A good little video about D/I Bass recording at home. Since we’re discussing Direct Input we don’t have microphones and micing to worry about, keeping things relatively simple, but with nice gear.

Gear used in the video:

• Ibanez SR505 Active-Pickup Bass
• Groovetube supre (uses the built-in DI – notice this as a feature on many modern soundcards also, often an ‘instrument’ button)
• Vintec X73i preamp (neve 1073 clone) uses the built-in EQ
• Drummer 1968 mercenary edition tube compressor
• ProTools

The two beauties in this setup are the:

GrooveTube SuPRE:

and the Vintec X731:

Techniques and Tricks in the Video:

• General rule of thumb for recording is to use a passive bass for recording as opposed to an active bass (thinks that a passive bass sounds fatter and punchier)
• If using an active bass for recording (as he is in the video), then, using the on-bass EQ knobs,  roll off the low-end and the high-end just a tiny bit, leaving the mid-range where it is, keep the volume up (or backed off just a tiny bit). This trick will help it sound more like a passive bass
• Cheap D/I boxes can still give good results, he recommends Radial D/I Pro as an inexpensive good bass DI box
• There are three types of D/I boxes, tube, passive and active. You usually want to use a passive DI or a tube DI.
• Pre-amp used gives a big factor in the tone of the bass. The Neve 1073 (dude uses a clone, a Vintec)
• He likes a compressor on his bass (as many ppl do) because it makes it fit in better with the kick drum (Drummer 1968 mercenary edition)

This video producer is quite obviously experienced, and knows his stuff. While the gear he mentions in the video may be outside the price range of us home enthusiasts, the signal chain advice he gives is not, and there are a couple of gems of advice and gear recommendations in there, making it well worth a watch.