Recording Bass - Monitor Speakers & Headphone suitability

SparkyNZ

New member
I would buy a bass guitar and record DI for my own compositions but I question whether or not my monitoring gear is "good enough". I'm not a professional - it's a hobby - so I don't want to spend heaps of money.

I currently find that when I'm recording 6-string electric guitar (drop-tuned to C) that I get awful resonance on my monitor speakers on the low C string and my headphones are similar. Same deal with the 7-string that I have - it sits in a cupboard because I can't record it and enjoy the output experience. A bass guitar would probably be a lot worse.

Has anybody experienced similar issues with trying to record bass guitars? How did you get around the problem? Is it simply a matter of discovering one perfect frequency for the monitors being used and then notch-EQ'ing that frequency out??

My cheap monitoring setups:
- Samson Resolv A5 active studio monitors
- Behringer HPS3000 headphones

I've listened to a couple of my favourite bass-oriented (commercial - Ayreon) tracks through the both and they sounds just fine. Maybe I just need some EQ work on my source instruments?
 
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discovering one perfect frequency for the monitors being used and then notch-EQ'ing that frequency out??
eh? The entire point of monitors is that they are truthful, they do not emphasise certain notes and if your speakers are doing this, they are either awful, or more likely, the instrument has rogue notes. This happens quite often - and I have one very nice 6 string electric that just makes the A on the bottom E string louder than it should be - the Ab and the Bb are normal, but the A always jumps out. My other guitars don't do this. I guess if it happens, you might assume it's the speakers, but checking with a pair of headphones should sort that one. I'm guessing that you have tried headphones already, and ruled out your guitars, leaving the speakers as the culprit. My experience of drop tuning is that these weird resonances get worse when you do that. EQ could help but eq with enough Q to drop a single note and leave those a semi-tone away as they were is very rare. My EQ certainly cannot pick out individual notes. My two favourite basses have no rogue notes on my monitors or headphones.

I suspect that you've got a combination problem - perhaps a small resonance from the guitars and speakers that by unhappy accident, make that rogue note worse. The only bass I have that doesn't record well is just a rubbish bass I keep for nostalgia reasons.
 
my room resonates at the frequency of the low F on a bass standard tuning., doesn't matter whether it's synth tone, bass note or floor tom. Hit that note and the room accentuates it. I would make sure to decouple your speakers and look at some kind of room treatment maybe. I have found some basses do seem to have a resonant note but you can easily check for that at the music store before you buy. Mail order obviously would make this trickier.
 
Combination of untreated room and monitors is likely the issue that you are experiencing. Without hearing what you are in your space it is tough for anyone to give accurate advice.

How do these tracks translate to other listening devices?

Share a track so we can give more accurate advice. :)
 
did the OP mention whether they are micing or going DI?

I'll be trying to record bass when I finally finish the one I've got waiting for the workshop to be built. This thread is relevant to my interests.
 
did the OP mention whether they are micing or going DI?

I'll be trying to record bass when I finally finish the one I've got waiting for the workshop to be built. This thread is relevant to my interests.

Yep. DI.

First line in his original post. Sorry but I have to ask if your mouse is broken? It like only six posts above this one...:)
 
Sorry guys - been a bit busy - anything musical usually happens when my kids aren't home :-) I could post some tracks of what I'm experiencing but what I think I'm experiencing is resonance caused by my palm muting (yeah, I'm recording metal stuff).

I have a Squier strat drop-C tuned. Actually.. I believe I down tuned all of the strings 2 steps and matched the 7th fret of the "E" string wth the "A" string. Sorry if I'm not explaining this very well -think "Standard E tuning, drop the E string, then drop all strings by 2 frets".

What I'm finding is that some of the higher palm-muted power chords (B5/C5 - A string 2nd fret, D string 4th fret) sound great. I seem to get a nice bassy palm mute. Then when I go lower and play F5 (5th fret on both "E" [actually C string] and "A" strings) I don't get the same bass on the palm mute. I'm suspecting here that the higher power chord resonates with my speakers and sounds good but the lower power chord doesn't resonate so it seems as though it's missing something.

So really, my original question and what I'm looking at now are sort of two different things. I did buy a bass anyway :-) Just waiting for it to arrive over the next few days so it will be interesting to see if the bass "behaves itself". Ages ago when I had my first bass, I didn't have a DI . Now I do, (Waves Guitar Interface), so my attempts at recording bass will be completely different this time. I was just worried that I'd see more of that "resonance effect" with a bass but perhaps that will only happen at certain frequencies.

Going back to my current problem with the palm-muting, I watched a video this morning about recording palm muted guitars and there was a mention about using a compressor to keep the palm muting in check. I confess I've never used a compressor because my ears haven't heard the obvious benefit that they make. I thought they were used to keep the sound at an even volume in some sort of way but I'll need to do more research on those. I don't think a compressor is going to keep resonating frequencies in check.

I'll try and record some examples of what I'm trying to achieve and upload over the next 48 hours. I'm working on the premise that I need a proper bass in my track to back up the guitar instead of "being lucky" with the resonance I'm getting. But.. perhaps I should start a new article because its not really what I was asking when I started this thread.

Lost beginner, finding his way. :-)
 
Sorry guys - been a bit busy - anything musical usually happens when my kids aren't home :-) I could post some tracks of what I'm experiencing but what I think I'm experiencing is resonance caused by my palm muting (yeah, I'm recording metal stuff).

I have a Squier strat drop-C tuned. Actually.. I believe I down tuned all of the strings 2 steps and matched the 7th fret of the "E" string wth the "A" string. Sorry if I'm not explaining this very well -think "Standard E tuning, drop the E string, then drop all strings by 2 frets".

What I'm finding is that some of the higher palm-muted power chords (B5/C5 - A string 2nd fret, D string 4th fret) sound great. I seem to get a nice bassy palm mute. Then when I go lower and play F5 (5th fret on both "E" [actually C string] and "A" strings) I don't get the same bass on the palm mute. I'm suspecting here that the higher power chord resonates with my speakers and sounds good but the lower power chord doesn't resonate so it seems as though it's missing something.

So really, my original question and what I'm looking at now are sort of two different things. I did buy a bass anyway :-) Just waiting for it to arrive over the next few days so it will be interesting to see if the bass "behaves itself". Ages ago when I had my first bass, I didn't have a DI . Now I do, (Waves Guitar Interface), so my attempts at recording bass will be completely different this time. I was just worried that I'd see more of that "resonance effect" with a bass but perhaps that will only happen at certain frequencies.

Going back to my current problem with the palm-muting, I watched a video this morning about recording palm muted guitars and there was a mention about using a compressor to keep the palm muting in check. I confess I've never used a compressor because my ears haven't heard the obvious benefit that they make. I thought they were used to keep the sound at an even volume in some sort of way but I'll need to do more research on those. I don't think a compressor is going to keep resonating frequencies in check.

I'll try and record some examples of what I'm trying to achieve and upload over the next 48 hours. I'm working on the premise that I need a proper bass in my track to back up the guitar instead of "being lucky" with the resonance I'm getting. But.. perhaps I should start a new article because its not really what I was asking when I started this thread.

Lost beginner, finding his way. :-)

Dude, the best thing you did is post here. I have personal experience with the problems you are having issues that, well took me years to figure out. Many here will work you through what your issues are. Including me.

Upload the tracks you are having issues with. Do it man. :)
 
Dude, the best thing you did is post here. I have personal experience with the problems you are having issues that, well took me years to figure out. Many here will work you through what your issues are. Including me.

Upload the tracks you are having issues with. Do it man. :)

Thanks for the encouragement. Here's a snippet which you'll need to loop - tempo @ 50 BPM.

Broken Metal Riff 1 by Paul Spark | Free Listening on SoundCloud

If you listen to the first half of the snippet, I'm reasonably happy with it from an initial mix perspective (I'm still in the middle of composing this tune). I'm using a synth for the bass at the moment until my new toy arrives. I do find that VST basses sometimes seem to sound "off tune" at frequencies that are less than their intended frequency range, so perhaps this is an attributing problem.

I think I turned up the DI gain in the second half of the snippet so the guitar will sound louder in the mix but (apart from my playing), the mix sucks compared to the first half. Either I'm not palm-muting correctly but for some reason there is an apparent loss of bass in the second half compared with the first. I can provide seperated instrument/grouped tracks if anybody wants to have a play??
 
Yep. DI.

First line in his original post. Sorry but I have to ask if your mouse is broken? It like only six posts above this one...:)

I got the DI about the bass but he never specified if the guitars were DI or mic'd. Could be reading comprehension fail on my part, I admit. People were going on about mics and bad room sounds and treatments and I thought maybe the OP was mic'ing his guitars and not getting good sound so he was going to go direct with bass.
 
I got the DI about the bass but he never specified if the guitars were DI or mic'd. Could be reading comprehension fail on my part, I admit. People were going on about mics and bad room sounds and treatments and I thought maybe the OP was mic'ing his guitars and not getting good sound so he was going to go direct with bass.

I'm totally DI. My setup is in the living room so have to keep peace with the rest of the family. No man cave so I only get to use monitor speakers when nobody around. Otherwise it's headphones.

FYI my bass sounds ok. Only had it going through headphones but doesn't sound bad at all. That's going through my Waves DI. Bass is an Ibanez EDB series with active pickups.
 
Been doing a lot of bass tracking .+ studying a lot of online info-(just Google" bass eq"or" bass compression)..so I figured I'd post something...
In terms of the focus on notch type EQ'ng above(which might be a way of dealing w/this....another approach w/bass is to highpass/lowcut below a given frequency that's contributing to a problem low end situation....

Depending on what you're playing and the type of fundamental/overtone spectrum your type of bass produces,you might cut everything below 60hz and then boost 80-150hz or something...again take a look at the info online for specifics...

......you could use a low shelf too if you just wanted to lower the range you decide on instead of cutting it out completely...this might stop what you refer to as resonance which is possibly in a frequency area you want to keep some of...

.........messing around w/the eq settings( if you have access to one )after checking out these sites I'm referring to to get some ideas of specific frequency areas and guidelines might give you the results you want..

......also look at info on using compression( big part of bass recording/performance sound)re-adjusting the attack/release settings to get the palm techniques to transfer to recording...







.
 
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