How to record a clean distinct bass

  • Thread starter Thread starter eladale
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eladale

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I have a Yamaha AW4416 home recording studio. I cannot get a clean
distinct recording of a bass guitar. I'm recording direct thru a Hi Z input.
The results I get are one big rumble in the background. Seems the bass
is competing with the rythmn guitar on the low end frequencies. The
tracks are all recorded individually ie., drum machine, bass, rythmn guitar,
lead guitar, lead vocal, high harmony vocal, low harmony vocal. I have
applied EQ during mixdown. Any ideas you can share? HELP!!!!

eladale
 
Right, take some low end off the guitars as the bass guitar should be occupying those frequencies. The guitars on their own should sound a bit thin by not having much low end. This gives space for the guitar and bass to be heard. Try taking off some low end on the bass and adding some mids to give a bit more distinction to the bass guitar notes. Do you have a bass cut off effect, im sure you will, use that to your advantage.
To mix it , mix drums on their own first and then mix guitar and bass own their own. Then vocals, and then everything together to fine tune the mix. Take breaks between mixing as your ears will get a bit tired and you wont know what sound good anymore! It happens.
 
You might want to consider panning your instruments efficiently...


General rule of thumb is to record your instruments first and leave the vocals until after you've mixed the instruments to your liking.

This helps combat that competition against freqs. Also like mentioned, cancel out lower freqs from the guitars to help bring out the bass more.

Something maybe like so:

Rythm Guitars 50%-70% to the right
Lead guitars 90%-100% to the left

Bass 10%-20% to the left
 
Alos, have the bass player play closer to the bridge if he doesn't already. It will help get you a more ditinct sound that usually cuts through better. For me it does at least.
 
I agree with all the advice above except panning the bass. Bass should be center... period... end story.

Using a direct box, even a cheap one like a ProCo, helps to reduce the noise when plugging in direct. Stuff like a Sansamp or even a Bass POD can help you get a decent signal to tape. Try miking the bass amp (at low volumes) to get a little tone going on as well.
 
My best advice is learn how to mix. Where is blue bear with his mixing 101 page? Second best advice learn what a compressor does and how to use it.
My third advice get a stand alone direct input. You can pick up a art tube mp for around 65 bucks now and they make good bass dis not the best but alot better then the stand alone in the work station. i said this is the third best cause it requires you to buy something but in reality without a good sounding instrument comming in as clean as it can your bass is gonna suck anyway and will require more aggressive processing to make it sound decent.
 
eladale said:
I cannot get a clean
distinct recording of a bass guitar.

What does the bass sound like by itself? If you aren't getting what you need out of the instrument during tracking, you don't stand much of a chance of doing anything with it while mixing. The place to start analyzing the problem with the sound is right at the source. It may be something as simple as a new set of bass strings is needed. The instrument and playing technique are going to do more to determine what it sounds like on the recording than anything.

If you find that the sound of the bass by itself is generally displeasing to you, you might want to look at the option of using a different bass to record with. If the bass itself sounds good and is being well played, then you can start looking downstream for the source of the problem.

Good luck!
 
As a fellow 4416 user I feel your pain. First off the pre's in the Yamaha are garbage. As well as the High Z input. I bought:

Great River mic pre
EL-8 Distressor
Speck EQ's
EV RE-20

I mic the bass, The DI sound was always too flat for me.
Some great advice above by fellow members.
 
strmkr said:
The place to start analyzing the problem with the sound is right at the source. It may be something as simple as a new set of bass strings is needed. The instrument and playing technique are going to do more to determine what it sounds like on the recording than anything.

If you find that the sound of the bass by itself is generally displeasing to you, you might want to look at the option of using a different bass to record with. If the bass itself sounds good and is being well played, then you can start looking downstream for the source of the problem.


Took the words outta' my mouth.
 
I agree with pretty much all the suggestions, so I'll just add, use fresh strings.
 
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