Large or XLarge?
Wow. I can't believe it is the end of term already. Time sure does fly when you're having bucket loads of fun. David Grice, my lecturer for Audio Arts, has been instructing me in the dark art of recording sound. Maybe we need brighter lights or something. Either way, David has shone a spotlight on the bass side of things. Let me muse about bass for a moment; its a big instrument, unwieldy to say the least, sounds pretty stupid on its own, as a guitarist I cannot see why anyone would want to touch one. Whew! Them sound like fightin’ words I know. But I digress, bass is an essential ingredient in a rock group configuration. It is the driving force underneath the guitars, indeed an entire band. A solid bass sound is a solid foundation to build a mix on. I would even go as far as to say, bass is more important that the guitars in achieving a phat, resonant mix; the guitars being only the colouring on top if the bass.David showed us a couple of recording techniques that I am hoping will be quite useful. He explained the workings of a DI box, lamenting the inferior quality of the uni's DI's. We DIed his Ernie Ball Music Man 5 string using the box as well as the DI on the Control 24, which yielded a much stronger signal. Unfortunately there was no working bass quad to mic up, although I did have a conversation with Dave after the lecture regarding which mic would be appropriate. He suggested using the same mic as used on a kick drum, and once again there are no great kick mics at the uni.
I will be trying out these techniques over the term break, hopefully with some good results. I am currently scouring Adelaide’s hire companies for an Ampeg Classic valve head, but with no luck so far. The best I have been able to do so far is an Ampeg SVT4 pro, however although this is a quality head, it does not have tube power amps. The plan is to acquire the Classic, use it in conjunction with a Fender Jazz 4 string, DI the head and the bass separately, and mic up the cab which is an Ampeg 8x10 fridge. Looks like I’ll be using one of the AKG mics for that task. With this setup, I am quietly confident in the bass sound being large, even x-large… and that’s pretty big.
posted by Daniel Murtagh @ 14:28
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