best ways to record BASS?

[Goatee220]

I see. Most engineers will record a direct signal from the bass with a direct box and they might also mic the bass amp. You should ask the engineer which amp/cab you should bring. The studio might have a great amp for recording. He might not want to use an amp at all, thats ok too.

If you're gonna be listening through headphones, that can be kind of weird at first. Every so often, make sure you're not playing harder or softer than you normally do. If you don't hear yourself well in the phones, you might play harder than normal and your technique will go south and you'll go sloppy. This can happen without you realizing it, it happens to me a lot.

Tune often.
don't drink.
Play simple but tight.
Bring your A game.
have fun.

If you can, get your bass set up before you go into the studio. If your intonation is out, tuning issues will drive you and your bandmates crazy.

 

[RenorCordic]

Make sure you know every nuance of your part and that your 'mates know theirs. Practicepracticepractice. It will save you a lot of time and money. It will also help make the overall experience more enjoyable. IMO anyway.

 

[Handreas]

I mic my cab and use two di's. One either from the line out on my amp or a di after my pedalboard, and one pre-effects (just my dry signal). This way, if the sound for any reason doesn't work in the mix I have the option to re-amp instead of having to do everything over again.

A lot of producers nowadays expect both dry bass and guitar tracks in addition to mic'ed amps. That way they can redo the recording if the rythm guitarists idea to use his old Peavey Bandit turns out not to be such a good idea afer all.

 

[grenadilla]

You want to listen to a playback early to see if your sound gets mellowed out too much. Or you could add some scoop on your Yorkville to increase the Hi=Fi effect. Practice the song with only the drummer to get real tight with the bass drum. Match your tone with the bass drum.

 

[Ender_rpm]

Direct. Leave your amp out of it. The gear in a good studio will not benefit from having your stuff in the signal chain.

Disagree. Im running an EBS all tube head, and a mic is the only way to get that sweet sound. I use an audix d4, and it sounds very nice Same if you have an old B15. For a more modern SS or SVT sound, yes, there are plenty of DIs that are designed for that sound.

 

[pbass2]

If you can, get your bass set up before you go into the studio. If your intonation is out, tuning issues will drive you and your bandmates crazy.

+1,000,000

Not only could tuning issues drive you crazy while tracking, if your intonation isn't spot-on, nasty problems could start to rear their head later on in the overdubbing stage--things that might not have jumped out too badly in the basics, but will clash when more instruments and vocals are overdubbed. If you got a killer take you don't want to be going back in later to re-track it because your intonation was off, or even more of a pain, trying to fix "off" notes via Melodyne, etc.

 

[pbass2]

A lot of producers nowadays expect both dry bass and guitar tracks in addition to mic'ed amps. That way they can redo the recording if the rythm guitarists idea to use his old Peavey Bandit turns out not to be such a good idea afer all.

I actually PREFER to re-amp bass later on when I can, in the mix stage. Then you can really dial in the ideal tone for the track once you see how it's all shaping up. However, if it's say a rock thing where I'm using a really overdriven amp sound and "playing to the amp" so to speak--i.e. the tone is really driving the performance---then I wanna hear the amp when I'm tracking so I can feed off of it...

 

[2behead]

I think the best sounding tracks I have recorded were through a Avalon U5 direct into the board mixed with a NICE mic on a 70's svt cab under a blue line svt that was cranked. I got the punch and clarity of the direct and the dirt off the cab. We could adjust the mix of each until it sat well in the mix. I have achieved the same result to a lesser extent in friends basements with a direct/mic approach. I feel like you can't go wrong this way. If one sounds bad use the other, or blend them. I have gotten a cheap sm57 to sound great mixed with the direct track.
As stated before GET YOUR BASS SET UP!!!! before you go to the studio!!!!!! Another BIG thing that I have learned is that you need to take advantage of listening to your scratch tracks while the drummer is laying down their tracks. Less is definitely more when recording. Over playing can ruin a entire track.
We didn't record a demo of the last batch of songs, or have live footage to listen to. In the studio I ended up rewriting a whole section of my bass line for a song that just didn't work recorded. It worked live but on tape it stunk. I ended up playing something MUCH MUCH simpler on the recording than I do live. My wife was bummed out about it but I assured her it was for the best.
The other thing is to let the producer say when it is good. If you have no producer then its a majority rules situation. I have never been vetoed myself but we vetoed our guitarist during one of his solos and he was pissed about it. He had a pretty involved solo that he had worked pretty hard on for weeks in his bedroom. It was cool but it just didn't add to the song. We made him lay way off and just let it feed back and play "ickys" through that whole section. He thanked us after after he stopped being pissed about it and rely listened.
I guess most of this comes back to being open minded about tone, playing, just everything. Trust your engineer, producer, and band mates. and stick up for each other.