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Using more than one Bass on a Record

#41
I'm in the serve the song camp. If the bass you use really matters, then use that bass.

I agree that there should be minimal disruption to the recording session when doing so. If you are paying for recording time, then you don't want to need more than a couple minutes to adjust for the instrument change. If using a second bass adds a half hour to setting up for a song, then it becomes a less desirable situation.
 
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#42
chaak said:
Hello everybody,

we are going to start soon tracking our debut album. This is a self-produced album, and the keyboards player just told us that for guitars and bass we should strictly use the same gear for all the tracks, meaning if I use my Spector active bass on a track I cannot use fender precision on another as the bass and the guitars should have the same timbre all throughout. The same goes for amps. we can use different pickups configurations or EQing.

How true is that?
Click to expand...

I made it a point to use the same bass and amp (or DI) on my last album.
It depends on the band, the style and what they're aiming for. If they want the same tone for the album, i say use the same gear, and take note of the amp settings.
The settings on my DI were a little different (i did three sessions of recording spread months apart). So 4 of the songs have a slightly diff bass tone. Will the avg listener hear that? Probably not. Is it the first thing that i hear? You bet.
 
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#45
I'd bring one bass that has a wide variety of sounds, and adjust as desired. ;) :D

That said, I was once asked to play on a song on somebody's record because I was in the room, it didn't matter what kind of bass I had- they just needed a fretless bass player.
The kind of bass was less important that the desire to have a fretless bass part, at that moment, and I had a fretless bass.
They paid me $35 and a really good sandwich. :)

Maybe help the keyboard player realize that variety is a good thing, sometimes. ;)
 
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#46
Robscott said:
MOOG Bass (no, just kidding):)
Click to expand...
You might jest but I've played with that guy.

He would split his lower keyboard and drop it an octave so he could stomp all over my bass without appearing to be playing that low. He then had the audacity to complain that I was "too loud". When I called him out over it he claimed he hadn't realised he had done it. Yea. right, believe that and you'll believe anything.
 
#48
There are times when the recommendation to use the same bass on every track makes sense.

One obvious one is if it's someone else's album you're playing on and that's what they want.

Likewise if you're paying for studio time you may want to limit how many different instruments you use to save time getting them leveled/EQ'd etc. On that situation it also makes sense to record all the tracks using a particular bass together if possible.

One interesting situation from an old band of mine was that we used a fair amount of effects, especially dirt. At least for us it was a bit of a process to make sure everything was slotted well. A lot of times that awesome tone you get playing alone at home has to be tweaked substantially for the full mix especially when you have two guitars and bass moving between clean, distorted, fuzz etc

For us, once we got everything where we liked the overall sound it just didn't make sense to swap instruments and have to retweak. This was more of a live issue than recording but we did the same thing when we did record.

But in general for your own band project you should use whatever sounds best. Some tracks just end up working better with a particular bass. At the end of the day it's the same players and I assume the same production so unless you use radically different basses it won't be hugely noticeable to the listener.

It's even stranger to me to limit the guitar player. Double tracking using a Strat and a Les Paul has been done countless times to give the guitars a fuller sound.
 
#49
I have heard this before. Along the same line of thought you want to record all the drum tracks with one setup to get a uniform drum sound as well. I think this kind of production strategy is mostly applicable to pop music where you want to establish a band sound for the entire album, and there are not significant changes in genre across the tracks of the album.

For anything but the most pop of popular music I think this is not a great approach. Seems now textural variety from track to track is pretty common, even in some pop music settings, but certainly in pretty much any other genre. If your band explores music influenced by various different genres then sonic variations from track to track is almost a given.

I think posing the question to him about the sounds he will use: which single acoustic piano patch, which organ sound, and which electric piano sound, etc, might give him some insight into how narrowly he is scoping the palette for your album. But in the old days this was pretty common: one piano in the studio, one organ, one electric piano, either Wurly or Fender Rhodes, and the artist would use what was in the studio. But honestly times have changed.

If he’s trying to cop a 60’s or 70’s vibe with the recording then it may be a valid artistic choice, but if he’s saying it as dogma not to be questioned, and/or out of laziness, I would push back, if I felt strongly about varying tonal choices on the tracks.

The last album I worked on we paid a really good engineer to record it, and he specializes in all-analog signal chain. Now to save money we went digital/hard-drive at the end of the chain instead of 2” tape, but the vast majority of the signal chain was analog and nothing newer than mid-70’s gear. I used my Warwick Streamer Stage I On all tracks except for the most country of the songs we were doing, where I used my Fender Jazz, favoring the neck pup. The sonic difference between the two basses were entirely negligible the way he was compressing the bass and mixing things. I was really surprised.

Also, we were all beyond impressed, it is definitely the best sounding recording any of have ever been a part of, so it’s not like I am bummed, but pretty surprised at how he got both of those basses to sound pretty much exactly the same, and just with compression and mild EQ on the input. He used no EQ when mixing, just volume and panning!

So in the end using different basses might not make that much difference, unless their tones are markedly different, depending on how they are recorded and mixed.
 
#50
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The Producer told Rick Nielson the same thing so he complied and showed up to the studio with one guitar.
 
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#55
It's about serving the SONG, not the album. If the gear doesn't serve the song best, use different gear that does. That is what music production is about, not lazy engineering.

Nobody is going to listen to track two of your album and whine that the bass doesn't sound the same as the song before it. They will notice, though, if it doesn't sound right for the song.
 
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#56
chaak said:
Hello everybody,

we are going to start soon tracking our debut album. This is a self-produced album, and the keyboards player just told us that for guitars and bass we should strictly use the same gear for all the tracks, meaning if I use my Spector active bass on a track I cannot use fender precision on another as the bass and the guitars should have the same timbre all throughout. The same goes for amps. we can use different pickups configurations or EQing.

How true is that?
Click to expand...

It's as true as you want it to be. Sounds like big case of the "Lazies" to me. Show up with what you want to play, how you would play, and stick to your guns (with reason). ;)
 
#57
LBS-bass said:
It's about serving the SONG, not the album. If the gear doesn't serve the song best, use different gear that does. That is what music production is about, not lazy engineering.

Nobody is going to listen to track two of your album and whine that the bass doesn't sound the same as the song before it. They will notice, though, if it doesn't sound right for the song.
Click to expand...
Yes, exactly this!!! Sums it up perfectly, as very talented and well know mix engineer told me "Nobody listen's to the record in solo!" it only matters how it sounds as a whole.
 
#59
chaak said:
Hello everybody,

we are going to start soon tracking our debut album. This is a self-produced album, and the keyboards player just told us that for guitars and bass we should strictly use the same gear for all the tracks, meaning if I use my Spector active bass on a track I cannot use fender precision on another as the bass and the guitars should have the same timbre all throughout. The same goes for amps. we can use different pickups configurations or EQing.

How true is that?
Click to expand...
Right gear for the job. As in, if the individual track sounds better on a stick with a clothesline shoved in a wine barrel, thats what you should play on that track. Nobody wants to listen to an album where every song sounds the same. Nobody.
 

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