Reducing reverb???

  • Thread starter Thread starter rockabilly1955
  • Start date Start date
R

rockabilly1955

New member
i am recording upright bass in a bedroom, and unfortunately thats pretty much the only place i can record. My problem is that it always sounds kind of distant with alot of reverb. I record it direct through the pick and pre amp and also i mike it near the "F" hole about 6 inches away or so. Is there anyway of reducing the reverb sound of it through editing?? My room is pretty much like a normal size room, with carpet flooring and of course wood walls. Any suggestions??
 
Not really. What you could do next time is hang some heavy blankets or quilts in a corner of the room. Then, stand in the corner facing the middle of the room to record. All the room sound will be in the null point of the mic.
 
It seems very strange that you should be getting a highly reverberant sound close mic'ing a bass in a typical bedroom. Usually bedroom are on the dead side, what with mattresses and clothing, etc. Are you facing directly into a wall? Have you tried moving to different parts of the room, and facing different directions? Have you tried opening your clothes closet door, which may help by acting as a bass trap?

Does it sound reverberant when you just use the pickup? Because the room shouldn't affect the DI sound hardly at all. If you are getting reverb on the DI sound, you must be inadvertantly adding it via hardware or software.

Finally, does the bass actually sound reverberant to your ear when you play live in the room? If not, like above, you want to make sure that there is not something going on in either your hardware or software that is adding some sort of reverb or delay to the track. For instance, some software allows you to hide tracks on screen - make sure there isn't a hidden track affecting the sound.
 
the di part sounds fine. I use that to pick up some of the low muddy sounds that the mic wouldn't pick up too well. Mostly record like in the middle of the room and their is alot of electronic junk around. The mic i use is an audix dynamic instrument mic. I record completely dry right now using a fostex mr8 then transferring the wav files for editing in my daw
 
Middle might be right where there is a standing wave. Try moving to 1/3 or 1/4 point, facing towards the longer dimension.
 
Also, you might want to check for phase issues. I have had those crop up from time to time while recording acoustic guitar with both DI and a mic. Just a thought.
 
thanks for the input. I will try some of those ideas, and if that fails its time i completely go to the drawing board and rearrange my whole room :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top