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we are going to record the next days. I thought it would be all live (drums + 2 bass amps + little organ played w/feet)
now it seems the drumer and the recording tech (who is a drummer, too) want to achieve the ultimate drum sound, which isnt a bad thing but which we never had. so I should play the bass into DI to keep drum and room mics clean from any bass sound, 2nd step send the DI signal into A/B, effects and amps and record this again over the drum track.
I understand why they want to do it and we agreed to give it a try but somehow I doubt the better results.
any comments on this technique? thanks!

Has the engineer recorded in the room before? Is it a large room?

If it is well controlled and you get the bass amps well positioned and not far too loud, then the leakage into the drum mics can be acceptable. On the other hand, if it is not well done then you could for example end up trying to pull low-end out of some of the drum mics and ending up with an inferior bass and drum sound.

Last record my band made, a couple of us played thru DIs with the drummer, just so he could hear what was going on.

Then we overdubbed everything. Didn't reamp.

It was laborious and somewhat less fun than tracking live, but the results were good.

We've been playing music for a long time, so your mileage may vary if you're not experienced in the studio. I wouldn't have been into doing this ten years ago.

As far as sonics, the drum tracks will be cleaner and easier to work with in mixing.

Reamping can work sometimes.

It depends on how much you interact with your amp when you play. You may do all kinds of stuff that you don't necessarily notice.

Pronounce it ream-ping.

If reamping isn't working you can always overdub over the drums. On the flip side, you can't pull bass bleed out of the drum tracks.

Don't forget to take into consideration the headache of overdubbing with regard to cues and timing. And if it'll take away from the dynamic of your band. These are more important than fidelity, but if you guys are experienced and they're a non-issue, I'd go the DI route.

many thanks for the advice. after hours we ended up using only the room mics sounding best to record the whole drum kit, placing one somewhere close to the walls. then adding some close mics where needed.

Has the engineer recorded in the room before? Is it a large room?

yes he has, hes using it as a regular recording space, its not large about 25m3 and very precise in what is recorded.

It depends on how much you interact with your amp when you play. You may do all kinds of stuff that you don't necessarily notice.

thats quite important for me, its strange to play parts w/o bigmuff, also for the drummer.

On the flip side, you can't pull bass bleed out of the drum tracks.

which could be good? thats what you mean? Id like to record everything with room mics and add close mics if needed.

flw wrote:

On the flip side, you can't pull bass bleed out of the drum tracks.

which could be good? thats what you mean? Id like to record everything with room mics and add close mics if needed.

It usually isnt good. It kind of locks you into a relative balance between bass and drums that typically favors bass in a nonflattering way. The bleed is as often as not in the 200-400 Hz "mud" "range, and is something you will likely want to minimize in your bass tracks when considered by themselves. Unfortunately, it's tough to control that mud when it's slathered all over all of your drum tracks like icing on a cake.

Bass bleed simply gives you less control over sounds when mixing.

MrFood wrote:So how does this work? I'm not exactly knowledgeable of this kinda stuff...

Is it like this?:

Instrument --IN--> DI --IN--> Recording device --LINE OUT--> Amp

Or does the OUT signal from the recording device need to go through a DI again?

I'm dumb. Be patient with me.

Yes, it usually goes back to the amp through a sort of reverse DI, used to adjust the level down to instrument level and match impedance, known commercially as a Reamp.

This is great.