Double tracking question

[BluRay]

Just curious really - as I'm planning for a studio session and don't want to waste expensive engineer time with experiments! Do any of you have success with double tracking the bass line to beef it up / improve the tone? If so, any tips (use a different bass etc). Or is it best avoided due to sound waves being out of sinc (or just sounding crap!). Alternatively, anyone use a second/different bass line to add depth etc?
Cheers

[lettsguitars]

You dont record the same bass line twice. The engineer may double track the original take with various effects but not neccessarily.

[lowdown]

Just a case of cloning tracks these days [if you want to go down that route, now that tape is very little used]
Better recording to two tracks at once, one DI'ed and one using a mic.


Garry

[RockfordStone]

ive never tracked a bass line twice, normal 2 tracks, 1 DI and one from the miced amp and then blending the two together.

not really any need to double track the bass unless you are looking for a specific sound or effect

[BigRedX]

IME double tracking the bass rarely makes it sound any more beefy. Mostly it adds nasty phase problems that tend to suck all the power out of the bottom end in random places, or simply makes the bass line muddy and indistinct. My advice would be to get the sound right coming out of the amp and capture that.

The only kind of bass double tracking that works is the Tic Tac bass where you double the normal bass part with the same thing played muted and with a pick.

[SunEye]

I have never double tracked bass. My standard practice in the studio is a DI (I use a Countryman Type 85 - you need a decent DI with a high input impedance >1MOhm) and a mic on the cab (I usually use an Electro-Voice RE20). When I mix I generally first of all get the two tracks in phase then mix them to get the sound I want. Sometimes the mic on the cab gives me exactly what I need. Sometimes the mic track just doesn't end up being right for the mix so I may just use the DI track by itself or I'll run the DI track through Waves GTR to get the sound I need, which I may or may not mix with a copy of the clean DI track. With distorted bass sounds the DI track is very useful for mixing back in with the distorted sound to preserve the bottom end so that the bass sound doesn't disappear in a mix along with distorted guitars.

[Chrismanbass]

just echoing whats being said before really doubling the same di channel rarely makes any sense due to phasing however using a mic or mic's on the bass amp can be nice depending on how good your bass tone is on its own. dont forget that your di signal is exactly the same as the signal thats going to the bass amp anyway so its not too much hassle to just resend your di signal to a micd amp during the mixing stage so usually for most sessions ive done i've been on a di and let the mix engineer do his thing afterwards

[SunEye]

If you do want to send your DI track back out to an amp during mixing then you will need to use a reamping box between your track output and amp input to get the signal level and impedance correct.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='SunEye' timestamp='1358130626' post='1933676']
If you do want to send your DI track back out to an amp during mixing then you will need to use a reamping box between your track output and amp input to get the signal level and impedance correct.
[/quote]

A passive DI box in reverse will work just as well.

Also IMO if you think your going to be re-amping use a DI box that doesn't add any colour to the bass sound. That way when you do need to re-amp to get a more appropriate bass tone you're not fighting against one you know is wrong.

Edited January 14, 2013 by BigRedX

[Bilbo]

A double tracked bass part creates an interesting chorus effect rather than beefing it up. It's a texture you can use, certainly.