I wonder if anyone can help me on this? I've been recording my bass guitar by micing my trace elliott amp (using a sm58) and di'ing it through the special di output on the amplifier. Whenever I record I seem to get background hiss especially through the mic. Does everyone have this problem and just eq the recording afterwards to clean it up or am I doing something wrong?
Recording Bass
- Thread starter Mr T
- Start date
Cyrokk
Farce of Nature
I used to get electrical hiss from recording direct from the line in on my bass amp. I then tried just plugging straight into the mixer, but the tone sucked. I finally bought a Zoom 506II and use that in conjunction with a mic preamp to go directly into the recorder. It gives me great tone with no hiss.
bongolation
New member
No. Your problem could be almost anything, from self-noise in the microphone, to too low of a level from your input, or whatever. Is noise normally a problem with your tracks done under similar circumstances?Mr T said:
Do you have the same problem with a balanced (XLR) out from the amp?
The real answer for recording bass is a modeler. Even people who would never use a modeler for guitar won't use anything else for bass.
The acoustic problems attendant to recording bass with a microphone and the lifelessness of recording direct really militate for modeler use.
My acoustic guitar seems fine mic'ed up using the same microphone.
I've been thinking of buying a Line 6 bass Pod. Do think this would give a good bass sound in the studio? or would you recommend anything else.
If I bought something like the bass pod would I still have to compress the signal? I have a Beringher compressor and I'm recording using a pc and the latest Sonar.
I've been thinking of buying a Line 6 bass Pod. Do think this would give a good bass sound in the studio? or would you recommend anything else.
If I bought something like the bass pod would I still have to compress the signal? I have a Beringher compressor and I'm recording using a pc and the latest Sonar.
Last edited:
Garry Sharp
Lost Cause
Sounds to me like you're just getting some amp hiss. They all do, but it shouldn't be loud enough to affect the recording. If it is there is probably something less than optimal in your gain staging. For example poor signal/noise output from your pickups, or the wrong gain/master settings on the amp.
You could just manually remove hiss from non played passages in your wave editor, if its not too loud to affect the recorded bass parts. EQing just to get rid of the hiss could have undesirable side effects on your bass sound - it's surprising how much activity there is up above 1Khz for example. The DI outs on many amps are not as good as dedicated DI boxes.
With a Bass Pod you're paying for a lot of different simulations, which is fine if you want them, but a straight DI box like the Sansamp Bass Driver (or something more upmarket) would be cheaper and might do all you need. I trust that you're using very gentle settings on your compressor - overdo it and you've got nowhere to go in mixing. The make up gain on the compressor will bring up the level of quiet sounds which would exacerbate the hiss problem.
You could just manually remove hiss from non played passages in your wave editor, if its not too loud to affect the recorded bass parts. EQing just to get rid of the hiss could have undesirable side effects on your bass sound - it's surprising how much activity there is up above 1Khz for example. The DI outs on many amps are not as good as dedicated DI boxes.
With a Bass Pod you're paying for a lot of different simulations, which is fine if you want them, but a straight DI box like the Sansamp Bass Driver (or something more upmarket) would be cheaper and might do all you need. I trust that you're using very gentle settings on your compressor - overdo it and you've got nowhere to go in mixing. The make up gain on the compressor will bring up the level of quiet sounds which would exacerbate the hiss problem.
Wide Awake
New member
Mr T said:
The Bass POD has compression. I own the original model (not the XT) and I think the compressor is it's best feature.