Weezer Only in Dreams Emulation

[dbauer91]

Okay, so I've browsed these forums (and many more) and have spent countless hours trying to get the weezer bass sound from Only in Dreams and am losing my sanity with all the time I've spent trying to get this right. Basically, I'm attempting to recreate this sound for my own recordings and have sought the advice of fellow musician friends and have even brought up the topic to a producer I'm taking online lessons with. So, anyway I'm hoping someone (ANYONE!) on here can help me out with this. Here's my gear:

Fender P-bass.
SansAmp Bass Driver DI (by Tech21)
Presonus Studio One recording interface (Ampire is their plug-in virtual amp line)
Guitar Rig 5 (Kontakt 5's basic virtual amp line)

I've tried countless methods to get this sound down. Any thoughts on double-tracking the bass? The guy I'm taking mixing/mastering lessons from (Dean Palya Jr., legit knows his stuff) suggested trying an approach he heard Chris Lord-Alge use, where I'd have one DI bass track and blend it with another one (which I would EQ, compress, and add a virtual amp to). I've tried even using the Citrus line amps (knockoff of Orange) in the guitar section of Guitar Rig, but I don't know. Not exactly the sound I'm looking for. If anyone has any suggestions (maybe even solutions!), I'd appreciate any feedback tremendously.

 

[Ender_rpm]

a little googling and a quick listen later...

1. Its a Jazz bass, you can hear that hollowness during the intro and verse bits. You're not gonna get that sound with a P bass. Also fresh Stainless strings for the pingy quality. And it goes without saying, a heavy pick.
2. Any amp should do, its a pretty mellow tone. Try the B15 settings on the BDDI, or go direct/clean
3. during the louder bits, the bass may have a fuzz on it, try a Big Muff
4. I hear some amp grit on the bass towards the end during the instrumental bit, but also the clean "ping" of a DI. Need to have an "edge of grit" sound dialed in there.

Here's what I would do to get as close as possible: Record a track CLEAN, no amp emulation. Then copy that onto a second track. Do your amp sims/eq on that track, then blend the two. When I want a dirty sound, I'll run a clean DI, then mic a separate amp to which I apply my dirt. DI gets low passed at ~100-200hz, mic gets high passed around the same frequency. Each gets separate compression and EQ as needed. Keeps my lows tight, and my dirt dynamic.

 

[Gideon352]

Hey m'man great taste! I love that tone.

It's a Jazz bass with Schecter Monstertone pickups (pretty rare)
going into an Ampeg B15 Flip-top. There is a DI blended in and that's from a Countryman.
The mic preamps on the board were Focusrite. Arguably the most important part to that recorded tone though, is the fact that it was recorded to analog tape.

Strings: try the heaviest gauge GHS.

I agree, it would be pretty tough to get that sound with a P-Bass.
I'd go with a REDDI and a Jazz Bass to start and see how close I could get.

 

[Bassfiction]

I've come pretty close to that sound before. Using a j bass with 60's deluxe noiseless pickups, DI pedal (Eden or hartke), and bass muff pi, EB super slinkys, all through an ampeg micro vr. I would suggest what they said above if you want to get really close, but mine sounded pretty good playing along with the track.