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Post your favorite recording chain!

Funkfaker

Funkfaker

Jan 4, 2008
232
28
Brooklyn, NY
www.tommyharron.com
Disclosures
Endorsing Artist: CallowHill Guitars; Aguilar Amplification; MonoCases
#1
I'm always interested in the recording of a great bass signal, having played and engineered for a number of years now. So my question to you all is:

What's your favorite recording chain? What's your dream recording chain?

Currently:
Avalon U5 DI --> Universal Audio M610 --> DAW
(as well as)
Ampeg B15 --> EV RE20 --> Neotek Series II Channel Strip --> DAW

I think my dream would be to add a Neve 1081 in place of the Neotek and maybe grab a Neuman U47 FET someday...

Anyway, share your thoughts!
 
#3
^^^ Contrasting approaches there, then. :D

Seriously, for me at home, it depends what Im doing. Sometimes I'll go straight from bass into the interface, other times I'll use a VT bass or BDDI to get more grit at source, occasionally I'll mic a cab to blend in with the DI (rarely use the mic with no DI, though). Works well enough, the results I get suffer far more from my playing than from my gear. :bawl:

Dream setup? I don't have anywhere near enough experience of high end studio gear to say. And it's been about 10 years since I've done any recording in anything other than various folk's home studios.
 
#4
Funkfaker said:
I'm always interested in the recording of a great bass signal, having played and engineered for a number of years now. So my question to you all is:

What's your favorite recording chain? What's your dream recording chain?

Currently:
Avalon U5 DI --> Universal Audio M610 --> DAW
(as well as)
Ampeg B15 --> EV RE20 --> Neotek Series II Channel Strip --> DAW

I think my dream would be to add a Neve 1081 in place of the Neotek and maybe grab a Neuman U47 FET someday...

Anyway, share your thoughts!
Click to expand...

Hehe, my favourite chain includes the items you mention :) I'm lucky enough to work at a lovely studio where we tend to use an avalon U5 into an ampeg black line svt, mic'd with a fet 47 going into the 33112a amps on a neve melbourne, which are pretty much the same as a 1081/1073s etc. its a magic combo. Sometimes the SVT will be replaced with a fender bassman or the fet 47 replaced with an re20 or an akg d12 etc. Pretty cool.

I also love to replace the U5 with a ridge farm gas cooker, but thats been put in the 2nd studio now so I don't get to use it too much in the 'high end' chain. Still great though, those things overdrive in an amazing way for bass.

At home, however, I use a more modest setup, DI'ing into a radial pro DI or using the instrument in's on an amek purepath and also going to a mesa 400+ mic'd with a beyer mc740 or a md421, also going to the purepath ( I got the stereo version :) ). Thats a pretty killer combo as well!
 
#5
Mine:

A. Bass - Ampeg SVTDI - SSL4k pre - DAW
B. Amp - Cab - PR-40/AT4047/MD 421(depending on cab and preferred sound) - Thermionic Culture Rooster pre - DAW

A and B will be blended in the mix from the DAW (or tape).
 
#6
Bass - Amp - Sennheiser e602 and DI into this
IMG_0338.jpg


running through all this

IMG_0339.jpg
 
#7
A mic in front of my amp. I've used and been perfectly happy with an RE20, an AT4033, and a modded Oktava Mk219. Whatever micamps are in the console where I am recording, at home it's an older Soundcraft LX7 or Studiomaster 8 bus. If I'm paying for studio time it's something nicer.

If you get the rig in the room sounding the way you want it to it's really that easy.
 
#8
No idea what the engineer was using but I was super happy w/ my tone on our last recordings..

'76 SVT -> '78 810 mic'd w/ an Audix D4 blended 70/30 with a direct signal through my '78 Yamaha BB800 into a SansAmp BDDI but I don't remember the settings I had going on it.

Last recording I had was my Reverend XL through a SansAmp RBI & again... No idea on the settings but it wasn't quite as rich as the setup this go-round.
 
#10
manbass said:
A Chief Engineer asking regular players for their chain? Not fair Tommy;)

Eurorack 1202 > Behringer UCA202 > Digitech Jamman Looper > Dell Studio Laptop/Audacity.

so there:p
Click to expand...

We're all here to learn, my friend. Besides, I was chief engineer of a very tiny studio ;)


kalle74 and Magneezius, how are you digging the SSL sound? I've been thinking of getting a single ssl chain. Pre/EQ/Comp. Any recommendations?
 
#12
Funkfaker said:
We're all here to learn, my friend. Besides, I was chief engineer of a very tiny studio ;)


kalle74 and Magneezius, how are you digging the SSL sound? I've been thinking of getting a single ssl chain. Pre/EQ/Comp. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

Im loving the SSL sound. Its only second to the Neve sound in my opinion. However nothing beats the punch of the SSL master buss compressor as far as im concerned.
 
#15
It's something I had made and like very much.
It's as open and clean as I've heard and has no features apart from a gain knob ,a mute button and separate ground lift switches for the line outs and DI outs (two of each,both balanced and xlr, plus one un- balanced out and one tuner out. The "DI outs run through-is this the right way to say that?- a transformer and the "line" outs don't.).
It works very well for recording as well as gigs. :)
 
#18
Funkfaker said:
kalle74 and Magneezius, how are you digging the SSL sound? I've been thinking of getting a single ssl chain. Pre/EQ/Comp. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

The SSL 4k was installed at my studio very recently, but so far it´s sound has become one of my absolute favorites. We used to have an AMEK desk before SSL, and while it was a very good sounding board, upon firing up the SSL I noticed how much "cleaner" and "transparent" the SSL sounded compared to the old AMEK. Like lifting a veil off the monitors. To use a window-analogy: it´s like dirty and stained windows getting cleaned. The view doesn´t really change, but it´s clearer... Not a subtle difference, indeed...

On some sources, though, I really like other pres that have a "different personality" (like Neve pres, and the Thermionic Culture I mentioned earlier). Sometimes they really augment the sound you´re going for. I wouldn´t call the SSL "uncolored" by any means, but it sums up my idea of a clean sound pretty well.

I like the buss comp a lot, and the channel comp... Well, it´s OK, but it´s limited, and there are comps that I definetely like more (f.e. 1176 and Distressor).

If interested in SSL, do your homework first, and try out as many units as you can. See if they fit your expectations. They are quite expensive, so buying one "blindfolded", just based on recommendations would not be wise... I´ve fiddled around with the X-Logic racks, but not enough to base any serious opinions on them.
 
#19
cnltb said:
It's something I had made and like very much.
It's as open and clean as I've heard and has no features apart from a gain knob ,a mute button and separate ground lift switches for the line outs and DI outs (two of each,both balanced and xlr, plus one un- balanced out and one tuner out. The "DI outs run through-is this the right way to say that?- a transformer and the "line" outs don't.).
It works very well for recording as well as gigs. :)
Click to expand...

Very cool. Did you throw any transformers in there? What changes the impedance?
 
#20
Bass -->GT ViPre --> UA LA2A --> DAW.

Of course, that's at a well-equipped studio. At home, its:

Bass -->Summit Audio TD-100 --> UAD LA2A plugin --> Sonar.

Either way, I like a tube pre followed by an LA2A for bass.
 

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