Recording Bass getting a good sound

barryd · June 2018

Hi All

I recently thanks to the fantastic help on this forum bought my first Bass guitar. I play lead and acoustic normally so its all new to me learning Bass. I mainly just do home recording for fun and needed a proper bass sound rather than use an effect on my guitar pedal with a Les Paul type guitar.

However I am struggling to get the right sound. Its fine through a bass amp but I record via the PC through either my M Audio interface or my Zoom G3 Guitar pedal. Now clearly the latter is designed for a six string guitar not a bass. I did a recording last night and just added a bit of reverb but it sounds a bit thin. Someone described it as sounding like it was being played through six inch speakers.

Has anyone put a bass through a guitar pedal? What sort of effects and stuff should I be looking to use to get that really meaty low end sound?

Its just a cheap peavy Millennium Bass nothing fancy

guitarfishbay · June 2018

What program are you using to record? There might be an effect plugin already included for bass sounds

Bridgehouse · June 2018

It can work well DI into the interface with no pedal depending on the pickups you have.. but I find the best results if not DI is using a preamp/DI pedal designed for bass.

At the cheap end of the scale, I have the Hotone B:Station and it's flipping good for the cash - lots of stuff to tweak and a good EQ to get it right.

barryd · June 2018

Thanks. I am using Audacity to record. I know I Can mess about with equalisers etc in there I just was hoping to get some good sounds through the pedal. I havent really messed about too much with it just through the M Audio interface with no effects so will try that again. I just lined it up through the G3 just now with an equaliser and a bit of reverb and its ok but not great. Clearly all the amp modules on the G3 are guitar amps "Marshall 59" etc. I wonder if there is one that might pass as a bass amp.

I dont have a clue what Im doing you know. Its just trial and error.

Kebabkid · June 2018

Try a Bassman and maybe some compression

pintspiller · June 2018

Behringer BDI is great and easy on the pocket. Or the GDI will so do guitar and bass.

Winny_Pooh · June 2018

Simplest solution is to buy a Bass Sansamp

Bridgehouse · June 2018

Winny_Pooh said:

Simplest solution is to buy a Bass Sansamp

Quite spendy tho. Agreed it's a good solution.

wrinkleygit · June 2018

if you can find one the old korg Pandora px4d is a really useful piece of kit for guitar & bass

barryd · June 2018

Thanks folks. More money!!! FFS!

The Bass purchase last week was almost the Divorce courts so anything else and ill be out on the street.

ITs ok though. I couldnt sneak the bass in the house but I could easily get one of those little pedals past her.

Any road up. Ive had a couple of hours fart about. I dont think it helps that my PC monitors are a not that beefy. Good sound but it all sounds much better through my other PC which has a 2:1 with a Sub under the desk. However I did several tests and the results were interesting.

Just through the M Audio with no effects its a bit dull, a bit quiet and not very bassey. Through the G3 with effects but no amp it sounds better but not very deep. Well it is a lead guitar pedal.

However when I bought my bass second hand it came with a 15w Fender Rumble Bass Amp (well it was pretty much thrown in) so I plugged into that, put the phones outlet into the G3 and added reverb, maybe chorus and a bit of equaliser and there was that sound I Was after. However there is a lot of hiss that way which of course I can remove in Audacity and it sounded ok but worra fart about.

One of these pedals presumably will do what the bass amp is doing then?

ICBM · June 2018

(Edit - found a pic of the back. No Line Out jack.)

Try connecting the headphone out to the audio interface directly, not via the G3. That should produce much less hiss. If you then want reverb etc, add that at the computer.

Bridgehouse · June 2018

barryd said:

Thanks folks. More money!!! FFS! The Bass purchase last week was almost the Divorce courts so anything else and ill be out on the street. ITs ok though. I couldnt sneak the bass in the house but I could easily get one of those little pedals past her.

Any road up. Ive had a couple of hours fart about. I dont think it helps that my PC monitors are a not that beefy. Good sound but it all sounds much better through my other PC which has a 2:1 with a Sub under the desk. However I did several tests and the results were interesting.

Just through the M Audio with no effects its a bit dull, a bit quiet and not very bassey. Through the G3 with effects but no amp it sounds better but not very deep. Well it is a lead guitar pedal.

However when I bought my bass second hand it came with a 15w Fender Rumble Bass Amp (well it was pretty much thrown in) so I plugged into that, put the phones outlet into the G3 and added reverb, maybe chorus and a bit of equaliser and there was that sound I Was after. However there is a lot of hiss that way which of course I can remove in Audacity and it sounded ok but worra fart about.

One of these pedals presumably will do what the bass amp is doing then?

Exactly that - and in a controlled, tweakable way with no background hum/hiss.

TBH it would actually sound much better than the amp and will be more adjustable.

Kebabkid · June 2018

My Zoom B3 would do that and you're already familiar with that kind of format from the G3

blobb · June 2018

Can recommend the EDEN wtdi. Has a balanced output for hum free injection to your interface. Pre-amp, compressor, tone controls etc... sounds like a proper bass amp on recordings.

Funkfingers · June 2018

barryd said:
I dont think it helps that my PC monitors are a not that beefy. Good sound but it all sounds much better through my other PC which has a 2:1 with a Sub under the desk. However I did several tests and the results were interesting.

Computer 2:1 loudspeaker arrays with a sub-woofer are designed for gamers. To get a dramatic sound from such small drivers, the low frequencies are boosted to a ridiculous degree.

In plain English, computer-oriented 2:1 'speakers are not suitable for critical monitoring of music content.

barryd said:
added reverb

Why?

Reverb rarely enhances bass guitar very much. More often than not, it makes the lower frequencies indistinct.

One solution is to divide the bass guitar signal and only apply reverb processing to the high frequencies. Another is to apply a short delay with modulation. (Instant Jaco Pastorius.)

On the Zoom G3, try to find a clean DI preset as a starting point. Compression or limiting will help with recorded level control. Equalisation at the correct frequencies will improve the definition of your bass sound.

barryd said:
It's just a cheap Peavey Millennium Bass.

All of my comments assume that the basic sound of the Peavey bass guitar is to your liking. It is possible that your computer is making extremely faithful recordings of a duff instrument.

barryd said:

More money!!!

Indeed. In your position, I would begin with fresh strings and a decent set-up for the bass.

barryd · June 2018

Bridgehouse said:

barryd said:

Thanks folks. More money!!! FFS! The Bass purchase last week was almost the Divorce courts so anything else and ill be out on the street. ITs ok though. I couldnt sneak the bass in the house but I could easily get one of those little pedals past her.

Any road up. Ive had a couple of hours fart about. I dont think it helps that my PC monitors are a not that beefy. Good sound but it all sounds much better through my other PC which has a 2:1 with a Sub under the desk. However I did several tests and the results were interesting.

Just through the M Audio with no effects its a bit dull, a bit quiet and not very bassey. Through the G3 with effects but no amp it sounds better but not very deep. Well it is a lead guitar pedal.

However when I bought my bass second hand it came with a 15w Fender Rumble Bass Amp (well it was pretty much thrown in) so I plugged into that, put the phones outlet into the G3 and added reverb, maybe chorus and a bit of equaliser and there was that sound I Was after. However there is a lot of hiss that way which of course I can remove in Audacity and it sounded ok but worra fart about.

One of these pedals presumably will do what the bass amp is doing then?

Exactly that - and in a controlled, tweakable way with no background hum/hiss.

TBH it would actually sound much better than the amp and will be more adjustable.

Thanks. That sounds like the way to go. One of those Behringer BDI boxes that Pintspiller recommended sounds cheap enough and looks pretty easy to mess about with. Im watching one on Ebay at the moment although they are only £35 delivered new. Clearly the Peavy Bass I bought has passive pickups so this will act as a pre amp as well as give me more tone control etc yes?

What else do I need? Oh yeah, to be able to play the ferkin thing

Bridgehouse · June 2018

A preamp/DI will certainly give you EQ control and allow for some boost which you won't get on a passive bass's tone controls.

I use a preamp/DI live and for recording and I think they are indispensable for a flexible bass tone

blobb · June 2018

wot @Funkfingers said.

Freebird · June 2018

Bass Guitar > Interface DI > Helix Native (or similar amp VST)

Bridgehouse · June 2018

Freebird said:

Bass Guitar > Interface DI > Helix Native

£ > £££ > ££

compared to the OPs bass...!

blobb · June 2018

...although, OP already has a bass and an interface and guitar rig player is free with a couple of bass pre-sets. Shit speakers are shit speakers though no matter how you look at it.

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Recording Bass getting a good sound

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