Advice on recording with effects

[garmenteros]

Hi,

First off I really like your playing and seeing your gear and insight here. Seeing you're quite knowledgeable with effects I'll try and throw a few questions out there...

I'm heading into the studio in a couple of days to records about 8 or 9 tracks for my progressive instrumental band. Its a three piece and I've got to fill up some space. For now I'm going to be using an envelope filter for straight lines during guitar solos, some chorus for bass solo parts, and some distortion/overdrive occasionally. I've thought about synth but dont know where it would fit.

My question is I'll be recording direct through a focusrite saffire 56 and amplitube. What would be the best way to incorporate effects into my recording? Directly engage the built in effects in amplitube? Put my effects in front of my chain as I use them one at a time (I never use more than one effect at a time, at least not for this band) or run a clean signal straight and blend with an amp? I've got a b15n but its a bit noisy and my acoustic 370 and mesa cab seem like overkill...

I use a passive 5 string bass with bartolinis and mxr envelope filter, ehx bass muff and microsynth, and ebs chorus...

 

[jmjbassplayer]

Hi,

First off I really like your playing and seeing your gear and insight here. Seeing you're quite knowledgeable with effects I'll try and throw a few questions out there...

I'm heading into the studio in a couple of days to records about 8 or 9 tracks for my progressive instrumental band. Its a three piece and I've got to fill up some space. For now I'm going to be using an envelope filter for straight lines during guitar solos, some chorus for bass solo parts, and some distortion/overdrive occasionally. I've thought about synth but dont know where it would fit.

My question is I'll be recording direct through a focusrite saffire 56 and amplitube. What would be the best way to incorporate effects into my recording? Directly engage the built in effects in amplitube? Put my effects in front of my chain as I use them one at a time (I never use more than one effect at a time, at least not for this band) or run a clean signal straight and blend with an amp? I've got a b15n but its a bit noisy and my acoustic 370 and mesa cab seem like overkill...

I use a passive 5 string bass with bartolinis and mxr envelope filter, ehx bass muff and microsynth, and ebs chorus...

I'd highly recommend that you run a clean DI and put the effects only on an amp. I wouldn't worry too much about amp noise, unless it's totally offensive.

 

[JimmyM]

If a B-15N is noisy, it's either in need of servicing or there's an electricical problem. Mine is dead quiet.

 

[ShoeManiac]

I'd highly recommend that you run a clean DI and put the effects only on an amp. I wouldn't worry too much about amp noise, unless it's totally offensive.

THIS.

This is exactly what I was doing on my last sessions. I plug straight from the instrument into the DI. I take the loop out from the DI and put that into my effects chain, which (for those sessions) was 6 Boss effects pedals and a Tech 21 VT Bass Deluxe. That signal went to my amp & cabinet which was miked with a wonderful EV RE-20

The key thing is getting that one clean track. You may or may not wind up using it, but very often when you get to mixing you'll wind up blending the effected track with the clean track. Plus, there are instances where your effects track may not sit well in the mix. Thanks to ProTools and other digital recording programs you can clone your clean track and apply effects that WILL work in your mix.

Why might you need to do this? When using some time/delayed based effects like chorus, flanging or similar effects on multiple instruments, you can wind up making some things sound for lack of a better word, "soupy". The engineer may wind up using a single chorus or delay for multiple instruments in order to avoid that kind of a clash. And your clean track may be what gets used for that.

 

[garmenteros]

If a B-15N is noisy, it's either in need of servicing or there's an electricical problem. Mine is dead quiet.

Its pretty much a semi variable hum that comes and goes. It gets worse in places with dirtier electricity and old wiring. Techs here aren't exactly abundant which is an issue...

 

[dlenaghan]

Ok, a question deriving from this: I used to play through a Sansamp (the original style) with a couple of other effects, including a love/hate Hartke bass attack and a Moollon bass driver, and I tried recording our last album DI, and the signal that came through the board was so weak and pathetic that the engineer didn't know what to do. I ended up, well enough in the end, plugging into a Peavey T-400 or something like that, which sounded awesome but since it was new to me I didn't have a consistent handle on its hybrid solid state/tube nature and thus a few songs came out very differently tone-wise.

Was I foolish to think that my signal was big enough to DI or was the engineer a fool for saying that a Sansamp + Hartke BA (which got noisy, but noise wasn't the problem, it was gain/volume, of which there was mad, even excessive amounts when amped live or in practice) was just too little for his hideously expensive board to make use of?

It's over and done with, but I'd love to know more for the next time.. (I've kept the Sansamp but ditched the Hartke.. it's under the desk in a box now..)

Edited for language.. I wrote this late, late at night. Sometimes I get salty in the midnight hours.