Recording a 4003 direct with BassPOD and SansAmp

dean712 · Post by **dean712** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:41 pm

We just finished a really, really long day in the studio (but it was wonderfully productive!).

I recorded my 4003's (a '94 with brand new strings for one song and a '00 with worn in strings for four others) direct to the board using 2 channels. In one channel, I used a SansAmp BDDI, which gave a nice warm, bassy sound. In the other, I ran my BassPOD using a sound I created using the Amp 360 (based on the Acoustic 360), which I put just a little effect on and which had a more focused top end than the SansAmp gave. (I ran the signal into the BassPOD first, then took the clean signal out of it into the SansAmp). When we blended the two, it gave a really nice tone that I'm happy with. We're going back in tomorrow and Sunday; just thought I'd share the experience here in case anyone is thinking along those lines (I know there are a lot of varying tastes when it comes to bass tone, just sharing what's working right now for us). Our engineer had not ever seen a bassist use that particular approach, but he really liked the blended sound better than either alone. Fun stuff!

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:25 am

Well done Dean. I am willing to bet, that if you now took that combined bass part & ran it through a valve amp & mic'd up the cab, you would get an even better sound. This way, you would get all the benefits of your experimented sound, but with the added tonal quality of a mic'd speaker.....it wouldn't take very long to do!

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 4:42 pm

Anthony, in your experience, if you have a track that was recorded by micing an amp, and it doesn't sit well in the track tonally but the playing is fine otherwise, (in time and on beat) do you gain anything by reamping it and EQ'ing it, and micing/recording that new sound? Also, by doing this, wouldn't there be a little bit of delay in the new track since you're running the signal to the amp?

dean712 · Post by **dean712** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 7:19 pm

Tony, that's a great idea on re-amping. I'll have to keep that in mind for future projects. I'm pretty happy with what we have right now, and we were remarkably efficient with our scarce studio time.

For direct recording, I really like the use of the two-channel approach for getting a blend of the best of both inputs. It utilizes the tone strengths of both sources and also allows for variation during mixing. Of course, anything you can do to improve either of the tone sources puts you even further ahead....

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 12:42 am

Greg, there would be no delay in the signal worth worrying about, but if you couldn't EQ the offending sound on the desk, or by outboard EQ, then probably you couldn't do it via the amp. Worth a try as a last resort, but I would use a mixture of EQ, filters & compression to try & sort it. A good parametric EQ would be a start & even a simple filter can be a help in this sort of scenario, especially if you have an adjustable one to hand (found on many noise gates). I would also take a close look at the compression & try more/less/different types/settings etc. If this doesn't work, then there are BIG problems & re-taking may be the only option. The fact is, that if it is so far out, then you can spend more time trying to fix it, than it would take to re play it....providing the bassist is available of course.

Dean, I'm glad everything went OK.

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:10 pm

Thanks Anthony. On this particular track, while the bass sounds good alone, when put in with the track there is masking with the guitar and the bottom on the bass drops out. EQ won't fix it as it was probably recorded too distorted, and there isn't enough bottom end. Since I'm the bass player on this track, I guess I'll just have to track it again! Either that or retrack the guitar. I played both so I'll just have to nail whichever one I retrack!