Bass compression settings ???

[blue_sky]

When recording bass amp in the studio; what compression settings do you typically use??

attack, release, ratio, how much gain reduction.

and what kind of sound does it give you?

thanks
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AnnyAngel

[recordingpro]

it totally depends on the style of music, but my generic bass compression usually starts with a fairly fast attack with a medium release. a 3:1 ratio with these settings is a pretty good place to start for a fairly smooth sounding bass. this is all subjective, and is of course only a starting point....each player, bass rig, and style of music will neccessitate changes to optimize the music for whatever sound you want to achieve

[JMAC]

Wow, what a challenging question!!

It all depends on your player!!! Some guys attack the strings and do a lot of slap bass, some play w/ picks, some play with their fingers or all of the above.

I think the "prorecording" guy's suggestion is a good place to start. I usually like to attack the bass quickly too because those tones will drown everything out quickly if you don't.

One of the things I've found helpful in recording bass is to keep in mind that the majority of the bass that you hear is in the "high end" of the mix. I know this doesn't seem to make much sense because your bass is in the lower end of the spectrum, but you need to keep in mind how low the human ear can actually hear.

Most of what you "feel" you can't actually hear, so try to focus on hearing the tones then bring in the "feel". If you do it the other way, you may have a muddy mix.

Just a thought!!

Good luck!

[David Klausner]

Attack and release are extremely subjective, and I would recommend doing everything by ear and not by formula. Adjust the attack first to get the amount of transients that you are looking for, and then adjust the release to keep things from pumping (unless you want that as an effect). Also use your ears regarding the amount of compression you are doing and don't blindly trust meters. I have an 1176 that only sounds good to me with the gain reduction meter completely pegged, but I swear it's not compressing that much (and I have used a lot of other 1176's with different meter ballistics). I also have a Summit that sounds to me like it's compressing several dB more than the meter shows. I usually compress at about a 4:1 ratio, but if the track calls for it I'll use more or less.