Trashy bass sound

[Tachy]

I'll start recording a promo cd of my band but I have pain when I think to record a bass.
My brother play the bass but he play it whit finger and he said me that he will never play the bass with pics.
Ok...ther is no problem but today I recorded a di bass track, but the sound is not good....
I prefer to use only a di for bass and then process it, but I don't know how I can process.
My Idea to get a decent bass sound is this:
1) record DI
2) add some compression
3) add Amplitube for some little distortion
4) add an eq....
what do you think about this? and can you tell me some good starting point to get a decent compression?
For compression I use waves R1 comp
Thanks!!

 

[chadsxe]

I'll start recording a promo cd of my band but I have pain when I think to record a bass.
My brother play the bass but he play it whit finger and he said me that he will never play the bass with pics.
Ok...ther is no problem but today I recorded a di bass track, but the sound is not good....
I prefer to use only a di for bass and then process it, but I don't know how I can process.
My Idea to get a decent bass sound is this:
1) record DI
2) add some compression
3) add Amplitube for some little distortion
4) add an eq....
what do you think about this? and can you tell me some good starting point to get a decent compression?
For compression I use waves R1 comp
Thanks!!

This works great everytime.

1) Make a copy of the track.
2) On the copy of the track LPF up to 800 and HPF down to 2000.
3) Add a little distortion to that
4) Mix to flavor.

It seriously works really really good. Helps the bass cut through on all speakers. I think I learned this from andy but I am don't remember.

Good luck

Chad

 

[Tachy]

Yes, I boosted around 800 hz, but not cut down 2000, why cut the high?

 

[chadsxe]

Yes, I boosted around 800 hz, but not cut down 2000, why cut the high?

No No No...I think you misunderstood.

You have to make a duplicated track of the orginal. So now you have two diffrent tracks of the same thing. On the second track filter everything below 800 and above 2000. Only add distrotion to that track and mix it in with the orignal

 

[Tachy]

ah ok I understand, the copy of the original must be compressed?

 

[chadsxe]

ah ok I understand, the copy of the original must be compressed?

Thats a matter of taste. I line to compress the copy but not a whole lot. By doing this it really adds some dynamic punch throug the attack of the copy track.

 

[Tachy]

Thanks for your point of view, i'll try and I'll post clips...can you give some good starting settings for a good compression? thresold, attack ratio release.......

 

[chadsxe]

Thanks for your point of view, i'll try and I'll post clips...can you give some good starting settings for a good compression? thresold, attack ratio release.......

It depends on what you looking for and the track. If you want the attack of the cloned tracked to come through (Which I am guessing you do because it will give it more of a picked type of stringy sound) then you need to let attack be fairly large i.e. anywere from 30-60 with a medium release. Depending on the dynamics of the track you should start with a ballpark of 7:1 and work from there.

 

[Tachy]

thanks Chad, tomorrow i'll post some clips....now is time to work.

 

[KeithRT99]

what i do is i go di,then i compress, then i use guitar rig, and if it needs it: rbass.

when i record fingerstyle, i prefer to mix the signal of amp and di, keeping the amp dry with maybe a little comp, and the di with some dirt.

 

[Noumenon]

I actually did a half assed attempt to making a guitar rig 2 preset based on the info I got for the signal chain on textures - drawing circles album.

From the top of my head I think it was like this.
Bass splitted into Low band / High band (200hz).
The low band got a DI-simulation.
The high band got splitted into two parts. Bass Amp and Guitar Amp (metal amp).

Then just mix how much guitar amp you want with the bass amp and then choose how much amp vs di you want. If it sounds good? That's another question, although it sounds better than what I've gotten out of basses before so...