Not happy recording bass into my DAW.

S

soss

New member
I recently bought a TC Konnekt 6 and I have been experimenting recording bass directly through my interface into Reaper. I'm struggling with excessive string noise in my recordings. I play with medium action on a Fender bass, tend to fret pretty hard, and play fingerstyle with a strong attack. I was taught to play this way many years ago in formal lessons with a very good teacher and I have always gotten great tone through my amps. For comparisons, my style is closest to Geddy.


Anyways, I'm getting some annoying fret rattle and string scrapes when I shift positions. Never realized my technique was bad until I tried recording this way. I have recorded in the past by micing my cab and recording into an 8 track, and did not have much noise problems at all. I would much rather use computer based recording for the flexibility of plug-ins and great processing (duh.. as everybody knows).

I have tried different input levels on my interface and within Reaper and I can't solve this noise problem. I can't eq the noise out without doing some serious lowpass filtering (which of course greatly effects my tone). I have also tried to play as soft as possible while wearing a strap, and that helps somewhat, but my tone is not coming in well now, and it's screwing up my levels (s/n ratio).

I am not an idiot or bad bass player so what am I doing wrong?? Can I get better results with more guitar specific equipment? Should I try Line 6 stuff and maybe Propellerhead Record? Is there a preamp or DI of some sort that I could use to buffer out this noise before it gets to my interface?

I am at a loss as what to try next. Nobody I play with is into computer based recording. Thanks for reading this long rant.
 
The sound you are hearing is your bass, pretty much exactly as it sounds coming out of the instrument jack into your interface. What you are missing is all the interaction between your bass, the pre-amp in your bass amp, the power section/speakers in the amp, the air, and the room you are playing in.

If the sound out of your amp is great, just try micing it and run your plug-ins on the recorded sound to tweak it.

If this is not a option, you could try running a guitar/bass amp plug in (or speaker cab simulator) on the recorded track to try and tame some of the extra sqeakyness without traditional EQ.

I don't use reaper so I'm not aware of what it offers along these lines, sorry.
 
What maestro_dmc said. Amplifiers are to varying degrees tone shaping tools. The speakers in a guitar/bass amp don't reproduce higher frequencies, so you could try putting a low pass filter on your recorded signal and sweep it down until the string noises are reduced.
 
try a little compression with a fast attack to take the edge off the initial noise of the finger hitting the string
 
kip4 said:
try a little compression with a fast attack to take the edge off the initial noise of the finger hitting the string
Click to expand...

Lol. No, don't try this.


Get it right from the beginning. Don't throw band-aids at it. Either change your technique, or mic your amp. Recording raw and direct reveals everything. If you don't like what you're hearing, change something.
 
Does you bass have active electronics? I experienced the same thing when I started recording bass. My bass has an active eq and I found that if I just flatten the eq (effectively maikng the output unity or atleast that's how my bass works) and do my tone shaping in the DAW I get much better results.
 
Greg_L said:
Get it right from the beginning. Don't throw band-aids at it. Either change your technique, or mic your amp. Recording raw and direct reveals everything. If you don't like what you're hearing, change something.
Click to expand...
There are means and ways of repairing anything but I'm inclined to mostly go along with this. I like all kinds of bass guitar sounds and one of the tones I like is the Geddy Lee/Chris Squire/Jean Jacques Burnel 70s/early 80s type of tone with lots of treble and a buzzy attack. Because I like that treble, inevitably, there was a bit of amp buzz and string noise. It never used to bother me but recently I've been finding it increasingly intrusive. Two things that I do that have made a difference is to go only +1 on the treble knob of whatever amp I use, while going -4 on the bass setting. The mid settings kind of depend. But as well as miking the amp I also record from the amp line out and I do a DI, literally straight into my DAW. I do this by means of a Y box. {You could also use a Y cable but I prefer the box}resize ybox.JPGWhat this gives me is three identical tracks of the same take, but each with different tones, which I then combine to give me the tone I want. So I find that the line out gives the growl, the amp gives the main body and attack with treble and the DI helps cover the string noise if there's any and gives a little deepness. That's only one of a number of my methods but it may offer you some food for thought.
 
Get it right from the beginning. Don't throw band-aids at it. Recording raw and direct reveals everything. If you don't like what you're hearing, change something.
Click to expand...

Agreed

Does you bass have active electronics?
Click to expand...

Passive j-bass

What this gives me is three identical tracks of the same take, but each with different tones, which I then combine to give me the tone I want.
Click to expand...

How is it possible to do that though? Wouldn't you just be getting one signal through interface into the DAW?




Anybody try recording a Bass POD direct through an interface? I wonder if that would buffer the noise somehow.
 
Learn not to make the noise.

Really.

If you're not hearing it through your amp, mic your amp. If you don't want to do that, tighten up your technique. You'll find it won't be all that hard if you're a good player already, just a bit of finessing.

I've attemped to record many campfilre level acoustic guitarists over the years.... every one of them was appalled at how crap they sound recorded... as I was I, when I started listening to myself. Same thing. There are recording tricks to mitigate some level of technical flaw, but really, you're going to be playing for the rest of your life, so perhaps just sort it out at the source... save you a lot of drama in the long run.

God is in the details...
 
Nothing wrong with a little compression to tame finger or pick attack. Use just a little and it goes along way. I think some people have some sort of personal issue with compression. Like drinking too much and having a terrible hangover and swearing to never drink again. How about just drinking a little and enjoying the party and not waking up with a hangover. Huh?
 
Change something is a good idea. If you don't have an amp then get one. Try a DI box. Use a little compression (its not a sin though some may not agree). Your style may need to be adjusted. If youe bass has active electronics turn down the volume knob on the bass a little.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Okay, from now on you are prohibited from using any kind of processing on any recording of yourself.
Click to expand...

No one said that. If you just wanna make shit up and use extremes, that's fine, but can we agree that the best practice is to start with the best sounds possible?

If homeboy's raw tracks are noisy from the way he's physically playing his bass, it's not a big deal to do something different to stop the noise. If I'm whacking a mic while tracking my drums, I'm just gonna move the mic or change my playing. I'm not gonna keep it and try to notch it out with EQ or compress the sound of stick on microphone. That would be dumb.
 
Like Greg is trying to say, but some people want to twist his words. There's nothing wrong with using compression, EQ, or any other "effect". But there's a difference between using an effect to enhance a good capture, and using an effect as a band-aid to try to hide or repair a bad capture.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top