Recording Bass guitar

[tmix]

I am looking for an alternate (possibly better?) way to record Bass guitar.
Presently I am using a Johnson J-Station with good results, although depending on the guitar it can be a little noisy. But I need to be able to use it (J-Station) for electric guitar
at the same time, so I need an additional mode of tracking Bass. I can't afford a Bass Pod, but have read in a few posts that some are using the ART Studio MP for recording bass with great results. Can I get anyone's expert opinion? How quiet is the MP? I record mainly Jazz-Funk-Folk so I need primarily a good clean sound, up to a warm fat sound with a hint of growl on the low end. Your response is greatly appreciated!
Tmix

[Tom Hicks]

Here's a tip.Record your bass DI.In another track,use a mic to capture the unamplified ambient sound of the bass as he is tracking.Placement should be near the right hand.You want to get all that finger noise and high frequency stuff missed by the pickups.Later,when mixing,add in just a hint of the mic'ed stuff to your normal sound for a bit of sparkle.
Tom

[Cyrokk]

Can you get to a music store that carries the Zoom 506II? It's a basic direct box/modeler just for bass.. You could try it out in the store and see if it's what you are looking for..

My bass sound by itself, or through a bass amp just had no character. I really wanted to get that open "throttle" sound that is characteristic of Queensryche, RHCP and Tool. The Zoom had just that sound, with other decent tones that come in handy when I need the bass to fit a certain way in the mix.. I use that in conjunction with an ART Studio preamp to get the maximum out of my humble bass setup..

Cy

[BrettB]

I always had the finest results mixing a DI signal with a miked amp. You got the warmth and the attack put togehter. A little eq'ing and you can get great results.

Flea also works this way I read in SOS

[MISTERQCUE]

Originally posted by BrettB
I always had the finest results mixing a DI signal with a miked amp. You got the warmth and the attack put togehter. A little eq'ing and you can get great results.

Flea also works this way I read in SOS

That is , along with T. Hicks similar technique is how I record my bass also! It's the best way to go!

[Downside Studio]

My experience :

1. start with a good bassplayer (someone who has the sound inside his fingertips)

2. get a good bassguitar (my favourite is the musicman stingray, or even the OLP fake which sounds awesome for very little money)

3. get a good preamp (I use the TLaudio tube in combination)

4. Now compress the shit out of it (treshold all the way down, ratio to about 20:1. Now this really looks rediculous, but it actually works great when setup correct. The gainreduction meter is not coming out of the corner. Attack and release are set to fast. I personally would never tried this combination untill an engineer worked in my studio and setup the comp like this. I asked him if he was crazy, but he just smiled and got on smoking his joint. Afterwards this guy turned out to have its own studio with : 64ch SAJE, 48tr analog, 48track digital on tascam/adat/soundscape/sony, 2x Lexicon 480 etc. He knew what he was doing. His vision was if a comp just kicks in at a certain level you'll defenitly hear it starting to work. If you let it work al the way trough its much less notible. this works on the vocals to.)

Needless to say you need a real good compressor to pull these jokes. It works in some recordings (defenitly not all) with my TLAudio tube comps.

Live dangerous !

[Midlandmorgan]

I use an old Precision loaded with EMGs...set the card for line level and run flat...I compress and EQ the bass track after the fact to get the tone to fit the song...

I think the key to direct injecting bass is the active pickups...it works well for me, anyway...

K

[Chris Shaeffer]

I love the sound I get putting the bass direct through my Art Tube MP. I lent my Art to a friend for a couple weeks, once, and couldn't figure out why my bass sounded so thin running direct through my mixing board. Duh, the Art was giving it the sound I was used to.

I'll second the need for a compressor. Bass loves compression, though I don't usually compress it as much as Downside does.

Don't forget to play with the tone and volume knobs on the bass. They will have very different effects running the bass direct in and can REALLY affect the recorded sound. Play around with all of the settings (Art, compressor, knobs, etc.) and you should be able to get the sound you are looking for- or close to it.

Good luck,
Chris

[Cyrokk]

I just finished recording some bass tracks. Everything but the intro of the track was done in one take (one, but not the first) and is very smooth and consistent (I used the setup I described above, with no compression at all). I had to record the intro to a separate track, and stream the two together on a third. The switch is completely inaudible.

Do I suck at bass, or is consistency a normal problem for most, necessitating the need for compression? How often have engineers cut and pasted a bass line?

Just curious..

Cy