Digitech RP200 for Bass
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Posted on Jul 28, 2003 09:00 am
Bob
Member Since: Jun 20, 2003
The guitar player for the band I'm recording has a Digitech RP200 guitar effects pedal. Anybody know if I could use one of the cleaner effects (like TUBE maybe) for direct connection of a bass into a mixer? Anything hardwired about this pedal (EQ, etc) that wouldn't let it pass bass?
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juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Jul 28, 2003 09:13 am In theory no, you shouldn't have any problems - but I feel that isn't the best approach.
For starters, DigiTech (and nearly all other) guitar pedals are very, very, very noisy - pumping out incideous amounts of white noise, which isn't good.
Secondly, Tube saturation on a bass guitar will usually not sound that great. Bass amplification is usually done via Solid State with a little bit of tube emulation. Too much tube and it just turns into one big fary low end mess (Which is about as pleasant as it sounds....)
I would just DI the bass straight into your mixer, possibly roll off a little low end on the mixer if it's too bassy and then work from there.
EQ and compression plugins on your PC can sort the sound out a treat. One to definatly check out is "Dominion" from Digital Fish Phones - I use that one my bass guitar tracks all the time with great results.
www.digitalfishphones.com...2&subItem=4
Regards
jues.
Jul 28, 2003 10:25 am i agree with jues, direct into the mixer is just fine for bass guitar. one thing though, i presonally havn't had much luck rolling off the low end. My mixer has a "LO CUT" high pass filter centered at 75 Hz and I find that bass guitar is one of the few instruments that sound good with the LO CUT turned off. Maybe it's just a personal preferrence :O) -j
juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Jul 28, 2003 10:30 am Try this tho jamie. Perform a HPF (low cut) on your mixer, and then, either in software on on the desk, boost the low frequencies (usually works best around 80Hz) - your bass will not be punchy and in control (with a bit of luck!)
jues.
Jul 28, 2003 11:28 am Personally I've never had any luck going direct with bass. My opinion is that micing a good amp with an SM57 is the way to go. Of course, I shouldn't be contradicting jues, because his stuff sounds better than mine... I also never use low cut while recording, but that's a different issue all together. I guess it depends on what kind of equipment you have and personal taste.
juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Jul 28, 2003 12:06 pm Well, kinda, but it's generally regarded that anything under 20Hz is just junk, so roll offs help to alleviate this problem.
(epecially applies when micing up stuff)
oh, and feel free to contradict away, it would be boring otherwise :)
jues
Jul 28, 2003 12:17 pm Something interesting that I found is that while practicing and going live through my mixer to a speaker, I get a lot more feedback with the low cut on, so I keep it off. I would think that that would work the other way around, but it doesn't, strangely enough. As far as recording in concerned, I think I like the sound of the "junk" :-) I just like to leave it in to keep my options open, I guess.
"I guess it depends on what kind of equipment you have and personal taste."
That was actually supposed to refer to which way you should record bass, not the roll-off issue, but I got lazy and left it at the end of the post where it made less sense...
Jul 28, 2003 12:23 pm porpoisemuffins, what i was saying was that i use the lo cut option on my mixing board for almost everything but bass guitar. It seems to let my detuned 5-string really rumble. But on everything else I just leave it on to filter out all the unwanted nasties.
jues, i'll give that a try as soon as my hand injuries heal and i get further into my physical therapy. Would you recommend the same thing for someone mic'ing a bass cabinet?
bob, personally i'd like to get ahold of a Line 6 Bass POD and kiss the rest of my bass rig goodbye :O) -j
juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Jul 28, 2003 12:49 pm I'm afriad I wouldn't know about mic'ing a bass cab, simply because I have never had to do it :) Bassright are for live work IMHO :D
jues.
Jul 28, 2003 12:52 pm lo-cut a bass? kinda defeats the purpose of "bass" doesn't it...
If you mic the bass cab, mic the bass guitar itself too, mic right where the neck meets the body to get that string noise and sharp cut of the string sound (at least with new strings). Miking a cab is best done kinda like a guitar, one up close and one back a ways...best results runf 4 channels for bass, one close mic, one distant mic, one body mic and one direct.
BobMember
Since: Jun 20, 2003
Jul 28, 2003 01:01 pm Alright,
Thanks for all the good advice dudes. I've got this aversion to miking cab's (maybe I need to get over it). I've just run into a number of amp's that have hum & other extraneous noise. I did try originally to run the bass straight into one of my preamp inputs on my Behringer UB1622 mixer. That worked in that I was able to get an acceptable level, but I had to crank the gain all the way up. The sound seemed a little mushy (not enough punch). Would external compression help there? I have a Behringer MDX-2600 compressor that I could the signal thru (prefader insert). If that's is a good idea, then what sort of compressor settings should I use for that?
Thanks again for the help.
Jul 28, 2003 01:09 pm compression is a great idea, though I can't help you with the settings. I'm still new to using my compressor and I just play with it until it sounds good and strong.
As for noise and hum from mic'd amps and preamps, it's usually nothing a little gating or EQ can't handle
