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[breathe]

I don't have the cash to buy a Manley Vox Box right now, but I was wondering if that unit is the best way to record bass guitar direct, complete with EQ and limiting.  It seems like the EQ on the VB is pretty limited.  Since I'm happy with my Great River Neve-style preamps, and the built-in DI on those things really is excellent, and I can add some girth to the sound with the TC Culture Vulture, and limit with a Manley ELOP, I guess all I really need now is a tone shaping tool.  What about the GR Neve-style EQ?  Or the EL Lil FrEQ?  The Chandler Germanium Tone Control?  Must be under $2k.

Nicholas

[marcel]

Recently I have been using:

bass > A-Designs REDDI or Radial JDI > API 512 > API 525 > A/D.

With good basses (I tend to reach for either a stock '74 Jazz or a '99 Jazz with Lollar pickups) I don't feel much of a need for EQ beyond the tone controls on the bass.

Little Labs IBP Jr. after 525 if required to work with an amp split, but it's not usually required either.

[Sean Eldon Qualls]

In an ideal world, the bass guitar goes into the hands of skilled and soulful fingers, and comes out of an amplifier.

[Ryan Slowey]

Early model SVT or B15.

[compasspnt]

There's nothing like some girth.

[jrmintz]

The key is a good instrument. It shouldn't need much of anything. I don't think there is a rig that works for every bass, and I don't think you should assume you're going to need to EQ and compress without hearing a specific instrument. Is this a bass you own?

[rankus]

compasspnt wrote on Fri, 17 December 2010 17:55

There's nothing like some girth.

That's what she said!









Just before she left me...

[Bubba#$%Kron]

Shhwing!

[Jim Williams]

Run a bass through a bunch of crap and it's sure to sound small.
Less is more, more or less.

I shove it into a line amp, a really good one. That's all I need to record with. I avoid all DI solutions as they use destructive gain staging.

If the player isn't a master, I use a Aphex modified 651 comp and then it's on to the converter, another good one, a BurrBrown PCM4222. The entire tracking path is direct coupled, DC to 200k hz, no capacitors, no transformers, no phase shift, no noise, nada, zip, nothing. Everything active is class A.

No EQ, that, if used is saved for mix time. This is the same technique used to record Nate Watts for Stevie Wonder. When they got the 3M digital recorder, the EQ to tape stopped in 1980. Besides, he had active EQ installed in his P-bass if they wanted it.

My PJ koa wood bass is also active. It has a 2 band sweep EQ with a 30 hz~20k hz sweep range. I usually set it flat to record, on stage anything goes.

[mgod]

No amount of gear and no lack of gear, no quality of gear, no brand or budget of gear, will compensate for bad hands. Good hands will make lousy gear sound solid and present and will make better gear sound far better.

The perfect solution isn't money or technology, its time - years. Meditation would be better than spending for a quick solution.

[Silvertone]

mgod wrote on Sat, 18 December 2010 10:58

No amount of gear and no lack of gear, no quality of gear, no brand or budget of gear, will compensate for bad hands. Good hands will make lousy gear sound solid and present and will make better gear sound far better. The perfect solution isn't money or technology, its time - years. Meditation would be better than spending for a quick solution.

You know Dan, I say this all the time.  Tony Levin picks up my music man bass and it sounds like him... he hands it back to me and it sounds like me, same rig, same everything.

I discovered this years ago when my bother Frank played Al Dimeola's rig... Al had been warming up and we were talking to him, my brother was asking him something about the action on his Les Paul.  Al Hands him the guitar and the next thing I know is now it sounds like my brothers sound, not Al's... the light bulb went off in my head, I was 18 at the time.

In fact I'll say, probably more than any other instrument, it's the hands that define the bass players sound.  Technique is just that, technique... it's what make us all unique in what we do.

btw, same goes for mixing.  3 different engineers in the same facility will pull 3 different mixes... that would be due to EAR technique  

[mgod]

Silvertone wrote on Sun, 19 December 2010 08:35

Technique is just that, technique... it's what make us all unique in what we do.

Technique = personal technology?

[el duderino]

if you can't get a good bass di sound through an API 512 you either need a new player or a new bass.

that said, as far amps go, in no particular order

Ampeg SVT
Ampeg B15
Acoustic 360

[zakco]

el duderino wrote on Sun, 19 December 2010 16:48

if you can't get a good bass di sound through an API 512 you either need a new player or a new bass.

The is true at a most fundamental level, though I gotta say that when I A/B the 512c DI input with the Great River NV DI input, the difference is FAR from subtle. There are times when the API is fantastic and other times, given the instrument and player, it is clearly the wrong choice.

Obviously, having just the 512 would not stop me from making a record, but it might make me work alot harder on the bass tone in some cases...

Z

[McAllister]

Good player > good bass > Ampeg B15 (DI if you wanna) > decent mic.

Compress, or not, as you see fit. I've had great results with both a LA2A and 1176.

Of course, "good bass" means what is right for the tune; same for my amp of choice. But for what I do. . . .