Recording bass in line in?

W

wedge43

New member
Hey everone!
I have recorded bass for a project of mine recently directly in line in thourgh my M-Audio Fast Track Utral 8R interface. The recorded wave seemed weird to me as it looked compressed or if I was using a limiter in insert.
Can someone tell me why?
Also, is that a recommended technique to record bass? Or should I go trough a DI or try to mic an amp?
I have no clue how to record bass properly let's put it that way... need help!
thankx
 
Yes, DI input or micing an amp are the two conventional ways to record bass. Line in isn't really ideal.

How does it sound? When you say it looks limited, do you mean the tops and bottoms of the wav are clipped? You might just need to turn the gain down, but post a pic or an mp3 to be certain.
 
wedge43 said:
Should I go trough a DI or try to mic an amp?
I have no clue how to record bass properly let's put it that way... need help!
thankx
Click to expand...
If you are up for some experimentation, then there are a number of ways to record bass. To deal with your line in scenario, regardless of what the wave looked like, how did it sound ? Was it a sound you liked and would use again ?
The bass guitar was developed in the 30s with Leo Fender going great guns in the 50s because the double bass was becoming harder and harder to be heard with the new musics that were appearing that were utilizing electric instruments. So in those early days, the amp would be miked. That's still a great method. It was years before it occurred to someone to plug the bass straight into the console. But when it did occur, it was found to have a good sound also. Those are the two main ways, still to this day.
You can get many different bass tones depending on your treble and bass settings, your mid range settings, your various amp settings, whether you use a pick or fingers, whether you pluck or slap, whether you use your thumb, whether you concentrate on the deep notes or the higher notes, whether you use various effects pedals or insert effects..........you can even double track, miking an amp while going DI, if you have a Y box or a Y cable. You then combine the two sounds. There are 4, 5, 6, 8 and 12 string basses (the 12 strings either being a 6 string, octaved or a standard 4 string with two octaves).
The sky is the limit and it really comes down to what you like and how much you're prepared to experiment. For many people, "it's just the bass" so it's often thought as being a little anal, trying to get lots of different bass tones.
For me, it keeps things fresh and interesting.
 
A quick glance at the specs of the 8R shows the two front jacks are Instrument DI's. If you used those, then you did right.

wedge43 said:
The recorded wave seemed weird to me as it looked compressed or if I was using a limiter in insert.
Can someone tell me why?
Click to expand...

How in the world can you tell if the waverform looks compressed or limited??? What does it sound like?? That's what is important.
 
Thank you for the torough awnsers.

As far as what my wave looks like, it doesn't clip but looks like it is one constant level highly compressed.
I did indeed used the front input for they were balanced.
 
You've had 4 replies thus far. Each reply has included the question "how does it sound ?".
I'd say a pattern is emerging here.
 
Yes, how does it sound. Always. But guys there is another question here.
If --and this also hasn't exactly been said yet, if all the tops are the same (even 'most' of them..) it would be very odd to get there without clipping or hard limiting somewhere along the way.

Wedge it could depend on what 'it doesn't clip but looks like it is one constant level' means.
'Doesn't clip' ..as in was recorded below zero and plays back with no boost or gain added below zero?
A track can sometimes look like a solid mass if it's zoomed out far enough. How about if it's zoomed in though?

(I'm tossing 'compressed' out of it because compression as often as not lets some peaks through, i.e. you might see before-after differences but let's not going there on Visual Flight Rules. :rolleyes:
 
mixsit said:
(I'm tossing 'compressed' out of it because compression as often as not lets some peaks through, i.e. you might see before-after differences but let's not going there on Visual Flight Rules. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I don't put much credence into how waverforms represent the audio signal. If you're looking at a track with a waverform, it's probably drawn small and scaling is an unknown. Who knows how accurate it is. I think waverforms are good for editing, aligning and punch-ins, but to represent an audio signal with fidelity, I don't know. That's why I question how he can judge the audio based on the waveform. It could be drawn wrong. All the peaks are the same level.. well, what's the scaling??

I'm an IFR kind of guy. I Follow my eaRs :) (Okay, that acronym doesn't work, but...)
 
thank you everyone so far for the help...
most of you are probably right in the fact a waveform shouldn't be reprensatative of the original signal.
as far as how it sounds... sounds thin... really thing but really in your face at the same time (that's why I used the word 'compressed').
My bass player do have a sound issue but the final recording doesn't help him at all.
The wave does not clip at all.

I will plug a bass into a direct box this week and do some test. I do suspect the instrument used in the recording was maybe the source of the problem...
Thanks again everyone for your help.
 
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