Hiya,
I've done a bit of recording before mainly demos and the like. However my band are going in over the weekend to start work on our EP. I am bringing my two 4003's with me. My player has old strings that I don't change on it. But should I put new strings on the the other incase it sounds better in there? Should I try a different type of string on it? Play around with the pad?
Any advice? We're only working on one song this weekend so I won't need my acoustic bass.
Recording
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los_sentidos
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Recording
Tell me does it feel the same when you've set upon a change but your heart's in the old times?
id use new strings really Ronan, better to have the brightness (you can EQ it away if you dont want it) than to not have it.
www.the-epitones.com
the songs on there were recorded with brand new strings
www.the-epitones.com
the songs on there were recorded with brand new strings
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los_sentidos
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Cheers Owen. I guess you're right about EQ-ing it away. I love the sound of dead strings (strange?), anything too bright and metallic just reminds me of RHCP for some reason :s
I may whack my old strings on the back up and new ones on the player - rehearse a little with them over the next few days and see how it's sounding in the studio.
Do you think most people prefer to go straight through the desk? I'm going to try that and a variety of different mic techniques. I love when drums/bass are recorded together and there's an ambient mic on the go too (this is something we did that last few times). We'll play around with different things though.
When it comes to mixing any ideas? I've read about how some producers duplicate the bass track and pan hard left and right in order to leave the middle less cluttered, then they leave the bass drum there.
I'll be laying down two bass tracks as one will be played dry and the other wet as I'm using a specific setting on the bass chorus and using an ebow on my bass (just adding to the layers during the intro/outro)
I'll check out your new stuff at home Owen when I can download it in peace!
I may whack my old strings on the back up and new ones on the player - rehearse a little with them over the next few days and see how it's sounding in the studio.
Do you think most people prefer to go straight through the desk? I'm going to try that and a variety of different mic techniques. I love when drums/bass are recorded together and there's an ambient mic on the go too (this is something we did that last few times). We'll play around with different things though.
When it comes to mixing any ideas? I've read about how some producers duplicate the bass track and pan hard left and right in order to leave the middle less cluttered, then they leave the bass drum there.
I'll be laying down two bass tracks as one will be played dry and the other wet as I'm using a specific setting on the bass chorus and using an ebow on my bass (just adding to the layers during the intro/outro)
I'll check out your new stuff at home Owen when I can download it in peace!
Tell me does it feel the same when you've set upon a change but your heart's in the old times?
I recorded using a direct DI (not my amps DI, a DI box) into the desk, as well as a mic on the cab. My amp was turned up plenty loud also. basically we used the mic'ed signal for the main bass sound, and blended in the DI signal to add a clear bottom
The email address shown is down, you can email me at [email protected]
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titanic_tony
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This was my setup:
4001, stereo, with neck pickup direct to mixer, bridge pickup into a SansAmp DI, then into mixer. Got some good sounds.
Check it out: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/tinyvolcano
4001, stereo, with neck pickup direct to mixer, bridge pickup into a SansAmp DI, then into mixer. Got some good sounds.
Check it out: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/tinyvolcano
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iamthebassman
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Kelly hahaha nah must be a different guy - our simon wild is 18 and has never played in a band
The email address shown is down, you can email me at [email protected]
Tech 21 Sansamp DI. All the way. I recorded some stuff with a friend for a school project of his, and we really had mixed results with micing amps. The Sansamp, in my opinion, is one of the biggest "must-haves" for any bassist. I wanna try plugging directly with the stereo jack, though, like Tony did. That sounds really cool.
I use a combination of amp and DI (sometimes a Sansamp bass driver). For strings - it depends - you may want the darker sound of old strings so my advice would be to string one with a new set and leave the other with the old set and experiment. If you go through the board - I would hope for you it is a good board with nice EQ. Also, it is very important to use a good compressor.
for mail please use [email protected]
When my band went in the studio this spring we used both a mic and DI for the bass and guitar. The DI's were Jensens, and the recording engineer liked what the Jensesn did.
Eventually we used the Mic signal alone for bass on 15 of the 16 tunes, and mixed the two for one tune.
Strings are a touchy subject...advice I had got before we went in was put new strings on. I had been torn about the bridge cables on the 4001 at that point-they sounded soooooo bad when I played alone, but ripping with the band it sounded sooooo good. I elected to keep the old Fender flats on for the recording. As those strings had done so many times before, they sounded great in the mix.
Now, it might have been a bass sound that Jeff Rath would have called "pre-historic", but I liked it, and that was the way our band sounded at the time. It may not be the most "in-your-face" bass tone, but it sounded good.
Since I've replaced those strings with another set of Fender 9050 ML's, and I was amazed at how much treble clang the flats got when new. If I had done that before recording it would have presented a mixing issue, and I'm sure the mix would have been radically different. More DI signal and toning down the mic, the bass might have ended up more prominent in the final mix, but with a whole lot less character.
After playing the Laredo for now about 5 months with the Rick RW's on it, I suggest differently. The stock strings are fairly well had, and I could see getting a lifeless tone out of them now. Again, the same thing I see with my 4001 I see with the 29 year younger Laredo: strings may sound bad solo/practicing, but with everyone else the sound is great.
So my advice would be a combination of Marc's suggestion (one guitar strung with fresh strings, another not so fresh), but if you have a string preference, "new rounds/old flats" should be an easy mantra for some to remember! But that's the way I'll treat it if/when we go back to the studio, make sure the flat strung bass strings have been on at least a month or two, and have relatively fresh RW's on the other bass.
Eventually we used the Mic signal alone for bass on 15 of the 16 tunes, and mixed the two for one tune.
Strings are a touchy subject...advice I had got before we went in was put new strings on. I had been torn about the bridge cables on the 4001 at that point-they sounded soooooo bad when I played alone, but ripping with the band it sounded sooooo good. I elected to keep the old Fender flats on for the recording. As those strings had done so many times before, they sounded great in the mix.
Now, it might have been a bass sound that Jeff Rath would have called "pre-historic"
, but I liked it, and that was the way our band sounded at the time. It may not be the most "in-your-face" bass tone, but it sounded good. Since I've replaced those strings with another set of Fender 9050 ML's, and I was amazed at how much treble clang the flats got when new. If I had done that before recording it would have presented a mixing issue, and I'm sure the mix would have been radically different. More DI signal and toning down the mic, the bass might have ended up more prominent in the final mix, but with a whole lot less character.
After playing the Laredo for now about 5 months with the Rick RW's on it, I suggest differently. The stock strings are fairly well had, and I could see getting a lifeless tone out of them now. Again, the same thing I see with my 4001 I see with the 29 year younger Laredo: strings may sound bad solo/practicing, but with everyone else the sound is great.
So my advice would be a combination of Marc's suggestion (one guitar strung with fresh strings, another not so fresh), but if you have a string preference, "new rounds/old flats" should be an easy mantra for some to remember!
But that's the way I'll treat it if/when we go back to the studio, make sure the flat strung bass strings have been on at least a month or two, and have relatively fresh RW's on the other bass.Above e-mail is inactive. try ed_ardzinski@**** where **** is Hotmail.com or Yahoo.com. I tend to see things inthe hotmail box quicker...