How do I record my bass with this equipment?

V

vlttnv

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Sep 26, 2015
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#1
Hello everyone.

Here's what I have:
  • Squire Jazz Bass
  • Fender Rumble 15 Amp
  • Alesis Core 1
  • Reaper/Cubase
What I am trying to do:
  • Record myself playing so I can hear how I sound and improve my playing
What I am not trying to do:
  • Record sound for a song that has perfect quality/levels etc.
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I've previously tried recording my bass but I had no idea what I was doing and just fiddled with the software. I managed to record something but it was very quiet and I wasn't sure if it was caused by my lack of knowledge of the process of recording or something else.

I have tried recording like this: Bass > Core 1 > Desktop > Recording Software.
A potentially stupid question: can I use my amp to pass the signal to the recording software through the interface? Something like Bass > Amp > Core 1 > Desktop > Recording Software.

Appreciate any help :)
 
#2
If your amp has a line out or effects send, that might work, but make sure the Core 1 has a line level input. I'm not familiar with the Core 1, I use a FocusRite Scarlett 2i4, very easy, plug and play.
 
#5
Dave W said:
Just plug the bass into the Core 1 and get your gain levels as high as they can be without clipping in the DAW.
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This is really old school thinking in the age of modern interfaces. At an absolute minimum leave yourself 6db of headroom from full scale on the loudest peaks. With a 24-bit noise floor, and honestly even a 16-bit one, the loss of 6db will be imperceptible.
 
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#7
Dave W said:
Meaning you'd set to -6db on the meter?
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Yep. Watch your metering on the input side, which is likely going to be via a software meter at the consumer and even prosumer level. If you're hitting -6dbfs on the absolute louest peaks you can generate for a given setup you'll be fine. You'll never accidentally have an over that creates nasty and largely un-fixable distortion, and you'll remain so far above the noise floor that it won't even be relevant. I frequently track at -14 or even -18dbfs when I'm doing a full session for a client either as a session player or the engineer.
 
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#8
I'll have a chance today to try out your suggestions. Since I have very little knowledge of how things work under the hood I'll have to read more about it (any reading recommendations are welcome!).

Will report with my results soon.
 
#11
I am back with the results!

A quick note: I have no experience with other bass guitars and I have no idea how other bass guitars sound live or what a bass guitar should and should not sound like. So no points of reference for me besides the music I listen to (not a good reference).

So I plugged in my bass into the interface and used Reaper to try to record and monitor. I fiddle with the gain on the interface and the volume I was getting back into my headphones (through the interface). The highest I hit in Reaper was -6.

I think the volume was decent. The problem is the sound wasn't ... particularly good. I wasn't expecting anything high quality but it all sounded very ... bloated and bass-y. And bass-y not in a good way but rather overblown bass headphones. I am using Audio-Technica M30s so it's not really the headphones I think.

I was expecting a punchier, a bit brighter sound. Instead it was very loud in a sense and very "low resolution".
I also tried listening to my amp through my headphones (no recording, no interfaces, just straight into the amp). The sound was a tad bit brighter, higher res I guess, but again very bloated and wobbly with absolutely no punch.

Something made a particular impression to me. The E string sounded dreadful. Nothing compared to the other strings.

My strings are 9-ish months old I think. I mostly practice and learn on the bass so I don't torture them much with extremely heavy or aggressive playing. If I play through the amp it sound fairly OK. I thought they had more life in them so I haven't thought about changing them.

I've made two recording through Reaper for you to hear.



The question is is all this normal or is something fishy going on.

I really appreciate everyone's help!
 
#13
lz4005 said:
Listening on headphones, it sounds exactly like a Squier Jazz with 9 month old strings plugged directly into an interface.
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Couldn't agree more. You did a good job recording your bass. I believe the sound is quite accurate. Now, you can make it sound different/better/worse if you add an EQ and compressor to your track on the DAW, which would be invoked in playback and not destroy the original recorded track.
 
#14
Thanks for the feedback :) That's encouraging to hear.

I just noticed something different. Up until now I was listening though the Audio-Technica headphones which I believe are pretty decent. When I saw your comments I decided to hear the recording first through my laptop speakers then through my every-day cheap Sony headphones. In both cases the recordings sounded quite decent! The only thing I noticed was that the volume was a bit low but otherwise it sounded pleasant to my ear.

Maybe the Audio-Technica headphones are really not suited for monitoring bass?
 
#15
vlttnv said:
I was expecting a punchier, a bit brighter sound.
Click to expand...
One thing to consider, even though I suspect the 9-month old strings are the biggest culprit, is something that @DirkP touched on earlier in the thread:

DirkP said:
If you record directly - bass into interface - make sure you have set the input of the Core One to guitar, not to line.
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Are you sure your input was set to guitar, which might also be called lo-z, low-z, etc.? If not and you were feeding a high impedance input that was expecting a line level signal the loss of high end would be expected.
 
#16
silky smoove said:
Are you sure your input was set to guitar
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Yes. To be honest it sounded fairly the same while listening to the amp through my headphones. I have a feeling the headphones might be contributing to the badly sounding low end. They are fantastic when I listen to music but monitoring the bass was pretty disappointing.
 
#17
silky smoove said:
One thing to consider, even though I suspect the 9-month old strings are the biggest culprit, is something that @DirkP touched on earlier in the thread:



Are you sure your input was set to guitar, which might also be called lo-z, low-z, etc.? If not and you were feeding a high impedance input that was expecting a line level signal the loss of high end would be expected.
Click to expand...

On the Core One it is called guitar, so no confusion possible, but the input for guitar or bass is not labelled Low-Z, it is labelled High-Z!!! Guitars or basses have a high impedance, low-z inputs are for gear with impedances up to 600 Ohm. Guitars or basses,esp. passive ones, have much more.
 
#18
DirkP said:
On the Core One it is called guitar, so no confusion possible, but the input for guitar or bass is not labelled Low-Z, it is labelled High-Z!!! Guitars or basses have a high impedance, low-z inputs are for gear with impedances up to 600 Ohm. Guitars or basses,esp. passive ones, have much more.
Click to expand...
Yep, I just mis-typed.
 
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#19
I've never used Reaper, but most DAW software has a 'Normalize' function for the tracks. Give that a shot and see if it improves the level of the track.
 
#20
You may be doing everything right to get your sound. If the volume is low It's likely the issue of low volume of the Core 1 USB. Check the later half of this video about the volume levels.


So based on this guy's test, you'll need to keep the input volume on the Core 1 at 100%, set your software just like you do to avoid clipping. And once you've recorded, bump up the volume on track at least 12db to hear your recording.

Unfortunately, according to this guy's test of the Core1 , the record playback while recording is latent and has really low volume. Not the ideal interface for playback monitoring while recording. And for live sound recording with a dynamic mic, it's volume is weak so you'll need to crank up the amp, or use a condenser mic with phantom power.


There are other reasonable priced USB interfaces with DAWs that have no latency or and amplified playback options out there.
 
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