Bass guitar through a guitar amp???

  • Thread starter Thread starter ste20man
  • Start date Start date
I'm picking up the bass tomorrow night and I can't wait!

I have an inherent feeling that live real bass will be much much better than Trilian(even though that does sound great). I really hope so.

I've had 2 days of trying to record vocals and am on a bit of a downer.

I'm a pretty good singer, or at least I used to be, haven't actually sung for a year now. As I'm recording the vocals all I can hear is mistakes. Off key notes, too much vibrato when I don't need it. The more I go though, the more I think it's coming back.

In regards to singing, I'm not using auto-tune(at least not for a while) but I have been picking the best bits of various takes and piecing them together. That produces better results but I would love to have that 'killer take'.

I've compromised by double tracking which creates some phasing(bad or good? poss. to each persons taste) and then gone even further and used the Waves doubler 4 to thicken the sound. After that it does sound good but I don't think it will ever beat an amazing vocal.

Where do you guys stand on vocals and can you give me any advice? (I'm still gonna keep improving day by day hopefully).
 
Just keep doing take after take till you get a recording that makes you say wow mistakes or not.
It's the performance of the material that really counts when that one take sticks out way above the rest you'll know you've nailed it.
 
Yeah msound. I'm gonna keep pushing on. Do some more today before I pick up the bass.
 
moresound said:
Just keep doing take after take till you get a recording that makes you say wow mistakes or not.
It's the performance of the material that really counts when that one take sticks out way above the rest you'll know you've nailed it.
Click to expand...

:)... so true.
 
I agree with what's been said here. If you're just recording at reasonable levels, playing bass through a guitar amp is generally safe. What's more important is whether you're getting a sound that works for you. If you're after a more conventional bass sound, going direct might be a better bet. If you're going for something unusual, a guitar amp could be just the thing!
 
Just picked it up, will have to check the sound tomorrow. I'm looking at micing up the amp with my SM57 and running the signal through my DS-1 and / or you dirty rat pedal as well for the distorted parts. It's gonna be a great day tomorrow whatever comes, really looking forward to it.
 
ste20man said:
I've had 2 days of trying to record vocals and am on a bit of a downer.

I'm a pretty good singer, or at least I used to be, haven't actually sung for a year now. As I'm recording the vocals all I can hear is mistakes. Off key notes, too much vibrato when I don't need it. The more I go though, the more I think it's coming back.

In regards to singing, I'm not using auto-tune(at least not for a while) but I have been picking the best bits of various takes and piecing them together. That produces better results but I would love to have that 'killer take'.

I've compromised by double tracking which creates some phasing(bad or good? poss. to each persons taste) and then gone even further and used the Waves doubler 4 to thicken the sound. After that it does sound good but I don't think it will ever beat an amazing vocal.

Where do you guys stand on vocals and can you give me any advice? (I'm still gonna keep improving day by day hopefully).
Click to expand...
When I first started recording, I was all about what I thought was 'authenticity' so I'd go for the killer take, whether it was vocals or bass and drums. So if there was one mistake, I'd just do the whole thing again. That, I can assure you, is the road to insanity. After a little while, I realized the value of the endgame over the tactics.....in other words, what counted was not how you got the result {the tactics}, but the result itself {the endgame}.
To be honest, what you've been doing, however frustrating it may feel like is mitigated by this statement
After that it does sound good
Click to expand...
because when your song is mixed, no one is gonna give a hedgehog sandwich about how the vocal was recorded. Long before I ever recorded anything worthy of the name, I remember reading a Paul Simon interview from sometime in the early 70s in which he described how Art Garfunkel pieced the vocal of "Bridge over troubled waters" together. But you can't tell it was put together bit by bit !
When doing vocals, I'll double track, I'll slow down the recording so the key drops and I can reach notes that are otherwise a bit of a stretch, I'll record in sections, do punch ins or whatever. Punch ins brings back a happening right around when I started in the early 90s - a friend that was a singer and had recorded albums, singles and done session and live work agreed to do a backing vocal for me. Her part in the song was about 7 minutes of "Woooo-OOH"s and "Boojzsa-woojzsa"s to be treble tracked. In my naivete, I expected her to do it just like that, all the way through, no pauses. She laid down the law straight away ! She said "When I do vocal sessions, I punch in !". We'd just finished a hard days work and she was tired so she was doing me a favour. So I stopped arguing. The result was as good as when I'd done it before with others all the way through.
So really, although the killer take is nice, and I've done them many a time, it makes no difference to the eventual result. Many of the great vocals of popular music over the last 45 years have been pieced together.
How it sounds to you is what matters. Can you tolerate the odd off note or vibrato ? Sometimes 'perfection' is what a song wants. And sometimes, it ain't.
 
You can have my Hedgehog Sandwich. (good band name BTW.)
 
it's really REALLY hard to properly judge your own voice.
Get some other opinions.
 
Lt. Bob said:
it's really REALLY hard to properly judge your own voice.
Get some other opinions.
Click to expand...

There is definitely something to that and after sleeping on it I can see the value of piecing stuff together, the ends justify the means as you say. I'm gonna get my friends to listen and see what they say. Cheers again everyone.
 
Hi all.

I have tried with the bass that I borrowed but am failing to get a decent sound off of it. It's an encore and I'm wondering if this could be the cause of at least some of it(quality of instrument - No offense to my friend!!!). I' miking up my Fender Blues Deluxe with a Shure SM57 into a Saffire 6 into FL Studio. I've miked the amp up most ways eventually setting on straight on but am still not happy with the sound.

Here's a sample of the audio, forgive my shocking playing, haven't done any playing for a year.

Has anyone any general tips when it comes to getting a sound out of the bass and into the DAW?

Cheers for your advice, Ste.
 

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