[Poll] How do you record your Bass ?

[Platinum]

I go direct mostly because it's easiest. As much as I'd love to Mic it, all my mics are cheap and crappy. Just not worth the trouble for bass - I have a feeling it would sound thin. Maybe for guitar because I want to hear the garbled distortion coming out the amp.

In the future though, I'd probably do Mic and Direct at the same time (I have two inputs in the ol' Tascam US-122). I only record for me anyways, and the random person that stumbled on my Soundcloud music.

You can get some pretty nice recordings with just an SM57! I like the combination of an SM57 and an RE20 - a few hundred total, used.

It's only really easier to set up direct if you can't leave your cab and mics set up from a previous session. Once you've mucked around adjusting the mics and have got the sound you're after, if you can just leave it like that, all you have to do is arm three tracks instead of one.

 

[corinpills]

I split my signal with a Vintech X73 (A Neve 1073 clone). Half goes to a mic'd up Ampeg V4B which I bring back through a UA 610 without compression. The other half goes through an old Altec 436 vari mu compressor that I had modded to copy the EMI mod that they used at Abbey Road in teh 60s. Once I used the one they have there, I became obsessed with getting that sound and it took me years to find the right guy to do it: Bryce Gonsalez, who engineers Jonathan Wilson's albums. Link Removed Oh, and it goes to my MCI 1" 8 track at 15 ips. That last bit is crucial.

 

[DinoRock]

I've been playing the bass professionally for 40 years now. Large and small venues with local and international artists/bands and a wide variety of studios. Now I mainly do studio work.

Given any sort of reasonable interface, DAW, and engineer, I simply plug straight in. I've got a fair number of basses, get one with the sound I want (for me: neck, pickups, and strings are key), and just use it. Over the past decade or so, engineers have only needed to do some minor EQ and Compression. I hate to say it, but these days for the work I do its pretty simple.

When in a home studio, it's typically straight into a Presonus Audiobox VSL and into Studio One Pro.

 

[deeptubes]

I just use my BassPOD XT Pro through the USB into my computer.

 

[sadowskyguy]

Great River MP500nv into Buzz Audio Tonic EQ into Apogee Duet interface. I am loving this setup!

 

[delta7fred]

Weekend warrior, recording demos with a very old Roland VS-840 zip disk recorder.

Direct to the recorder with basses with a preamp (Stingray 5 & G&L L-2500), passive basses (P and fretless J) into a preamp first for a bit of tone shaping and buffering - Trace Elliot SM7 Series pre or ART PC II or GK MB800.

 

[caligula]

Two ways of recording depending on the purpose.

1. Demo for the band, so everyone can listen to the songs and learn the arrangements.
One signal : Bass - Compressor - Amp DI out - Mixer

2. Professional recording meant to be published.
First signal: Bass - Compressor - Amp DI out - Mixer
Sec signal: miced cab - Mixer
Sometimes one of the two signals gets a tad distortion, depending on the music of course.

I'd love to check one of these boutique DI boxes like the Reddi, Firefly, Juicebox, etc. Would be interesting to see (hear) if they really make such a difference.

I usually use one of my Aguilar amps for recording, but had the best results (believe it or not) with an old Trace Elliot AH 300 a couple of years ago.
Have been trying to get that amp for quite a while now.

 

[Corey Y]

I voted for using a mic, that's what I use at home unless I'm trying to practice or record a riff late at night and go direct into my computer. I run my GK MB800 into a ported 1x10 cab, which I usually record with a Shure SM7B most of the time for writing and demos.

 

[Schlyder]

Bass > Trace Elliot GP12smx preamp > Zoom R24 interface > Reaper

 

[GladToBeBack]

I play on an SWR Silverado Special. It's got an XLR out.

for recording I keep the XLR out switched to "Line" leaving my settings on the signal. "Direct" is for gigs where I need to run to PA, sending raw signal.

 

[pravus]

I have both of my amps hooked up via DIs to a Yamaha MV-800 2U rack mixer (I think it was made for karaoke). Once some cables come in I'll dump the left channels of its two main outs to a PreSonus AudioBox 22VSL audio interface. The mixer has two busses along with line level inputs for connecting to stereo equipment. I have a PC connected via the line out port to provide backing music while I play. I also have a mic that I can connect and I can mix all channels in whatever way I want before shipping it to the PreSonus. I can isolate inputs to particular busses so it allows me to put all 4 channels in my headphones, but only record 2. Or I can just as easily record all 4. Or I can record both busses at the same time as two different mono tracks in a stereo capture. Finally I have it outputting to my stereo system so that I don't have to run the recording software or headphones to monitor what goes through the mixer. A little complicated but it does exactly what I've been wanting to do for a while.

 

[Nephilymbass]

I used to mic up my rig. Then for it while Id just bring pedals and my preamp and run an xlr. This last recording we actually did both And ended up not using the xlr signal. It had additional lows which were cool in a way. But we figured out using the mic signal by itself we could get the bass a lot louder in the mix without being overbearing covering up the kick or attack of the guitars and stuff that generally didn't make other band members happy. Theres some samples on iTunes of you want to check it out

Red Sky Constellation - EP by Nephilym
Link Removed

 

[socialleper]

I had a very enlightening recording experience this weekend with going DI. Generally I don't like DI tone because it is lifeless and plastic sounding. The key is I was using the wrong kind of DI. I was lucky enough to record at a place with Groove Tubes SuPRE Preamps and it sounded phenomenal. There was also a GT Glory Comp in there as well. It captured just a vibrant representation of my tone that I'd say it was actually better than my rig. I tested a GT Brick bypassing the pre of my GB Shuttle 9.0 and it sounded great too.
So I guess DI can be a good thing if you use the right one. Other wise I would suggest using a mixed track of DI and mic so you can get all of your tone, providing of course that the mic isn't a POS as well.

 

[Rev. Cornelius]

I use the 2 channel approach. I run guitat> tuner>comp>Lehle splitter to.....

1. Aggie THDI to Focusrite i8 to computer for channel 1.

2. B3K>Bass envelope>Orange TB1000 > TB1000 DI out>Focusrite i8 to computer for channel 2.

Orange set dirty, Aggie clean, blend while mixing.

 

[taylor16]

Sub'd.