Korgscrew
Group: Super Admins
Posts: 3511
Joined: Dec. 1999 |
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Posted: Dec. 07 2005, 21:36 |
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| Quote (Piltdownboy on horseback 22 @ Dec. 07 2005, 16:46) | And of course Korgscrew and Incanta will be the 'masters of ceremonies'  |
How come I always end up getting dragged into things like this?
| Quote | | You have to put the bass-amplifier into the computer then... don't you... |
If it has a line-level output, that's certainly not a bad way of doing it. Sometimes amps' circuitry can be a bit noisy, so it would be good to listen hard for hiss and buzzes, but other than that, it's a good idea.
Plugging directly into a line/mic input isn't such a good idea, as it can sound rather weak and flat. A DI box is a good thing to use if you want to record direct, and a lot of multi effects units can also be used for it.
There's also nothing wrong with miking up the bass amp, if you like the sound of the cabinet you have and you have a suitable microphone (it needs to have a decent response down to at least 40Hz though). You can always combine a direct and a miked signal, if you want. A direct signal's often an especially good idea with 5 string bass, as many bass cabinets aren't actually capable of properly handling frequencies as low as the low B (which is around 31Hz).
If you want to do any processing on the sound, I'd recommend also keeping an unprocessed version which you can send to the person doing the mix (looks like that's jonnyw in this case...I hope you know what you're letting yourself in for, Jonny ) - it's always incredibly frustrating having to battle against someone else's choice of processing just to get a part to sit correctly in the track.
As far as bass parts go, I'd suggest keeping the tone control fully open, and not doing any EQ (or at least not much) on the amp. It's really tempting to think that bass should be bassy, but it really needs the higher frequencies (mostly in the midrange actually) if it's going to really be heard in the mix, and it's damned hard to brighten up a sound which has had all the top end rolled off at the recording stage (EQ won't help unless there's something there to boost).
Enough of that though...I'm around if you want me. I'll make sure I keep track of what's going on here! Good luck!
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