REcording a bass guitar

[Xores]

High!
I want to record a bass guitar and I have the following question, Can the bass guitar be conected directly to my sound card, or do I need something, like a preamp or anything else?

[Chas]

You will need some kind of audio interface. Plug the bass into a small mixer, which outputs to an M-Audio interface, which is connected to the computer via usb.

Not sure if there is an easier way, but this works for me.

[b3groover]

The best way is to use a preamp that has a direct input (DI), specifically one made for bass guitar. However, most professional preamps have DI's that sound great on a bass.

[madtheory]

For DI, a passive bass guitar needs to see a high input impedance. Beware that a lot of soundcards have an "instrument input" with an impedance that's too low, which gives a thin sound on the bass. You might like that of course!

An input impedance of 1 Megohm (1M) or more is best. So check the specs. You'll get good results with a Boss pedal in bypass, as long as you have enough gain on the soundcard. If your bass takes a battery, then it's active. You can use an ordinary line input for that, just like a hardware synth.

The "pro" way is to use a "DI box".

http://www.naiant.com makes a very cool, very cheap and excellent sounding active DI box that is no bigger than the XLR. So you can have a very short guitar lead, and a long mic lead, thereby avoiding external hums and buzzes. And it's very neat.

DI boxes connect to the mic input, and active ones, like the naiant, need phantom power.

Let us know what bass and what soundcard you have.

[k5k]

Sansamp!!
Great for recording!
great fr live bass too!
I've recorded a few bass amps with mics and sansamp and always end up using the sansamp tracks....

[madtheory]

Ya, Sansamp is cool. Doesn't usually beat a mic though! Too many variables there. If the cab is an Ampeg SVT, and the mic is something like an AKG C414, then the Sansamp will certainly not be better. But it will be cool.

[OriginalJambo]

One thing to remember that DIing your bass signal is great when you want to isolate it. Say you're recording with a drummer or guitarist who is miked up - there won't be any spill from your bass amp! If this is the case it'd be wise to invest in a little DI box. Of course if your audio interface offers instrument (or Hi-Z) inputs then you can use these instead.

Now say you have a good bass amp and don't need isolation then it might be useful to record both if you can. That should give you a bit more flexibility when it comes to the mixing stage and since you'll probably spend a little time dialling in a flattering tone on your amp, it may actually suit the material better.

Sometimes you can use both signals - for example crank the bass on your amp and use a microphone that'll capture as much bass as possible. Then just roll off the bass on your DI signal using EQ at the mixing stage. The resulting effect is sort of like a crossover circuit if your bass amp doesn't have a horn. You still need to watch out for phase issues though, but the results can be great.

Also bear in mind that your amp might actually have a line out as well, which will allow you to record both signals without splashing out for a DI box. If your amp is capable of this I'd give it a shot so see if it suits your needs.

And finally if your bass is active you should just be able to plug it straight into any line input on your mixer/audio interface. I wouldn't recommend this if your bass is passive though!

[Xores]

ok, thanks for aswering!

well then , my soundard is an M-audio audiphile 192 and the bass would be a passive one. My soundcard does not have something like an instrument input, it has analog audio in & out therefore i will need an di box like you said, right?

[Xores]

And finally if your bass is active you should just be able to plug it straight into any line input on your mixer/audio interface. I wouldn't recommend this if your bass is passive though!<----------------Can this cause problems?

Would any mic do or are there mics specialy suitable for bass?

[tallowwaters]

And finally if your bass is active you should just be able to plug it straight into any line input on your mixer/audio interface. I wouldn't recommend this if your bass is passive though!<----------------Can this cause problems?

Would any mic do or are there mics specialy suitable for bass?

The problem is you won't be getting much signal, which means boosting gain, which will give you more noise than you want.

I can only speak from my personal experience here, but I record bass and guitar via mic'ed cabs and direct. About 95% of the time the direct bass gets used and the mic'ed bass discarded. The kind of bass sound I want doesn't need room air and is generally just too shabby. This is with lots of consideration via mic placement and mic selection, but direct is a million times easier and sounds better (to me).

There are plenty of lower end preamps that will work as a reasonable DI, and plenty of DIs out there that will get you where you need to be. Your key to making that bass work is going to be compression and eq (along with obvious s**t like strings, bass, finger technique), as any flavor you get on the front end is likely to be subtle at best.

I personally use a Sansamp (the standard) or the Hartke Bass Attack. Both are functional for live and studio use and just too useful for other applications to not have around.

[megamanx]

as mentioned before the sansamp is the way to go...sound great, a good investment...

[Xores]

ok, thanx for that usefull info.

Although momentaneusly my preference is recording bass, it would be interesting for me to record synth´s throug one of these two boxes, in this case, would sansamp be better than the hartke solution? although the bass attack is cheaper than the sansamp, wow it costs 300E to me!!!!!!! bass atack only 150!!
One more question, sansamp, is that a preamp, or is it a special preamp?
what other preamps would you recommend me, knowing i want tho record stereo synth through it?

[Torstein]

One more question, sansamp, is that a preamp, or is it a special preamp?
what other preamps would you recommend me, knowing i want tho record stereo synth through it?

I believe this is the preamp the other posters have described:

http://tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/bassdriverdi.html

I can attest that this preamp will make ok sounding basses great sounding, and great sounding ones (like Moduluses) freaking amazing. Huge bang for the buck with this BassDriver. I sold my bass years ago but never sold my BassDriver b/c they're just too useful for recording all types of sources. Funny though, I haven't tried it yet with synth. I might try running my old 80s' Yamaha RX-11 drum machine's kick drum through it to see what kind of goodness comes out. Thx. for the idea!

You have a couple options with their product line. They have rack-mounted versions of the BassDriver (RBI), and they also have a non-bass version of this pedal (good for acoustic guitar, and probably synths too), called the ParaDriver DI. This too has a rack version called the RPM.

For stereo, just buy two of them. They're cheap enough IMO and you can't really go wrong.

[OriginalJambo]

And finally if your bass is active you should just be able to plug it straight into any line input on your mixer/audio interface. I wouldn't recommend this if your bass is passive though!

<----------------Can this cause problems?

Well it shouldn't cause any harm to your gear, but sonically speaking you may find the results to be less than acceptable. Here's some quick snippets I just recorded to demonstrate what I mean. In this case an audio clip should be worth 100 words. :thumbup:

I own both an active bass and a passive bass so I've made some recordings of both. Here the are four examples:

Active bass recorded with a passive DI box into a Digi 001 audio interface

Active bass recorded straight into a Digi 001 audio interface

Passive bass recorded with a passive DI box into a Digi 001 audio interface

Passive bass recorded straight into a Digi 001 audio interface

I've normalised all the clips so the levels should be roughly equal. Hopefully you'll be able to hear that there's next to no difference when using the DI box for an active bass. However for the passive bass you should notice that a lot of treble frequencies (the "top end" of the signal) has been lost without a DI box there to match the impedance.

well then , my soundard is an M-audio audiphile 192 and the bass would be a passive one. My soundcard does not have something like an instrument input, it has analog audio in & out therefore i will need an di box like you said, right?

Not only this but it seems that your current audio interface has no pre-amps either. This will be a problem since your bass is passive - you'll need to amplify the signal A LOT in your DAW to achieve a usable level. As a result, and as tallow has already pointed out, this could potentially introduce a lot of unwanted noise!

You'd be best of investing in a pre-amp, DI box with a pre-amp or something similar. I've no experience with SansAmp but looking at their product line-up they may indeed have the ideal solution.

Would any mic do or are there mics specialy suitable for bass?

Generally any large diaphragm dynamic microphone is a good bet. Here's an example of the industry standard, the AKG D112:



These mics are also used for miking bass drums on an acoustic drum kits since they can handle extremely high SPLs without distortion and have a great bass response. This isn't to say you can't use any microphone you want, but it's should be a good place to start.

[Stab Frenzy]

Generally any large diaphragm dynamic microphone is a good bet. Here's an example of the industry standard, the AKG D112:

...snip...

These mics are also used for miking bass drums on an acoustic drum kits since they can handle extremely high SPLs without distortion and have a great bass response. This isn't to say you can't use any microphone you want, but it's should be a good place to start.

FYI Jambo, the D112 sounds pretty shocking on bass. It's got a very non-linear frequency response which is tailored specifically for kick, and it tends to bring out stuff you don't want which you end up needing to EQ out, which defeats the purpose of using a non-linear mic.

Some LDDs are good though, the RE-20 is great on bass, so is the M-88 which is my personal favourite LDD for bass. They're both a lot more linear.