Best tips for home studio bass recording

[phorm]

Hi Everyone,
I have a small setup using a Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD and Reaper. I always feel something is lacking in my recorded bass. It sometimes seems a little "whooey" and a little dull. I will go in direct, use the out on my little Eden E300 head, or I will use my Darkglass B7K pedal. Is there one tip that made a huge difference in recording your bass? My band is recording an album on the proverbial shoestring budget. I have been tasked with mixing the songs and then having them mastered at Landr. (Damn it Jim, I am a bass player not a mixing engineer! Sorry for the Star Trek reference.)
Below is a youtube link to the latest song I mastered at Landr. If you have a suggestion it would be greatly appreciated. Also ignore the meager bass playing skills, I am never happy with those either.

 

[Crater]

Is there one tip that made a huge difference in recording your bass?

I'm not an expert, but what I've found over a couple of years of home recording is that bass guitar tone that sounds good solo is usually too dark and bassy to sit well in a mix with other instruments. So don't be afraid to dial in some midrange and treble. I think a little bit of amp overdrive helps too, a little bit of 'bark' on the notes' attack helps them be heard, which is good since bass is usually a rhythm instrument. So, if you're going direct from your Eden, try dialing in more preamp gain and more mids and treble. It doesn't hurt your bass amp to drive the preamp to distortion.

Two methods I like to use:
1) D.I. output from my Ampeg PF-500 into recording interface. I have the gain about halfway or a little over. I dial in some mild compression on the amp's built in compressor, and plenty of treble. If it sounds too bright solo, it'll probably sound OK in a mix.

2) My other method involves micing a cab with two mics, and then mixing the signals together in the DAW (I'm using Reaper as well). I'm using dynamic kick drum mic, a CAD D10, and an Audix i5, and use my cheap practice amp, an Acoustic B 30. The kick mic is almost comically "colored" when heard solo, but it does deliver a big round bottom end, even with a 30 watt practice amp. The i5 mic is a standard dynamic instrument mic, it captures the mids and treble.

 

[Rune Bivrin]

A bit of tape saturation will often work well with the bass, together with a bit of un-scooping.

7 Free Saturation VST Plugins to Add Analog Tape Style Warmth | LANDR Blog

 

[phorm]

That makes sense regarding the mids and treble. I think with the way we recorded the drums(in my guitar players concrete floor/block wall basement that the kick drum is throwing a lot of unwanted stuff in with my bass frequencies. I am amazed that the drums sound as good as they do with the way we recorded them. I know I split the signal from both the Direct out of the Eden head and out of my Darkglass B7k simultaneously to two separate tracks and the bass was up on the pedal(the amp settings were flat). It sounded good on it's own, but with everything else it sounded muddy and less defined. I am going to try kicking up the pre-amp gain on the amp too. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[phorm]

I do have the free Saturation Knob plugin, that does add a nice touch to things. I will try adding a little to the track.

 

[GlassToMouth]

I use the same exact configuration with the UMC404 and Reaper. For the most part, Reaper has everything I need. It has some saturation plug-ins built in. In general, Reaper's built in plug-ins are great. I usually start with an EQ that just has a hi-pass filter around 60hz. Followed by Rea-comp, then another EQ for taste. Then I'll put as stock saturation plug-in at the end, sometimes preceded by another compressor. I find if every plug-in is working subtly, it can sound quite nice. Occasionally I'll use the included JS 1175 comp as well. Again, quite subtly to tame the transients.

 

[phorm]

I use the same exact configuration with the UMC404 and Reaper. For the most part, Reaper has everything I need. It has some saturation plug-ins built in. In general, Reaper's built in plug-ins are great. I usually start with an EQ that just has a hi-pass filter around 60hz. Followed by Rea-comp, then another EQ for taste. Then I'll put as stock saturation plug-in at the end, sometimes preceded by another compressor. I find if every plug-in is working subtly, it can sound quite nice. Occasionally I'll use the included JS 1175 comp as well. Again, quite subtly to tame the transients.

I agree with you regarding the stock plugins. I have bought a couple of plugins, but I keep coming back to the Reaper plugins. That is a good idea to just have one eq plugin for the High Pass Filter, then put another one in the chain for some tweaking. Interesting idea to use a couple of compressors in the chain too. I am still a newb when it comes to mixing.

 

[frnjplayer]

One step is to understand the frequencies involved and make some sense of how they interact. The kik and bass have similar ranges and similar needs and responsibilities. For both of those Instruments:
Lows: lets call it under 80hz. This provides the visceral response. More felt than heard. And if overdone can turn everything into mud. As a side note the low E on a bass is apprx. 42 Hz. Low B for the 5 string brothers is around 31. Kik drum often bottoms out up around 60Hz.
Low mids: let's call this 80 to 400. Ish. This is what you hear. Scoop it at your peril. There are few listening systems out in the world that move enough air to go lower than this. This area and the lower portion of the upper mids is where your bass tone lives. Spend your eq efforts here.
Upper mids: 400 to 4K hz. Could easily split this into 2 sections but....
At this point you are out of the root note frequencies (for bass) and working on harmonic content. Again, tone lives here. Also clank,skrank and thwack live here. One very important range to be awars of would be 1Khz to , let's say, 3 khz. On one side of the coin this is where the note attack for bass and kik live. Lows and low mids give your low instruments tthe oomph. The attack is what tells the listener that the beat is HERE. Too little of the note attack can make things mushy even if you have kept the lows under control. Too much in this area can give your mixes harshness.
Highs: All the rest. For the purposes of bass and kik there ain't much up here. I won't get into sibilance and " air" as this is a different discussion.
Note that there are lots of different opinions regarding exactly what frequencies fit into what range. Look at this as a loose guide rather than a document that is supposed to be definitive in any way. YMMV and IMHO and all those disclaimers apply.