Hey all, just bought my first bass, and was curious what kind of effect chains other people have found that they really like for getting a good bass sound through software? I've been playing it through a crappy bass amp and it actually sounds not half bad, but when I DI it into Live and run it through Amplitube or Overloud it sounds pretty crappy, so I was just hoping for some pointers from people who have found a setup, software wise, that they are happy with... thanks. Or what are some general tips?

 

Record it clean with Bass rider Live(input) and then patch with Softube Bass Amp...you're done.

Bass-Preamp-Bass Rider Live then after finished....insert softube bass amp...

This is what i do...Maybe others can help too.

 

When you say amplitube, do you mean Amplitube SVX?
Cause Amplitube SVX is the Ampeg bass amp sim from i.k multimedia, and it's pretty damn good tbh.

also , just in case, when plugged into amp are you louder than when thru computer?
Just sayin, if the bass amp is loud enough to not be hearing the playing noise from the bass, then u plug in to computer at a much lower volume and can hear the playing noise along with the output, it makes a pretty large difference to how you percieve the sound.

 

I'm sure we go to a lot of discussions with my following comment...
Many people think they are totally fine producing at 44.1Hz !

I really recommend to work at 88.2(music) or 96Hz(film/game) !
Later when you convert or dither you get best conversion and no artifacts,
because of the equal sample rate reduction just by half.
If you convert from 96Hz to 44.1 you have uneven numbers and get a lot of artifacts.

Effects like distortion and Reverb are best at higher sample rate,
because of better resolution and millions more information's in a sample.
Amps sound warmer and Reverbs become smoother too.
Everything sounds not so digital and grainy anymore.(for obvious reasons)
All effects benefit from higher sample rate, in general !

I also recommend to stay all the time at 32bit till the very end, the mastering.
The last thing to do is to dither the master to the final aimed sample rate.
For CD 44.1 and for games or film to 48HZ.

Read those:
http://theproaudiofiles.com/3-reasons-to-record-at-88-2-khz/
http://www.aes.org/events/128/papers/?ID=2252
http://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=52%26section=7%26tasks=true

Anyone claiming he doesn't hear a difference should get better monitors(or ears).

Do a little test for your self !!!

As Buddha said:
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now to the bass chain.
You can try out different combinations, like EQ-Comp-Amp or any combination of this.
Depends on the bass sound and how it's played.
If you have a lot of uneven volumes, go for comp first to even all out and then EQ or Amp.
Amp before EQ will amp all signals and you pick the ones you need.
EQ before amp restricts the amp to power just the frequencies you let through.
Play around with these combinations when you have time and keep them all as possible solutions in mind.
Which one works depends on the sound you wanna get and how it works with the other sounds in the mix.

If you have Waves Bass-Rider, use this to level out the bass volumes. It's fantastic for that...
Then use the comp as last in chain if you think you still need to comp.

Stay away from stereo changing effects like chorus or flanger for the bass.
If you think you still like to experiment with the bass to get a special sound,
then use those effects only as sends and never in the main bus.
You'll lose mono compatibility and strength of the bass sound !!!

In case you have a bass recorded with any of those stereo changing effects,
place a brainworx bx-control on the track and turn the lower frequencies back to mono.

Hope it helps what I wrote...

 

Playing electric bass guitar through an amp and playing direct into the "board" are almost like two different instruments. An amp masks things like finger noise and slight sympathy ringing of other strings, depending on your technique, and creates a natural compression and harmonic smoothness, different transients, it just goes on and on. Bass tone is a consideration also. Do you want an old style Fender mostly fundamental tone of bass or are you looking for more of a high tech sound like a Marcus Miller? I start with a tube modeled compressor and some serious graphic EQ, but be careful, because bass EQ tends to change when you start mixing. Make sure you save your original file in case you change your mind later. Anybody have a link to Bass Rider for PC?

 

They are and at 16 bit too

No one else will ever hear it any higher if its released so yeah I believe its totally fine, you will never know from the end result anyway.

 

See..., that's my point !!!
You "do" hear a difference and you "can" hear that it gets less grainy and digital with higher sample rate.
Have you tested it yourself and recorded a synth as example with reverb and/or amps at 44.1 and 88.2Hz ?
Do it and listen again...

 

Overloud Mark Bass is by far the greatest bass amp sim in my opinion.

 

You know I recored my friends bass just plugged into folio note pad ruining into my comp and it sounded OK and real. If I remember right I used stereo jacks and not the mono what he uses to plug into his amp. blah blah blah

 

You say DI, like as in a component made for Hi-Z(high impedance) input? Could be an impedance mismatch

I would not recommend pluging straight in to a laptop mono or stereo

When I record my real bass its like this:

I plug in to channel-1 on my board and switch the input to Hi-Z.
On the inset on Channel 1 I have a outboard preamp and compressor to warm it up a little and tame the peaks.

I record this signal clean in to my DAW

Now for the fx:

First Bass Rider, then depending on what sound Im after dictates what amp sim I use. If I want something nice and Heavy/Neo Metal clunky, I use the the Audiffex GK sim. If I want something more modest I use Amplitube(the ampeg stuff is nice).If Im looking for something really warm and round, ill try the mark bass.

.....another thing I like to do is to turn off the IR cab modules in the sims and put Re-Cab after the amp.

This is how I do it these days. The only thing that really changes is I find my self using smple lib.'s instaed of my 5 string on the front of the process more often than not.

 

Carface,

Do you had any samples music that i can hear from what you mentioned above? 88.2kh/z for music...Short is enough and .wav format. If possible cut it only the area that most distorted(sweet) then PM to me?

Send me 2 short .wav 88.2 & 44.1khz?


"Later when you convert or dither you get best conversion and no artifacts"
Sounds good.

DO you mean that it's good when we record all in 88.2khz then render to 32bit float and then master and final it to 44.1 or 48khz?

 

Place it in the mix and also consider it will probably end up as an mp3. Can you honestly tell them apart At best even cd quality I don't think you could tell the difference. Another point worth noting that your average listener hasn't got a high end system to listen to it on and chances are it will be played through cheap ear phones along with additional factors like hifi/media player presets.

I get what your saying but does it really make a difference? Its very debatable to say the least.


Sorry for the derail op.

 

I'm kind a busy these days to make you some examples.
Use any sound send it through distortion and reverb.
Do the same at 44.1 and 88.2HZ! Listen to the results.
I bet you will hear it's not grainy anymore.

Why 88.2 is simply because when the music will go on CD you it has to be 44.1Hz.
88.2Hz is exactly the half, so when the algorithm calculates it down from 88.2 to 44.1,
it's just even and a proportion of the sound(hope my English isn't too bad to understand...)
If you down convert a 96Hz to 44.1 it's not even and you have kind of leftovers
that the algorithm will still convert but leave artifacts. It just plain logic and math in the end.
So for DVD/Film or game you use 48Hz and therefor go to 96Hz. Again 48Hz is the half of 96Hz.
Some say that a good converter will work for all, but why believe in this if you can be on the safe side all the time.

32bit..., why ??? Simple too..!
With recording at 32bit floating you leave the sound like your DAW internally calculates it anyways.
Any sound you play at any bit rate will be internally calculated as 32bit.
That cost you CPU power and sometimes your music will sound different when exported then inside the DAW.
Also 32bit leaves you way more headroom to go louder too ! We all like loud !
That is a nice way to go as loud as possible keeping dynamics and have no distortion.
Don't think now you can make it all loud...! Be careful and take care of your dynamics !!!

Keep everything at 32bit( or at least at 24bit ) along with 88.2 or 96Hz.
Then export and master that !
You can then master all and export as 16bit/44.1Hz, but use as the last in chain a dither.
If you use Ableton Live, choose the dither option for exporting.
Never dither a track twice ! Dither adds some low noise. If you dither more it can become audible.

Wikipedia is your friend too. So go and search more specific and detailed info there.

 

Sure you'll hear it too !

From a lees quality sound comes a less quality mp3 ! Makes sense ???

 

Here a little test someone did: http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2011/02/audio-sampling-rate-88-2-vs-44-1/

He has included his test sounds at all sample rates too...

Here is another good article: http://theproaudiofiles.com/3-reasons-to-record-at-88-2-khz/

In the end it's your choice if you wanna get away with 44.1 or will rather have that real nice quality sound.
If your music sucks no quality sound will help....! We know that...
I'd rather listen to good song a crappy sound then to a boring one that sounds superb.

But I tend to sound good at least...even it's crap I produce... ;)

 

But 16 bit 44.1 is good quality in the first place. I get the theory I do but honestly, it wont change your overall sound or end result imo.

 

I have experienced the same results. If I work in a higher sampling rate like 96/32 for instance. The final low bitrate .mp3's always sound better. The psycho-acoustics will sound clearer, mostly the reverb tails. Especially if your rendering/dithering to 128k.mp3 or lower.