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Which bass pre for home studio?

B

bassplayershane

Apr 25, 2008
175
1
Melbourne, Australia
#1
I am a bass player and I want to find a great preamp to use for recording purposes only at home. I have an M-Audio 1814 Firewire interface into a PC using Cubase.

Some ideas I have are the new SWR Marcus Miller M2, Eden WP100, Fender TBP1, BBE BMAX or BMAX-t.

I dont need any effects. Just a compressor. Needs to be tonally versitile as I record everything from jazz, latin, funk, soul, rock etc.

Any ideas?

Cheers!:hyper:
 
#7
Personally, I would look at something a bit more versatile than just a bass pre. I'd be looking at a good, solid, all around mic pre. If you start messing around with tracking more than just bass, you'll wish you had a better one than what comes in the interfaces. The FMR RNP is a nice one, as is the Black Lion Auteur (I just got one of these.... fantastic pre). I've messed around with running direct out from my GK into the Black Lion on one channel, and then a 57 in front of my cab into the second channel of the Black Lion.... it's very cool. Running direct into the interface from the effects send on the GK yields nice results as well.

Ljazz
 
#8
Spend some time with a decent mic and working on mic positioning. Like learning to use your hands to change the tone of your bass, your mic technique can change the sound you capture. That will be important with a inexpensive or expensive mic pre.
 
#9
Its all great info guys thanks. Probably should have mentioned my situation. I live in an apartment and need something rack-mountable that I can use. Mic-ing amp is fine but to noisy for the grumpy neighbors!

You are all right in saying there is a lot to choose from. Just was hoping it would narrow it down a bit!!!!

Cheers!
 
#10
+1 on the advice to get an all around recording pre. Something you can use for mics, bass direct, etc. Finding the preamp you like will be like finding an amp you like. Process of elimination. There's so many variables to look at. I think you'd have more input from recording forums like gearslutz.com where you'll find engineers that could help you.
 
#18
The JoeMeek stuff is nice, but I really think the RNP and Auteur are better values, and are better all around mic pre's (by all around, I'm talking about for vox, guitars, drums, etc.). The RNC (compressor) running with the RNP is a killer combo. The BL Auteur is quite punchy, and in my case, it eliminates the need for compression while tracking.

And just because they're mic pre's doesn't mean you have to mic your cab. But with two channels in the pre, you keep your options open for doing so later. If you're just looking for a bit better tone when laying down tracks in your apartment, then there's a chance you'd be quite satisified running a line from the GK's effects send to your interface and bypassing the interface's mic pre's (if it has them), or running your direct out from the gk to the interface's pre. I actually dig the tone of the gk direct into the interface. It's quite warm and punchy. On the other hand, I prefer to track bass as naturally as possible (zero eq, zero compression, etc.), so that I have room to do what I want with it once recorded, especially if I'm not running a second mic'd track.
 

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