What are you guys using to get your bass grit these days?

[Exocaster]

When you guys put the bass through guitar amps do you high pass the di before sending it out?

Absolutely not. Part of the whole point of sending the bass through a guitar amp is that the gear is sorta highpassing the thing to begin with; by its nature it's gonna be focused on the mids/top of the bass. Sometimes the guitar rig is there on the way in anyhow with whatever acting as a splitter before the amps- even just a tuner works; anything to split the signal.

Part of it too is not over-intellectualizing it or trying to fit it in a system of how one has to do things; I'm not running into a guitar amp because frequencies over, say, 200hz are useful running into a guitar amp, it's because the bass as a whole has a badass distorted tone running into said amp; blend to taste with something that has more bottom. As much as it's recieved wisdom, I don't care for the sound of DI bass at all, especially not for the low end. On the off chance I use a clean DI track for anything, it's for top; a proper bass rig has much more authoritative lows to my ears. Yeah, heresy, I know. Do what sounds right. Plug the bass into guitar gear. Does it sound cool? If so, use it. There are no rules.

 

[if6was9]

Ever blown a guitar speaker as a result of recording bass through it though? That'd be my only worry with running the bass through it.

 

[Zerochance]

I have actually just purchased my first bass and I'm learning the ins and outs of bass recording, so this is all very useful. I'm currently using the Ignite SHB-1 amp, then duplicating that track, and adding the TSE 808 in the front for grit and blending the two tracks. Not ideal but functional. I will give the TSE BOD a try.

 

[GabeFry]

I just started using the sound toys decapitator. Sounds pretty nasty!

 

[guy in latvia]

So I've never actually run a bass through a guitar rig, because I don't want to end up destroying speakers or anything like that. Is there a way to go about doing this without destroying my guitar cab, or do you all just use the preamp out into IRs?

 

[Jormyn]

- Start with your master volume and the bass on your eq turned down, and then ease them up until it sounds halfway decent. Most cabs should be fine bedroom volume. There's a good chance it'll sound like shit though... my Sansamp BDDI + Crate Powerblock + the cab from my 6505 combo are not the most pleasant combination in the world.

- If you can get a direct signal into your DAW, even better. There are plenty of great VSTs to work with.

 

[MattRas]

Got a B7K today. Loving it so far.

Short clip:

https://soundcloud.com/mattra-1/darkglass-b7k-test

 

[JonWormwood]

Here's a cool PSA kemper profile I made.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42168306/LTD_BASS_KEMPER_PSA.mp3

search for PSA_BASS_EVIL

 

[xTomx]

Am I the only one who actually mics up a cab?

 

[szymon]

Am I the only one who actually mics up a cab?

Haha not only you
I mic cab when I can (sm57, and a kick mic sounds good), but usually I almost always end up using more DI's than actual cab. Most of the times cab signal is like 25db lower (and thats for midrange mostly). Needless to say, cab and amb should be at least decent (and 10" or 12" speakers. 15" is woooofy).

 

[Sethis]

A bass with a guitar amp is interesting. I think it's not very likely to damage the speakers unless you use a clean, uncompressed sound. It's even less likely if you turn down the bass knob a bit. The few times I've tried it, it was OK.

 

[Exocaster]

Ever blown a guitar speaker as a result of recording bass through it though? That'd be my only worry with running the bass through it.

Can't say that I have, and I've run through guitar 4x12s at "band" volume for extended periods of time with a Dual Rec- V30s, specifically. Not a single issue. Also, I've used a Divided By 13 tube bass head with matching 4x12, which is Celestion-loaded, but I don't know with what, specifically (though I don't think Celestion makes a bass-specific 12".) I've used a number of guitar amps with bass in the past, but not usually at drummer levels.

The "bass will destroy your guitar speakers" thing is, I suspect, a myth- people always warn you about it, but I've never heard of anyone actually doing it.

Remember, the Fender Bassman was originally a bass amp, and a lot of old amps served double duty- Fenders, Marshalls, Hiwatts and the like, and not with any special dedicated bass speakers, at least in the modern sense.

 

[Deuteronomy]

Sansamp PSA 1,1,nowdays with a tubescreamer too.

 

[guy in latvia]

Out of curiosity, how do you guys dial in your sansamps/B7Ks when youre splitting a high and low signal in a mix? Normally I would be leaving the bottom dry and the top with medium gain and a cab IR on it, but sometimes I feel its not enough.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

It is interesting to me that people are saying sansamp in here. I have never liked the dirt on that thing.

For me it's a small ampeg and a dirt pedal of choice (DS-1, Ibby Tube King, Modded bluesdriver).

 

[Terminus]

Lately I've been using my HM-2 for bass, nothing cranked though.

 

[Exocaster]

Out of curiosity, how do you guys dial in your sansamps/B7Ks when youre splitting a high and low signal in a mix? Normally I would be leaving the bottom dry and the top with medium gain and a cab IR on it, but sometimes I feel its not enough.

Parallel out on the Sansamp to amp + cab. Sansamp adjusted to taste depending on the sound I want for the track and the bass being used. Sometimes it's pretty clean, sometimes it's pretty dirty. Mix at 100% effect signal. I don't care for the sound of a clean DI bass at all; it's just about the most boring thing in the world, and I've always felt I got better low end from micing up an amp (or a modeler if necessary). Never got the "use a DI for the lows" thing; it sounds thin to me.

I don't do anything special to the Sansamp after the fact that I wouldn't do to any other track in the mix (console + tape sim, EQ and compress as necessary) and buss it down with the amp track. I like the Sansamp as its own thing- it's my "dirty DI". Sometimes I run it clean-ish, but for rock and metal stuff, there's at least a bit of grit going.

For what it's worth, if I'm recording really distorted bass, I'll often put the dirt pedal in front of the Sansamp, not the amp, and leave the amp vaguely clean-ish to moderately overdriven. As a general rule, I don't like bass to be too clean in any genre. Super-clean bass amps, to say nothing of a straight DI, just aren't sounds I care for. Even if it's not apparent in the mix, there's always at least a little something going for the bass, even just the barest hint of subtle overdrive.

 

[Exocaster]

DS-1

Sounds terrible on guitar, but actually sounds good for certain bass tones. Its harshness works here. I really only ever use it for metal bass, but it can work for that.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I hate the DS-1 for pretty much almost everything.

 

[Drummerrrrr?]

I don't understand how so many dig the BOD, that thing sounds like shit imo haha!