getting a better bass sound..

[narcoman]

Fave bass recording tip has to be one of these two:

Ridge Farm Gas Gooker DI plus my ashdown rig cranked up for the mids and (you'll hate me) a tiny bit of the bass pod pro with the sub preset (bass pod pro preset 7D - its the only preset i've kept from the factory settings)

the second is again the bass pod sub preset blended with a behringer practice amp - VERY similar to ol' Jean-Jacques Burnel of the Stranglers.

cheers

[Gingley]

Depending upon which era Tobias his bass player has, I don't think that any of the instruments listed would qualify as trashy, but it is a good point to consider the quality of the signal source as well as the rest of the chain.

However, one observation that I would make is that both the basses you listed have active electronics (you didn't mention if the Pedulla was active or not). While the sonic range of active p/u's and on-board pres can give you a lot of versatility, it has been my experience that a (quality) bass with passive p/u's sits in the mix better and has a musicality to it that active basses can lose (some, not all). Of course, with a passive p/u instrument, I would heavily recommend the use of a buffering preamp to get your impedance to a level that your preamp will be happy with (if you are going to use one of the SWR's as a pre, then you are probably talking @ 600 Ohm, as I recall). The Stewart UDP-1a works well in this regard, as would several of the Raven Labs boxes. If one of his basses has a passive setting for the p/u's, you might want to give that a try.

Other than that, I would second (third?) the recommendations of recoding at least two tracks (DI and mic'd cab), with a distorted (or even better, overdriven) track blended in either while you're tracking or at mixdown.

Hope this helps, G.

[adam_w1]

I like the sansamp bass driver DI quite a lot; you cab blend the straight Di tone and the sansamp tone.. plus new strings are a must. Here's another tip.. I make 'em stick a string down their shorts attached to the bridge to sort out earthing problems !

[Rational Punk]

I make 'em stick a string down their shorts attached to the bridge to sort out earthing problems !

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I can't imagine what you recommend using as an anchoring point to keep that string from slipping out of place, lol. [img]images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

I definitely second (or is it third?) the bit about new strings; when I'm recording bass, I put on a fresh set for every song.

[Joz]

If the guitars have too much low end, it can cover alot of the bass sound. He didnt say the bass sounded bad, he just said it gets burried in the mix.

Joz

[O.G. Killa]

In addition to what everyone else is saying...I'd like to recommend this. I use this chain all the time adn get good comments from the bass players...

Manly Voxbox into LA-2A (or some other analog Compressor/limiter) into PT. Sometimes I need to cut the low-midrange out a little bit using the Voxbox EQ (somewhere between 200Hz-500Hz depending on the sound you're getting). You can also reamp as someone suggested, just make sure to align the phase of the amp with the direct signal after it's recorded.

For some reason the VoxBox has this fatness to it that I can't get from other gear. Sometimes a nice Neve 1073 sounds good too but I love the Voxbox. If you can rent one for your recordings definately check it out.

And I also second the idea of scrapping the bass pod! Although sometimes for heavy metal stuff it's cool to use it as a second sound source instead of reamping. Have the bass pod with a distortion sound in conjunction with your clean sound.

[Dave B]

A couple ideas for you:

1. Use an L1 on the insert bus - this greatly smooths out the dynamics of the bass performance! I usually set the threshold for as much as -6dB peak reduction (depends on the bass player).

2. Make sure the bass player is playing the instrument aggressively. Too many bass players try to finesse the dynamics and end up with a wimpy sound. A good way to get them to play harder is to reduce the bass level in their headphone mix.

I once attended a bass master class with Christian McBride. There were about 20-30 bass players there and he had everyone play one by one. He singled out a few players who had a wimpy sound, and to demonstrate that it's usually not a a problem with the instrument, he played a few riffs on their bass. It's amazing the difference in tone he could get from their instrument - and he said they key is you really have to bear down on the strings.

[Erik Braund]

Hey everyone, i just wanted to take a minute to thank all of you! I have been at my studio pretty much all day everyday since i posted, and i dont have net access there yet.

But..i printed out the whole thread, and have since gotten MUCH better bass tones! Thanks everyone!
Erik Braund

[DrC:drive]

My secret fo a great sound is Avalon 737sp- tube Tech Compressor-Cranesong HEDD A/D. I the nuse oxford Dynamics with warmth control and Oxford EQ. Great sound

James Cullen
Seabrite studio

[Doug Ring]

What Dave B said... I once recorded a guy who needed no compression at all. I asked him how he got such an even sound. He said: "I just play as hard as I can all the time!"

I tried his bass once. Man! The action was half an inch high and the strings were like ship's hawsers. After one number I had a blood blister. "Look what your bass did to me!" I wailed. "You better not have got any blood on my guitar" was the reply...