This might have been also from double tracking?
When you take the bass out of some songs the “oomph” is gone and a single bass track just isn’t good enough to replace it. Many times it doesn’t matter but in this “bass forward” tune I felt I needed a beefier low end so doubled it.
I had it off then put it on thinking “if Marcus Miller wanted it there there must be a reason”. The reason is playing further back on the pickups helps for a certain tone. But, this isn’t always what you want. Plucking in front of the cover is way too muddy, however, I’m doing some slap courses and this bass is awesome for slap up and the pickup cover acts as a great guide for your hand/palm to rest or find a “home position”. I think if I feel the need to play at the neck pickup I’ll grab a different bass. This one is meant to have it in for sure.
I think that the pickup cover is a perfect thumb rest for @John_E I was watching him floating the hand up and down and when he got back to the top it rested perfectly.
I like compressor for a few things I’m not sure I’d necessarily want it on my cover all the time. I know you can fine tune the dynamics but going raw audio is easier for me lol.
Can someone explain how this is done? I assume it’s more than just copying the single track into 2. Do you record it twice and play them simultaneously? Do you copy and modify the initial track? This thread probably isn’t the place, but can someone explain a little about this? Thanks much…
Don’t know the ‘right way’, but here is what I do.
I do one of two things…
two audio tracks from my DAI, same input
two audio tracks from my DAI, different inputs
#1 - start with one track, get the gain/compression/etc where I want it, then duplicate the track. This gives more volume, so have to rebalance the gain. In this case, I EQ’ed on track differently and left the other one. Why? Dunno, sounded good in the end, lol
#2 - i run one input from my amp XLR output and another from one of my preamp pedals XLR outputs, esp the B7K which has programmable cab sims etc. The second input only differs in the cab sim, but sometimes makes a big difference.
I just play around until it sounds good.
I suppose one day after doing it enough I will have more rhyme or reason to it.
I don’t do it all the time, only when the AI software takes out too much low end and things don’t sound right (sometimes I ignore this stuff in the challenge songs though, because, well they are not what I am trying to make sound perfect).
The two tracks seem to give the bass more presence and fatness to the low end. I wouldn’t call it chorus @Al1885 - as they are basically identical tracks so no slight differences to create a chorus effect, however, changing one vs. the other enough will surely get you this.
That was so good!! I think this might be my favorite cover you’ve done and that’s saying a lot. Love the tone, groove is really tight, the fact that you can’t tell it’s double tracked shows how tight you kept things, while thickening up for sure. Fantastic start to 2023 @John_E!
Actually, when I double track I record track one then play it again on track two, the slight variations and timing create a natural chorus effect, you just have to remember to play the same fills, lol.
This was a very popular method of recording back in the days. It was a known secret that Jaco did this to all of his album tracks.
If you’re referring to Norah Jones, she is neither foreign nor obscure.
She was born in New York but grew up in Dallas. She’s sold millions of albums and has won or been nominated for awards all over the world. And her father was Ravi Shankar.
In other news @John_E I was playing your cover to my wife on the Ipad. She’s super impressed; but when the song started the dog started nodding her head in time to the bass.
It took me like a week, but I’m finally caught up on this thread. Lot’s of great covers in the last month. Very cool! Hopefully I’ll have time to contribute again soon.
It doesn’t have to be much more than that, but it is a little more than that
I do double tracking in one of three ways, from hardest to easiest:
Record the line twice in separate tracks. I usually have alternate takes for most of a song so this isn’t too bad, but this is not the method I would recommend.
Copy and paste the track into a separate track, and either detune it a tiny amount, add a little phase delay, or both. This can sound really cool and gets the job done just fine.
Just use a plugin (I like MDoubleTracker) on a single track. This is all I usually do now.
Double tracking is a really easy way to make things sound “bigger” and works great on vocals, bass, and guitar. Synths you usually just build this in to your patch so it is less needed.