Recording bass guitar

[Blooby]

I acknowledge that each recording is different, but I'd be curious how people who think they have a good handle on recording bass go about doing it? Type of bass? Aftermarket pickups? Fingers or pick? Front and/or back pickups? Tone controls? Preamps? Direct or through amp/modeler?

Once in your recorder/DAW, how do you EQ? Do you high pass most items in your mix to make room? Do you carve out space with notch filters? What else am I missing?

Thanks in advance.

Peace to you.

Blooby

My one tip is for those of us who don't play with their fingers, a felt pick closely approximates the sound of flesh on string (w/o any pick attack as well).

[TPB]

While I play bass with fingers and am far from expert seems like I get the best sound recording direct then tweaking for what I need.  Sometimes just eq cutting the highs and other times applying a bass sim studio devil seems like I struggle with the bass he most of all the instruments as the low Frequency often interfere with the kick drums sometime separating them in left right channel helps
Tim

[Ted]

Gawd, you just made me realize there's a bunch of stuff I never think of. And I'm supposedly a bass player.

Once in your recorder/DAW, how do you EQ? Do you high pass most items in your mix to make room? Do you carve out space with notch filters?

I almost always plug directly into the Micro BR and use the BASS CLN patch. Same whether it's my electric bass, or my acoustic bass.

Ibanez Blazer Bass (in storage in USA, but used in a lot of songs I've posted)
Michael Kelly Acoustic
Yamaha P-Bass (not mine, but it's the electric bass I use here in Madagascar)

I've always been a big fan of the bass tone of players like John Entwistle and John Wetton, so roundwound strings, always.

I play with my fingers, usually right on top of the pickups, or closer to the bridge. Picking close to the neck doesn't feel right.

If I mix and master on the Micro BR, that's it. If I export the WAV files and bring them into GarageBand, I may putz around with different bass patches, but I don't have a go-to method.

I usually assume that the people who made the EQ presets were very smart, and I shouldn't tweak what they did.


Stand by for better answers...

[Flash Harry]

I have tried a number of methods, but I think that the key is to apply the right amount of compression and EQ and to side chain the kick drum onto a second compressor. That way the bass and the kick do not compete with each other.

I find that a bit of EQ push at 80hz (depending upon the key you're playing in) to add depth and richness, and a cut at 125Hz to remove mud  works nicely.

To compress, you need a fairly fast attack and somewhere in the region of 3 to 6 dB of compression, it's worth listening to the bass in isolation and aiming for a bit of transient on the attack, too much dulls the attack and makes it washy, too much puts a big spike into the mix and makes the mixing difficult (and subsequent compression).

I put the kick into the control input of a compressor and the bass into the signal input, you can do this by making the bass track a double stereo track, putting the bass in tracks 1 & 2, the kick into 3 & 4. Add a compressor into the effects chain of the track and put the kick into the control input and the bass into the signal input. Adjust the threshold until the kick is compressing the signal, then increase the compression ratio until the kick cuts through the bass. You need a fast attack and fast recovery on the compressor and probably 6+ dB of compression.
Don't forget to properly compress the kick.

If you are using a DI and mic'd bass signals, mix the two signals into a bass group and compress that. Some like a dirtier mic'd input to add a bit of grit to the bass audio.

I hope I have explained well enough.

Happy to explain further if needed.

[Farrell Jackson]

I'm a guitar player so I play bass mostly with a pick. But I do at times play with my fingers for a softer sound. I use a pedal that's called Fat Bass which allows me to add a bit of drive to the sound and dial in some tone. I also place a dampener (piece of cloth) under the strings, just in front of the bridge, to keep the strings from vibrating excessively and to get more of a thump sound. I go from the pedal into a compressor set with a threshold of -8 db, a fast attack, medium release and a bit of make up gain. Then on to the recorder. As far as post eq, I roll off everything above 4khz and if I need more presence, in order to stand out from the kick, I add a couple of dbs at 700hz. That usually does it.

I have three basses: Gibson EBO with round wound strings, a Vox violin with flat wounds, and a Squire Fender Jazz with rounds. I use the same basic process on all of them but there is some tweaking required depending on which bass I use.

[dasilvasings]

After reading Flash Harry's answer:

Q: How do you record the bass?
Me: Badly

My main bass is a proper Fender Jazz bass, I tried a lot of stuff but I always end with direct input. It sounds awesome by itself. I play with my fingers, round wound strings (not so new, I need to change them - they have become too dull). I usually have the tone in the middle and both pickups volume to the max, just because yes. ( I may change tones and volumes depending on the type of song. I do it by ear).
After recording the bass, and in a premix, I usually add compressor (if my memory doesn't fail, I used to use the Mastering effects of the MBR because it was a 3 band compressor). I reckon multiband compressor is important to compress differently bass and treble, but most times I am too lazy.
I only EQ after recording the other instruments. Usually the magic spot is around 100 - 200 Hz: Lower than that ends up a bit muddy. I used to (in 2010!!!) put +10 dB in the 30Hz, but I stopped that when I nearly cracked the woofer of my car :-) Good old days.

I have a short scale bass with electric pickups that I don't record with it because although the bass is really nice to play, I find the sound a bit dull and not so rich as the fender.

I also have a short scale acoustic bass and had before 2 ukulele basses. In common they all had piezo pickups and... very short scale. They tended to be a nightmare to record, since these basses, oddly have poorer high harmonics and the lows are so strong that they tend to distort. My recordings ended up with a huge cut in the low in the bass, and then somehow trying to make up in EQ. Additionally the sound of the frets is too present. I am considering changing the acoustic bass strings for flatwounds but I need to rob a bank first, because bass strings are so expensive, especially in odd sizes. Playing acoustic bass with a pick helps a lot.

I guess there is not a single way to record the bass. I am still learning, but I am very pleased that having a good bass really helps.

[WarpCanada]

All sounds good to me.

I freely confess I don't know what I'm doing on bass, either playing it or mixing it.

I EQ to taste, usually go direct into my audio interface's high-Z input, and record dry Bass, and apply insert FX to taste. I absolutely love VST amp sims and don't find you need to use a "Bass amp" VST to get a good bass amp sound.  In fact, the one time I was in studio with a real band and a real bassist was recording his awesome stuff, he went direct into protools and used a vst guitar amp and the track came out with one of the coolest bass tones I've ever heard.

I like to add a lot of distortion on rock and weird out there tracks, and I feel bass absolutely needs a vintage simulated "tube" compressor, to sound good to me.  I will fiddle around a lot to get a color that I like.

A sense of air, reverb, early reflection and sometimes a delay simulating a secondary reflection series, usually are done with my favorite reverb plugins and delay plugins.

I'm actually learning how to make my own reverbs using the modular effect tools I own including bitwig,  Reactor (by Native Instruments) and a few others.

[Zoltan]

I don't think i have anything of value to add, but i'll give it a shot anyway

I don't have any set rules on how to record - mix bass. I usually start everything from scratch anyway. I don't have any go to plugins for guitar either. I just use what comes to mind at that time. No set of rules for EQ'ing either. And i guess it shows

For bass the EQ + Compression are usually needed. The same applies to a somekind of "tube" / "ampsim" -thingie. I don't have any bass gear other than two bass guitars, and i haven't really tried recording bass thru Simplifier either. I just run it direct and do "something" to it after it's recorded.
If one has the patience and wants to have more control over the bass sound i think DOUBLING (not playing two times, but copying) the bassline works wonders most of the time. The second can have distortion (more high end sound) and the main sound can be the DI, more bass -like sounding track. Totally depends on the genre of course. Blended to taste.

I like playing the bass, but i don't rehearse it and i always record it without thinking about it. Getting a better performance would be the FIRST thing to recording bass.

I have this BIG problem that i don't necessarily even know what a GOOD bass sound is supposed to sound. The sound that sounds GOOD on its own and in a "i'm just playing" situtation is often quite different than the one that suits the song perfectly. Sometimes the good bass sound can sound horrible on its own (or something that only bass players can appreciate).

I've been thinking of getting a somekind of dedicated bass-di, but it's still a work in progress. For some reason i seem to get more guitar pedals... I got a new one just a day ago

[Greeny]

I just DI straight into the MBR. Always. And always on the clean bass patch, with everything turned up to the max.

It's not sophisticated or technical, but it works (for me at least). Personally I don't think bass has the nuances that require amps and effects etc like a guitar. Then again, I'm not a bass player - just a guitarist who loves playing bass.

[Ted]

Personally I don't think bass has the nuances that require amps and effects etc like a guitar.

Even though your approach is the same as mine, I'm obligated to be offended.

I almost always plug directly into the Micro BR and use the BASS CLN patch.