Bass

[tkofaith]

Hi,

I'm new here, but just completed my first recording with the BR. I recorded bass on the BR and it didn't come out too bad at all. The bass effects are very limited but the clean bass sound works ok, just use the GTR input and the jack socket. I used a Zoom bass effects pedal and the results were better. I need to experiment a bit more, but I think with a bit of playing with the effects you could get some pretty good sounding bass. You will need some external effects to get the best results though, along with some variety in sounds.

Cheers,

Nigel

Thanks, Nigel!  I have a compressor that I use from time to time, but I generally don't use a lot of effects on my bass.  I accomplish most of what I want with the tone and EQ. 

Thanks again!

Tim

[Greeny]

The only limitation for bass guitarists is that the BR has relatively few bass-dedicated effect patches. Other than that, it's a case of simply plugging your jack into the guitar sock and having a ball. I've got some very clear, good bass tones from the BR. Then I realised it was better - as Flash harry points out - to have a proper bassist playing on my songs!!!! 

[longjourneyhome]

Thanks, Nigel!  I have a compressor that I use from time to time, but I generally don't use a lot of effects on my bass.  I accomplish most of what I want with the tone and EQ. 

Thanks again!

Tim

Hey Tim - I'm a bass player as well. My immediate off-the-cuff impressions were not real positive with bass.  Tried both my 6-string with active pickups as well as an old Fender Jazz with low output, passive Bartolinis.  I probably just doing something wrong and need to do more explorative tweaking, but I was not satisified with the bass response. Also had to reduce the input sens due to distortion (not the good kind). Guitars, on the other hand, could just plug in and go..

Please let me know how it works for you! Best.

[tkofaith]

Hey Tim - I'm a bass player as well. My immediate off-the-cuff impressions were not real positive with bass.  Tried both my 6-string with active pickups as well as an old Fender Jazz with low output, passive Bartolinis.  I probably just doing something wrong and need to do more explorative tweaking, but I was not satisified with the bass response. Also had to reduce the input sens due to distortion (not the good kind). Guitars, on the other hand, could just plug in and go..

Please let me know how it works for you! Best.

I've only had my BR for a couple of days, and haven't had too much opportunity to experiment.  But my first impression is that I can't get enough volume on the bass to override the mp3 volume.  I've tried lowering the mp3 volume, but that seems to bring down the bass volume as well.  I've also upped the gain on the guitar jack, which gave me a clipped signal.

I'm going to try putting a new battery in my Ibanez bass to see if that helps.  When I plug in my telecaster, the volume is just fine.

That said, I haven't tried to record anything yet.  So I can't comment on how the bass works with that.  Hopefully between us we can come up with some satisfactory answers.

Tim

[Greeny]

It's quite hard for me to give a proper bass players response to this, because it's not my main thing. However...

I have noticed that the volume on bass recordings isn't great, and it's meant that I've had to reduce the volumes on the other tracks so that I can hear what I'm doing. I just put everything up to max (both on the BR's input and the volume on the bass guitar itself). I've also increased the bass track volume to get cut-through on the mix (remember that you can go above and below the standard '100' volume setting).

Flash Harry and Prive are 'proper' bass players, so they might have some more constructive advice. Flash is on his hols though!

It's worth experimenting with, because I did end up with good results in the end... !

[mr2kewl]

i'm fairly new to this site and a wanna be bassist. i've done four songs to date on this forum. the first was my initial jump into the pool and done twice straight into my MBR. then i think i ruined everybody hearing a few decibels that listened to my feeble attempt on a song that Wichita had up. that was done straight into the MBR with some effect on the MBR that escapes me at the moment. i think i had the input level cranked to 100 and eventually i had to "Audacitisize" my bass part for that song (my apologies Wichita) and... i just did a touch of bass for xicpanad's "Helena" through a Line6 Tone Port UX1 with what I think were good results. my bass is a Ibanez SR305. i agree with Greeny - experiment. eventually you will find a solution.

mark r

[Flash Harry]

You do have to fiddle with it quite a bit, whack up the compressor gain and sustain, bring back the input gain so it doesn't clip. Or use an external compressor and record it with just reverb. It can be done.

[ianjm]

I do that with the volume levels have everything else less than 100 and the drums and bass on 120. Now descovered audacity where the levels can be played with easier.....