Recording ? for Michael or Steve

[MIDIval]

Gentlemen,

I've been experimenting with unaccompanied playing for some time now. But I often get muddy results when recording multiple bass parts. I try to keep the parts separated so they don't walk on each other. And even changing tone and guitars (which I prefer not to do) for each track and / or panning. Any thoughts on how to create "space" for each instrument or track when recorded?

BTW. Mike. Loved your performance of Watson and Crick @ the NAMM show way back in 19?... truly inspirational.

[Steve Lawson]

Sorry for the delay replying!

A lot depends on where the 'muddiness' is coming from. tone is affected by lots of things, from the age of your strings and your technique to the quality of the signal path. If you don't have particularly high quality processing/effects gear, try to keep the recording as clean as possible, so you can experiment with shaping the sound with plugins once you've captured the performance you're happy with.

Panning can help to put things at different places in the stereo field, and selective EQ can get rid of frequencies that don't need to be there. Also, making sure that there's a crossover on any reverb you use so it's not just generating rumble is a good idea.

It's tough to diagnose accurately without hearing and seeing you play. It may help to take your problem to a local teacher. Failing that, I teach via Skype so you could book a lesson in to address these things

Steve
— Steve Lawson: Bass 2.0 — the soundtrack to the day you wish you'd had

[MIDIval]

Thank you Steve,

Yes, probably all of the above would apply. When I read your reply I realized that I may have been thinking too much about HOW I was recording as opposed to WHAT I was recording. I'll try a cleaner, brighter tone and see how that works.

And thanks for the Skype invite, I may join in sometime.

Scott

[Michael Manring]

Hi Scott,

It sounds like you're on the right track with Steve's good advice. I think the first thing is to make sure the multiple parts you're recording complement rather than interfere with each other. Then it's a matter of using all the parameters of the recording process to create an interesting sonic field.

Good Luck!