Distorted Bass Track on Live Recording – Please Help!

[PetrosGls]

Can some one help me out with this?

I was recording a band’s gig and everything was OK.
No clipping or noise….. at least in my headphones.
When I play back the gig at home I realize that a lot of times the bass track was distorted. There was no clipping at all on recording and the bass was -10db. It was connected in my digimax fs (presonous) instrument input 1 and the digi 003r was the master. Can you help to understand what was my mistake on that? The direct out of my digimax was going to a fender amplifier and from them with a mic to the console. The session was 24/48 in 64 buffers size.

Thank you in advance.

[sunburst79]

Just some suggestions.

Did you capture both a direct input into PT and the Miked up amp? If not that might be a good idea next time. If you did-are both tracks distorted or just one? is it distorted all of the time or just on peaks?.
If you had a solid direct track you could always Re-Amp the direct track if you were overdriving something on the Amped track. Conversely a solid sounding take of the Amp would let you ditch a digitaly clipped direct track.
If its clipping on peaks then its probably a setting. If its clipped all of the time I would lean more towards a impedance mismatch, Bad connection or cable etc. If the Presonus has a clock was it set to the same sample rate as the 002/003?

Its been my expirance that when I try to record bass direct into PT that no matter how carefully I set the levels I'm going to clip at some point, mostly because I'm not a bass player and my technique sucks and its all over the map volume wise. At some point I'm going to overplay something and clip. A lot of times I will insert a simple Boss limiter into the chain before the 002 to handle any stray peaks.

I'm sure that someone like Allbee will have some better suggestions for you though.

[albee1952]

Good info above and I would like to help but need more info. How exactly was the bass recorded? I am not able to picture how you did this and where the console and amp were in the chain(I would have gone BASS>DI box>AMP and patched the DI output into protools, if I had the inputs available, I also would have recorded a mic on the amp too). Lots of places where it can clip without clipping the protools "meters". When the bass is distorted, is it hitting the red in your protools session? If not, then you may be stuck as it is possible that you simply recorded a distorted signal. If the distortion happens WITH clip indication on the track, you recorded too hot and have some spots with digital clipping. These can be tough to fix but you may be able to find other places on the track where the same note is played clean and a little copy/paste might save the day. Could you maybe get the bass player back and re-record his track as an overdub?

[PetrosGls]

I capture only the direct input.

It is distorted all of the time and there in peaks at all.

The sample rate it was the same and only the bass was distorted.

Also I had distortion on bass at some point in the studio (Direct in a lot, Line out at some points and from mic just a litle) but again no peaks at all.

Should use always a compressor or limiter?

Thanks.

[PetrosGls]

I capture only the direct input.
It is distorted all of the time (digital distortion) and there is no peaks at all.
The sample rate it was the same and only the bass was distorted.
Also I had distorted bass at some point in the studio (three tracks at the same time - Direct in a lot, Line out at some points and from mic just a litle) but again no peaks at all.
Should use always a compressor or limiter?
Thanks.

[Kirby B.]

It seems to me that you have to re-record the bass, but maybe I am missing something. Has happened before

[original_min]

Hi.
Just a thought...

You went directly from the bass to the Presonus instrument in jack and out digitally to PT right?
Is it possible the bass was distorting before it even got to the Presonus, like an active bass playing up or flat battery?

Is it awful permanent fuzz or just distorted sometimes?

If you run the bass out of PT into the bass players amp it should be the same as what s/he heard on the night.
You can mic up the amp and re-record that.

good luck!

[albee1952]

I'm afraid re-recording the bass may be the only solution. I also agree that an active bass with a low battery could cause this. I don't think this applies to your situation, but a word of advice for newbies; don't feel compelled to "slam" the input meters like in the analog days. If you record at 24 bit, getting the meter above halfway is enough. This thread should remind us to always listen to what is going in before its too late.

[PetrosGls]

Thank you Guys!

I will try to re-recording the bass but about the demo I will keep amp track because is clearer than the other two but I don’t like the sound of amp for a demo. Maybe it is good Idea to rec a midi bass from bass-legends sample CD. The bass player was played to….to…unprofessionally? Like a child? I don’t know what to say and he is 36-38 years old. He was playing very close to the bridge with pick and he was hitting the strings very powerfully. Anyway I will try everything to get the best results I can.

[albee1952]

Sorry I misunderstood that you had 2 tracks recorded. Maybe the amp track can work for the mix. Distortion is a double-edged sword. Some may hate a furry bass track while others will work to "dirty up" a clean track. If you re-record, I would let him bring his amp and put a good mic in front of it and listen to his tone and try and record it the way he plays it(also record a DI signal right off the instrument). You may hate his sound but sometimes we engineers have to bite our tongue and record what we hear because the client is always right(no matter how wrong they might be). Bitching about a crappy tone is the job of the producer.