Double Bass Recording Question

[MIN]

Hi Bass Players,

I was recording with my band on Saturday at my house. We wanted to cut most of our songs live so we had me singing into a Neumann KMS 105 and had a 58 clipped on the mic stand closer to the ground for my bass. The problem is that there was too much bass bleeding into the vocal mic. We couldn't figure out how to acheive separation while singing and playing at the same time. This is the first time I've been a lead singer in a band so I've never run into this particular problem while recording before.

The bass was actually bleeding into all of the mics so we ended up putting the bass on afterwards, which I liked. It was nice to be able to concentrate on one job at a time, but we've still got some more songs to do that really need the bass and vocals at the same time to cue the band.

Any singing bassists with tips for recording vocals while playing bass while maintaining at least a little bit of separation?


Ryan.

 

[Bassamatic]

It is practically impossible to keep bass from bleeding into mics in the same room, since it is non-directional. If you can hear it - so can the mic. Better that you plug in direct to your mixer and use headphones to hear it.

 

[MIN]

Thanks for the response Bassamatic. I kind of figured.

I wonder what other bassist/singers do. Like, what does Esperanza Spalding do? Does she just record the bass and vocals together and just let the blend be whatever it is?

 

[Bassamatic]

For Esperanza - do you mean live or on a recording? For live sound you just live with the leakage, although the electric is most likely taken direct, with a small amp for monitoring. For a recording you isolate everything.