Clear Gravy Productions - Studio Preparation

Bass Players -

Does your bass have a big ground hum coming from your pickups? If so, LEAVE IT HOME!!! Borrow, rent, or get one from the studio. Nothing is worse than an engineer chasing a bass hum for a half an hour, then the bass player says "yeah, this bass always hums."

In the studio bass is typically recorded direct. There is little to be gained from micing a bass amp. It's all just a matter of dialing in the right tone. We do have a bass amp simulator you can play with, but I've found that a bass recorded direct through a tube pre is the best way to get a solid bottom end.

You and the drummer are the focus of the tracking day(s), so be at your best. The drums and bass are the foundation for the tunes. Once you're done tracking, there is virtually no going back. This means, fix any mistakes now. If something bothers you a little bit, chances are it's going to bother you a lot down the road. This is your time to work, once your tracks are laid, you can kick back and enjoy the recording experience.

The first step in recording bass would be to have the instrument set-up by a professional. Get the intonation checked, the electronics checked, and the strings replaced if necessary. There is no excuse for not knowing your instrument is out of intonation. There is no excuse for crappy, noisy pots and active electronics that add more noise than gain.

Most times, I end up taking bass guitars direct. Mostly for ease, but also for the fact that usually, unless the amp is REALLY good, I don't find any extra "beef" gained. There are a few amps, like an older VOX or especially an older Ampeg B-15 flip top that get me really excited to work with, they just have such a unique character. But usually, I'll record the bass direct. Tube DI's, and high quality pre-amps seem to make the bass plenty powerful for me. If I get into the project and find that it needs some "more," then I might reamplify the signal at that point. But a good quality DI sound is the starting point for most sessions I've worked.

It is important to assess if your instrument matches your style, as all instruments sound unique. If not, get some advice on where to rent or borrow different instruments, but check them out BEFORE the sessions, and ALWAYS have them set up!

Another important variable in the sound is the string selection. Round wounds, flat wound, brights, mediums, and so on... which to choose? Get some advice from people whose sound you enjoy. I like to suggest the heaviest gauge possible in the studio because the low end seems to hold up more, and to my ear it feels more focused. But there are exceptions to every rule, and the specific situation will always dictate.

I often try to get bass tracks at the same time as drum tracks are laid down, or at least as the next step after the drums. As bass tracks are cut, it's important to pay close attention to the "lock" between the bass and drums, specifically with the kick drum. Flamming between parts is a drag, and editing can get time consuming. And another issue is to decide who's carrying the bottom end for the song. Both the bass and the kick are fighting for a similar range of frequencies, and you can only have so much bass , so it's a good idea to establish which instrument is going to take the low end. A lot of this depends on the style of music, so listen closely to albums that have a similar feel to the music you're recording. Select what bass (and amp) is used to work around the kick in a track.

These are the issues a good arrangement will alleviate. Paying close attention to how the bass part moves relative to the kick drum is a big part of how the bottom end punches through a mix. It's also important to keep in mind how the guitars are going to be moving on top, so that if the guitar is filling in around the ends of vocal phrases, it's probably a good idea to keep the bass part straight ahead, or vice versa.