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(A useful guide to electric bass setup can be found at .org/.) As for upright, although tuning the instrument is straightforward, deeper maintenance is best left to an artisan who specializes in stringed instruments. Like tuning pianos, the process is nothing to be trifled with by mere mortals.
After setting up the bass for optimal player experience, make sure that the strings are new. Newer strings will better exhibit the upper harmonics and sound brighter. Bass strings come in a number of varieties, including round wound, half-wound, round core, hex core, tapered core, stainless steel, nickel and nylon wrapped. A quick trip to .com will get you up to speed on the latest product trends. Each variety will alter the timbre, giving the player the tonal edge or ability to sit in the mix that they strive for. Knowing the personality of the instrument's many colors only increases the chances that you, the engineer, will achieve stellar results. Strings for the upright bass range from stock steel or tungsten strings to the more esoteric custom gut strings, some costing more than $100 each. These are chosen according to the player's preference for a sharper attack with longer sustain or for a more blunt attack with a shorter envelope.
KNOW YOUR INSTRUMENT
Knowing the player's instrument, style and tone will help you choose the proper mics, DIs and signal chain to accentuate that sound. Mics and contact transducers can add a certain edge and tone that you can't get through a bass amp or DI alone. For instance, for his CD Soliloquy, bassist Michael Manring's instrument was recorded using a variety of transducers, including ceramic pickups, to flesh out the tone. (See "Case Study" sidebar, page 42.) Combining a variety of tones from various sources - recorded to their own tracks - gives you a wider sonic palette from which to choose when mixing. For example, a mic placed near the player's fingers, even on an electric bass, can provide the string noise that is lost through a pickup.
There are a lot of things you can tell from an engineering standpoint just by understanding the instrument. For instance, it goes without saying that the tone of the electric bass relies heavily on the pickups, but do you know how different pickups sound? For example, a stock Fender Jazz bass will have a lot of bottom and top end, but the same bass fitted with EMG pickups will have more midrange presence. Being able to relate to a player on his or her own level gives an engineer a lot of credibility.
Active basses have special electronics issues to consider: An active EQ or preamp makes the instrument's output hotter than that of a stock bass, greatly affecting tone. Also, a good way to keep your signal clean is to be sure that the battery has been changed prior to the session.
WHY DI?
Recording bass direct gives you the advantage of isolation, letting you place the player anywhere in the studio or control room. However, no two DI boxes are alike, and choosing the right unit for the job is important. The DI's basic job is to boost the level from a high-impedance instrument level signal down to a low-impedance mic level signal that can then be plugged into a mic preamp. Active DIs are powered through AC, phantom power or a battery; active units are further broken down into tube or transistor types, all of which have their own sets of features and sonic personalities.
On the other hand, passive DIs employ a simpler approach, using a transformer to get the job done. If you're recording an active bass, some DIs just won't handle the hot output; knowing the right product to use in this situation can save you a lot of time and headache in a session. (If you have limited resources, then choose a unit with a pad to give you the necessary headroom.) Like microphones, every DI has its own sound, so experimenting with a number of them will fill out your engineering bag of tricks.
At the most basic feature level, you can usually count on a DI having a pad, polarity flip button and a throughput, which allows you to send bass output into an amp. Some active DIs, such as A Designs' REDDI and Groove Tubes' Ditto, offer some degree of gain, sometimes allowing you to plug directly into a line-level input. Millennia's TD-1 is a DI/preamp/EQ/re-amper/splitter in one box. You can also rely on a high-quality mic preamp combo unit that has a DI input - such as the Millennia STT-1, GML 2032 or the Avalon 737 - to get the job done. These all-in-one solutions not only give you a great-sounding way to make the jump to low impedance, but also supply the mic preamp, compressor and an EQ. If you have multiple instrument outputs, multichannel DIs such as Radial Engineering's JDI Duplex give you two DIs in one box. Radial's JDI single-channel unit acts as a passive mixer, allowing you to take a stereo input and sum it to a single, low-impedance mono output.
Some preamps and DIs provide variable impedance. Matching the DI's output impedance can boost level and tone while significantly reducing the noise floor. For example, the Little Labs Multi Z PIP Instrument preamp/DI/re-amper and the new Universal Audio 4110 mic preamps offer some degree of impedance switching with impressive results. Universal Audio preamps have an additional tone-shaping switch, adding even more variations. There are also some good DI/tone shapers for the home recordist, such as the Line 6 Bass POD and Tech 21 Bass Driver DI, both of which are inexpensive and have created a buzz on the home recording sites.
MIKING AN AMP
If you're recording an amp, you can mike the cabinet in the same way you would a guitar amp. For a comprehensive set of techniques for amp miking, check out "Recording the Band: Guitar Greatness," in the March 2005 issue of Mix or Mix's Seminars on Demand guitar recording tutorial at .com/sod.
When recording an amp, use a good power conditioner such as the Furman AR-1215 power conditioner/regulator to take out any distortion introduced through the power grid, which can have a profound effect on tone. This step is especially important in live situations where the power may be an unknown factor.
ACOUSTIC BASS
Although rarely used outside of "unplugged" live settings or on sessions where its specific tone is sought, the acoustic bass - that is, an acoustic electric bass that resembles a large guitar - is miked quite similar to an acoustic guitar. An X/Y array, single mic or ORTF pair work especially well. Some instrument models have internal electronics and pickups for live "unplugged" use but can sound thin. If you're recording live or for broadcast use, you can use a mini mic such as the DPA 4061, which comes with a mounting kit that includes sticky pads that can be attached anywhere on the guitar. In addition, the mic is so small, it can be actually mounted inside the instrument. Mixing this signal with the internal pickup can be the ticket to a fuller sound.
UPRIGHT CITIZEN
The upright bass is a beautiful instrument; using some very basic techniques, you can record it just right. Low-frequency energy emanates largely from the bottom of the instrument, so placing a single microphone near the floor not only gets you more low end, but takes advantage of the way the floor boundary naturally accentuates these frequencies. You can also pick up some very nice tones right where the player's hands pluck the strings. A second mic can be added here, at roughly the same distance from the instrument as the lower mic for phase continuity. The two signals can then be mixed together for the perfect blend of string sound and low end. Ribbon mics are especially good choices for this application, as they have a tendency to round out transients and render a "compressed" sound to the tone. A large-diaphragm condenser mic, such as a Neumann U67 or AKG C12, is a popular choice.
IN THE MIX
During mixing, it's key to decide the bass' role in relation to other low-frequency material. In a traditional jazz setting, the bass takes precedence over the kick drum, while kick may be accentuated more in other genres such as rock and pop. Because the bass and kick are usually panned center, placing the track away from other instruments sharing the same bandwidth is not an option, so the volume balance between the competing ingredients must be achieved with the fader or by EQ'ing the specific instruments for the perfect fit.
Allocating the right amount of room for bass in your mix can be tricky. If the bass is by itself or in a more sparse setting, the tone can be larger. If other sustained low-frequency material surrounds it, such as keyboard pads or electric guitars, spectral adjustments will have to be made to keep the mix from becoming a muddy mess. These adjustments are best made through a high-quality EQ or filter.
When mixing in a DAW, high-quality plug-in EQs - such as the MDW 5-band EQ or the URS A Series EQ - are excellent tools for adding bottom to the bass. In addition, Waves' MaxxBass or RBass subharmonic generating plug-in is a simple and very effective way to help out the low tone of any instrument in need, as are its Q Series EQs.
While plug-ins are easy to use, the hardware side imparts the greatest tonal variations to the low end. Whether it's the "iron" sound of a transformer or the harmonic distortion added by a real tube, to my ear, hardware is king. The beauty of a Pultec EQP-1A, API 550 or Manley Massive Passive can't be overstated. This sentiment also goes for compressors. Each LA-2A, Fairchild, Inovonics or 1176 has its own sonic signature, and they are all hard to beat. While the most frustrating thing about the vintage models is that they're all different, when you find "the one," it will be a treasure envied by any self-respecting tone-freak. A plug-in version of the same hardware, while consistent and often good enough, will always sound the same, and often "good enough" is just not the same thing.
The question of whether to use compression is one of personal taste. A compressor will provide an evenness of attack and dynamics, along with a change in the color of the instrument. The effect of the compressor is also greatly dependent on the instrument and the player's technique. So while you may develop a favorite technique, don't expect it to sound the same in every situation.
There are times when re-amping the bass signal is the best way to help boost the mix's bottom end. For example, getting bass amp isolation in a room can often be difficult because low frequencies are largely nondirectional. (The last thing you want is a bass amp leaking onto other tracks during a session.) This is where re-amping, using a special box specifically designed to take a low impedance signal back up to instrument level, is a smart decision. Adding the re-amped track later in the mix gives you the best of both worlds, letting you have the isolation of a DI when tracking, along with the added tone of a bass amp. Re-amping boxes from Little Labs, Millennia, Line 6 and Radial Engineering, among others, give you the tools you need to boost your signal impedance back up so you can plug it directly into an amp, which can then be miked and re-recorded or just run live for the mix.
Never dismiss the idea of recording bass as being as simple as plugging it in and hitting the red button. Experimenting with these tools and techniques will show you that bass is as capable, and deserving, of audio finesse as the other bandmembers. I'll close with the engineer's prayer: May your bottom always be big and round.
Kevin Becka is Mix's technical editor.
The Story Behind the Sound
"YOU'RE SO VAIN" BASS REBORN FOR JANET JACKSON HIT
Engineer David Rideau's job on Janet Jackson's Son of a Gun involved some audio super-sleuthing. The song contains parts of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain," including the rumbling signature opening bass line originally played by the late Klaus Voorman. Producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis gave Rideau the task of nailing the familiar tone for Jackson's retake. Ace . session bassist Alex Al got the call and showed up at the studio, Record One in Los Angeles, with a bevy of basses and the original CD. "The tone was a muffled style, very similar to the sound that Motown bassist James Jamerson made famous," says Rideau. "Not only was it difficult to cop the tone, but also the style, but if there was anyone that could do it, it was Alex."
Al and Rideau auditioned a number of basses, including a 1977 Fender P Bass, a 1968 Fender Jazz bass and the hands-down winner: a 1964 Fender Jazz bass. Rideau ran the bass through a custom passive DI with a Jensen transformer, and then into a Neve 1073 preamp, which ran directly to Pro Tools. Once signal was routed, Al proceeded to try various styles and techniques to capture the elusive tone until he came up with the idea of putting packing foam under the strings. After experimenting with various amounts of foam, they finally nailed it and the rest, as they say, is history. Mystery solved! - Kevin Becka
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