best environment for recording bass
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Posted on Nov 10, 2005 04:54 pm
okcrado
Member Since: Oct 28, 2005
I'll start off with saying that my when recored my bass has a very muddy sound. Ive tried different miking techiniques but i think it might be my room is to big. It's about 26x15 or there abouts, basically its just one big rectuangular room. Is that detrimentle to the sound of the bass or is a big room better than a small room
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jmailjimmie neutronMember
Since: Feb 14, 2005
Nov 10, 2005 05:32 pm If you're close-micing, the room won't matter too much. Do you have the sound you want coming out of the amp? What kind of mic are you using? What are you going thru and recording to? If the room *is* a problem, use some "temporary walls" (there is a correct term for them temporary walls... a mind is a terrible thing to waste...) to close yourself in...
HuePinnipedal Czar (: 3= Member
Since: Apr 11, 2004
Nov 10, 2005 05:33 pm If it's not your strings, it may be your technique . I've been sucessful in the past by splitting the signal of the bass, and running half to the amp, and the other to a di-box which is run into the mixer and panned oposite of the signal of the mic on the amp . Record them on sepparate tracks and mix 'em to taste . = Very solid sound .
Lately I just model everything though .
HuePinnipedal Czar (: 3= Member
Since: Apr 11, 2004
Nov 10, 2005 05:41 pm Quote:
(there is a correct term for them temporary walls... a mind is a terrible thing to waste...)
Baffles . You were baffled by 'baffles' jmail . : )
Sorry, I'm easily amused .
GeoffSM7b the Chuck Noris of Mic'sContributor
Since: Jun 20, 2002
Nov 10, 2005 08:45 pm I tend to Use my Bass PODxt and/or DI the signal or re-amping it. I tend not to mic up bass amps at all if i can help it, i've always got a better sound when i run the signal through a DI box and then add some plug-ins or use the POD or a combination with things.
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Nov 10, 2005 09:00 pm I'd be inclined to say it's the room. The rectangle is allowing standing waves to multiply on your mic. It may be lower freq that are building, seeing as how you have such a large room, the waves can open up and develop.
I'd suggest trying a different room, with lots of stuff in it. Maybe in a living room, with couches and chairs and stuff. Maybe you can add stuff into your recording area. Baffles, or gobos as I've seen elsewhere won't work with bass, as bass needs mass to slow it down. the bass freq will go right through them.
Maybe you could turn down the amp, and make it up in the mix. Certainly not the most desirable solution, but it could be better than mucho-mud.
jmailjimmie neutronMember
Since: Feb 14, 2005
Nov 11, 2005 10:05 pm Hue: "Baffles . You were baffled by 'baffles' jmail . : )
Sorry, I'm easily amused ."
I'm now befuddled. I'm baffled as to why that term wouldn't come to mind? Gobo? Gobu? Gabu? Baffle? Biffle? Buffle? As you can tell, I'm even more easily amused... lol ...
pjk: "Maybe you can add stuff into your recording area. Baffles, or gobos as I've seen elsewhere won't work with bass, as bass needs mass to slow it down. the bass freq will go right through them." I vote for bringing the truck in... Or maybe you can get a priest to have mass? or an exorcism?
Sorry... easily amused, again... |;^)
RigsbyUltra MagnusMember
Since: Nov 13, 2004
Nov 12, 2005 01:19 am You could build a smaller room within your room with some sort of frame and a lot of duvets/ blankets and put the amp and the mic in there. We've been talking about doing it here lately, it'd work in principle but i haven't tried it yet.
Nov 13, 2005 07:23 pm gobo is short for "go between" which is a temp wall.....i think of blankets and foam when i think of baffles.....
in my experiance, the louder you crank the amp, the more the room affects the recorded sound....
hands down the easiest way, and prolly the most often used, is to go direct.... i wouldn't pan two seperate bass tracks (espically if one is miced and the other is direct) hard right and left, this will surely lead to phase issues (which are mostly 'fixable') i feel the low end should be solid, tight, and dead center (for most rock and pop type stuff) i miked an amp up but i noticed a very distinct 'threshold' where the room's sound really began to play a factor in the sound, so i edged off the master volume a bit....also the right mic is very important for bass, i won't say 'must' but a large diaphragm dynamic mic works best, it can handle high spl's alot better than condensors, i've seen someone destroy a LDC by placeing it right on a 15" woofer....didn't even last three notes.....
if you are gonna do both, it's IMPARATIVE you get the phase right, ya can do this easily by zooming in real close and nudging the direct signal to the right.....it's easier said than done, because when ya zoom in that close, you'll see the waveforms don't really look alike at all. which is why you have different tones.
i gotta admit i liked the sound of an EB Stingray, through an Ampeg SVT3, pushin' 6 10's with a D-112 infront of it alot more than the direct signal...but i needed that direct track for more 'bite' and clarity, when i was mixing.
i tracked a P-bass with flatwounds and the tone rolled all the way down and it sounded FAT and round...we did "A Little Less Talk" by Toby Kieth and that bass slid right into the mix with NO eq, just some compression.
the trick to tracking, mixing, and mastering is to mantain as much objectivity as you can...if you're rockin' out with the song behind the board, then you're not dooin' your job...ya gotta CONSTANTLY keep yourself in check and be able to step back from the song and say to yourself "what does this song need?"....i struggle with this daily, because it's easier said than done.
ok i'm drifting off point.
cheers
wyd
Nov 15, 2005 10:31 pm thanks for all the input I got the sound I needed, just have to fiddle with eq and such. man what a headache
RigsbyUltra MagnusMember
Since: Nov 13, 2004
Nov 16, 2005 03:56 am We built that little padded area around the amp yesterday and it sounded great. We put a chair about a foot and a half in front of the amp, rested a shelf between the chair and the top of the amp and covered it in a duvet with a 57 inside, moved around to taste and it really sounded ace, well worth a try.
