Recording yourself

Gear
21

I know! Sebastiaan wrote this (as should be evident), and played the bass on it too.

I think I’ll have to have a go at transcribing it myself…

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A DAI is basically a dedicated sound card in a box connected via USB. What it will get you over the line in on a sound card:

  • More (and more appropriate, connector-wise) inputs and outputs
  • Less noise
  • Usually a clean neutral gain preamp/boost
  • Direct headphone monitor out, usually with a separate volume control
  • For good ones, a lot more flexibility - for example with mine you can record, monitor, and send to your amp, in any combination, with level controls on each
  • No need for your amp to be in front of the input
  • If you use a mic, they usually provide phantom power

What you will lose:

  • Money, they aren’t free like your sound card :slight_smile:
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23

I’m not sure if this is the right place for this post, but I have a question about recording myself playing songs. I have my bass connected to a GT-1B, which is in turn connected to my PC laptop. When I record using the default video recorder, it picks up my bass from the GT-1B, but not the track I’m playing with. I tried downloading a video editor so I could sync up the mp3 with the video of me playing, but I’m not very good at manually adjusting the mp3 in the editor to line up with what I’m playing in the video. I manage to get within half a second or so, but never exact. That being said, how do I record myself through the GT-1B, and record the track I’m playing at the same time so I don’t have to rely on a video editor to sync everything up?

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I think most employ a DAW to bring together your bass recording and your backing track. This also allows you to tweak the levels to suit your tastes. Note this means that both need to be recorded as audio tracks.

I use Ableton Live Lite (a freebie) and I drop the backing track into that. Then I record directly to that whilst it’s playing the backing track - standard mixing process. Then I take the produced soundtrack and merge that into the video with a video editor.

One tip for aligning is to have a timing beat intro that is loud enough for the camera to pick up giving you something to align them with.

I think you have to get at least the basics of video editing and DAWs to get a good recording going. If you search on here there is a thread somewhere dedicated to instructing you on the basic of self recording.

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25

Thank you very much!

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Ah I found it! This is the, highly regarded, instruction video.

(Note that one of the authors, Pam, passed on recently, @John_E however is still very much around :smiley: )

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I was looking all over for the thread you mentioned. Thank you so much for finding it!! I was having no luck.

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RIP @PamPurrs - we miss you

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That we do!

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I’m going to post this cover here instead of in the “Post your covers” thread because it isn’t me doing the playing. “Jason” has posted 100s of very good covers over the years (502 and counting). Recently, he changed the camera angle from the front to over his shoulder (the bass player’s view). I think it’s really effective. Here’s his most recent release to give you an idea. And check out his offer in the description. It’s a bargain. Full tabs in PDF form, 2 files, one with notation and tab and one with just notation.