Recording Fuzz Tones

[Old_Ben]

Going in the studio next week, and will probably end up using a fuzzy bass tone. What do you guys find works well to bring it out, be it using less fuzz than you think you need, double tracking and applying fuzz to one track and blending the two, recording clean and reamping / using DAW effects?

[paul_5]

Fuzz is an odd one - is always sounds better through a cab, so get it miked up.

[ahpook]

I find getting a good fuzzy tone is best achieved with a speaker or speaker sim somewhere in the chain.

On my home set up I'll record the overdriven sound (via my pedals, a Tronographic Rusty Box and then into an EBS MicroBass for the speaker sim) and a clean version at the same time which I'll tweak with some compression and EQ in Ableton, very occasionally an amp sim plug-in)

I do mic up my amp occasionally, but I don't think it's that fair on the neighbours !!

I'm a big fan of getting a good sound outside the DAW first

Edited July 17, 2014 by ahpook

[jazseven]

As above, through a cab or cab sim.
Personally I use a clean D.I with no fuzz mixed with a fuzz tone through a cab sim (as I do almost all my recording at home and I like my neighbours )

When it comes do cab sims i use the LePou LeCab2 with Red Wire impulses responses. they have LOADS of cabs/speaker configurations to choose from with every mic under the sun and at every conceivable distance and angle from the speaker. A lot of the time I actually prefer the sound I get from them than physically micing a cab myself, both guitar and bass.

I really think having a clean D.I is a must though, mainly as it allows you to pile on as much gnarly, dirty fuzz as you want but still have super clear note definition, and obviously you can blend it in and out to your taste.

I've also got good results from having a small amount of D.I fuzz in the mix as well as it picks up more of the top frequencies that get lost from micing/cab sims.

Hope that helps!

[0175westwood29]

i have found that its pretty hard to beat a nice mic infront of a cabinet, however a good cab sim would be ok.

on a recent recording we tried using the di and mixing it with the mic signal but the mic alone sounded best.

andy

[BigRedX]

Get the sound you want on your rig and stick a mic in front of the speaker giving the best tone.

But also record the bass with a DI as a safety so that you can re-amp or use plugin at the mixing stage of the overall mix of the song changes.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1405625886' post='2503859']
Fuzz is an odd one - is always sounds better through a cab, so get it miked up.
[/quote]

It's harder with bass though. With guitar you can stick a 57 in front of a speaker and get everything you want, but you'll lose a lot of low end using a dynamic mic to track bass.

Definitely track a clean channel too. Are you going to have an experienced engineer? Maybe he/she will have some better cab-miking ideas.

[51m0n]

Amp and a mic - good mics for fuzz bass include Heil PR40, Sennheiser MD421, EV RE20, Shure SM7b or even a 57 if you mic carefully and have a DI for the bottom end. Pretty much anything will do if its placed exactly right, but all the above sound really nice in different ways. Placement is key, in front of the best cone in the cab (one will be better than the rest almost always). Remember the cones dont do the very deep bit, the ports do that so to get the lowest lows you need a DI (although in some genres the lowest lows arent what you want).

Plus a clean DI for the extreme bottom end - use a high pass filter and just mix it in a tad to beef the sound up down there

Make sure the two signals are in phase in the bottom end and you're golden