Bass distortion + Recording

[MrSmoke]

Hey all,
im planing to record some bass tracks on a few of our bands new songs. We have recorded an album in the past. It will be done at my home with the drums being done in a studio (have already been recorded).

I have the following:
Bass - Fender Jazz V 5 string
Amp - Behringer BH4500X (or w/e it is) + the 4x10 Alu Cone cab

Recording:
Interface - MOTU828MKII
Mics: SM57, NT2-A, Set of drum mics (some rip off shure brand)

Our band is a 3 piece rock band so im looking to get a bit of distortion to thicken up the mix. I did this on our last album, but with my Boss GT8 but since its a guitar pedal, most of the low end went walkabouts.

Now ill most likely be using DI in and probably mic the cab up with an SM57 or the Drum Kick mic (or both).

Currently im really liking the bass distortion in this song:
Calling All Cars - Reptile - YouTube

and i guess you could say that we are similar in genre (and also the 3 piece aspect).

So i guess my questions are:
1. Should i get a Bass DI? I know the amp has a DI but behringer anythings are usually pretty rubbish.
2. What Distortion/Overdrive/Something similar to that youtube clip pedal should i be looking at? Is he using OD or Distort?

Ive been looking at the MXR M80 and SansAmp like most people but just wondering if there is something better out there?

Thanks

[Crystalman85]

I think either the sansamp vt bass or the darkglass electronics microtubes b3k might get you that sound. the bass sounded pretty cool on that song you've posted.

[G3Mitch]

VT bass is cool, I haven't recorded with it yet, but I hear good things, and its my always on pedal.

And I would say get a Fuzzrocious pedal for any OD/dist/fuzz
Those B3K's look/sound freakin' awesome, and would be totally worth saving up for but pretty darn expensive.

[cableguy]

Look at a VT bass or Sansamp BDDI. If you have the ability, record a clean track at the same time. It give you a back-up if you need or blend the two signals at mixdown to see what sounds good. I have also got some cool distortion off the Tech 21 Oxford. I haven't tried the B3K, but I would like to. I has some great distortion from the clips I've heard.

[scottfeldstein]

Nice sound on that track. It's not a whole lot different than this:

http://scottfeldstein.net/misc/2012/sedated_clip.m4a

I was playing slap, but I think the grit and the EQ isn't too different.

I did that going direct out of my SansAmp BDDI, settings a bit like this:



But I know for a fact that the sound engineer put in some canned "SVT" distortion after the fact. Really gave it that face-melting, clipping overdrive that you hear.

[Ric5]

I run 4 parallel signals through my pedalboard ...

I mix clean and dirty together to get my tone.

bass effects

[scottfeldstein]

Dayum! There's a guy who knows dirt!

[MrSmoke]

Well yesterday i liked the sansamp vt bass, now today i like the microtubes b3k :/ The BDDI also sounds pretty good. I found out yesterday that the bass player from Karnivool (one of my favourite bands) uses the Tech 21 XXL so i listened to that and it sounds pretty good as well (though id never use anywhere close to the amount of distortion that thing can produce).

Id probably have to pass up the Microtubes B3K since I have no idea where id find one here (Australia)

[DeltaPhoenix]

Check Darkglass'es website they ship

[dharmashawn]

Originally Posted by DeltaPhoenix

Check Darkglass'es website they ship

They sure do!!

[TrevorOfDoom]

blend your clean DI tone with your OD.
if you have an OD that you like but kills low end just bring back the bottom with your clean tone.
frequency slotting at its best.

[spaz21387]

big muff... end thread ha

[DBCrocky]

Use a regular DI like a Radial or Countryman, send the clean balanced signal to be recorded and send the unbalanced signal to your distortion device, then to a second track to be recorded.

That way if you play a great track, but are unhappy with the dist or other effects, you can reamp the clean track, or use studio fx on it, or blend to taste.

[soxinthebox]

Hey all,
Sorry for dragging up an old thread but I recently saw Calling All Cars live and took a photo of Adam Montgomery's pedal board as I loved that growl and wanted to see how he produced it.

Photo is a bit blurry but as you guys guessed he uses a Sansamp bddi in combination with other pedals.



Cheers

[BFunk]

I don't know about this sound. (Honestly, I didn't listen to it.) I just wanted to say that you should consider using a mix of dry signal a distortion. For distortion, many studio engineers have had good luck using a mic'd guitar amp. In fact, I like to reamp the bass track with a high-pass filter set around 150hz into a nice low wattage tube amp.