Best sounding 'thing' to record bass?

Jonathanthomas83

Subjective indeed, but what is a good tool to use to get bass sounding great on recordings? I have no preamp of any kind as I sold my Kemper. But I say thing because maybe I'll be better off with a HX Stomp rather than a preamp plugin of some kind. Or maybe I just need a darkglass pedal. What is everyone using?

Bear in mind, I'm a guitarist trying to record bass. So the simpler the better.

Rich210

Two-note le bass? All the interface and great tone, and a pretty decent speaker emulation. I replaced the chinese pre valve for a tung-sol equivalent which was a good shout. 

Jonathanthomas83

Good shout, that.

pintspiller

Behringer BDI. Or Behringer GDI at a push.

Rich210

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Good shout, that.

Have a look at a compressor pedal too. Although you can compress in post production. I picked up a mark bass compressore for £100 which superb.

A parametric EQ might be useful. The Le Bass can get some very naughty distortion, and lovely phat tones. No aux in though. 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

I've used my HX Stomp straight into the desk for my band's two singles - sounds great IMO! (Possibly slightly biased...)

Funkfingers

D.I. through a good limiter. You can always re-amp later. IMO, deliberate analogue tape saturation helps.

Danny1969

I've always just DI'ed the bass then put a Sansamp plugin on it. Sometimes we reamped it back out the control room into an Ampeg SVT and mic'ed that but it was only a bit better than the Sansamp

Just bear in mind if you over compress it in the way in you can't undo it so I've always gone for a cleanish signal for most music .... distorted bass aside 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

I should add, I used the Stomp with my own presets, but we used a split signal into the desk - one from the Stomp, one totally dry DI'd. Most of the sound is my Stomp, but the recording engineer used the Helix Native on the dry signal for some extra tweaking to the overall sound. Either way, it's all Helix one way or another. Have a listen if you like...

Musicwolf

I don't play so much bass these days (I started as a bass player).  When I do it's usually into the Kemper then record onto two tracks.  One with amp'd sound from the Kemper (really just to give me some 'feel' whilst I'm tracking) and a clean DI (taken from the Kemper pre-profile).  More often than not I'll end up just using the clean DI'd sound and passing that through an amp sim in the DAW.  If truth be told I the main reason for working with just the DI'd track is that these days I have to do so many edits (these are usually bass lines that I'm writing as I record) that it's just easier to work with one track.

Some years ago, pre-Kemper, I would use a Behringer GI100 DI box with 4x12 switch engaged. Of all the Behringer gear that I've owned, and regretted, over the years the GI100 is the only thing that I've kept.  It just seemed to work for me on bass.

guitarfishbay

Budget?

If it’s a passive bass a nice DI box like an RNDI (active basses are typically less picky as long as you’ve got enough headroom) and then Neural DSP Darkglass, Ampeg SVX 2, and the Ownhammer Ampeg pack. Helix Native plugin is also nice for bass too with lots of options.

If you want to buy a hardware pedal whichever Darkglass you like the sound of most would be my first suggestion.

Jonathanthomas83

Budget would be the cost of a darkglass or Two Notes pedal or less, I don't mind the spend.

Messing with the Darkglass plugin today which is cool but I'm not keen on distorted bass, I'm a bit more old school clean bass. But I may become a cropper if that's the sort of sound that gets lost in the mix. But I'm tending to set the plugins quite clean. 

Also tried the Plugin Alliance Ampeg plugins which sound great. 

None of which cut through the mix like my old Kemper profile, which was an Ampeg profile, from what I remember. Could be the track I'm working on and maybe I need to make more room for the bass...but I'm shit at this stuff and it's completely new to me.

None of the plugins I've tried feel as real as the Kemper, so maybe I need to try the Two Notes or a Helix Stomp. 

Unfortunately I've run out of days on the Parallax plugin which I thought sounded good a few months ago, shame I can't try it on this new track or against these plugins. And I don't have a chance to try helix native either.

LastMantra

How do you record guitar? 

Jonathanthomas83

LastMantra said:

How do you record guitar? 

Amp > Suhr Reactive Load > two notes Cab M > Daw

LastMantra

Jonathanthomas83 said:

LastMantra said:

How do you record guitar? 

Amp > Suhr Reactive Load > two notes Cab M > Daw

Does that not work for bass?

Jonathanthomas83

I've not got a bass amp. And assume that the Laney Lionheart won't sound good with bass...though I've never tried it.

markv

Tech21 Sansamp Classic? I'm about as far from being an expert as possible, but it works well for me and I've heard that it's used by pros in studios too.

guitarfishbay

You don’t have to run the DG pedals/plug-ins very distorted unless you want to. The Vintage sounds good for a bit of a warmth

Jonathanthomas83

guitarfishbay said:

You don’t have to run the DG pedals/plug-ins very distorted unless you want to. The Vintage sounds good for a bit of a warmth

Ok, so I didn't realise there was a Vintage mode on Darkglass...found it! That mode is right up my street! Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

@guitarfishbay Next question. Is it pointless paying for the pedal (the Vintage Ultra) if I can get the plugin for £99? What's your experience of the actual pedals, do they bring a better sonic quality to the table that makes it worth it? I'm not opposed to buying a pedal, but if there isn't a massive difference between the pedal and plugin, I may not have to bother.

And last question. As this is just a preamp and speaker sim, am I missing out on something by not having a power amp of some kind (emulation or otherwise) in the mix? (This is why a pedal into the power amp sim on my Two Notes CAB M would be great) Or am I missing something obvious?

Many thanks.

LastMantra

Jonathanthomas83 said:

I've not got a bass amp. And assume that the Laney Lionheart won't sound good with bass...though I've never tried it.

Not think it would be worth a try? 

Jonathanthomas83

LastMantra said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

I've not got a bass amp. And assume that the Laney Lionheart won't sound good with bass...though I've never tried it.

Not think it would be worth a try? 

Ha, maybe, I was afraid of blowing things up. If it's safe then, yeah defo!