How to Record Myself (sound and image) Playing Bass to Backing Track

I want to do something simple, yet I am confused as to how to achieve it. I want to record myself playing bass to backing tracks (from my Mac) or lessons from bassbuzz (I use the internet through my TV). My iPhone is horrible for the sound part, only really picking up the backing track or lesson. Someone recommended the Focusrite Scarlett interface, and said to plug my bass into that, record my music (but it won’t get the backing track coming from my Mac or lesson playing off the TV [Internet], right?) and then take my iPhone video and mix the two together. Sounds like a lot of work to just record little ol’ me fumbling through a lesson (I want to see my progress over time). Any ideas to keep this simple?

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Welcome to the forum @NathalieT.

There’s a few threads going that address this topic that may be helpful for you. Here’s a good place to start:

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Thanks! Forgot to mention that I have the Fender Rumble 40 bass amp, if that fits at all into the equation.

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Excellent choice!

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Another thread about pretty much the same topic:

Probably more to be found using the forum search function!

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Hi @NathalieT,
If you have a Mac ,
The easiest way is to drop the track into garageband and record a second track running parallel to it.
You can get a cheap digital audio interface and plug your bass directly into it, it plugs into your Mac, then you plug headphones into the Mac and listen to the track you are playing along with.
I use photo booth to video myself while recording and then mix the recorded music and video together using iMovie,
If you click on one of my covers and go to the website, Bill @Lanny has a full tutorial on how to record using Mac , garageband,
Hope this helps,
Cheers Brian

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I use the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and my iphone 11pro. It works awesome, but it took a lot of research to get the right cables I needed to make it happen. I use a PC so I have the 2i2 connected via USB.
2. I use this splitter that goes to the L and R at the back of the 2i2


3. I connect the microphone end of this TRS splitter to the one in the pic above and the other end goes into my iphone via the little dongle adapter (since my phone doesn’t have a headphone jack input)

I hope that makes sense LOL. If you have any questions, you can PM me. It looks more confusing than it is, but it works perfect. Sound comes directly from the 2i2 into my phone and is crystal clear. You might need to adjust the settings on the 2i2 to get it how you want, but that’s how I do it.

Hey Brian, This is currently what I am doing as a way to learn covers even more efficiently. However my question is, do you use a backing track without the original bass, or do you just play your bass overtop of the track’s bass? Hope that makes sense. Thanks!

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If you just want better sound than your phone but not have the headache of editing audio and video together you can get an external mic for your phone. It won’t sound great, but better than the phone.
I use the shure MV88… or used to use u til I figured out how to edit my audio and video together.

Hi @anscrenci, welcome to the forums! Many people recording covers remove or reduce the volume of the original bass line, either using EQ or through a “smart” solution such as https://moises.ai or http://splitter.ai (my favorite).

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Thanks Mike! Do you own all of the music you use in order to put them into those softwares?

Yes. Typically you have to buy or “download” the songs you want to use. I buy them unless it’s a song I’ve had since Napster days.

Thanks everyone! I feel this will help me tremendously in practice. Appreciate it!

I remove the bass track from original song in GarageBand and record my bass over the top.
@Griff has a tutorial on it.
Reach out if you need help with anything
Cheers Brian