Stereo Bass

[Bluesman48]

I'm gonna throw this question out for some feedback/ideas, opinions. Please feel free to offer same. I realize that recording is or maybe should be, more art than science. Having said that, when I record bass it is direct(into my micpre and compressor and the into my 2488.) One channel panned to center. Now to my question, altho it maybe obvious to some, is there any advantage to recording the bass in stereo ? The reason I was thinking along these lines is I heard a song by Ry Cooder, and the bass was huge, not loud mind you, but wide, still seemed centered, but at the same time beyond. Was this a pyscho-acoustic thing or just an example of a very good recording. Give me your thoughts please. Thanks:



P.S. I was wearing headphones so I'm sure that made a difference.

[jpleong]

An "old" trick is to delay one of the two tracks ever-so-slightly creating a comb-filter effect. It can both fatten and thin the sound depending on the delay time.

JP

[Bluesman48]

Thanks JP, the delay thing does make sense. My obvious question would be "fat= how much delay ? Thanks for your input.

[jpleong]

Keep it under 100 milliseconds is the general rule of thumb. To be honest, it's best to adjust it by ear as different instruments and even different keys can make the comb-filter sound better or worse.

Electro-Harmonix actually has an effect pedal that does this trick, too: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ANALOGizer

JP

[Bluesman48]

Hey JP thanks a bunch. I wasn't aware of that pedal. Not too many pennies and sound like a way to bass tracks. I had already decided to dedicate 2 tracks to bass anyway and this pedal might make for some interesting experimenting. Thanks again.

[JoeS]

For what it's worth.....
After seeing what Geddy Lee did with the Sanamp RBI, it inspired me to move into a system I could use (primarily) in the studio and onstage. Always into the PA via DI, and often without a stage amp. At the mercy of the PA guy - I gotta have confidence in them before I go this route....

I use two pre-amp / DI pedals - a SansAmp PBDI and an EBS Micro-BassII - split my signal from the bass with an A/B/Y box into these bad boys.

When recording I track each individually to separate tracks. I set the pedals to different - but what I hear as complimentory tones.

Then while mixing/editing I create a stereo bus in Pro-Tools, send these tracks to the bus pan them slightly (one to the left, one to the right - maybe 11 oclock and 1 oclock respectibly) - then use volume fader of each and eq to REALLY taylor the sound to where I want it to be.

Very nice results to my ears anyway.

Respect,

JoeS