How do YOU record bass?

[KuruPrionz]

I'd love to hear from anybody who records bass and how they do it. What do you like? What don't you like?

You don't need a reason, some of this is just part of who we are and the sounds that appeal to us. 

 

I'll start, please chime in. I use solid body bass guitars, I'm a guitarist and that's my thing. I have an older USA made Peavey Fury with a slim maple neck and Schaller tuners. I added an EMG PA (Alnico) pickup - active and runs on a 9v battery. Quiet and full range. Strings are D'Addario, amazingly bright flat wounds. I like that, still bright and punchy but no "scrape tones" from sliding my fret fingers. 

 

That goes into the DI on a Focusrite ISA Two, the output of that goes into an ART Pro VLA II and then into the line in on a Presonus Quantum. 

I've got a 3:1 ratio, a slow attack to let some of the transients in and a fast release. It has a bit of a compression tone but not too much. 

That on it's own is a good sound, I like it. 

 

Lately I've been experimenting with guitar and bass amp plugins. Mostly Amplitube but Plugin Alliance Fuchs Overdrive Supreme and Chandler amps have both sounded great. Next up in my experiments is to copy and paste a duplicate track of the original ISA/ART tone and then add the amp plugin to one of the two identical tracks and blend them. That should keep the solid low end while adding some nice crunch to the top. 

 

You?

[Dave Bryce]

My go-to method is to plug directly into the instrument input of my Groove Tubes VIPre (goes through eight tubes!), run that through my Summit TLA-100, then capture it.

 

If I’m just looking for something like a mic on a cabinet, I usually use a Two Notes Torpedo CAB.   If I want a finished sound with effects, I usually run it through the Line 6 HX Stomp.  

 

dB