Recording a Bass Guitar (Part 2)

O

odominguez

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In this article we are going to talk about how to get the best sound out of your bass guitar and how to blend the direct signal with the sound coming out of an amplifier with different cabinet setups.

Speaker cabinets for bass amplifiers come in many different configurations. But the most common found in the studio are the 4x10 (4 10” speakers) and the 1x15 (1 15” speaker). There are different approaches to record these two different kinds of speaker cabinets. And there are different microphones used for each one. Depending on the intention of the recording you will find yourself recording them with different microphones every time. But there are some standards that will definitely be a great start point.

The Sennheiser 421 microphone is very common in studios to record many things such as bass amplifiers, drums toms and in some cases even bass drums. In this case I will refer to it for recording a 4x10 cabinet. It is capable of recording very low frequencies as well as giving you some high end for you to use in your mix.

The other common microphone used in recording bass rigs is the Shure Beta 52 (which is also very common for recording bass drums) The B-52 is often used at the studio for recording 1x15 bass cabinets. It captures very well the low frequencies produces by a 15” speaker cabinet, which can go as low as 35Hz in some cases. The B-52 microphone is not that expensive if you are looking for alternatives. The good thing about it is the fact that it can be used for some other application, which makes the investment a little more justifiable.

Now that we have covered the two most common microphones used in recording bass amplifiers, we should cover the positioning of those microphones to achieve the sound we want. In bass amplifiers the most common approach is to place the microphone about 1 or 2 inches of the grill of the amplifier (close miking). And when it comes to placement referencing the speaker, the two methods are (1) ON AXIS, which is playing the capsule of the microphone facing the center of the speaker directly. This method will give the microphone the chance to capture a little more high end through the capsule so that you don’t have to make up for it with an EQ later in the mix.

If you are looking to record a more muffled sound (very common in reggae and some styles of old school funk) you might want to consider placing the microphone (2) OFF AXIS, which as opposed to the previous method, involves placing the microphone’s capsule facing the cone of the speaker. This will block some of the direct sound and will allow for you to get a more “bassy” sound out of the speaker. These two approaches are also very common on recording electric guitar amplifiers, which will cover in the future.

In the next article we will post some photos of this process in real life, as well as some sound clips of how the different approaches sound like without any EQ or any other effects. Also in future articles we will start covering the mixing process and a HOW TO guide to be able to make your bass tracks fit into the final mix without colliding with any of the other instruments in your particular project. Thank you for reading and stay tuned.
 
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yeah !!

that's VERY helpful, at least for me, since i like to record my stuff by myself (or let's say: don't have the money to go to a studio haha).

thanks a lot oliver.

i'm looking forward to read your articles about the mix, eq stuff etc.

ciao, and thanks again !
voicu
 
O

odominguez

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Thanks a lot for the support guys. I'm preparing the next one as I write here. Hopefully for the next one I will have some sound clips prepared, and that's part of why it's taking me a little longer to finish it. If you want to see a version with pictures of the equipment and microphone positioning, go to www.odominguez.com. All the articles are going to be posted here first though.
 
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your articles are very concise and to the point. very well-written! i'm looking forward to your next articles!
 
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Z3r0_G said:
your articles are very concise and to the point. very well-written! i'm looking forward to your next articles!

+1.Your english has improved so much over the last year Oliver,good work mate.
 
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Hey guys! Haven't posted in a while as I've been in the studio and practicing more but I wish I would have checked in on this thread before my last recording. I completely blew it :oops: When I used my Jazzman all was well, but watch me try to be "normal" and use my Fender straight into my multi track on the hardest song and was told a few days later the bass was distorted and now I have to do it over. The thing is, it sounded fine to me at home when I played it back like anything else I recorded but I don't have time to figure out exactly what I did wrong (now that I see it could have been a few things) so I'll be playing my trusty Jazzman until I sort it out. Oliver, thanks for a useful thread and I'll be printing it out as my guide to recording and future gear purchasing and look foward to more of the good stuff from you.
 

Adrian Ciuplea

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Thank you Oliver for those lessons. You touched a very delicate subject, because the studio world is unknown to a lot of people. You certainly shed some light in this aspect...


Adrian
 

JUZ

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thanks oliver, i eagerly await the next article :D
 
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Hi Oliver !
Thanks alot for the artikles on your website ! Artikles about recording bass in particular are hard to find. Time to try some of your tips with my Vampyre and my new Phonic Helixboard 12 Firewire ! I can´t stand the waiting for the next !
 
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Odo I can't thank you enough, my band is recording our demo in Feb. at our friends studio and it's really nice to actually know how this process works, because I'm completely oblivious to it until now haha.
 
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Nice one, Oliver, I'm about to do some recording with an 8-track (in 2 hours lol) so I'm gonna have a quick look for the first article now!!
 
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