Hah! This particular case wasn’t hard for me to hear because I have just found this challenging myself in a couple mixes, and I opted for the other path (to make the drums stand out) because it worked better for the song. But you can really hear the compression on the drums.
This song has a lot of stuff going on down in the kick frequency range so to make it audible I had to raise the loudness of the drum track up in to the limiter a bit, compressing the crap out of the snare.
If I were going to mix it again I would break the kick out into a separate track and handle its loudness separately. That’s pretty common. Eh whatever, I’m still learning all this
and I always used to give our drummers a fit about not having a sledgehammer for a snare hand…I’ve got like a dozen apologies to make. I’ve got so much more to learn I’m making and mixing like it was 1959. I play all the instruments straight through no cut and paste the only effect I use is a little reverb, I sit everyone in the mix like they would be on a bandstand…adjust the levels and call it a day. I do duplicate the vocal track to add some thickness but thats it…LOL…I only just learned how to fade out.
Yeah it’s really amazing how much there is to learn about sound and mixing. I’m spending a lot of time on it right now and still at a pretty basic level. For compression and limiting, even just learning the difference between volume and loudness in a mix (and the tradeoff with dynamics) is eye-opening.
This is potentially another “world” that I have fully, utterly and totally underestimated with regards to what is involved and how much there is to learn
Add to that all the new technology that is constantly being developed to allow you to do things that were not really possible 20 or perhaps even 10 years ago.
Sad/funny story in this context: I played drums in this band about 25-30 years ago and we were mostly a garage band, but as it became clear that I was going to move to the US for a while, we wanted to record what we had. The bassist had a mixer and an 8-track Tascam for recording, and we managed to record the mic’ed drums and the keyboards directly and pretty much together, along with a dummy bass track. As the bass player had all the equipment, the reasoning was to get the drums and keyboards as good as we could, and he would then later add the real bass tracks.
Well, now, about 25 years later, there are still no “real bass tracks” Apart from the fact that “life” got in the way for the bass player as well, every time we’d see each other (about every other year around Christmas), he would go on about that new piece of hardware just coming out that would allow him to compress/mix/enhance/… our tapes so much better, so he was just waiting for the stuff to come down in price a bit… (Repeat every two years or so since )
At least, at some point, he transferred and digitized all the stems from cassette to computer, but even that he probably did reluctantly, as there always seemed to be a better digitizing technology/hardware just around the corner.
I guess that is also why even pros go back to their tapes from the 70s, 80s etc and re-master, re-digitize, and re-mix them every now and then…
This is amazing @kerushlow ! Really nicely done, you should be super pleased with that for your ‘debut’
So the thread took a little bit of a tangent from my original post but it’s all good content and I’m happy to spur on more conversation and music sharing!
I ended up buying the Zoom B1X Four, as it’s a cheaper end piece of kit I was worried it might sound like the Vox Amplug, which is passable just not great… But hey, for the money, I’m so amazed at what you can get out of it and that it actually feels and sounds like decent quality (to me).
My current setup is just the B1x Four connected to the Focusrite Solo. Haven’t given myself enough time with Ableton yet, but for now I’m just enjoying testing different styles, playing riffs over drum loops and recording them with Audacity to mess around with later. I’ll probably upload one of the recordings to the “practise clips” thread soon
Quick question though in case any of you might know, when connecting my (passive) bass directly to the Solo I know I have to enable the INST button… Is there a right/wrong/recommended option for when the Zoom output is fed into the interface instead? Not sure if that should be line or INST, whether it’s something that needs to be set right to avoid any damage or if it’s only likely to affect the overall sound?
Not specifically familiar with it, but passive bass just doesn’t have a preamp built into it that is powered by a battery. In recording all this tends to do with no adjustments is a reduction in volume/signal. If there is a button a company recommends for passive pickups, it likely has to do with a volume/signal boost.
Thanks! Everything else we have is at a pro studio with 1000s of dollars in cool recording equipment. On that song, if you factor in a few nice AKG mics and the 8 port Presonus it was close to just $1k in recording equipment. While there is an added cost to send to a pro sound engineer for a mix, you can get pretty good raw capture using that equipment.
“You get a great bass sound on your videos – what is your set-up?
My gear is nothing special. I use Zoom B3, it’s a multi-effects pedal that can also be used as an audio interface. I record the bass through the Zoom into Audacity and I add some compression and EQ to recorded bass track, but I just believe that tone is in the fingers.”
Now check out some of her very first videos in order to see if she is right.
What is your purpose? If your recordings are tools for improvement on your bass learning path, ergonomy comes first. Don’t let yourself distracted by too sophisticated technology. As for myself, I am happy having every piece of software I need for my practice sessions on my iPad placed on my music stand. With GarageBand and an iRig HD2, it is absolutely possible to keep a decent track of my practice sessions. Of course, if you want to produce nice-sounding pieces of music, it is a quite different cup of tea.
“Metallic” sound: playing direct to an interface or via the line out of a bass amp usually gives a more neutral (or even harsh) sound. If you like the sound of your amp, record it mic’ed. However, knowing what kind of noise we make while playing may be useful for improving our technique. But I fully agree that practice recordings should rather be an encouragement than a rude critic or our imperfections.
Although I use a different interface (U-phoria UMC204HD), there are line/inst switches on it just like on yours. When I plug my Zoom B3 in it, I switch to line as it sends a hotter signal as the instrument itself. Anyways, it is a good idea to set the gain on the interface by gradually increasing from 0 until before the clip led starts blinking when you play at maximum level.
Cheers for the remarks! I’ve seen a few videos from Juliaplaysgroove so it’s really cool to see more evidence of how people can still work wonders even with a really simple setup.
All I’m after at the moment is just playing for myself (since we can’t go anywhere at the moment!). My practise sessions are usually straight through an amp/interface to better hear what I want to keep refining, and now I have some effects just to add some extra fun to times that I just want to pick up the bass to explore. Starting to attempt more songs now so it’s also nice to be able to see how different tones are achieved to try and match, or even spice up, what I’m learining.
Happy you confirmed about the neutral/harsh sound when playing direct and also about the signal when playing through the Zoom, I just wanted to make sure that I’m not just getting hooked up on the matters for nothing. Thanks for all the tips @Chevee !
Recording direct captures every tone and harmonic your bass makes (which is exactly what you want.) It sounds kind of metallic, harsh and sharp compared to amped.
Which is fine, that’s what amp sims and cab sims are for - they take that direct sound and make it sound more natural and amped. There are free and cheap amp and cab sims that sound as good or better than amps up in the thousands of dollars. I like my current amp sims I am using much more than any amp I have played through in person (or am likely to).
There is a really nice ampeg sim, I can’t remember which one. But those amps sound amazing. These days amps are pretty much for Live performance…even then…you can get some good sounds DI into a PA and using a cab sim pedal. Live I think I still prefer the tone on a real amp, but you have to weigh that (no pun intended) against carrying a heavy head and cab around.
Plugin Alliance are currently offering an Ampeg SVT plugin for free if you sign up to them which I’ve nabbed. Like actually for free, not signing your soul away on a trial or anything
Hey @kerushlow I just bought a used presonus usb (the older version right before the 96) works great. However given it’s age the key code that comes with it was for Studio One 4 Artist. Not the worst but not the best, was wondering which version and edition this recording was? Also I have a few Studio One questions in general I can PM you about after. Thanks!
Nice! I just got my 96 right now. Setting it up. That recording was on 4 I want to say, it was before 5 was even out. I’m new to personally using it at home solo, but did the whole process with home equipment and the band. Ask away.
Free plugins happen all the time and yeah that’s when you want to grab them
Plugin Boutique has giveaways all the time. I mean literally, there is nearly always something free there, usually with purchase, but since purchases can be as low as a couple bucks…
Got a thread for this:
Never buy plugins unless they are on sale, that’s their real price.
Anyone have thoughts or experience with the Behringer U-Phoria? I have no strong requirements - I’m a beginner and would just be recording for myself… Is there a reason to spend more on a DAI? I intend to use Reaper or CakeWalk for the DAW, if it matters… Appreciate any input…
Apart from the fact that “life” got in the way for the bass player as well, every time we’d see each other (about every other year around Christmas), he would go on about that new piece of hardware just coming out that would allow him to compress/mix/enhance/… our tapes so much better, so he was just waiting for the stuff to come down in price a bit… (Repeat every two years or so since 
)
