How do you lay down your bass tracks?

[capnkid]

Bass and amp, or Bass and something else?

Anyone use the line 6 bass and bass pod?

[TelePaul]

Bass DI'd with compression on the way in.

[legionserial]

My bass through my pre. Once with compression on the way in, once without.

But then my bass tracks have always sucked.

[mikeh]

Either DI'd with some compression - or - with a Behringer amp sim (bascially a clone of the Line 6 Bass Pod).

Yeah I know Behringer sucks, yada, yada - but this particular B product ain't bad.

[Dogman]

I don't have a bass amp, so I use Behringer v-amp.

[Big Kenny]

DI always, even if the guy has a super ampeg rig. I make him lug it in set it up and I record a song, then I DI the same song with a little DBX 160A and he breaks down his rig and DI's the rest

[MadAudio]

Bass V-Amp Pro

or

Tech21 Bass Sans Amp pedal

[mrface2112]

Countryman Type85 DI->mic pre with compression. which mic pre depends on the sound i'm going for.

in terms of processing, usually a generous helping of Waves RenBass and/or the Ampeg SVX plugin (very cool tone shaper).


cheers,
wade

[Zaphod B]

I don't have a bass amp so I run my bass through a Pod XTL, using a custom setting with the preamp emulation and a little room ambience. It keeps the bass from sounding as sterile as running it direct.

[thewanderer24]

I have VERY nice bass gear, as I am a bass player.
I find the best sound comes from my bass to my preamp to the board. I've never found it necessary to mic anything, though I also am generally going for a clean sound.

I don't use any compression on input (again, I am a bass player, so I am pretty good with controlling my dynamics). I don't want to alter the dynamics of the raw bass track in a way that I can't mess with during mix. Generally I will use some gentle compression on the track(s) during mixing.

The above applies to pretty much everyone that's ever recorded me, as well, so I don't think I'm crazy - and at times, the preamp has been skipped, and I've just plugged into a board with satisfactory results.

[scrubs]

Well, first I try to envision what I want the bass to sound like on the finished recording. Then, I select the gear that is most likely to get me that sound. Then I twiddle some knobs until I'm happy with it. Then, I track it. Then I record everything else and decide that the bass tone sucks and I play with plugins until it sounds nothing like the original recording. Then I scrap the whole thing and start over.

[metalhead28]

When I want a real basic bass sound I go DI into my Brent Averil 312a. When I want a dirty sound or something distinct I use my Sansamp RBI bass preamp, but I often record a clean DI as well.

[capnkid]

So would a line 6 bass, and a podxt bass unit work going right into a pre fairly well? Or will the line 6 bass go right into the pre without a pod unit?

[rory]

I usually have the player go through my ampeg head into a 4x10 cab. I split the signal to get a direct signal and an amped signal. I stick either a D6, SM-91, or Kickball in front of the cabinet, like you would with guitar, combined with a LDC anywhere from 6-20 feet back. I really like how the room mic sounds in certain situations.

[eyeteeth]

Most of the players I record have barely adequate rigs, so I'll use a combination of whatever gets closest to what they're looking.

For "MY OWN" tracking... I use an SVT 4 Pro head into an 810 enclosure. One AKG D112 close mic'd off center, and a Good Condenser about 6-7 feet back and 2-3ft high pointed straight at the cab. I use very little EQ or Compression on the way in. (I'm able to play fairly consistent and use dynamics to my advantage) I then blend to my liking during mix down.

[jonnyc]

Bass direct into an art mpa gold(seriously of every di I've ever used it's by far the fattest, warmest one I've used) then tweek with sans amp plug.

[TelePaul]

Originally Posted by jonnyc

then tweek with sans amp plug.

When you say plug, do sans amp make a plug-in?

[JerryD]

I just bought a bass. I was planning on getting a bass sans amp like the ones you guys mentioned above. I have a Mackie 1202 VLZ mixer. The bass is supposed to be here Thur. I was just wondering what kind of sound could I expect to get going directly into the mixer or the mixer pres of the Mackie? Would that work or do I need the sans amp?

[jonnyc]

Originally Posted by TelePaul

When you say plug, do sans amp make a plug-in?

Surely do my Irish friend, however I think it's RTAS only. In fact I just had a band in this week and they wanted a very Toolish style sound and I think I nailed it. A few of their myspace comments are people telling them they like the tool sound of the bass. Great plug.

[jonnyc]

Originally Posted by JerryD

I just bought a bass. I was planning on getting a bass sans amp like the ones you guys mentioned above. I have a Mackie 1202 VLZ mixer. The bass is supposed to be here Thur. I was just wondering what kind of sound could I expect to get going directly into the mixer or the mixer pres of the Mackie? Would that work or do I need the sans amp?

The sans amp di will give you tons of possibilities that going straight into the board won't give. If you can get a sans amp di I highly recommend it.

[JerryD]

Thanks for the help.

[thewanderer24]

why buy the sansamp or anything else until you at least try it and see how you like the sound??

[jonnyc]

Originally Posted by thewanderer24

why buy the sansamp or anything else until you at least try it and see how you like the sound??

Well your right but sitting in GC and trying to figure out if you like a di/pedal or not is kind of stupid. Where are all these places where you can extensively try a piece of gear and figure out whether or not it's going to work for you without actually taking it home? Not to mention most places have a return policy for just the reasons you're mentioning. So it only makes sense to buy it, try it, and return it if it's not up to your standards.

[Jouni]

Yep...

Also try out all of your di-boxes, pedals and preamps meant for your guitar.

[JerryD]

Yeah my logic is messed up. I would try the bass direct into the mixer like you said and If it sounded really good I would still wonder how much better a real DI would sound. Everytime I played the bass I would think "I bet if I got the sans amp DI it would sound 100 times better." I would end up getting it anyway because it would drive me crazy.

So I"m just bypassing all the BS