RECORDING A BASS GUITAR

Gary Moore · Post by **Gary Moore** » 1 Mar 2007 12:20 pm

WHAT,S THE BEST WAY TO GET A GOOD BASS SOUND GOING DI TO A DIGITAL RECORDER THANKS.

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 1 Mar 2007 1:41 pm

Lotsa options...

First, your sound is only going to be as good as what you send. If its a great sounding bass, any decent DI Box will get you started. From there, you can go to higher end Direct Boxes, like an Avalon U5 (what Michael Rhodes has in his rack for DI), or take a signal off a bass preamp/amp that has a preamp out. Finally, something like a BassPOD or similar can give you lots of options...

I mainly use the Avalon U5 with an additional Yamaha Nathan East Bass EQ box, plus a good compressor, on the way to tape/disk...

YMMV...

Jim Peters · Post by **Jim Peters** » 1 Mar 2007 3:58 pm

Believe it or not, I got a great bass sound running thru my NV112(at low volume) using the xlr out. JP

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 1 Mar 2007 5:42 pm

I run my Peavey bass direct into the console and get a great tone with lots of punch if I wnat it. This bass has active pickups though, so I have a wide range of tonal adjustment before the console. As far as sustain and warmth I haven't missed having an amp in the chain and I don't use any amp sims.

Greg

Michael Garnett · Post by **Michael Garnett** » 1 Mar 2007 9:01 pm

Basically, what John said. You can't make good tone out of a crappy instrument (can't make chicken salad out of chicken $#!+...). I've played several sessions where my Dingwall bass was homerunned into the board via a decent DI, then all that was needed was a little EQ. Are you running directly to a digital recorder, or do you have the opportunity to get any tone control at all?

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 2 Mar 2007 5:15 am

I doubt there is a RIGHT answer..

but

A quality bass, fresh strings, a GOOD recorder,quality EQ, maybe a Tube preamp..a good MIC, a good amp..

don't forget the Tuner...

A good engineer...or good engineering skills...

Good is subjective anyway..when someone else tells you it's good now you're on to something.

Experiment, find the sound your looking for...it's not something you can just do in one take.

A simple tube preamp fed to the input of the workstation, be sure not to saturate the input levels, appropriate EQ with NO effects, play clean, stay simple..use 1/2 tones and whole tones mixed in , let the Bass sustain....plan your Bass lines around the song and whats in the song...

You may want to add some mild compression etc..later on...

Recording Bass is an art anyway..laying down a Bass track that is in the groove but yet not in conflict with the vocalist or lead Instruments is an art form all by itself..

You'll know it when you hear a killer tone back in the Cans...

good luck

t