aa - week 9 - bass guitar

EDIT: i've just updated file links AGAIN.
so sorry, i am bloody annoyed. If they still don't work, here is the folder they're all in.17 may 2007



This week’s assignment. Record a bass guitar[1].

I went into the studio with Freddie May and Ben Cakebread using the pictured bass and amp.

The signal from the bass guitar was split by the Behringer DI, with one signal going into ProTools and the other into the bass amp. The amp was mic’d using a Shure Beta52A about ½ inch away from the amp aligned to the center of the speaker cone, and an AKG C414 was placed about 5 ft away in the direct path of the speaker. The C414 was routed through the Avalon pre-amp, then via a bus to a compressor.

We also patched the bass through the junction box so as to play in the control room.

The first 3 samples were recorded simultaneously.

f b 1 Beta52A.mp3 - Shure Beta52A

f b 1 C414.mp3 - AKG C414

fb 1 DI.mp3 - Behringer DI

The two mics captured the preferable sound, this I assume was because of the amp settings which coloured the sound quite strongly compared to the direct signal. Suggesting that eqing the DI could result in a good sound.

The Beta52A is much clearer and crisper. The C414 has a much roomier/muddier sound which would sound better in a looser spacier setting, the compression also reveals itself to be a bit too strong – more noticeably in the next recordings.

The next two samples are also simultaneous recordings.

f b 2 Beta52A.mp3. The C414 has very noticeable compression.

f b 2 C414. Mp3. Again the Beta52A has the crisper/clearer sound.

These recordings show that recording effected signal can be problematic. The compression settings which were good for one moment, were not good for later moments. Messing about with the bass and not playing consistently made for to much variation pre-compressor.

Overall I think the Beta52A had a good sound direct to recording, capturing the tone and extra buzzing very nicely (I like the buzzing).

[1] Fieldhouse, Steve. Electric guitar recording technique. University of Adelaide, 08 May 2007.