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Just chiming in to say that, on the most recent recording session I played on, I recorded the bass direct using my Tech 21 VT Bass pedal. No amp. That alone sounded shockingly good. Then we re-amped the clean DI bass signal through my solid state Marshall Lead 20 1x10 combo amp and blended the two tracks together. And that might be the best recorded bass tone I've ever gotten. I love amps and all, but I'm seriously considering going this route for all future recordings. It's a really powerful sounding mix of Ampeg-esque warmth and punch blended with Lemmy-style growl and grind.

Yesterday I did Combo of Beta 52 and a di running through Neural Cory Wong Plugin set kinda dirty. It sounded great.

Melda Phase align tool is great for matching up a mic and di signal, especially if you are processing though plugins that fuck shit up.

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MAutoAlign

TonyAsh wrote: Sat Apr 09, 2022 11:33 am Tech 21 VT Bass pedal.

Forgive me for getting all Talkbass on you, but any idea how the VT compares the the standard BDDI?

Kniferide wrote: Tue Apr 12, 2022 1:58 pm Yesterday I did Combo of Beta 52 and a di running through Neural Cory Wong Plugin set kinda dirty. It sounded great.

Melda Phase align tool is great for matching up a mic and di signal, especially if you are processing though plugins that fuck shit up.

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MAutoAlign

this is great! maybe we should take this to the tech room.

I’ve used it on a practicing space recording (5 drum mics, 2 guitar tracks, 2 bass tracks and vocals) just to hear what it does. I thought it’s mind-blowing how much low end it brings back to the mix.
then I also checked out Sound Radix Auto-Align. it does the same thing but allows you to use one track as „send“ and other tracks as „receive“. so within a song you could align all drum mics to, for example, an overhead mic and at the same time align the close guitar mic to a second guitar mic … and so on.

I’m impressed!

ErikG wrote: Wed Apr 13, 2022 8:13 pm

TonyAsh wrote: Sat Apr 09, 2022 11:33 am Tech 21 VT Bass pedal.

Forgive me for getting all Talkbass on you, but any idea how the VT compares the the standard BDDI?

Based on the fact that it has a midrange control and the Character knob (which can approximate a wide range of Ampeg tones), I like the VT infinitely better other than the fact that it doesn't have an XLR out like the BDDI. I know the VT Bass DI has this option, but I can't justify buying it when I already have what works perfectly for me. Plug it into any backline in the world or any recording software, paired with a Rat pedal, and boom. There's the sound.

Seriously, I would be lost without that pedal.

bassdriver wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 11:14 am

Kniferide wrote: Tue Apr 12, 2022 1:58 pm Yesterday I did Combo of Beta 52 and a di running through Neural Cory Wong Plugin set kinda dirty. It sounded great.

Melda Phase align tool is great for matching up a mic and di signal, especially if you are processing though plugins that fuck shit up.

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MAutoAlign

this is great! maybe we should take this to the tech room.

I’ve used it on a practicing space recording (5 drum mics, 2 guitar tracks, 2 bass tracks and vocals) just to hear what it does. I thought it’s mind-blowing how much low end it brings back to the mix.
then I also checked out Sound Radix Auto-Align. it does the same thing but allows you to use one track as „send“ and other tracks as „receive“. so within a song you could align all drum mics to, for example, an overhead mic and at the same time align the close guitar mic to a second guitar mic … and so on.

I’m impressed!

It can be a pretty useful tool for sure. Sometimes it makes things worse, but usually it doesn't. Especially if you are just aligning 2 sources like mic/di, 2 mics.

I found a really fun little mic for not too much money:



I bought it on FM Manny Nieto’s recommendation and it really kills on a bass cabinet paired with other mics. It’s about the price of a pedal and can be used with bass or drums and can be laid on the floor or hung on a mic stand.

I have this batshit crazy bass rig going and this fit in beautifully

I did a mic/DI blend on most of the Gary records. I can’t remember what we did at Electrical, but I’m 60% sure it was mic only. Recording at home, I do mic/DI.

Coming back to this a couple things I failed to mention:

-If you have the track count available there's no reason not to take a DI track as a safety and potentially reamp, blend or mute it when you mix. There's kind of a serenity prayer for this kind of tracking, as we often feel compelled to implement elements that were tracked purely because they're there. It takes great wisdom to mute unhelpful elements later as opposed to wasting lots of time and focus trying to make them work when you're better off without them.

- 98% of the time if I'm demoing a song it's bass DI purely by virtue of it allowing music making to happen within a literal minute. I can't be as satisfied with doing this in guitar, so it's awesome that a decent bass sound is so ready to go.

Damn I thought I was replying to a tech room thread