Today was Bass day. Bass is essential to a song because as well as the drums is acts as a foundation to a song. The guitarists and Vocalists can do whatever they want to a song but if you have a sloppy Rhythm section then your whole song will just sound like it’s falling apart. There are a number of ways we can record Bass guitar – Using Mics up against the bass amp and we can also DI (Direct Injection) the bass, so that it goes straight from the amp into the desk. This minimises any interference you might get when recording using mics. DI’ing an Instrument is good when you’re recording in a loud environment and you want to cut out all excess sound that is just not needed. Using Mics to record Bass also has it’s advantages because it can help capture that live element and it can also catch the human aspect of playing an instrument, something you might lose if you just use a DI Box to record Bass. A mixture of the two (DI +Mics) will give you the best of both worlds.
The equipment that we used was an AKG D112 (Dynamic) Microphone and a AKG 414 (Condenser) Microphone and a DI Box, that I mentioned earlier. When using the 414 we need to make sure that there’s no low end roll off because we want all the low frequencies left in because Bass is obviously known for it’s low tones. Using a bright 414 against a Darker D112 (Known for being used on Bass Drums) gives us a nice mixture of the two for when we go to mix down our final product. We also used a Bass Guitar that had Hum Bucker picks ups which means it picks up less interference which makes everything easier when you come to Mix Down the final track.
When recording into Pro Tools we used a technique called ‘Pre Roll’ which means you don’t have to do a whole take it one go, you can drop into the project from any point and record from there, which makes it easier when you want to record just a chorus or just a verse so you don’t lose a good take.
