Quote:
Originally Posted by IonicBreed  I haven't seen anyone ask this particular question yet. What exactly was your approach to achieve the bass guitar grooves that seem to absolutely carry this (Astrolounge) record from start to finish? DI, Mic'd? Cabinets? I'd love to know.
Thanks.
Aaron |
The bass sounds on the Astro Lounge record were mostly done the same way. I would always record a DI, a large amp and a small combo amp. The large amp was usually an SVT. the small amp was a variety of things either a Gibson GA20, Vox AC15 or a Magnatone. Small amp was typically set very bright to emphasis the attack part of the sound. I would sometimes put a mic in the back of the amp to get a more peculiar mid range quality. When mixing I use delays to try and line up the phasing a little better (TC 2290 back then). Sometimes the elements would fall into place the way they were recorded and sometimes I would have to maybe hi pass the small amp, while using the DI to create an almost synthesizer like low end to get it all to work. A good example of that is the bass sound on "Home". That is a ton of compression (Distressor) and EQ (Orban) on the DI to get that sound.
The parts themselves mostly start with Greg. He would have the initial idea for the bass part on his demo of the song. Paul would make some cool refinements to it and then he and I would figure any final tweaks together while tracking. Mostly just figuring out transitions and simplifying things in places to stay out of the way of other parts.
All of those parts are recorded directly to an analog master (Studer 24trk). Paul liked to do a couple of passes across the whole song first to get into the vibe of the track. Then we would just start punching and touching up whatever the last pass was.
EV
