In serach of..."An Awesome Bass Guitar Sound".....

[mantaray]

I also have 002 AND Musicman StingRay and Sterling basses.


Try this for starters.

1. Record a bassline on one track.

2. Duplicate this track.

3. On the duplicated bass track insert a T-Racks EQ.

4. Go to the presets of the EQ and choose FX, and from that list choose 'low end only'.

5. Do some minor adjustments so that the duplicated track is a tad louder than the original one.

6.(optional) Duplicate the original track yet another time, insert a BF76 compressor and choose the 'Pump' or 'all buttons in' preset.




If you do that correctly, your bassline will sound deeper and more exciting. It will definitely have more 'air'.


Of course, I employ more stuff as well. Some of these are Oxford EQ and Inflator, my APHEX 204, tape saturation from my Otari, etc.


I am waiting desperately though for the new Amplitube SVX plugin.

[Calvin]

The Renaissance series was never made to be "clean". Although you can turn the Rcomp to more of a clean sound they are sapposed to sound "vintage". If you are looking for a trully clean sound then you should probably look more towards the C1 and Q series EQ's.

[Straatocastoer]

Hey Joel. I am sure that you don't want to hear that you HAVE to go pick up an expensive piece of gear, but I would d*amn near bet that the Great River MEQ-1NV combo would be the best bass DI that you could buy (not to mention that all you would have to add is dynamics to the chain and you would have a killer front end for nearly any rock application). I love my MP-2NV. It sounds WONDERFUL as a bass DI -- rich, throaty, detailed.

Just my $.02 ...

[powerjoe]

Ah!

All great suggestions! Okay, let's say I need to narrow my options down further. Given what I have listed for gear, what "additional" piece of gear do you think will get me closer to that "killer" bass sound for say, ....under $1000.00 USD? And, along with that piece of gear, how would you use it with my current setup?

All great opinions here! Thank you!


~ J

[macr0w]

I know what some of you are going to say, but I have gotten some killer bass sounds useing a Focusrite Voicemaster Pro as a DI. It has eq and compression built in. It has other things as well but I don't think they add anything useable. Scoop the eq and a little compression and it does pretty good. I am actually wanting to sell this thing if anyone wants it $350.00 maybe. I think it sounds better for bass guitar than anything else I ran thru it. I would post some clips but I don't have anyway to do it.

[rpowell]

Which is your compressor of choice rpowell and why?? Is there a big difference in DI boxes? is the SansAmp on the "low rung"?

~ J

Caveat #1: I like to track bass guitar with analog compression going in. Some people would prefer to record an unadulterated signal and process it later.

Caveat #2: if you have a stellar player playing a stellar instrument, the rest of the signal chain is just icing on the cake.

If I had to pick one of the 3 compressors I listed, I'd probably pick the CS Trakker. Basically, because it is more flexible than the 1176 (can use it on a lot of things like vocals, other instruments, and has different settings that can emulate different compressors), and can do "clean" compression better than a Distressor. The Distressor is great for getting gritty sounding compression for character. The 1176 is a more of a one trick pony than the other 2, but it has a tried and true compression and limiting character that works way more often than not; and the "crush" mode (all 4 ratio buttons pushed in) is useful for other applications like the "NYC drum compression" trick. I have had some success with lesser cost compressors like DBX 160x and Aphex 651, but you asked for "killer", and these are it to me, bass compression-wise.

The SansAmp Bass DI has probably showed up on more commercial recordings than you might think. Its main value is as an amp emulation box as well as a straight DI, and it works well for the price. The Avalon U5 just seems to pull the tone out of the bass, especially if you fool around with the selectable tone setting. Wnhat I mean by "pulling the tone out" is that, compared with running a bass into a garden-variety DI box, there seems to be a more revealing and full sound character there. The Great River NV preamp has bottom end for days and also seems to pull the tone out of the bass. The Telefunken (and its descendents) are classic tube pre designs that add a touch of pleasing harmonic distortion to the sound, but with punch and clarity, and is a tried and true design.

RP

[pk_hat]

Universal Audio M-610.
Awesome DI for bass, a rather unanimous opinion.

[rpowell]

Universal Audio M-610.
Awesome DI for bass, a rather unanimous opinion.

So I've heard. Went to a studio that had one, the guy said bass DI was all he ever uses it for, considered it pretty useless on anything else because of its wooliness. If you search for opinions on the 610, it's a love it/hate it thing, except as pk_hat indicates, most really like it for bass DI.

The Great River NV-series (1 and 2 channel versions) get lots of raves for their DI but lots of good marks (from me, too) as an all-around mic pre for other applications.

Definitely 2 kinds of animals, would love to have both and many others if the budget allowed.

RP