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Bass Recording
Submitted by Gordy Smiff on Sun, 07/02/2006 - 14:58.
For more years than I care to remember, when recording bass, it's always been a bit hit or miss. For most of the time I have used all analogue gear, but thanks to the current Mrs Smiff, I now have a Yamaha AW16G workstation and a Roland Cube 100 Bass amp.
No doubt many of you reading this will probably have bigger, better toys, but I can't praise the Roland enough. Ease of use, and some surprisingly usable pre-sets. Anybody else got or used one? And no, I don't work for Roland. :D
Ten years ago I took a sound engineers course at Bridgwater College, but technology moves so quickly, very little of it seems relevant today, one of the reasons I stuck with analogue gear.
Digital is obvously the way forward, but I still listen to vinyl!
Nothing touches analogue warmth, but I don't want to get left behind.
Enough of my waffle and thanks for looking.
Gordy.
I seem to do about as much recording as a session drummer for "Spinal Tap", but I still have an op.
I don't think digital has nailed it, yet. In fact, I'm one of those dinosaurs that still uses valves. I have the big, hefty lumps but I'm getting very fond of tiny, little 7W jobs with a single power valve too. Especially into a big bass speaker. My favourite is a single 6V6-powered, but I like the EL84 amps too. DI out or correctly miked, they can be der biz
I love it when a bassist talks durrty!
Analogue/digital, valves/SS, flats/rounds - there'll always be a difference of ops on subjects like these. If anybody out there hasn't played bass through valve amps and gets a chance to do so; give it a go. Valves aren't really suited to piddleink gdoink type of playing but, otherwise, it's worth doing at least once.
Some valves, and some circuits, break up easier than others so it's not straightforward but I'd welcome any experiences posted up here.
personally I like the reliability of solid state. I have a single tube amp right now (yorkville bassmater 800) but I dont like the tone change when I turn it to "tube drive". What it should have said is "overdrive" because that is all I get, distortion. I love the amp otherwise!! Clean and crisp and clear lows mids and highs. When I plug into the PC through an Audigy 2 then record using Adobe Audition (formerly cake walk) it is crystal clear!! I how you can hear every single missed note or fouled up note which is kinda frustrating!! But the clarity is there. I love analog but the "hiss" drives me nuts. I was born mid seventies so I now bout analog(still break out my vinyl once and a while) and still love it, but with the technology we have today, why not record as clear as clear can be??? It does sound a whole lot better :)
Good for Bassman bringing it back on topic after I waffled on with my valve obsessions :)
Back to recording, mustard mitt that the hiss from the 1/4" reel2reel on my old recordings is pretty noticeable. I know some vintage gear types who wouldn't touch digital recording but I don't go that far. There is something about the clarity of digi (especially on bass strings and hihats) that made me sit up, even though a bit of warmth is lost.
I tend to go for valves at source (preamp and/or power amp) and digi to put it down. Valves suit my bass music, but I accept there are plenty of genres where SS would suit it better. Similarly, playing live I prefer old valve amps but crisp, modern speakers. Like Bassman says, when I switched old Fanes out of my cab for molybde-ali-coned thingies, it really showed up some of my sloppy playing and made me tighten up a bit.
The best bit about digital recording is that you only have to do that tendon-snapping, flashy verse line once then drop it in everywhere else it's supposed to come up in the song :lol:
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