Question recording my SR5

[fidooda]

I've been recording at home some bass lines for projects here in there for a while. I was secretly dissastisfied with my recorded tone in general. i normally record from the D.I. out from my amp directly in my external sound card.

Last weekend i recorded a track, my first one with my shiny new SR5. It sounded great, i still love the position with coils 2&3....wow nice. I presumed that the great tone was simply the new bass. So after recording a few more tracks this week i was a bit surprised that it wasn't sounding as good.

After a few trials and trying to figure out why it sounded that good the other time, i realised on that evening i was playing after the kids went to bed (without my headphones) so i EQed the my recording gear outputs higher as to adjust to my gentle finger touch on that night.

so my conclusion is that a gentle touch while i play make my recordings sound better. I don't know if it makes any sense and was wondering if any of you noticed something similar with your home recordings.

 

[mynan]

It depends on the soundcard, but I've noticed that on a lot of the one's I've used it's easy to overdrive the input.

 

[fidooda]

mynan, i think you're right, i've been focusing on clipping but i haven't realised before that when track ain't clipping it's still overdriven.

 

[oli@bass]

Overdriving or cliping is one part. But a lighter touch does alter the sound. In general terms, it's rounder, with less pronounced attack, a more even decay, maybe even with better intonation. It might be that you like your sound better when you don't dig in that hard.

 

[fidooda]

Overdriving or cliping is one part. But a lighter touch does alter the sound. In general terms, it's rounder, with less pronounced attack, a more even decay, maybe even with better intonation. It might be that you like your sound better when you don't dig in that hard.

when i did some recordings for my bands practices/concerts with my field recorder (Edirol R-09) i always like my tone. I normally dig hard when i play live.

I feel my technique doesn't work well for my home recordings, so yes i think i like my tone better for home recordings when i play less hard. The being said, i get my sound from my DI at home and from my 2x12 live. I think that's a major difference. Recording with a mic on my cab isn't really possible at home. So i got to find my tone for home live recordings.

your input helps me think this thru properly.

 

[lomky]

i've used a Sansamp, with good results. I usually put a comp plug-in on the mix. A good pre-amp also helps.

For my bands last recording I used a combination mic'd 4x10 cab (EV RE27), and the Sansamp.

Tuned out well. I also dig in hard!

A reggae project I just did turned out nice using my SUB through Sansamp direct to my A&H mixer, I put on Flat wounds. Very usable.

 

[oli@bass]

BTW, it just occurred to me... did you try recording with the volume of the bass set lower?

 

[fidooda]

BTW, it just occurred to me... did you try recording with the volume of the bass set lower?

it never even occured to me

i will of course try that as soon i have a chance.


danke!

 

[strummer]

it never even occured to me

i will of course try that as soon i have a chance.


danke!

Yes, that's the way to go!

 

[fidooda]

ok this really REALLY works, i can't believe i never tought of it before. i lowered the volume on my bass form full to about half. it sounds much better. No more badly overdriven tones at all.

thanks again for the feedback!

 

[Bass Control]

It's all about finding that delicate balance in gain between the bass, all your gear, and the input device. You really should post a link when you finish recording, we'd love to hear it!

 

[Calaveras]

proper recording level.

most of the trick to recording is getting levels right. There is a myth in digital audio that you have to light up all the leds right up to the last one in order to beusing all the bits. You dont want to wat any of those bits you paid for right?
Well actually that approach is backwards. In order to "not waste bits' you should record a sufficiently modest level to preserve transient detail. So you should set your recording gear to -18dbfs or -12dbfs (decibels full scale). If you have an analog audio mixer, set up for +4 db professional standard, then you can run a test tone through it (or even audio program material or pink noise). Set the master out to be nominally at 0. This should be equivalent to +4db output. On your digital recorder this should show up in your computer (or on the face of the unit) as -18 or -12dbfs.
When you record with a provision for enough headroom you should never run out of space for your bass.
Now about recording bass. I find that I get the best bass tracks when I get a little counterintuitive and shoot for a trebly/bass shy sound. That seems to mix better. when I get a big woofy bassy sound, it disapears under all the other instrumentation. When you bring up that big bassy sound, the low freq energy of it will overload the mix buss before it gets sufficently loud enough. So try using a mic with a high pass or even rolling some of the lows out of your amps preamp. Generally I shoot for a detailed midrange. The lows will follow. some of my best bass tracks come from an Epiphone valve jr with a Mesa Boogie 15" cabinet. The Valve jr has no tone control, just 1 preamp tune, 1 power tube, one volume knob and 5 watts.

 

[fidooda]

thanks for the input Calaveras, tons of new things to watch for, maybe recording ain't a voodoo art after all