Dumb question.

[IamGroot]

I haven't been in the studio hardly at all in the last 10 years and I am hardly an expert at anything other than playing and doing what I am told. I got a job out of the blue to go in and re-record some bass parts. Don't know the studio or the people, but an engineer I worked with before will be doing the recording. Just got done listening to the material and its pretty straight forward.

When asked what gear to bring, I was told just to bring my basses and I may be asked to play on somebody else bass and will probably go direct. This doesn't make sense as this is a very loud and full sounding band. He said they can take care of the sound and make it bigger "like it was going through a stack of Marshalls if they need to."

I am largely ignorant of recording technology. Can they do that? Or are they just using me as a straw man to get a good part laid down?

 

[RustyAxe]

You are hired to lay down a bass track. That's all you gotta do, you didn't join a band. How it sounds, what FX, re-amping, and the final mix are really none of your business ... let the engineer and/or producer do their jobs.

 

[DigitalMan]

Just ask them to hold up their end of the deal. I find it hard to track clean when the tone should be dirty. It’s fine if they record a dry signal and add the dirt later, but you still need to be able to hear the dirt when you’re tracking. In other words, what you hear in the headphones and what they are actually recording can be two entirely different things. Naked tracking works fine for polite tone, but it won’t be conducive if the goal is to lay down an aggressive track.

 

[JRA]

Can they do that?

yes.

IMO: as musicians/players we should be able to lay down clean tracks so the 'producers' can mess with that track in any fashion. easy to do. commonplace.

good luck on your recording date!

 

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

Can they do that?

Yes, they can.

 

[IamGroot]

I am finished and waiting to see if anything else is needed. And, yes, I discovered reamping today. The tracks I redid the bass on were not the ones given to me last night. I had the guitarist and the Producer (?) sitting next to me for coaching advice. Good session. I think they are very happy.

 

[IamGroot]

In the car. The reamping will be done later. Everything's good. My Epiphone T Bird Pro with fresh RS steels beat out my Warwick and their recent model Precision. They absolutely did not want a 5 string. I cringed sometimes when I heard myself play because of little stuff, but they didn't seem to mind.

 

[warrplayer]

Cringing is good. It usually means you will sound even better next time.

 

[Aloe]

well, most bass parts nowadays are recorded direct. then the sound engineer can either apply FX or even re-amp your signal (play it to amp and record it back). or can do whatever he/she wants, as normally direct signal is easier to work for sound engineer.

however, there are advocates of going both direct and miking the cab (and mixing the signal), one famous advocate of this way is Victor Wooten. some studios have no problems with recording both signals at one time.