Bass recording sounding baaad... Help!

[DanGroove]

Plug directly into you recording interface and make sure you Hi-Z option is engaged. If it sounds bad that way you need to look at your technique or your bass. Playing for the studio often involves modifying technique vs playing live, especially in energetic styles like rock. There are things you do when feeding off the live energy that don't necessarily lend to the best recording. Once you solve your problems and get things sounded good direct like that, then you can experiment with miking the amp and such. You may end up finding that you are perfectly happy with the sound you get from recording though.

Also, get some better headphones or some proper studio monitors. You could be producing perfectly good recording that sounds like crap on your headphones that aren't meant for the task.

 

[P. Aaron]

When 4-tracking an Ibanez Studio Bass (active), I ran it DI - clean well under clip levels. Keeping in mind to not record other parts too hot so the bass track held some percussion/punch & wasn’t buried by other instruments. An active bass can overwhelm an audio input quite easily. Keep it clean & don’t let it distort.

Until/unless you have lotsa dedicated tracks to work with, simple signals transmit & preserve the best.

AC/DC can be heard & enjoyed in the worst room/arenas. Simplicity reigns.

 

[nilorius]

Try to switch the mic with balanced output. The second way is to record the sound with a usb interface.

 

[fishdreams]

As I have been experimenting in a Home Recording situation for a while, I found a few thumb rules. (as they apply to me)
-A bass sound that sounds both full and clear by itself needs multiple channels/sound sources in the mix
-I've used 4 ways of recording (simultaneously), in order of effectiveness 1) DI 2) room mic (= at least 4 ft away from bass cab 3) close miking bass cab and the odd one out 4) close miking bass (aka string noises, actual sound of the string and attack if it were entirely unamplified)

While I Love No 4, it's is a bit oddball and not much applied in standard situations so I'll leave it out of the discussion

For a basic working mix I use several sources which I pan across accordingly.

If possible, I'd record DI and room mic. I found on average that close miking a bass cab in a home recording situation almost never leads to great results - there is not enough control over the acoustics, there is damping required and a exact knowledge where to place the mike opposite the cab/speaker, and last but not least, typically one lacks (at least, I do) the kind of high quality mike that would make that sound good.Last but not least-the closer you mike with your average condenser/dynamic mic, the less low end you get, especially with cardoid patterns

So IME, whatever you do, always have a DI recording. Nothing records easier (especially in a home recording situation), is cleaner(=better mixeable), less dependent on the quality of your gear, and extends low end like a clean DI signal.

A way to work with just having one DI track, it is to copy it to 2 more other channels in your DAW. You'd pan the copies left / right and treat these with plugins, while leaving your original DI recording in the middle, rolling it back in the mix for starters.

Start with (not too drastic) eq-ing on the panned copies; then, for example, put an amp plugin, some effects such as compression, distortion etc on #1 and a light touch of reverb or super short delay on #2. When that starts to sound getting near where you want it to be, then subtly bring in the original DI at the center to fill out the bottom, without having it take over the sound image you just created.

Hope this helps, good luck

 

[Kro]

All good information guys, thank you! I'll do some experimenting based on what's been posted here and post some of my results.

Cool, I'll hold off on weighing in until I can hear a sample, but I'm interested to hear what you're describing.

 

[BooDoggie]

I use an Audiobox USB interface and Studio One 4 DAW to record at home. I plug my bass directly into the interface and use an amp/cab simulator with parametric EQ set totally flat with the HPF set to -6db roll off at 50hz. (I also use a $200.00US set of Sennheiser studio monitor headphones.)

I make two tracks in the DAW with one panned full left the other full right and set one track to 18 millisecond delay which gives your track a bit more "body". I seldom adjust the EQ other than a 3 to 4 db boost around 500hz. I adjust the sound of my bass with the knobs on the bass untill I like the way it sounds in the headphones. I have used this technique with multiple basses and guitars. It is never perfect, but it is a good starting point. You really cannot judge what the mix will sound like until you do as others have suggested and listen on different speakers in different situations.

 

[kalle74]

Assuming your bass is set up correctly, there are no effects, and there are no problems with your strings or playing technique...

First, familiarize yourself with the sound of your headphones. Listen to some music. This is to familiarize your ears with possible shortcomings of your headphones.

Then...

1. Zero out all tone controls on your bass, and amp. Passive volumes full on, tone all the way up. On active, all tone controls at center detent.
2. Take a DI feed (back of your amp, or a DI box before your amp) into a mic input, say, channel A.
3. Take 57, aim it at cone center. Connect to channel B.
4. Adjust gain to live at around -18dBFS on both channels.
5. Adjust pickup balance for a clear sound.
6. Adjust possible onboard EQ (on bass and amp) slightly to give more of "what you want". Go easy. Extreme adjustments will not sound good.
7. Listen, and adjust gains, mic placement and right hand attack.
8. Re-adjust until you get a balanced sound.
9. When you have a good sound going, hit record. If it's not what you want, go through 4-8 until it is.

 

[Mannyinnewyork]

I always use a DI. Generally I’m happy with the results. A better engineer would probably take the clean DI signal and tweak it a bit once it’s time to mix.

 

[BooDoggie]

First, familiarize yourself with the sound of your headphones. Listen to some music. This is to familiarize your ears with possible shortcomings of your headphones.

^^This^^
I listened to a lot of commercially recorded material to get good sense of what these songs sounded like in my headphones before trying to get a good recording...

 

[Kro]

^^This^^
I listened to a lot of commercially recorded material to get good sense of what these songs sounded like in my headphones before trying to get a good recording...

By the same token, I find that landing on a bass "tone" for recording is also nearly impossible with headphones.

Sure, you have your tone dialed in for the cab, but you need to get a good idea of what the mic and mic placement is doing as well. It isn't easy.

 

[bfields]

There are things you do when feeding off the live energy that don't necessarily lend to the best recording.

Definitely the first times I recorded myself in isolation what stood out was all the odd fret and other unintended noises.

And for me the fix, so far, has been partly more careful technique, and partly just making sure I'm listening for the right things. I mean, you can also get obsessive about working out the source of some odd sound, only to come back to the recording a month later and realize that it's not actually something that detracts from the music.

 

[bfields]

But the thing in your post that made me think of technique is the word "muddy"--depending on what you mean by that, it definitely could be muting. An open string ringing out softly is the sort of thing you might miss while playing, but might give the impression of mud when listening back.

 

[higain617]

Do you have access to a kick drum mic? Also, run an analog preamp in front. This could be something cheap like a Tube MP. My mic of choice is an AKG C414B, but they don’t come cheap.

Another popular method is to split the signal with a DI, as previously mentioned.

 

[punchdrunk]

Turn the markbass vle and vlp knobs all the way off. Total tone suck.

 

[Engle]

Others have said it, but:

1) You should be able to get decent sound plugging directly into your interface.

2) The bass track on its own might not sound like you expect it to. It’s how it sits in the mix that counts. Look up and listen to some isolated bass tracks for reference.

3) Get some decent headphones and monitors with reasonably flat response. I track at home for various projects and I will often record with the headphones and then listen back with the monitors.

 

[byrdzeye]

I record with DI all the time. But be sure to get a GOOD pro DI; doesn't matter if passive of active, just don't cheap out here. I use a Countryman T85 that's almost 30 years old and it always delivers the goods. However, the instrument input on the Presonus interfaces is pretty good and usable. Don't use cheap headphones as a reference, because as mentioned several times above, they almost always boost the bass in a very unnatural way. Also, do not use any EQ when tracking (I don't even use a HPF to track: it can always be added later if needed). Bass setup is also important and be sure to check your tuning before every take. Playing with a lighter touch can also help things out. I spent many months practicing my technique by plugging into an analog tape recorder and learning to have every note hit 0dB on the meter. Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[sawzalot]

I love how we all have an opinion on this subject, even though we have no idea exactly what "baaad" really means beyond the highly subjective description from the OP....

 

[Keger Jupit]

I record with DI all the time. But be sure to get a GOOD pro DI; doesn't matter if passive of active, just don't cheap out here.

^^This^^ @byrdzeye recommended a Countryman, here's another suggestion. Richard Neve RNDI; if your sound suffers thru this, it's your playing technique that needs attention...

 

[pbass2]

Lots of mentions of using a high pass filter, but to clarify, I wouldn't actually track with the high pass on, because then you're stuck (same with tracking with too much compression, etc). Just try to get a good clean DI signal into your DAW, then have at it. Tweak that stuff as you begin to mix the track.

 

[dannylectro]

My simple, but expensive, solution to great bass tone is to plug into my BAE 1073DMP mic preamp and from there directly into my audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett). Tone & volume both wide open on my passive basses. Turn the gain knob on the 1073 up to about +30, and tame it as needed with the output knob. I barely need to do anything other than applying very light EQ during mixdown.
Oh... and get a decent pair of headphones. That’s key.