Recording bass straight to board

R

riotshield

New member
Hi,

I had been using a J-Station to record bass but I sold it recently after getting a V-Amp Pro (probably a mistake). I've been recording it direct into my DMP3 but was wondering how to 'tighten' it up in a mix. It sounds kind of boomy and indistinct. Should I spring for a Bass V-Amp or SansAmp Bass DI, or can I get reasonable results without spending more $$? Thanks
 
Yo Riotsheild:

I had a good friend stop over one day to do a bass line and here is what I did.

I have this G. Kruger amp which is small but very good. But, I ran is bass through the amp's circuit that bypasses the speaker. So, I got the boost from the amp direct into the recorder. It came out pretty good.

If you use compression as Tex states, that will help. But, if you turn down the highs and raise the EQ lows a bit, no reverb -- you might come up with a sound that makes your ears happy.

Merry Christmas

Green Hornet:cool:
 
riotshield said:
...was wondering how to 'tighten' it up in a mix. It sounds kind of boomy and indistinct. ... or can I get reasonable results without spending more $$? Thanks
Click to expand...

Some basses put out more low octave than you might need in that mix. Try some low shelf, or maybe it needs a little dip where it's booming. Tighten it up. Eq's cheap.:D
Wayne
 
Using a bass guitar with active electronics direct to a line-in on my board w/ compression gets a very good solid sound for me, I keep the eq's at noon then tweak after recording.
 
As mentioned above, I would experiment with a combination of compression and EQ.

There are some pretty good EQ primers available on the web, which can give you suggestions on which frequencies to cut or boost. Generally speaking though, cutting EQ is more desirable than boosting. Do a Google search, as I can't put my finger on the link(s) :(

Bass can also become boomy when combined with a strong kick drum, or even with guitars that have some of the same frequencies competing with each other. I don't know if that could be part of your problem, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
 
I used to have the same problem...
Now I run bass staright into a Mackie board with a low cut and a mid boost on the board itself...occasionally I will compress post-tracking...
seems to work OK...
I haven't had any comments about boomy bass anymore...
Joe
 
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