Bass Guitar recording tools preamp, DI, effect pedals, amplifiers, mics, tubes


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Tons of options in recording electric and acoustic bass guitars at Sound Weavers recording studio. We love bass guitar – from ROUND FAT and WARM, CLEAN to DISTORTED, THUMPING to PUMPING… We have tons of tools for recording bass guitars – a wide selection of instrument preamps, Direct Injection (DI) boxes solid state and tube, effect pedals from the SansAmp Bass DI, Aphex Bass Xciter, Bass amplifiers from the solid state Gallien Kruger Backline 600 to Ampeg SVT6PRO tubes, EDEN bass cabinet enclosure with 4×10 speakers, and a wide assortment of microphones for mic’ing the bass cabinet.

Not to mention you can also use our electric bass guitars at your sessions; a vintage Fender Precision bass (1970’s) and a Warwick Corvette 4 (1995).

List of direct box (DI) specific to recording bass guitars include Demeter VTDB-2B tube direct box, TAB-Funkenwerk V71 tube direct box, Tech21 Sans Amp Bass DI, Aphex Bass Xciter, Radial Engineering JDI passive direct box with Jensen transformers and the Line6 Bass POD which has a DI out with the “AIR” switch.
Direct Injection (DI) recording via bass amplifiers are available on our Gallien Krueger Backline 600 and Ampeg SVT6PRo tube bass amp.

Direct Injection (DI) recording via instrument pea-amplifiers is available on most of our microphone preamps.

Beyond DI, we enjoy and recommend recording the bass guitar signal through the bass cabinet speakers so we have more tonal options during mixdown. Favorite microphones to use on bass cabinets are EV RE20, Blue Kickball, Shure Beta52, ATM25…

Signal processing options for bass guitar include top notch compressors and limiters that allow the desired dynamic range for the music, compressors enable a “tighter” performance and can also affect the tone of the bass guitar. Purple Audio MC77 (1176 type) FET compressor limiter and Distressor by Empirical Labs (EL8x) compressor are two units we use most often on the bass guitar.

In the digital domain, we have bass amp software simulators that allow further manipulation of the recorded bass track so it can claim its place in the mix. We have an original Line6 Bass POD, Amplitube, Waves GTR, Native Intstruments Guitar Rig and McDSP’s Chrome Tone – all offering a wealth of analog sounds in the digital domain.

For bass players recording full CD albums at Sound Weavers, we can make Gerry’s effects collection available to tone savvy bass players – stuff like a Sadowsky and Aguilar bass preamps, EBS multicomp pedal, Moog Low-pass Filter MF-101 pedal, Electro Harmonix NanoComp.

For real discriminating bass guitarists, these tools are available for rent:
– Sadowsky Jazz bass for P5,000 per day
– Ampeg SVT Classic tube bass amp for P3,000 per day
– Fender Precision Fretless bass guitar for P1,000 per day