Hello all! I have a set of questions regarding setup of home recording. I see a lot of people posting videos of their playing, but for the life of me I can’t seem to figure out how to do it correctly with decent quality. Maybe I’m overthinking it.
My Current Home Bass/Sound Setup:
1.) Fender Rumble 40 practice amp
2.) Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB-C to high-end Windows PC (Win 11)
3.) Adobe Audition DAW
So, assuming I know how to basically navigate the DAW itself, how does this look wired up? What connects to what so I can a) hear myself play and b) record to Audition with a clear signal while playing the backing track at the same time?
I don’t expect 100% knowledge of my exact setup, of course, but this is all new to me and though I understand it doesn’t need to sound like a professional recording, I want it to at least sound decent while not being a massive burden to run. Thanks in advance for any help.
Easiest would be to connect the computer to the audio interface via USB, using it for both audio in and out, plug the bass in to the audio interface directly, hang headphones off the interface headphone out, and ignore the bass amp. These days amps are pretty useless for home recording.
If you don’t want to use headphones, investing in good studio monitor speakers is a good idea.
And how do I play the song so I can play along? Through the DAW I use, in this case Audition? I may want something easier to use because Audition can be a difficult and frustrating software to use. Any recommendations for an easy-to-use DAW? I know there are tons of options, but which one for a beginner? Thanks Howard.
I have the Focusrite connected via USB-C to the PC, so I’m good there. I have headphones (not great ones but they work) that connect to the Focusrite, so I’m good there. I will ignore the amp, but I’m struggling with how to play the song AND record my playing at the same time. Is that where the DAW comes in?
Logic and Reaper are both great for recording. Ableton works fine for it but is more tailored for overall music production; same for Bitwig.All have learning curves. I have never even heard of Audition so I don’t know anything about it to compare, sorry.
The only one I would avoid is Audacity as it is not really a DAW and if you later get serious about music production it will not work well at all compared to the others.
Yeah I hate Audacity anyway. Audition is Adobe’s product and it’s actually quite powerful and flexible. And since I already own it, I think I may figure out how to get this all to work there. I will check out both Logic and Reaper, thank you.
Hey Branden - I use Presonus Studio One 6 and am quite happy.
The interface is simple and it is very easy to integrate effects (I have BIAS FX, Amplitube and TH-U).
I really don’t want to be bothered with anything complex, so this software is exactly right for me! It feels like it’s made for (bass) guitar and singing, not for engineers.
PS You’ll get an usable version of Presonus Studio One free with most Presonus audio interfaces and can upgrade cheaply in case you need more features (which is unlikely, I guess).
Please note that I was unimpressed with the Presonus AudioBox USB 96 audio interface (I had issues with distortion), but it was worth it because of the included software. I use that software with my Motu M4 now…
I second using Reaper. It’s free to try (well technically you could use it for free for ever) and you can pay $60 (once-off) to get rid of the prompt at the start and if you like it, it seems a fair price to pay.
I’m on a Windows PC and it’s really easy to get started with. If you’ve got an audio track (eg mp3), you just drag and drop it from File Explorer into the track section and it’s there, ready to play along and be a part of your recording. Next add a track for your bass and “arm it” (red circle/target looking thing). You can use your bass with just direct entry (ie no effects/amps) . For a free plugin to get you started with an amp, you could try the SHB-1 from Ignite Amps (IGNITE AMPS - Engineering for the moshpit)
Reaper mania is an awesome YouTube channel for help and there is heaps of help guides at the reaper website.
This is a recent video on the latest release of Reaper (v7)
TBH I am probably going back to it too. I use both it and Logic right now. Reaper just gets the job done better for me than other DAWs I have tried, and is rock solid stable. Logic has weird bugs for me that are pretty uncharacteristic of an Apple product, frankly.
Logic does have a great UI though (when it works; still cannot resize plugin windows without them losing keystrokes).
If you have extra cash, look into the Katana amps for bass. The 110 and 210. Both are set up for practice studio and live gigs (the 110 for smaller gigs). Can record directly to a lap top and Boss has many free down load software to get going. Amd they sound great and come with built in effects that can be changed and swapped out via Boss Tone Studio app. I love my Katana 110. Performs and sounds great!
