Best way to record bass at home?!

[Thunderpaws]

Hiya.  We (my band) are just about to start laying down tracks for our third self made album. We do it for enjoyment and don’t expect to “make it”. 

So far with one and two I have been left a bit underwhelmed by my overall bass sound (except on three or four tracks but have no idea why they turned out good) as it’s inconsistent and tend to get lost in the mix. 

So far I have:

1) recorded straight in to a multitrack and then the band Leader has fettled in Cubase

2) recorded in to the same desk via the d.i. on my amp (Genz Benz Streamliner)

3) combined the back of amp d.i. Signal with the cab being mic’d Up. No chance in hell the two signals have been lined up with each other to avoid phase cancelling (if indeed there are issues with the tracks) Mic was a condenser (Ashton I think). 

So, on to album number three and I have done a wee bit research and watched Rick Beatto’s How to record bass video on YouTube. This has left me none the wiser. 

So options I have (I think) and questions that come from them. I have recently purchased a new PC and audio interface with decent budget monitors.

A) direct only into desk and apply a plugin (don’t know which one or how much to pay for a decent one)

B) set up my SM57 and use that on its own

C) set up my SM57 one one speaker and buy a dedicated bass mic for another speaker, mix the two and hey presto

D) buy a pre-amp with a cab sim on board and go d.i. from that (maybe a sans amp or similar)

E) any other suggestions  

I’m also wondering how loud the amp should be when recording (mic’d up) and what kind of room it should be done in....anything I can do to the surroundings to make a difference to the mic’d up sound, more punchy mid present? 

Cheers everyone  

 

 

 

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 4, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Twigman]

All the bass on our last album was recorded in one of 2 ways depending on whether I was tracking at my place or Tony's:

1) My Bass>Yamaha 82 mixer> RME HDSP9632 > PC running Sonar Platinum

2) My Bass>UA Apollo > MacbookPro running Logic

We recorded everything at 96k/32bit and moved wav stems or aiff stems between software no problem.

It seemed to work out fine.

We mic'd nothing but did model some mic sims in the mix.

 

- That said I am receiving PRESSURE to migrate my home studio to MacbookPro/Logic/UA....but budget constraints'n'all that.......

Edited October 15, 2019 by Twigman

[Thunderpaws]

Thanks for your feedback so far. Wr are a five piece playing original rock. Out of this there are three guitars and “clean” guitar doesn’t come in to the equation much. 

Here’s an example of a bass spun I’m happy with (I never pretend to be great musically so please forgive my playing): 

here’s an example of a bass sound I’m left a bit dissatisfied with (this song sounds huge when we play it together and I had high hopes for really punchy heavy tone)

Cheers 

[BigRedX]

Unless you have a good acoustic space in which to record you bass I would avoid using mics, and if you can't guarantee phase alignment of multiple signals go for a single DI. If you already have a DI sound that you like and that sits comfortably in the band mix as is that would be great, but otherwise I would go with DI'ing directly from the bass with as little processing as possible on the recorded sound. That way you don't end up with a baked-in tone that you are struggling to change as the mix progresses.

Get a really good performance with full-range tone recorded and then tweak it in the mix to sit properly with the rest of the band instruments. I would also seriously consider booking some time at a decent studio to do the final mixing. You will be surprised how much quicker and better even a half-way decent engineer is at getting a good sound compared with the majority of home recordings. I have 40 experience of home recording, but I've sold up all my "studio" because I have come to the realisation that I will never be as good as anyone who can actually make a living at running a recording studio. Unless the band is after vastly different sounds on each song, once your mix engineer has got one track right the rest pretty much fall into place with just minor tweaks.

[Crawford13]

I agree unless you have a well treated room avoid mics. DI’ing straight into the desk / interface theN using plug ins in your DAW would be my suggestion.

[Roger2611]

1 hour ago, Crawford13 said:

I agree unless you have a well treated room avoid mics. DI’ing straight into the desk / interface theN using plug ins in your DAW would be my suggestion.

Close mic'ing to a decent cab should negate acoustic issues in all but the worst rooms and mixed nicely with a DI signal should give perfectly adequate results for what is going to be a "bedroom" studio recording, I would tend to agree with "Jus Lurkin" it sounds like the issues are more likely to be either too low a signal at the recording stage or something in the mix?

I use an MD421 mic 3 inches (or 1 inch from the grill) off the centre of the cone of my Markbass 112 cab in an untreated room and a DI signal from my Ampeg B1 which has been giving fantastic results.

Mixing wise I will often duplicate the DI track and add just a little distortion to the track and sort of hide it behind the clean track on the same pan setting, a mix of the 3 tracks is what I use in the mix.....probably not the right way to do it but it gets me the sound I want 

[BigRedX]

IMO close mic'ing mostly defeats the object of mic'ing the cab in the first place; and if you are going to use a mic you need to make sure that you place it as far away from any cab ports as possible. Also unless your monitoring environment has been acoustically treated you won't be able to make any meaningful decisions about mic placement and EQ anyway.

IME unless the band are playing live all together in the same room, you want to capture each instrument with as "pure" as sound as possible, so you are not then spending ages when mixing trying to EQ out poor decisions about the sound made at the tracking stage.

[mrtcat]

I would keep it simple and just use a clean non eq'd di into the desk. A good engineer will then have a good clean take and will be able to run it through an amp plugin and whatever processing that he or she knows will do the business and make it sit well in the mix. 

Bass sound is very subjective and I find that a lot of guitarists tend to bury it under everything else when mixing. A decent engineer will make a world of difference.

[Thunderpaws]

Thanks, I agree, however we are doing it ourselves so in this case I’m the engineer. 

[mrtcat]

In that case just eq some nice low mids in, use some gentle compression, a bit of light overdrive to get some nice harmonics from the breakup and make sure that there is a good hpf on guitars so that they are not treading all over your fundamentals. 

I like to mix the bass with the kick drum first so they sit well together and then layer other instruments on top making sure to give bass plenty of sonic space of it's own.

[la bam]

My advice is listen to several 'bass only' or 'bass and drums' multitracks from your favourite bands on youtube etc.

You'll be amazed at how awful (even amateurish) they sound isolated, but brilliant in the mix.

For recording a beautiful loud thumping live bass tone isnt always the way to go. I've had best results with quite a messy, over driven, basic sound which picks up all kinds of clank and fret noise.

 

[12stringbassist]

I use a Zoom B2 bass pod, set to Hartke rig (which is what I use onstage) and go via very careful EQ and compression on the desk into the recorder.
I tend to trim off the bottom end a bit. Clarity is your friend, rather than thump.

Edited October 17, 2019 by 12stringbassist

[TimR]

If it sounds fine isolated once it’s recorded then it’s whatever you’re doing to the mix. 
 

Most of the bass definition is in the higher frequencies. 

[Leonard Smalls]

I tend to DI; if it's a cleanish bass tone I'm looking for straight into the Focusrite/laptop, or if I'm using the synth or wah tones I'll take a clean feed plus the fx feed and put it into 2 channels...

This one was just clean Wal DIed into focusrite, with freebie VST Valve Exciter overdrive, a touch of freebie surf EQ VST and Red VST compression, mixed into Ableton:

 

[mcnach]

16 hours ago, la bam said:

My advice is listen to several 'bass only' or 'bass and drums' multitracks from your favourite bands on youtube etc.

You'll be amazed at how awful (even amateurish) they sound isolated, but brilliant in the mix.

For recording a beautiful loud thumping live bass tone isnt always the way to go. I've had best results with quite a messy, over driven, basic sound which picks up all kinds of clank and fret noise.

 

 

Indeed, listening to the solo bass tracks of songs that you think sound good is a very enlightening experience. It was for me at least. It's amazing how ugly a sound can be that fits beautifully in a busy mix and complements it, while a 'nice' bass sound just sounds like mud. It's all about what else is going on.

[mcnach]

5 hours ago, TimR said:

If it sounds fine isolated once it’s recorded then it’s whatever you’re doing to the mix. 
 

Most of the bass definition is in the higher frequencies. 

 

I wouldn't necessarily say that the solution is on the higher frequencies, but indeed one common misconception is to assume that you need a lot of 'bass' in your bass sound. The mix can often sound clearer with a punchier bass when removing a lot of the lower end. Definition is about the mids. How high or how low depends on what else is there. Carving a niche in a mix is a complicated art, that's why people who are skilled at it can end up earning a lot of money. If it were easy, all of our homemade recordings would sound great.

[TimR]

@mcnach yes. Higher than low. In whuch I would include mids.

Notching out a frequency around 120hz on the bass to make room for the bass drum might help the bass drum to be heard without having to turn the bass drum up ridiculously loud in the mix and hence overpowering the bass guitar. 

[operative451]

I find this guy quite annoying, but i followed some of his hints about EQ and making spaces for other sounds on a recent recording and it sounded really good!  I also rolled quite a lot of bass off the guitar sound - by itself it sounded sort of shrill and nasal at the same time, but with the bass and guitar together it really sat nicely!

 

[Monkey Steve]

Yeah, an excellent bass sound in isolation will suffer in the mix when up against the guitars which seem to suck away a lot of the treble end, so a dirtier bass sound than you'd usually use works really well.  Last recording I did the engineer put the bass through a bass fuzz (which was then put through an SVT which was mic'd).  It wasn't the sound I'd have picked, but it worked really well. in the mix.

Time (shortly) before that  in a different band I was DI'd from the output on an amp, with the amp sound coming from my VT Bass pedal - sounds just like an SVT when playing live, and sounded great in isolation. But without the extra dirt, it wasn't as powerful in the mix

[Pea Turgh]

I like the songs by the way!  I just listened on my phone so I can’t comment on the mix levels too much, but keeping it simple always worked for me.  James Jameson went DI in to the desk too!

[Rubbersoul]

I’ve got the best results from blending a clean and a dirty track. I use an ABY pedal and send one direct to interface and the other through a Sparrow preamp. Low pass the clean and then blend the dirt to taste. I might stick an IR on the clean as well for more character.

[51m0n]

IMO the absolute best way to record your band from home is to live here:-

https://manifoldrecording.com/

[scalpy]

If you remember Through The Keyhole George Martin ‘pretended’ to live at AIR!