C4000B in omni mode. Then I took the extension amp (essentially a preamp out) to a Crest CA9 to a Fender Bassman, mic'd with a Shure Beta 57A. Both mic's were run through HHB Radius 10 preamps and Distressors, in Dist 3 mode and hitting the red, hard. Slow attacks, 2:1 ratio, fast release. Minimal compression, may be 3-4db of reduction. It sounds nasty, with balls for days from the 15" and clank for weeks from the 12".