any ideas on direct line bass?

R

rudalicious

New member
hey everyone

well i have been messing around with my "studio" for a bit now... im not done with the room yet so things arent set up as good as they will be but i need some ideas. For now i have to record bass direct line becuase i dont have an amp to mic. I have home studio 2002 (going ot upgrade to 04 soon) a delta 1010, and a yamaha MG10/2 for recording. I have a fender jazz bass and a yamaha BB604. I prefer the jazz bass over the yamaha. Anyway, i recorded a track with the yamaha before i had my jazz bass and the track seemed to lack a lot of punch. I tried boosting the mids a little and brining down the lower end becuase it was distorting a little bit. I usually have the levels set so they are just barely not clipping. Will an amp make that difference? If anyone has any direct line tips i would be greatful.

thanks
Rudy
 
rudalicious said:
I tried boosting the mids a little and brining down the lower end becuase it was distorting a little bit.
Click to expand...

That is about it man....as far as I know anyways...


but then again...I don't know shit.... :D
I record my bass (al-cheapo P-bass copy) direct through a mackie....same kind of settings...works ok....usually I will throw some compression on after and normalize the level...
 
thanks.... guess i just have to mess around a lot until i get a studio amp.... any ideas on amps? I really like the peavey bam becuase of the built in effects and the power it has.
 
rudalicious said:
any ideas on amps?
Click to expand...

I am clueless....

I only own a little Fender 15 amp bullet reverb practice amp...
I use a POD for electric guits...a mic and pre for acoustic guits and vox and direct bass....

sorry dude..
 
you really oughta get a DI of some sort

i've heard lots of great things about the Countryman Bass DI. runs about 3 bills new, IIRC. bit cheaper than an amp. bonus with using a DI is that you can then reamp your track later and blend that in with the DI track. i've got a Countryman on my christmas list, although it's behind a few things i want more. :D

i record bass (it's a mid-70's P) using a VTB-1 into a Symetrix 425 (compressor) into a Delta 1010. I only use the 425 as a limiter for those bombs and the very rare peak. for the bassist i usually record, i also tend to dial in just a little bit of the toob on the vtb-1 to add a little mud (a little goes a long way) to the sound, and i get a nicely mildly driven (think along the lines of allen woody through an ampeg) kind of sound that really punches through the mix and works real well with the band. but that's a single sound, and while "right" for this particular application, might not be right for you. when clean, the vtb-1 does ok--it's better than running bass directly into the mackie 24*4 i've got--that's pretty miserable sounding. still, i'm saving up for that Countryman. ;-)


wade
 
Hey rudalicious

Another very popular way of going, and cheaper than the Countryman, is a Sansamp Bass Driver DI Box. They run about $200 I think. In effect the Sansamp acts - sort of - as a preamp, it boosts your signal, gives you useful EQ options, and drops the output impedance so you can plug straight into a board and get much better results. Well worth a look.
 
My Omni Studio/Delta 66 has "combo" inputs (1/4, XLR) with a pad for direct input of guitar and bass or a mic. I find I get better results if I use a DI box for the bass and guitar. It's seems to give me a bit more headroom.
 
I'm primarily a guitarist, but do record basic bass lines for my recordings. In my limited experience a bass amp isn't the easiest thing in the world to record!

I've recorded my 80's Peavey T-40 bass direct to the HiZ input of an Aardvark Q10 interface, and through my Johnson J-Station (a POD-like device). Both come out sounding great. If I use the HiZ input I'll add some compression; the J-Station has built-in effects such as compression, chorus, etc. which gives a lot of flexibility without having to use your computer's CPU.

The J-Station is being discontinued, but can be had for around $99 new these days (or less on eBay). The general consensus is that it's equal to the POD, plus it has presets for guitar AND bass, and comes with SPDIF output as well. A high-end DI box might do a slightly better job, but I don't think you can do better for $99 than the J-Station.

An additional benefit of recording bass direct is that you can record all night until the sun comes up, and nobody complains about noise!
 
Rudy something I forgot to mention is that the Countryamn box doesn't colour the sound much, while the Sansamp sort of completely takes it over. Which I like but YMMV.
 
i've been hearing some damned nice things about the Beh Bass V-Amp, i'm probably picking up the Bass V-Amp Pro sometime in the near future... they're what... $179? Well freakin' worth it.

Also, I'll second the Symetrix compressor. We recently bought a Symetrix 525 dual comp/limiter/gate off of ebay, and put it in the studio. I haven't done any serious tracking with it yet, but i've used it on a few mixdowns, and it makes my bass tone absolutely kill on the recent studio project/practice i did a few months ago. These Symetrix comps (especially the older toggle switch model of the 525) are REALLY popular for bass, and if you can get one (preferably that older one), get it. I picked mine up for $65 w/shipping. WAY worth it.
 
rudalicious said:
hey everyone

well i have been messing around with my "studio" for a bit now... im not done with the room yet so things arent set up as good as they will be but i need some ideas. For now i have to record bass direct line becuase i dont have an amp to mic. I have home studio 2002 (going ot upgrade to 04 soon) a delta 1010, and a yamaha MG10/2 for recording. I have a fender jazz bass and a yamaha BB604. I prefer the jazz bass over the yamaha. Anyway, i recorded a track with the yamaha before i had my jazz bass and the track seemed to lack a lot of punch. I tried boosting the mids a little and brining down the lower end becuase it was distorting a little bit. I usually have the levels set so they are just barely not clipping. Will an amp make that difference? If anyone has any direct line tips i would be greatful.

thanks
Rudy
Click to expand...

Don't plug into the line in jack. Go in through a transformer DI into your pre-amp. It will probably add warmth to your low end.

A good amplifier and cabinet mic'd will add character to your bass. I suggest picking up an ampeg amp/cab, and combining the DI output from the amplifier with the mic'd cabinet. You will be thrilled with what results you can get, but the ampeg tube gear is expensive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top