Having been a bass
player for years, I’ve recently come into possession of an acoustic
double bass. I seem to be getting a decent enough sound out of it that
I think I’m ready to use it with my band. We’re going to be recording
soon, but will all be playing together in the studio. How can I record
the bass alongside other musicians, reducing as much spill as possible?
The
‘modern’ method of recording a double bass in the studio is to ‘bug’
it, often with a pickup fitted on the instrument’s bridge. Any
‘character’ lost in the sound is then usually EQ’d back in. However, the
‘vintage’ way would have been to use careful mic and instrument
placement, in conjunction with carefully placed acoustic treatment, to
provide a degree of separation.
Bradley Culshaw via email
SOS
Technical Editor Hugh Robjohns replies:
The obvious ‘modern’ solution
is to fit a ‘bug’ — a bridge pickup or an internal mic — to the bass,
which will provide a pretty high degree of separation. The sound
character might not be entirely ‘natural’, but a little EQ should deal
with that. The ‘vintage’ alternative is to use acoustic screens or gobos
in the studio and thoughtful instrument and mic layout, with the aim of
minimising spill and helping to provide some sound shadowing for mics,
especially the double-bass mic, thus reducing the spill and providing
a workable degree of separation from the other instruments playing in
the studio. This is a well‑proven historic technique, and the remaining
spill generally helps to gel the mix together and provide a great ‘live’
character to the mix. Of course, such spill makes it almost impossible
to overdub replacement parts, but that’s what practice and an unlimited
number of takes are for!
No comments:
Post a Comment