Bass recording - what's your chain??

[Ampeg SVT]

I currently use my Jazz bass and run a DI from my Mesa, then I add a cab simulation to make the DI sound a little bigger, I will be adding a mic later though so I dont have to use simulation.

[MadMan118]

Ibanez SR700 - Boss Bass Overdrive, Octave, and Chorus pedals/or Line 6 rackmount bass POD - My ancient Peavey tube head - lined out to Pro Tools.

[MindSpark]

Spector Euro 4LX or Fender American Deluxe P-Bass through EBS compressor and Tech21 Sansamp Bass Driver. Between those could come any combination of Morley Dual Wah, Digitech Bass synth, EH Pi Big Muff.

[D K]

Geddy Jazz or Reggie P/J > Sansamp RBI or UA Solo 610 > RME Multiface
After - always a little LA2A - sometimes the Ampeg SVX plug - (Really nice cab sims in that one)

For Sessions - Bass > Engineer's DI of choice

Seeing lots of guys liking the REDDI....

[lambro]

Originally Posted by iCombs

One of my basses -> DI -> Quad Eight MM310B channel -> Drawber 1968ME -> Interface

My Q8 has one of the sickest EQ's on it. The 50Hz low shelf on that thing is JESUS. And driving it a little is great for pick/aggressive tracks...a little bit of extra harmonic content.

SWI-WEET

[bassgiant15]

I usually do two tracks:

Spector 4LX-35> sansamp> M Audio Delta 44> Cubase 4
Spector 4LX-35> sansamp parallel out> Podxt Delta 44>Cubase 4

I recently recorded "The Awakening" with this setup. If you want to hear the results: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=7234733

[Clammy]

This (custom handmade Moser Custom Shop Arachnid Ultra):



into this (1973 Marshall Super Bass into early 80s Marshall JCM800 Bass Series 4x12 - on the left - and JCM800 Bass Series 2x15 cabs), via a 20 ft George L's cable:



Both cabs were mic'ed into the board in the control room, and I had a DI signal going too. For a couple of songs on our latest CD, I also used a MIJ Boss BF-2 Flanger between the bass and input of the amp.

Cheers!

[fokof]

Bass-] preamp-]HD192 clocked by a BigBen -] G5 -]DP6

Preamps I got;
-Bryston BMP2 (fave)
-SA TD100
-UA LA610
-Crest ST2
-Focusrite Octopre
-Marshall JMP1

[gasjunky]

For home recording I usually record two tracks

1 - Fender Jazz > A Design REDDI > M Audio Ozonic > Mac (Logic, PT, or Ableton)
2 - Fender Jazz > Bass Pod XT > Ozonic > Mac (Logic, PT, or Ableton)

Then I mix the two signals with some eq and compression (dbx 166a or in the box) to fit into the tune. The REDDI sounds great on its own but combined with the Pod I can get some fairly unique sounds. Sometimes the tweaking can get to be a little much though.

I have a Polytone Sonic II which I could also mic up but it's much more convenient to use the Pod XT. The difference in sound quality is negligible IMO.

[mr.redpants]

I'm reading this with great interest.
My old bands have done some nice recordings in a basement - mic'd cab and direct to the board from my preamp, and, as I understand it, the channels were panned 60/40 and flipped in the other side.
My latest band is considerably more intense and promising - we're thinking about a regular studio recording. We visited and found 15 g***** amps and nothing for bass !? I asked, and they simply go direct into the board. I like to keep it simple, but that never worked in the basement. Mr Engineer played some of their current stuff - vocals and guitars and drums were great, virtually no bass in the mix. When he isolated the bass track, thin & reedy. He's not a local crackpot but a real music professional for the last 30+x years...so I am puzzled.
I suppose one question is what are guitar amps doing that wouldn't likewise make it important for bass amps to be there?

[theory028]

I used to use my PODxt Live to record through USB. It was fine for my own stuff but was too quiet to be usable otherwise. I still don't get why this thing is so inconsistent.

The rhythm guitarist in my band has a Tascam porta studio thing that we used to record our songs. For most songs I went:

ESP LTD B-4E > Bass PODxt Live > Tascam

After hearing some of the recordings when everything was put together, I was unimpressed with my sound (no definition, all boom). A bunch of the timing got messed up so I redid two of the songs (should have done more, but didn't have much time).

In those songs I went

Fender 70s Reissue Jazz (with Audere) > Tascam

It was still pretty low. I have a hunch that when he put the songs together he used the mixer to add more low end and cut out a bunch of highs and mids.

Other than the lead guitarist's inability to know when to stop and take a break and the mistakes I made in a bunch of songs, I'm pleased with the quality. I'm working on the website and will put all of our recordings that I have up there to stream and download.

[leswatts]

I usually plug the bass (fender p or gibson eb0) into my all tube old fender 30 guitar amp then run it's line out direct to an RME fireface interface. I'm really just using the amp as a tube preamp. The speaker volume is low, but the overdrive is up a little to get the tube sound.

Sometimes I just go into the RME direct instrument in though.
I might reamp it and mix a little of that in as well. I use a Shure 315 ribbon mic for that.

As far as eq on the tracks...I usually roll off the highs above a few kHz since that's all the pickups put out. No sense in recording HF noise. If the guitar is direct in to the converter
I usually knock off the lows below 50 hz or so to avoid recording subsonic thumps.

The old Gibson mudbucker on my '65 eb0 is sometimes hard to get sitting well in a mix. There's nothing above about 800 hz there! Without some significant bass rolloff it can overwhelm.

Les

[anthowl]

jazz bass, guy atone bass compressor (LOTS of compression), tone port(for eq, amp sim, sometimes more compression and a gate), software. fairly simple.

[martyman5000]

I never do DI anymore...I mic going through a Behringer mixer/Art Tube pre to a EV Cardinal and also an Old Sony dynamic mic...tend to put the Cardinal back a foot and the Sony up tight.

[skeptikal]

New to recording so I'm going DI from the bass to the recorder.

Warwick Corvette > Tascam DP-01FX

I was going to try

Warwick Corvette > MB Mini CMD 121P > Tascam DP-01FX

I'm not exactly sure how to go about doing this. I had it to where I was going into the Bass > MB DI out > Tascam but I can't figure out how to get the signal out of the amp without the amp actually playing lol. I got a crappy mic so I really don't want to mic it right now. Anyone got any suggestions?

[martyman5000]

I'm not exactly sure how to go about doing this. I had it to where I was going into the Bass > MB DI out > Tascam but I can't figure out how to get the signal out of the amp without the amp actually playing lol. I got a crappy mic so I really don't want to mic it right now. Anyone got any suggestions?

Line out...turn the master down and the gain up slowly...

[teleharmonium]

For electric, I typically go through a Diamond stompbox compressor (it's a high quality opto compressor in a pedal), then an old B15 with an Altec alnico speaker, miked with an AT 4047 and/or a black Sennheiser e609, into an Apogee Duet. Sometimes I will use a different amp; probably a Vox AC50 or AC30 Super Twin (bass voiced chassis) with a Foundation single 18 cab or with a Bergantino 310HD, same mic and convertor.

Upright: 4047 into the Duet. (If anybody knows a way to make that chain simpler, please let me know.)

I have yet to record (or need or want) a DI track on anything I've recorded myself. I have used a DI track in pro studios before, but I only needed it on one or two songs out of 12 which were a little noisier than I wanted; I was using someone else's old B15 that day and it apparently got a little spitty for a while the day we recorded all of the rhythm tracks for an album.

I like an old school bass sound, so YMMV. If I had an 1176 or a Fairchild clone I would happily put that in the chain before the duet, but then I guess I'd need to use an external pre, and I don't own a great totally clean and fast standalone preamp at the moment. Basses are usually a Ric 4003S5 with rounds or an old Kapa made from mostly Hofner parts (inc. the staple top pickup) strung with flats; the upright is a 1940s American Standard.

[Frank Tuesday]

Jazz Bass -- '61 B-15 -- EV RE20 -- Board

[vstrings]

Bass > Aguilar DB680 > any A/D converter

This is my Ken Smith BT Custom VG through the signal chain above http://www.geocities.com/vstrings/PopBass.mp3 I think the A/D converter was the ancient Korg 1212 PCI card I had borrowed at the time.

These days I use any Digidesign interface that happens to be at hand.

[tommy gilstrap]

Roscoe LG 3005 > Avalon U5, does the trick for me every time.