Recording - August 2013 - 26

to the other. Listening to them this way not
only gives you a better ‘visual’ picture of
what you’re working with, but it also
gives you instant feedback as to how
your adjustments to one element are
affecting all the others.

law!) that if the bass has active electronics, it pairs up best with a passive DI, and
a bass with passive electronics benefits
from an active DI. Some recording musicians find that active-with-active gets too
loud, bright, and “clanky”, while passivewith-passive can be more muddy and
undefined than you might remember the
bass sounding. Experimentation is key
here, and having a passive DI and an
active DI or channel strip to choose from
is helpful.

Those bands that include acoustic keyboards like piano and organ, or vintage
ones like Wurlitzers, Clavinets and Fender
Rhodes might do well to track with “modern” keys as described above and subsequently overdub their acoustic counterparts
at a later session... assuming they’re even
needed, considering the quality of many of
today’s virtual instruments!

Six-string solutions
Guitars can be the proverbial pebble in
your recording shoe, because they are
often so integral not only to the groove,
The bottom
but the song’s initial inspiration. I know
Bass can be quite a bit easier to capture
several artists who can’t sing the song
than other instruments, especially if you’re
without simultaneously playing it. So, with
not having to mike up an amp. A DI box
singing guitarists, problems arise not only
(Direct Inject) will help—they come in
from the sound of an amp bleeding into
active and passive versions, and with
the tracks, but even from the sound of the
varying input and output configurations; Finding your keys
pick on the strings if the guitarist is standfor bass guitar you probably want an
Keyboards like synths or samplers ben- ing too close to the mics!
active model. There are lots of companies efit from the use of a DI box as well.
You can try tracking with an electric guimaking great DIs of all styles, but the web- Unlike the bass, their sound usually tastes tar into a DI, but this yields a sound that is
site for gear maker Radial Engineering great ‘right out of the can’, so the mic not only weak, but uninspiring. You may
(radialeng.com) is noteworthy for its tuto- cable(s) from the DI box can go straight be able to turn this negative into a positive
rials on the subject of DI; see the into the interface or mixer, without the by employing software guitar amp simula“Important Links” on its DI product pages. need for additional signal processing. tors (digital multitrack recorders often offer
I prefer to run the bass into a
these too). As with MIDI keys,
tube stage of some sort,
you are afforded the additional
because I feel that a very slight
benefit of getting exactly the
bit of harmonic distortion helps
sound you’re looking for at a
the sound to cut through the mix
later stage in the process.
slightly and “speaks” more
The problem of picking up
throughout its upper registers.
the guitar in the vocal mic can
The PreSonus Studio Channel
be further compounded by the
and the Universal Audio 6176
use of an acoustic guitar, which
are channel strips that provide
is of course designed to coma tube preamplifier with instrumand its own ‘acoustic’ space.
ment input as well as a comElectric guitar can be tracked
pressor and an equalizer. This
with great results by placing the
goes a long way toward capamp in another room. I prefer
turing a tone that you may not
bedrooms, because the bed
have to do much else to after
offers sound-absorbent qualitracking.
ties, helping to reduce some of
Driving the preamp’s tube
the acoustic anomalies inherent
ever so slightly will give you
in smaller rooms, and even a bit
that previously described edge Figure 4: This little trick with gaff tape can help your snare and tom of soundproofing. Cord length
tone immensely, if you don’t have other dampers.
and compressing the signal at
can be an issue here, depending
3:1 for 3–6 dB of compression
on how far away the room is.
will keep its level reliably present. You Keep in mind that if you want the full- Again a DI box can be used, because
may want to engage a highpass filter to fidelity stereo sound inherent in most mod- they usually come with two 1/4" inputs
which can allow you to “daisy chain” two
remove any excess boom and rumble ern patches, you need two inputs.
below 50 Hz. The upper register can benWhen straining for available inputs, instrument cables to the desired length. Or
efit from a slight rise around 200 Hz and this is one place where you might be able you can run a long cable to your tuner or
the sound can be brought further forward to work around your limitations by using other effects and another long cable to the
with a little taste of 1 kHz.
MIDI, as opposed to audio cables. This amp in the other room. Be sure to face the
This DI signal chain may well be your would require loading a software instru- amp away from the door, as it will bleed
best bass recording scenario, because ment into a track on your DAW and then out from under it anyway. In extreme
once this is dialed in, you’re only hearing controlling it via the keyboard. A band cases, you can stuff towels or blankets
it in the headphones and not all over your set on recording a Hammond B3 sound, along the underside of the door. If your
drum tracks, even though the bassist is for instance, could do so in this fashion guitarist needs to have his Marshall amplioften standing right near the drummer! without the space, weight and potentially fier turned to 11 to get “his tone”, you
However, if an amp is absolutely required, deafening volume that accompanies that may need to consider retracking his parts
try to use the smallest cabinet available, sit- particular instrument. You also have the later as well.
Acoustic guitars with integrated pickuated as far from the other instruments as additional benefit of being able to experpossible (preferably in another room).
iment with different sounds and patches ups can also be DI’d, although that sound
One other thing to keep in mind: it’s a at any time in the process, all the way up is generally less preferable to its natural
acoustic tone, so again you may be
good rule of thumb (not an unshakable to the final mix phase.
26

RECORDING August 2013

http://www.radialeng.com

Recording - August 2013

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