Just wondering if anyone has any tips for recording a dual pickup MM Stingray?

Ive read in a few places they can be a bit hellish to record, ill probably be leaving the EQ flat (or nearly flat).

I'll be recording like this, Bass to BDDI, BDDI "coloured" to board, parallel output to a clean preamp, clean preamp to board.

I might go Bass to clean preamp, clean preamp to board, extra output of clean preamp to BDDI, and BDDI to board.

Im not sure yet tho, im not sure if i want to have compression prior to the BDDI yet, shall have fun experimenting tho!


I play in a 3 piece punk band, so i really want the bass to be quite thick sounding, to fill the sound, but at the same time i want it to retain its bite!


Cheers guys!

Ever since ive gotten a pbass i dont record with my stingray anymore. Not saying it cant be done but its pretty tough to tame that beast on a recording. All the things that make it such a great bass live make it tough to record. Running it through something that'll color the sound alot will help. Dont just run it through a good DI into the board. A good tube amp or high end pre might chill it out a bunch. I just think its such a hot bass it makes it shrill when recorded. Lots of people do it though, i just find it tough. Good luck.

I had an MM SR5 and thought it recorded very well. I recorded direct, SR5 -> Avalon U5 -> DAW, and then I added compression there. No problems, great result. I also recall a session where I mic'd a bass player with an SR4, again no problems. You should be OK, just work with the engineer and you'll do well I suspect!

Good luck!

I am the engineer :smug:

Ill try a few things, id love to have a mic'd recording of my SVT running flat out into my VBC810, but i really dont have any mic's which would catch that sound as amazingly as it is heard in person. Hence the going DI. Im wanting some overdrive in my tone, hence the use of the BDDI (aswell as SVT simulation), so, im guessing with use of some compression and blending of the clean and coloured sounds i should be ok?

I might re-record myself after the recordings are done, see if my modded cheap banger bass records well, its a P/J with dimarzios in it, and its shielded well so there is no noise at all. And then see which is best on the recorded sound.

if you play punk no one gives a rats ass what the bass sounds like

You REALLY should record the 8x10, too! If you don't have anything better, a Shure SM-57 (or 58) will get the job done. IME a bass drum-specific mic (Shure Beta 52, AKG 112 or anything similar) DOESN'T really work well with a bass cabinet. A dynamic (NOT condenser), cardiod mic with a flat response (or with a mid/presence boost - for more clarity) works better. Put the mic right up close to the grill, straight on. Try to borrow or rent a ElectroVoice PL-20 or a Shure SM-7, if you can. If not, any vocal mic will work good.
Record both of the DI's AND the mic, to separate channels of your DAW (it's a good idea to make the three channels a "group" so that you can't loose sync between the 3 bass channels)
BTW, after recording - when you have time to experiment - try inverting the phase ("invert" in the DSP menu) of one or both of the DI's to check for out-of-phasedness. [The best idea is to make a copy of the original tracks to use for your tests, and then, when you know what you want to do, phase-wise, you can apply the result of the tests to all of the songs.]
First check one DI together with the mic, then check the other DI together with the mic, and finally, check all three signals together. What you're looking for is the "bassiest" sound . . . that's how it is when it's adjusted correctly. If you´ve got the phase wrong the bass will sound thinner, and "unfocused".

Good luck!


EDIT: You've got the right idea about not using much EQ, both on the bass and on the BDDI. Just get the Bass-Amp combination sounding good, to your way of thinking. Then record the three signals "Flat, no EQ, no FX(compression,etc)" into your DAW.
You also could do your phase testing BEFORE the actual session . . . Not the same day . . . and without other musicians/friends bugging you.
Remember, the bass ALONE doesn't sound anything like it will sound when it's combined in a mix with drums, guitar(s) and vocals!! Those other "instruments" tend to hide the bass's mid-frequencies, making the bass appear more "bassy" in the final mix.

I've never had an issue recording my Ray5. I use a Sansamp RPM for most stuff. I leave the bass flat-maybe a bit of bass boost on board. Then i adjust the amp to suite whatever it is i'm doing-whether it's adding some drive or making it sound a certain way. Other times-they have me go direct to the board. Sounds fine.

I'd also recommend micing the cab if you can. Some of the best tracks i've ever laid [sound wise] were with a bass drum mic & i think a 57 used in tandem micing my Avatar B212.

take it easy.

if you play punk no one gives a rats ass what the bass sounds like

Really useful, cheers :rolleyes:

I've never had an issue recording my Ray5. I use a Sansamp RPM for most stuff. I leave the bass flat-maybe a bit of bass boost on board. Then i adjust the amp to suite whatever it is i'm doing-whether it's adding some drive or making it sound a certain way. Other times-they have me go direct to the board. Sounds fine.

I'd also recommend micing the cab if you can. Some of the best tracks i've ever laid [sound wise] were with a bass drum mic & i think a 57 used in tandem micing my Avatar B212.

take it easy.

You REALLY should record the 8x10, too! If you don't have anything better, a Shure SM-57 (or 58) will get the job done. IME a bass drum-specific mic (Shure Beta 52, AKG 112 or anything similar) DOESN'T really work well with a bass cabinet. A dynamic (NOT condenser), cardiod mic with a flat response (or with a mid/presence boost - for more clarity) works better. Put the mic right up close to the grill, straight on. Try to borrow or rent a ElectroVoice PL-20 or a Shure SM-7, if you can. If not, any vocal mic will work good.
Record both of the DI's AND the mic, to separate channels of your DAW (it's a good idea to make the three channels a "group" so that you can't loose sync between the 3 bass channels)
BTW, after recording - when you have time to experiment - try inverting the phase ("invert" in the DSP menu) of one or both of the DI's to check for out-of-phasedness. [The best idea is to make a copy of the original tracks to use for your tests, and then, when you know what you want to do, phase-wise, you can apply the result of the tests to all of the songs.]
First check one DI together with the mic, then check the other DI together with the mic, and finally, check all three signals together. What you're looking for is the "bassiest" sound . . . that's how it is when it's adjusted correctly. If you´ve got the phase wrong the bass will sound thinner, and "unfocused".

Good luck!


EDIT: You've got the right idea about not using much EQ, both on the bass and on the BDDI. Just get the Bass-Amp combination sounding good, to your way of thinking. Then record the three signals "Flat, no EQ, no FX(compression,etc)" into your DAW.
You also could do your phase testing BEFORE the actual session . . . Not the same day . . . and without other musicians/friends bugging you.
Remember, the bass ALONE doesn't sound anything like it will sound when it's combined in a mix with drums, guitar(s) and vocals!! Those other "instruments" tend to hide the bass's mid-frequencies, making the bass appear more "bassy" in the final mix.

I think that may be something i need to try next time we are recording, right now my 810 is in storage, and we are also short on mics and cables (we just have enough XLR cables for the setup we're doing now). Dont have any decent mics either right now, but i will experiment, because all the work will be on my PC, i might try re-recording the bass with it mic'd up afterwards and see how that fits in :)

Ill really have to look into getting a few mics for recording purposes in the near future, but we dont do all that much recording, not enough to justify spending more cash atm :( , so im going to see if it sounds good enough this way.

Its also good to hear people not having troubles with thier rays!!