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Please share your tips on how to record professional / studio quality bass

BaldingEagle

BaldingEagle

Nov 29, 2021
35
53
#1
Hi TalkBass Community.

I'm new to this forum and desperately trying to stay away from all the gear threads (but failing) preferring to focus on discussions that are going to help improve my playing and help me learn how to record professional / studio quality bass.

Although not a complete novice to home recording I don't feel I've really mastered it as a skill and I'm looking for any advice / guidance / tips that the TalkBass community can offer me.

I use Cubase as my DAW and have a pretty good understanding of how it works. I also have some of the required equipment at my disposal:

- DI options: Radial Pro 48 DI box or DI out of my GR Bass head.
- Audio Interface: SSL 2 channel AI
- DAW plugins (IR cab sims, Cubase's standard suit of tools (reverb, compression, eq etc.)

I'm willing to invest in other plugin's if needed and potentially a decent microphone for the cab.

Please do share your wisdom with me; any links to articles or YouTube tutorials also very welcome.

Thanks
 
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#2
These are my thoughts:

The first priority is ... your ability to play your instrument. In time and in tune.

Once you've mastered that small item ;), the rest is pretty straightforward:

Getting a good signal - strong enough but not too strong - into your interface. It sounds like you have the gear to do that.

Coming up with a bass part which rides well with the other parts ... AKA arrangement. To me this (after priority #1) is crucial, and it may take quite a bit of time. Keep in mind that - generally speaking - the bass part is there to make everything else sound better. Cut every note which does not accomplish that goal.

Recording your part may require many takes. Be satisfied with nothing less than the best you can do.

In terms of digital processing, keep it simple. Record without any effects. If you want some, apply them to the recorded track.
 
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#3
AGCurry said:
These are my thoughts:

The first priority is ... your ability to play your instrument. In time and in tune.
Click to expand...
The above sounds so obvious as to not bear mentioning, but it is very easily overlooked as a crucial aspect of achieving a good sounding track. It's amazing what turns up on "tape" that won't necessarily be obvious in other settings. Playing cleanly, evenly and in time for tape is an art in and of itself.
 
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#5
knumbskull said:
Your gear is fine. What do you feel is lacking? The finished sound?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't have any issues with the gear - I just feel the end product could be better produced / mixed / mastered.

bass12 said:
The above sounds so obvious as to not bear mentioning, but it is very easily overlooked as a crucial aspect of achieving a good sounding track. It's amazing what turns up on "tape" that won't necessarily be obvious in other settings. Playing cleanly, evenly and in time for tape is an art in and of itself.
Click to expand...

Certainly I need to work on playing cleanly, and in the pocket more consistently. But let's assume a reasonable level of competency for the sake of this thread so as to focus on some of the more technical aspects of recording / producing.

AGCurry said:
These are my thoughts:

Coming up with a bass part which rides well with the other parts ... AKA arrangement. To me this (after priority #1) is crucial, and it may take quite a bit of time. Keep in mind that - generally speaking - the bass part is there to make everything else sound better. Cut every note which does not accomplish that goal.
Click to expand...

Assume for now I'm recording pre-composed bass lines not original / improvised lines. Initially I want to get some decent sounding clips of some 'standards' I can use as examples to submit to potential bands as virtual audition pieces.
 
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#6
BaldingEagle said:
Yeah, I don't have any issues with the gear - I just feel the end product could be better produced / mixed / mastered.



Certainly I need to work on playing cleanly, and in the pocket more consistently. But let's assume a reasonable level of competency for the sake of this thread so as to focus on some of the more technical aspects of recording / producing.



Assume for now I'm recording pre-composed bass lines not original / improvised lines. Initially I want to get some decent sounding clips of some 'standards' I can use as examples to submit to potential bands as virtual audition pieces.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. I won’t claim to have any great knowledge of production techniques, i would just say try playing around with EQ, compression settings etc until you hear something you like.

Also bear in mind a lot of recorded bass sounds pretty plain on its own! A clean, dry, well played bass track typically won’t need much to make it work in a mix.
 
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#8
knumbskull said:
Gotcha. I won’t claim to have any great knowledge of production techniques, i would just say try playing around with EQ, compression settings etc until you hear something you like.

Also bear in mind a lot of recorded bass sounds pretty plain on its own! A clean, dry, well played bass track typically won’t need much to make it work in a mix.
Click to expand...
Yes, bass tracks that have been mixed in order to fit within a larger mix often sound quite unremarkable (if not downright unappealing) on their own.

These two videos might be helpful to you, OP:

How to Record Bass - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro - YouTube

Bass Recording Techniques - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro - YouTube
 
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#11
arbiterusa said:
Hardware.
No suggestions for settings because basses (and most important their outputs) vary.
Click to expand...

Yes, fair point - but can you describe the goal / what you are looking to achieve from the compression?

I.e. in those Warren Hunt videos posted by @bass12 IIRC at one point he talks about using two recorded tracks and using a HPF to isolate just the low frequencies on one track to preserve a nice fat bottom end whilst running a bit of distortion on the other track at a higher frequency for some grit. Other uses I've seen for compression when producing music is to use it on a bus to "glue" multiple channels together, or even on the final master bus. Or are you just in general using a compression in the broader terms to even out / limit signal going into the recording interface? And do you favour subtle compression, or something more significant?
 
#13
You need 9 things outside of a whole analog setup: (and this is the ultra condensed cliff notes version because you are asking a question that requires extensive amounts of experience and knowledge to execute properly with gain staging all the way to compression techniques and proper EQ knowledge.)

1. Mic line. Separate track. Condensor Mic with good cone placement. Preferably 2 of them set mid cone and outer cone.

2. Direct line. Separate track. Preferably direct from head with output control.

3. High quality interface. Preferably with tone shaping control.

4. Keep your peaks and valleys consistent. If you have a lot of spikes and quieter sections...you are going to have to go in and manually lower the spikes and raise the quieter sections. This will not affect the dynamics in your performance...but it is counter intuitive in that the less even the entirety of the line is in the wave form...the more the take sounds "off".

5. A bass that has a great set of pickups.

6. A DAW that has a lot of control and built in Pro level EQs and compressors.

7. Dump the Sub levels off the end of your EQ because even though they aren't necessarily audible...they will cause interference if not removed.

8. Blending of your Mic'd track and your direct track to really shape the sound.

9. You need to carve the bass into the sound. That means you will have to take certain frequencies of other tracks and carve them so they don't interfere with your overall bass sound. It's not like an amp when you want more bass...you just turn up the bass. You carve the bass out of the other tracks in specific spots in order to make the actual bass more present. It's an artform and a learning curve.

This will get you in the ballpark.
 
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#15
J33 said:
You need 9 things outside of a whole analog setup: (and this is the ultra condensed cliff notes version because you are asking a question that requires extensive amounts of experience and knowledge to execute properly with gain staging all the way to compression techniques and proper EQ knowledge.)

1. Mic line. Separate track. Condensor Mic with good cone placement. Preferably 2 of them set mid cone and outer cone.

2. Direct line. Separate track. Preferably direct from head with output control.

3. High quality interface. Preferably with tone shaping control.

4. Keep your peaks and valleys consistent. If you have a lot of spikes and quieter sections...you are going to have to go in and manually lower the spikes and raise the quieter sections. This will not affect the dynamics in your performance...but it is counter intuitive in that the less even the entirety of the line is in the wave form...the more the take sounds "off".

5. A bass that has a great set of pickups.

6. A DAW that has a lot of control and built in Pro level EQs and compressors.

7. Dump the Sub levels off the end of your EQ because even though they aren't necessarily audible...they will cause interference if not removed.

8. Blending of your Mic'd track and your direct track to really shape the sound.

9. You need to carve the bass into the sound. That means you will have to take certain frequencies of other tracks and carve them so they don't interfere with your overall bass sound. It's not like an amp when you want more bass...you just turn up the bass. You carve the bass out of the other tracks in specific spots in order to make the actual bass more present. It's an artform and a learning curve.

This will get you in the ballpark.
Click to expand...

IMO a lot of this is overkill. OP is not trying to make a hit record. KISS.
 
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#17
J33 said:
Maybe your opinion should read the part where he said "I WANT TO LEARN HOW TO RECORD PROFESSIONAL STUDIO QUALITY BASS".

I did own a studio for a decade...but...what would I know?
Click to expand...

I am sharing my observations based on my experience playing in the studio as well as recording bands. For instance, I've never seen two mics on a bass cabinet + a direct line. Yeah, you can go crazy with gear and processing, but (again, my opinion) you reach a point of needless complexity and diminishing returns. The performance is the thing.
 
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#18
AGCurry said:
I am sharing my observations based on my experience playing in the studio as well as recording bands. For instance, I've never seen two mics on a bass cabinet + a direct line. Yeah, you can go crazy with gear and processing, but (again, my opinion) you reach a point of needless complexity and diminishing returns. The performance is the thing.
Click to expand...

I don't care what you've seen or not. Two tracks for shaping is "Needless Complexity"? Ok.
 
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#19
You have all the gear you need in my opinion. I would plug into the DI, then run it to the amp. Take the DI out of the bass and the DI out of the amp into separate tracks and blend to taste in the mix. If you have a good mic, you could mic the amp instead of taking the amp DI.

The biggest thing for recording good studio quality bass is execution/technique. You want to learn to play the lines clean and clear with good muting. You don't want the a bunch of noise from unmuted strings muddying up your tracks or excess string noise. A well played line direct in will sound way better than a sloppy line through the ultimate tone monster rig miked perfectly.
 
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#20
Here's what I do:

New strings. New strings. New strings. New strings
...for me, new strings are not only the most important aspect, but also a majority of the goal

For most styles except rock and heavier: D.I. only. Duplicate track. Pan each track 50 - 75% each side. For bass soloing, duplicate track and hard pan. Move one track ever so slightly ahead of bar line and the other track ever so slightly behind ( if you hear chorusing or slapback, you've moved them too much)...I'll do this for the main tracks too on occasion

Rock and heavier: two tracks, one clean and one dirty. Duplicate clean track and pan 50-75%. Mix in single dirty track to taste without duplication/ panning

For most styles, I always DI, no amp/cabs but you do you........for rock or heavier : im New to heavy music and if this was 20+ years ago, I may have used an amp/ cab......in 2021, I use VST bass amps and cabs of which the secret is in the quality of the IRs I use for the cab when recording the dirty track

In all cases, 2K is your friend when you want the bass to articulate and resolve itself in a mix. I will use a parametric bell curve bump that peaks at 2K, but not too wide....I do this live as well.....

Edit: the above i do for digital formats.....if I was producing for vinyl, I would not recommend duplicating/soft panning bass tracks
 
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