• Welcome to the General Discussion forum for UAD users!

    Please note that this forum is user-run, although we're thrilled to have so much contribution from Drew, Will, and other UA folks!

    Feel free to discuss both UAD and non-UAD related subjects!

    1) Please do not post technical issues here. Please use our UAD Support Forums instead.

    2) Please do not post complaints here. Use the Unrest Forum instead. They have no place in the the General Discussion forum.

    Threads posted in the wrong forum will be moved, so if you don't see your thread here anymore, please look in the correct forum.

    Lastly, please be respectful.

recording DI bass - suggestions?

JeffSanders

New Member
Hey guys,

I've been recording bass with a Johnson J Station...Ampeg cab, bass=10, treble=4, middle=3.

The sound is cool, but I want to try the DI method (GT The Brick).

What are your suggestions for tweaks/eq for a bass recorded direct through a preamp?

Thanks!
 

brian

Active Member
Yea, LA-2A and PultecPro are great for shaping bass. You might even want to consider throwing on some bass cab IRs from Noisevault. There are some pretty good SWR and Ampeg ones on there through good mics in various configurations. Usually blending two of those IRs sounds great.

Try Hydratone on the bass too, the 550 and 737 colors sound good on bass.
 

Cabbage

Active Member
I use a Fender Jazzbass through a Focusrite ISA428 played with a pick, and I usually end up doing this:
- Cambridge (roll-off quite a bit of the top, big dip around 300Hz)
- LA-2A (with just a few dBs of GR)
- PSP MixBass (normally only the compression part enabled up to 120Hz)

The MixBass really gets you a fat yet controlled bottom-end. As far as I can tell the new Voxengo LF-Punch does roughly the same.

For the kind of music I make the combination of a fat bass and a snappy kick without alot of bottom works best.

Regs,

Petter
 

BackHand

New Member
Nowdays I've gone from the LA-2A on Bass to the Fairchild. I overdrive the Fairchild a lot to get that Tube clipping sound, keeps the bass taight as H**l...try that!
After that I usually put the Waves MaxBass plugin and then Sonalksis EQ with these guidelines:
Dipp a litle around 250 Hz, cut below 50 Hz and play around some with the attack at 2-6 KHz and try not to play the lowest notes on the bass!!

Then you're on you're way to succes!
 
Sorry to go slightly off topic but what is the 'Brick' like. I have recently sold a tfpro p3 and want to get a preamp/channel strip.

I was looking at some of the £200-£400 strips with comp/eq but I am thinking that GT 'The Brick' would do a better job.

Is there an advantage to compressing before the AD/DA converters to warrent buying something like a focusrite Twin Trakpro or Tla 5060 and then using it to also process a mix, or will my UAD-1 do all I need there? It's only that some people say that processing through hardware adds that something that software cannot do?

Thanks
 

mbarrs

Member
Hemmick Reef said:
Sorry to go slightly off topic but what is the 'Brick' like. I have recently sold a tfpro p3 and want to get a preamp/channel strip.

I was looking at some of the £200-£400 strips with comp/eq but I am thinking that GT 'The Brick' would do a better job.
I have a Brick and I like it. My other main preamp is a Great River MP-2NV, which is killer as a bass DI, but the Brick also great for bass DI when I'm looking for a "rounder" tone. The Brick works fine as a clean tube mic preamp also. The only drawbacks with the Brick are that there isn't a lot of gain if you're using passive ribbon mics (I think it's something like 55 db gain), and it's a very basic one gain stage setup (no master output cut/boost). So it's fairly critical what levels you feed it, to get the tone you want. Also the power switch is on the back, which drives me nuts. Otherwise it's a great little mono tube preamp.... definitely a good bang for the buck.

If you're only looking for a tube DI and not a dual-purpose DI and preamp, also check out the TAB Funkenwerk V71 DI:

http://www.mercenary.com/tadiprv7.html

Demeter also makes a great tube DI.

Is there an advantage to compressing before the AD/DA converters to warrent buying something like a focusrite Twin Trakpro or Tla 5060 and then using it to also process a mix, or will my UAD-1 do all I need there?
I don't use outboard compression when tracking my own bass playing because I can either play smoothly enough, or re-track easily if I blow it and hit a note too hard and clip the converters. If I was running a pro studio I'd want a compressor ahead of the converter to handle players who were a little more aggressive or inconsistent. That's the only reason I'd use outboard compression on bass. I can get everything I need for compression during mixing from the UAD-1 LA-2A or Fairchild, and I'd prefer to do it in the mix stage where I can hit the undo button, when I screw something up. :)

It's only that some people say that processing through hardware adds that something that software cannot do?
Well, that gets into the issue of the quality of plugins vs. outboard. I think the UAD-1 compressors are outrageously good, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't also love to own one of the very best outboard compressors out there, like a Manley, Crane Song, or Pendulum. But for me, it would be something I'd want to use when mixing, not tracking. And my A/D-D/A converters aren't the kind of quality I'd want right now for shooting recorded audio out into analog gear, and then bringing it back into the computer a second time.
 

JeffSanders

New Member
Thanks for your input.

So basically when recording this way, you wouldn't tweak an EQ plugin to do quite the same as you'd set the EQ knobs on your bass amp? (i.e. treble=4, bass=10, mid=3)
 

akisd28

Member
Although my recording philosophy is to record the sounds as dry as possible and adjust everything to taste in the mix, I've found that the closer your tone is to what you want before you hit record, the easier it is to fit in the mix later.

I record bass using a Fender Am. Precision Deluxe V and an Avalon U5 DI/pre-amp. The Avalon doesn't have any parametric EQ, only 6 preset EQ curves (and a flat option, of course), so I choose the one I think fits better the song, then set the bass' (active) EQ to taste and usually I only need to make very little changes in the mix with a parametric EQ plug-in.

In the past, I've tried recording the bass totally flat and only EQ later, but the method I described earlier works much better.
 
DI - Fairchild - Pultec Pro

Fairchild - DC bias set to 3 o'clock, little or no gain reduction/time constant set to 4 or 5 into a Pultec Pro. LA2A and 1176LN, I usually place the eq first. Comps and eqs will interact differently. It's really a judgement call but when using the Fairchild you'll want the eq after to compensate for the Fairchild's low end loss.
 
UAD Bundle Month
Top