KennysFord Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Hi Folks, I've spent the weekend trying to get myself a useable set up for home practise without using my amp but up to now the result is pretty rubbish at best. I don't have a seperate pre amp so i have my bass plugged into a tascam US-122 usb interface and Ampeg SVX running on the pc. When I use the interface I have no option but to have all playback via that. Final sound is through a home hi-fi set up that is pretty decent quality. I want to be able to mix signals, ie, jam along to songs etc and possibly record things when I get used to using the pc for playing. The problem is that the bass always sounds very muddy and is getting lost in the backing tracks. I can't seem to rectify it with the software as I'm really struggling to get some decent tone from it. What I need to know is do I need a pre or Is there a decent little piece of equipment I can buy to simplify things for home practise that will double up for headphone use as well without the complicated set up I have now. Thanks in advance, Pete. I have the a mixing desk at home as well so could that be brought into the equation ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassHertz Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Is your bass active or passive (active basses have a battery and usually have bass and treble controls - passive basses have no battery and with just volume and a tone control)? if it is passive then plugging straight into an audio interface will not yield good results. If its active then ignore my question. You could use a channel on your mixing desk as a preamp then connect your desk to your Tascam interface via a direct out socket (if your desk has these) or from the master our bus output sockets. with regards to recording you could use some DAW software such as Cubase, Logic, or reaper. you can then import your backing track(s) into the DAW and then record your bass on a seperate track and you will have the ability to mix them to your hearts desire. If your bass is passive then you are going to need a Direct Inject (D.I) Box to connect the bass either to your Tascam interface or your mixing desk. To prevent me from going into a really long description about D.I. boxes please visit [url="http://www.recordingbass.co.uk"]www.recordingbass.co.uk[/url] - its all explained there (shameless plug LOL) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Try a little bit of EQ on the bass using software. I typically have to cut off everything below 100hz to avoid bass rumble and speaker damage. Have a google on EQing bass for more info on which frequencies to cut to get a clear, mud-free sound. I'm not sure if Ampeg SVX has a separate EQ plugin but grab a DAW (Reaper has an un-ending trial and is very cheap) and play through that as it will allow you to put an EQ onto your bass. Plus once you're used to it you can use it for recording. Also, check your recording levels to make sure they're not clipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KennysFord Posted January 23, 2012 Author Share Posted January 23, 2012 Thanks for the help guys, I'm mainly using a P Bass so I'll try a pre-amp. I have a straight forward valve pre for a mic/guitar with no eq, just gain and output. The ampeg software has fully functioning eq as it amp/speaker modelling but I just can't seem to get a decent sound from it at all. The interface came with cubase LE but I havn't installed that on the computer as I thought the Ampeg software would give me a decent enough sound. I'll install it tonight and see if I can eq things a little better. I'll try it through the desk with the valve pre and see if that brings about better results. On the other hand would getting something like the Korg PX4D simplify things for playalongs with the head phones or would that be an unnecessary expence and do I persevere with what I have. Cheers and thanks for the replies guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KennysFord Posted January 23, 2012 Author Share Posted January 23, 2012 Just to report back.... Success !! I've plugged the bass into the valve preamp, from there to my besk and then out to the interface. I've got Reaper now as well so thanks for the heads up about that. I've also managed to put Ampeg svx as a plugin for reaper and I've now got good tone out of the bass and great tone coming back out from my first try at recording. Thanks very much for the help guys, it's now head stuck in reaper tutorial mode for a few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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