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Basic practice and recording gear

R

Raphael-

Aug 5, 2021
4
10
#1
Hello everyone, this is Raphael from France, first post and glad to be here. A few months ago I thought I'd give bass a try, having no background in music apart from messing around on a guitar two decades ago. I bought a cheap bass and a beginner online course. I enjoyed it, learning is so much easier now with all the ressources online, and decided I was going to keep at it.

My goal is to mainly practice, make and record some cover songs, and at some point hopefully start jamming with other people (for ***** and giggles, not planning to gig in the near future, if ever).

I need to buy a few pieces of gear and would appreciate your advice.

I'm not looking for the best, nor the cheapest, nor even what's "best for me"... because I don't know that yet. I don't want to overthink it, so I'm really looking for consensus, no-brainer purchases that are well-suited for the majority of beginner/intermediate-level players. The things that make one say "can't make a mistake buying this!"

The following list are what I believe I need, along with my best guess of the brand/model I should buy. Of course I never tried any of this stuff, and this is where you lovely people come in and tell me that X is totally wrong and I should buy Y instead...

Also, feel free to expand the list if I'm forgetting anything.

Amp: Rumble 40?
Audio interface: Scarlett 2i2?
Headphones, for practicing, editing, listening to tunes... so many options
Speakers: Same as above
Recording software: Protools? Garageband? I think I need the most commonly used so I can work/share with other people.

TIA
PS: I know there are different forums for different categories of gear, but I felt that starting several threads would be messy. Thanks for bearing with me!
 
#2
All you'll really need is the small combo (Rumble 40 is fine), headphones, an interface (Scarlett is excellent and simple, 2 channel version if you want to record vocals and bass simultaneously) and a mic (which I don't see on your list). If you won't be singing then the 1 channel Scarlett is fine and scratch the mic. I use Garageband and for a hobbyist (like me) it's very good. It seems to m that serious musicians are a lot less likely to use GB than Protools, but the learning curves are probably not the same. You don't "need" speakers for your computer; you can connect the output of your computer directly to the aux input of the combo amp and listen through it. That said, speakers would sound better for full range music (I believe the Rumble 40 has no tweeter). Happy thumpin'.
 
#3
Welcome to the forum! This question gets asked from time-to-time and you will get lots of help here.

Rode NT1-A Large-Diaphragm Condenser Microphone

The Rumble 40 or an Ampeg 115 is great.

My recording gear advice is:
  1. Buy a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen, $120
  2. Buy a microphone: SM58® - Dynamic Vocal Microphone - Shure $100 ( I have a few)
  3. Get a decent set of headphones -or-
  4. Invest in some decent mixing monitors (Look at Presonus Eris for example) $100
  5. If you really want better vocals or acoustic recording get a decent condenser mic:
Download a DAW (Reaper is popular and fine. I use Pro Tools)
Dive in and have fun! It is a rabbit hole. I live there now.
 
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#4
Forget the computer initially.

The Rumble 40 is a great "first amp". I'm not sure if it has a "direct out", but check for that. My Rumble 100 has the direct out jack and I plug it directly into my multi-track recorder for doing small band recording.

Since you eventually want to record you might consider the Zoom Livetrak 8. Inexpensive, but deceptively useful. You can use it for recording by yourself or in a small band situation. If you end up playing music with others then you can use it for your mini PA mixer, recording what you and friends are playing at the same time.

The recorder and a set of good headphones can suffice for you initially. It's good to actually try phones to see what you like. I have Beyerdynamic DT 770s that work well for bass and general use.

When you get to the point of needing to refine your recordings you can then move up to a PC or other computer. For PC use you can get by with just about any usb interface (I'd recommend 2 inputs and phantom power ability on the inputs).

Reaper is an excellent DAW to use and I have Eris E5 monitors. Don't go below 5" monitor size or you'll need a subwoofer to hear any bass!

It works really well to record using a multi-track like the Livetrak and doing any editing by moving your recorded tracks to the computer. The multi-track recorder permits use anywhere; either your home, a friend's home, or under a tree in the park. You don't need to be chained to your computer to do your recording and you can do edits for your recordings on the computer later.

Hope that gives you some ideas.
 
#5
My setup is a bass goes into a pedalboard, with a tuner, compressor and a Sansamp, which goes into a Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 to the computer, with two Yamaha HS5 monitor speakers. I have a set of Shure headphones, if I need to do quiet practicing.
 
#6
I'd be fine with these alone for the rest of my life:

- An interface, Focusrite is one of the better ones.
- Headphones (ATH-M50)
- Reaper is my choice of DAW regardless of price point.
- A preamp pedal with a decent amp/cab sim, or a DAW plugin equivalent -- I switch between Tech21 VT DI and Darkglass X7 depending on the genre. Bonus points for having parallel unaffected outputs on the preamps so that you can record raw DI simultaneously.
- Rumble 40, which gets zero use, but just in case I need to hear things at volume.

I have a full pedalboard or two, but absolutely unnecessary for most recording or practice purposes.
 
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#7
Thank you everyone! Scarlett and Reaper seem to make consensus so I will start there. Rumble 40 will probably follow soon.

With regards to headphones, are there any that are more or less recommended for playing over a song? I'm a complete newb but I understand that studio equipment is not made for listening to music... is that going to be a problem to record a cover using a bass-less track? Proper mixing is completely out of my wheelhouse and I don't really worry about sound quality rather than having fun for the moment.

Thanks and I will keep digging!

PS: any advice for wireless speakers (listening, not monitoring)? KEF LSX seem highly rated but rather expensive for my taste.
 
#9
You’ll get many different responses for headphones, there’s a few good ones. In the interest of limiting decision paralysis, my favorite ATH-M50 above is a studio monitor perfectly capable of everyday listening for fun too. I also found it to be the most comfortable one to wear over glasses over extended periods of time if that applies to you.

Just avoid anything with bluetooth because non-negligible latency when playing. And obviously ignore the non-studio cans with weird bass boosted eqs baked in.
 
#10
For now, I'd pass on any sort of small combo and concentrate on an interface, a decent pair of monitors, and headphones. You can't go with with the Scarlet 2i2. A decent pair of monitors are Yamaha HS5 and HS8's. KRK Rokit series is alright, but IMO the Yamaha's and even JBL's are better. If you're using a pc, then I highly recommend Cakewalk by Bandlab. It's a good full daw that is essentially Sonar Platinum, and free of charge. It's not a systems resource whore either. If you're on a Mac, then Reaper. The reason I'd pass on a small combo amp is simply because with an interface, monitors/headphones, you really won't need one.
 

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