Recording Bass Guitar??

[eberrong]

How do you guys approach setting the EQ on a bass guitar with active pickups/preamp?

For example: Musicman Stingray 4 typically has a 3 band EQ on board. How do you set that for recording when using DI and amp? Do you let the bass player set it himself? Set them all flat?

Seems to me this is important. I had a guy who dialed in tons of low end on his bass, which I subsequently had to remove with EQ during mixing. I can't help but think it may have sounded better if he set his EQ flat and I EQ'd at mixdown if necessary.



Also...Are you guys ever using DI alone on bass gtr? Or is it always DI + miked amp? If you record both, do you ever dump one at mixdown?

[drummerman15]

I try to get the bass player to flatten it out, but they never do. Invariably, they'll turn that bass knob up when you aren't looking. It's just to hard to replicate the sound the bass player wants to hear from a pair of headphones or a set of NS-10s. At final mix, I usually end up rolling of the super low end a bit to compensate.

[Cornvalley]

It's just to hard to replicate the sound the bass player wants to hear from a pair of headphones

Beyer DT770's can do wonders in this regard.

[bloodsweatfire]

Originally posted by eberrong
How do you guys approach setting the EQ on a bass guitar with active pickups/preamp?

For example: Musicman Stingray 4 typically has a 3 band EQ on board. How do you set that for recording when using DI and amp? Do you let the bass player set it himself? Set them all flat?

Seems to me this is important. I had a guy who dialed in tons of low end on his bass, which I subsequently had to remove with EQ during mixing. I can't help but think it may have sounded better if he set his EQ flat and I EQ'd at mixdown if necessary.



Also...Are you guys ever using DI alone on bass gtr? Or is it always DI + miked amp? If you record both, do you ever dump one at mixdown?

All of the above.
Whether you let the bassist use his on-baord preamp depends on the tone you want. Typically on-board bass pre's have center frequencies you may not want in the studio but work wonders for live playing. Ask the bassist if he knows. Many don't but I do find bassists usually know more about their gear than anyone else in the band.

DI, mic'd, or both? Depends again. I have been using the Sansamp RBI alot lately and it covers alot of situations for great bass tone. Can be used direct with fabulous results, can be used as a pre with an amp and cab, or external pre with a combo amp, or blended. Usually it just runs straight in and the result pleases everyone.
It is a tad noisy.

[Sharp11]

I have a Lakland 4 string with active Bartolinis.

When i play with my fingers, i usually go flat with the eq.

If I'm playing with a pick, I use the old Carol Kaye trick of pumping the bass a bit; it gives a nice thumpy attack.

Ed

[ixnys]

I think micing the amp is more important when you want a certain character from your bass or if there are going to be parts in the song where it's just drum and bass and you want the bass to have more liveliness to it. But if the bass is just going to be filling out the lowend in a busy mix, I think just using a DI is fine.

[steins]

If they are going direct, I ask to bass-player to set the EQ flat. I always end up de-EQing (is that a word..?) their EQ-settings, not always with good results. Of course, I always let them try their favourite EQ-setting just in case it might work with the track.

If he/she is not comfortable with the sound, I patch in an EQ in the monitoring path.

Stein Tore

[eberrong]

I think micing the amp is more important when you want a certain character from your bass or if there are going to be parts in the song where it's just drum and bass and you want the bass to have more liveliness to it. But if the bass is just going to be filling out the lowend in a busy mix, I think just using a DI is fine.

Great point!! I just did a mix which in the verses of the song it had only the drums and bass alone with no guitar. The bass tone was great (API 3124+ DI only, no amp), but it seemed kind of flat or one dimensional. But I would only notice this during the verse. Probably mixing in a miked amp signal would have helped.

I have yet to mic a bass amp, but I have a rock band coming in next month that will likely request it. Are there phase issues mixing with the DI track? I have read that a SM57 and D112 is a good combo to use to mic a bass amp. Would you place these mics right up close to the speaker? Would you place them as close together as possible to minimize phase issues?

[boody]

I record whatever the bassplayer is playing to while tracking. If he wants an amp, he gets an amp and I'll record it. If he wants to go in straight, thats fine too. I try to capture the perfomance as he hears it, that's including the sound. To me thats important. Ofcourse the sound has to fit the song though.

If the bassplayer is cranking things up beyond musical proportions he's not hearing his playing well and I'll change the monitoring until he has a reference as to what his sound is like and what he's playing.

In cases where I recorded both direct and a miked amp it depends on the track if I keep 'm both. If I recorded straight, I sometimes route the bass to an amp while mixing if it gives me the desired sound.

regards,
Budy