Thanks for elaborating, @LesterH! I think you are absolutely right: there are a number of us in here that get just a little too giddy and carried away with equipment, while you can, of course, get great tones also out of less expensive equipment! As far as I recall, you always have a great tone in your videos I am not an expert on Geddy Lee, but I think he is a rather percussive player, which of course also adds to his tone (maybe not so much on Tom Sawyer!?!)
As has been noted before, the production level of the (video) covers in here has really been going up lately, and that is a bit of a challenge. Personally, I would prefer to focus on the playing (and tone) rather than the video too much. Itās great if you can do it, but I know from myself how frustrating it is to get both the audio and the video in good quality at the same time, and so some of us also record them both separately and put them together later. In the end, as said, the music should be the focus.
But, apart from your tone, my question earlier was mostly about how to produce a good background track, especially when the original bass/bassline is all over the fretboard. I guess there is really no good way, and as I often get attracted to pieces that use the entire real estate of the fretboard (as opposed to ājustā using the business end within the first five frets), I am struggling to find background tracks for the covers I might want to try.
That all said, I think this thread is off to an awesome start alreadyā¦ and weāve only had three days this year so far
@joergkutter agreed. I mix the video and the audio separately. When I record the track I need to get a program like rx8 to drop the bass completely maybe soon.
My camera I use is not that great either lol
What I typically do when I record is find a tune to learn then I record the original track into Logic Pro as an audio file, then create a separate track for my bass, I rehearse with the audio track for a while and then EQ the bass out the best I can and record my bass over it and mix it somewhat. Then I record the video and mix everything together in iMovie or Final Cut Pro which I am still learning. As one might say I have the face for radio so I am not comfortable with video recording lol
I donāt think it works for tracks where you get above, say, the 7th fret and on the higher stringsā¦ You can download a demo for RX8 and I have tried a bit, but as far as I can see, there is no way, the algorithm picks out a bass melody played up on the neck as being part of the ābassā that needs to be filtered out. It didnāt work for my āSo Far Awayā cover, but there I could find a ākaraokeā backtrack, which is basically recorded again by other musicians where you can choose to mute individual instruments as needed. That is not likely to be available for, e.g., Rush or most of the stuff I am interested in
Iām not so sure about that @joergkutter, but you may be right and I never noticed on my RX8. Give me an example of a song like that and Iāll download it and try it out. Iāll post the stripped bass version when Iām done to see what everyone thinks
Thanks, @PamPurrs! Well, the first was Carole Kingās āSo Far Awayāā¦ @gcancella gave it a shot with his RX8, but it was not doable.
Now, I am looking at another song for a cover with similar challengesā¦ I wonāt reveal it yet though (just like you ), but I could PM you if you wanted to give it a try with the ReBalancerā¦
Hi Bass Buzz friends,
Please find link to a cover I did in October last year, I had a few issues with the file size so decided to use the Vimeo platform to share.
This is one of my favourite Eagles tracks that features original bass player Randy Meisner on vocals.
Try and Love again was penned by Randy and features on the Hotel California album released in 1976.
As usual all feedback is appreciated
Enjoy,
Keep on Rocking,
Cheers Brian
What can I say, @TNKA36!? You make it look so easy! You know what you are playing and that shows! And even that little glitch towards the end, you get out of elegantly without losing the groove
Thank you for the feedback Jerry @JerryP, one of my favourites as-well, Joerg @joergkutter, it wasnāt till I played it after uploading that I picked the glitch up, I recorded it in October but due to the file size had been unable to compress enough to upload to the āBand of many namesā, so I tried the Vimeo platform, uploaded yesterday and saw the issue, I wasnāt going to go back and re record and mix it again, Iām working on my next track at the moment so all my focus is on itš.
I may go back one day and redo it perfectly Mac @Mac, fretboard hand stretches are good for dexterity Howard @howard, I really like the tone from the black P, Iām probably enjoying playing it more than the old natural P at the moment Pam @PamPurrs, Yes Pam we both share the loveš,Lester @LesterH,thanks Lesterš
Cheers Brian
I have been playing with some new iZotope mixing and mastering plugins that I like a lot, so I went back and remastered Temptation and Procession and reuploaded.
These new plugins really helped bring out the individual instruments, both sound way better to me.
Plus hopefully I might be getting a little better at it (itās not easy )
Nothing you havenāt seen before in this thread but here they are.
Great cover! Really loving the tone of that P with those flats Is it me, or the camera angle, or are you really blessed with enormous, bass playerās hands? Either way, Iām impressed by your stretches! You make it look so effortless.
My friend and I back with our first cover of the year
Our cover of Disorder, by Joy Division.
This is one of my favorite songs. In fact this and Temptation are my two favorite songs; Temptation was #1 until I couldnāt listen to it for a few years out of emotional association, so Disorder took its place as #1 for a while.
Weāre not completely happy with the ending yet, which is unfortunate as these guys are really good at ending songs. Iāll probably retrack some of the vocals, and it will end up getting reuploaded at some point, but this is getting close and weāre really happy with most of it, so what the hell.
Bass: Yamaha TRBX604FM
Guitar: Gretsch 5120
Drums: Steven Slate Drums 5
Mic: Shure PGA-58
Plugins: many; amp sims by Kuassa and Native Instruments, chorus by MeldaProductions, multiband processing and compression by Kilohearts, mastering and mixing by iZotope, several others
Iāve notice that too, and @TNKA36 Brian is lucky to have them. With my puny hands, I can barely span three frets, so you may have noticed in my covers I do a lot of micro-shifting. We all have to play the cards that are dealt to us, as they say.
I am not an expert on Geddy Lee, but I think he is a rather percussive player, which of course also adds to his tone (maybe not so much on Tom Sawyer!?!)
Mac 
)
Is it me, or the camera angle, or are you really blessed with enormous, bass playerās hands? Either way, Iām impressed by your stretches! You make it look so effortless.