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[Jim Williams]

grantis wrote on Thu, 13 January 2011 18:23

Jim Williams wrote on Thu, 13 January 2011 11:31 Bass  -  line amp  -  limiter -  ADC. Maybe not orgasmic, but definitely organic. For lack of a better word....boring.

When you got John Pattitucci or Brian Bromberg playing, it's never boring. Boring is a rock player playing root 1/4 notes.

I don't use amps to record electric bass anymore. They never have the fundamentals right, (it's the octave above you are hearing) and they are never even. There's always resonances and hot notes, then buried notes. You have to use a compressor to even that stuff out but there's still no fundamental.

[compasspnt]

Jim Williams wrote on Wed, 16 February 2011 11:13

(Amps)...never have the fundamentals right, (it's the octave above you are hearing) and they are never even. There's always resonances and hot notes, then buried notes. You have to use a compressor to even that stuff out but there's still no fundamental.

I normally would agree with this in theory, and sometimes prefer other methods anyway.

But recently I was recording a group wherein the bass player insisted on only using an amp (won't say which we used, until I find me one, ha ha).

The notes were indeed uneven, with resonances, etc.

But after much Protools work, evening out levels, compression, etc, I absolutely LOVE the final bass sound. It is not deep (fundamental laden), but it is powerful and sparkles, and is easily heard everywhere on the album, much like some "old days" classics.  And lets the bass drum take those fundamental freqs.

[Wireline]

(It all depends on the bass, but...)

A REDDI into a Pacifica gives up some great results for a blues, MoTown kind of thing.  For country, I'm liking the bass into a Yamaha Nathan East passive EQ/Countryman DI/API...For harder rock, I'm still digging a mic or 2 in front of an SVT cab.

That's this week.