The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

Hi,

I've had my AW1600 for a year now and know enough about recording to get results that I am very happy with recording all manner of acoustic demos. I am not expert though and as such mainly rely on the library presets (also saves me a lot of time).

This works for most things but I always seem to have a problem with Double Bass ( Upright Bass ). The eletric bass settings can sound too boomy and can lose some the double bass' "woody" sound. Does anyone have a tried and test library preset for EQ and Dyn they use for double bass?

Also, I find I don't mix double bass well. While the sound sounds fine when the treck is solo'd it can often sounds mushy and boomy in the mix. Any tips to get more definition and natural acoustic sound?


Many thanks in advance.

Best

Hi Paul and welcome to the forum.

I don't know much about the presets, I've used them a few times only and that was a long time ago. However I do know that it's OK to have the bass freq roll off in the equalization from as high as 200 Hz. Not too fast, but gradually. It gave me a well defined bass sound and it was not boomy.

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating

Although I have never done a double bass, I would think that moving a condenser mike around until you find a good sound without any eq is the way to go. This assumes that you are not using a pickup. If you have a pickup, how about record the pickup as well as miking it ?.

I did do a tea chest bass + remember that it was a real bugger to get right but that involved sticking a mic inside a wooden box which is different to your situation.

I never eq an acoustic instrument unless it cannot be re-recorded.

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Life's a shit sandwich. The more bread your have, the less shit you have to eat.

Thanks Robbie and Oscar. Much appreciate the advice. Actually, not using any EQ is quite an obvious thing I hadn't thought of. Any advice on compression? Bass clicks can be really high but the bass can sound crushed/clip with even relatively small amounts of compression.

For info - I usually use a large diaphragm condenser just below the f hole and about 12-18 inches back. I then use a pencil condenser pointed high at the fret board, however, I'm increasingly thinking of using a stereo pair Xy'd below the F hole at 2ft- 2.5ft back from the instrument to get a bit more "room".

THis theory comes from getting surprisingly good results from the XY on a zoom H4n. I may be wrong about it.

Any comments, theories or advice would be greatly received.

All the best

Paul.

i use a large diaphragm condenser positioned about 10" away from the bridge. i only play pizz, no arco.

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"Let there be bass." - Leo Fender

Thanks mcnewsxp,

I'll try that. I normally go lower than that, just below Fholes and quite close - however, not happy with the result so I'll try the large diaphragm condeser as you describe.