New to recording, am I doing anything dumb?

[muthagoose]

I just started delving deeper into recording my bass playing, and while I'm pretty happy with the sound I've been able to work out, I'm sure there are at least some best practices I'm missing, so I thought I'd ask for some feedback.

Here is a link to a short recording:
Dropbox - Talkbass.wav - Simplify your life

I've also attached a screenshot of the tracks, plugins, and settings, I'm using for recording this in Pro Tools.

Is there something I'm doing wrong or could change to improve my recordings?

I'd truly appreciate any and all feedback!

 

[filmtex]

Apparently you're happy with the sound you're getting as evidenced by your EQ curve. Personally it sounds a bit thin to me, but all in all seems like you are doing a great job of recording, and so, that's my answer to your question. So....keep on. Can't wait to hear the final composition. WTG!

 

[Krisfield]

The mixer and plugins looks good. The file sounds good too. You could bus the wet and dry and use the EQ and Comp once.

 

[revd]

Are you cutting the bass at 100 hz there?

I don't use PT so am not entirely clear about its plugins, their use, etc.

 

[And I]

your low and low-mid EQ are fighting each other. you may have intended for the low-eq to be a shelf rather than a peak. but i would turn off that band completely and set your HPF at 40hz 18db/octave instead. you'll probably find you don't need to boost that very wide range at 70hz once you do that. if you do need a boost in that area, i'd think a narrower Q would be more effective.

 

[Frank Tuesday]

We don't have the original (pre FX) as a reference, so take the following with a grain of salt. The low EQ seems like an odd choice. You're using a standard peak/Bell curve. This is cutting at 40Hz, but below that, the cut is less. Usually a High Pass Filter (HPF) or a Low Shelf filter would be more traditionally used. Of course, If you're getting a lot of resonance, the setup you're using may be appropriate. You're also boosting at 70Hz. There's a fair bit of overlap between these bands, and both have pretty wide Q.

Then you're using limiting on the Dry, Wet and mix. Since you're tapping with high and low parts, I'd consider using parallel compression (compressing different frequencies independently)

Again, I'm doing this with my eyes, and you should mix with your ears, so don't read too much into it.

 

[And I]

Then you're using limiting on the Dry, Wet and mix. Since you're tapping with high and low parts, I'd consider using parallel compression (compressing different frequencies independently)

that's multi-band compression (which, i agree, is a good idea given the source material). parallel compression is mixing the uncompressed and compressed signals together.

 

[Krisfield]

A technique I just picked up is to low pass a reference track at 100hz, and A/B it to your bass track that is low passed at 100hz also. You can use EQ matching as well.