Recording With VT Bass, need suggestions on DI Box

[roosterbass]

My band is recording our upcoming LP in our drummer's home studio, he has a nice Cubase setup, we are recording most of it in the live room. Since the space is small, all I play through is a little SWR Workingman's 12. Im currently running my passive jazz bass into a VT Bass pedal and using the DI out on the amp to send a signal to the board. This is the only bass signal being recorded. I like the tone the VT bass gives me and the fact I can adjust it for certain songs. I believe the DI out on the SWR is pre EQ, etc; however, I feel I could have some more clarity in my sound by using a better DI.

Ive heard Radial and Countryman are good places to start. I want a very simple, straightforward box. I dont require any tone shaping capabilities. Any suggestions? Passive vs active? I am already sending a hot signal from the VT Bass.

[MichaelVee]

The Radial JDI is an amazing passive DI for bass, especially when fed a hotter signal.

Running a low-output passive bass into the JDI can be a little anemic, but when it's driven with a boost, or with an active bass, it's excellent. Fronting it with a VT would be quite the ticket.

[roosterbass]

Ok, is it significantly better, than say a Whirlwind IMP-2 to justify the price?

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by roosterbass

Ok, is it significantly better, than say a Whirlwind IMP-2 to justify the price?

I have done some pretty nice recordings with a Whirlwind Imp 2. If it's all you can afford, it's a decent little box. But you'd probably be better off using the SWR's DI. And you'd be way better off with a good DI like a Countryman or Radial.

[roosterbass]

haha way better off...im sold. the radial is looking quite nice

[azureblue]

You need to do one of two things:

1- take a single dry DI track, send that track to the pedal or the amp with a mic in front of it, and record that, giving you a wet and a dry track. This will avoid mic bleed. This is your best choice.


The other is to take a DI and a mic on the amp at the same time. You risk bleed over from the drums, & other amps, but if this is a go /no go / no overdub session, this is not a problem.

At mixdown balance the two tracks. Hint: use an envelope filter to enhance the attack on the dry track, to get more punch.

Oh yeah- if you can, track with headphones. Also, put the bass amp in a box or closet to help isolate.

PS- check the SWR DI out for noise before recording- mine exposes grounding problems in a noisy way. And check your SWR for a pre post preamp switch.

[Willy2911]

Originally Posted by roosterbass

Ok, is it significantly better, than say a Whirlwind IMP-2 to justify the price?

Whirlwind makes some good boxes, in fact I do believe they made the first commercial DI boxes. - However I think that if you tried Radial, or sansamp you would like them alot better.

[bongomania]

Originally Posted by azureblue

take a single dry DI track, send that track to the pedal or the amp with a mic in front of it, and record that, giving you a wet and a dry track. This will avoid mic bleed. This is your best choice.

Good suggestion. Specifically you can look for a "re-amp" box which is a type of DI designed to take a line-level recorded signal and run it into an instrument-level input like a pedal or amp head. Some boxes offer both that function and the normal DI function, so you can kill two birds with one stone.

[derrico1]

Originally Posted by azureblue

The other is to take a DI and a mic on the amp at the same time. You risk bleed over from the drums, & other amps, but if this is a go /no go / no overdub session, this is not a problem.

At mixdown balance the two tracks. Hint: use an envelope filter to enhance the attack on the dry track, to get more punch.

Or, put a DI between your bass and the VT to get a clean track *and* take the post DI signal from your SWR (as you've been doing) to get the dirty track. Balance those two during mixdown. (You might experiment with high and low pass filters so that the pre-VT DI track carries the clear lows and the post VT/SWR signal gives you some of the mid/high smear for character.)

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by derrico1

Or, put a DI between your bass and the VT to get a clean track *and* take the post DI signal from your SWR (as you've been doing) to get the dirty track.

I'd do the exact opposite. The VT is a dirt machine as well as an Ampeg simulator. And the SWR is a good sounding clean amp. But the thing to do is experiment around a little as long as you aren't paying for the time. Maybe Derrico's idea would work for you just as well. Who knows? Bass is a lot easier to get a good sound out of than people realize, and you'll probably end up with a few different cool ways to record it.

[roosterbass]

Thanks for all the inputs guys....the sound quality im working with is pretty good. However, one thing i forgot to mention is that channel inputs are limited, as we only have one fire pod. What I'm going to do, is use a better DI (the Radial JDI) and go direct with the VT Bass for most of the work. For a few tracks, I may go dry, who knows. After listening to some of the raw recordings its clear the VT Bass is a great recording tool, at least for the sound that is in my head. Providing speaker emulation as well, its perfect for these "guerilla" recording sessions. Thanks for the input, im going to test run the Radial.