shizznit Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 I'm producing an EP for a friend today and I have a weird problem with the bass. My signal sounds heavily compressed and fluffy sounding. I thought it was the desk or maybe my amp, but I tried going direct into the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 and the same thing happens. I have tweaked the gain settings and sample rates on the A/D convertor software and even started from scratch on Logic and it always sounds the same. I thought it could have been the bass (Lakland 55-02) but after wasting almost two hours to drive back home to fetch my Fender J there is still no joy. Maybe the monitors? Nope...sounds the same through the cans. We laid down the guide tracks yesterday and we all played together live, so I didn't pick it up. You can hear the same problem on the guides too, so it's not something that has just manifested today. All the other instruments sound fine. I am not familiar with this studio and I'm going to skip it for now and record the bass tracks at home later (because I know it works there). I can't get hold of the guy that owns the studio for advice. The thing is I am coming back here in a few weeks time to do another project and I might not the luxury of recording my bass tracks at home, so I might have to tackle this problem again. Any ideas as to what is happening? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironside1966 Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 Could it be the battery in the bass? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybertect Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 [quote name='shizznit' timestamp='1375448886' post='2161547']I thought it could have been the bass (Lakland 55-02) but after wasting almost two hours to drive back home to fetch my Fender J there is still no joy[/quote] rather suggests not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterfire666 Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 (edited) i had a similar problem once with bass and it turned out to be the focusrite preamps, theres nothing technically wrong with them i just dont like em, at all. sold the focusrite sapphire pro 14, bought a roland quad capture, problem went away and balance is restored :^) a lot of people swear by them and im not focusrite bashing but when i swapped it the difference was night and day. or alternatively it could be a software problem Edited August 2, 2013 by winterfire666 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 Gainstaging on the preamps was not set up right would be my guess - drive some pres too hard and you starting running into the sound of overloading crud, of course the engineer may have only been looking atthe lights, and they may be hot up around 1 or 2 Khz (where vocals are real loud) and not be so happy to light up down around 150Hz (where your bass energy is) or even 50Hz (where a kick can have a f**ktonne of level). In other words, them there are some poop pres for bass.... Then again I'm not a huge fan of the budget end of Focusrite, after spending a lot of time with a series 1 octopre and a couple of their other 'platinum' pieces, the green stuff was ok, but fragile as hell, so in the end a false economy IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shizznit Posted August 2, 2013 Author Share Posted August 2, 2013 Well, I have just got back home, quickly hooked up my bass, recorded a track and everything sounds okay in the playback at my end. Both basses sound clean as a whistle. I am going to put it down to the A/D convertor at that studio. I have to go back later on this evening to record some percussion, but I don't have enough time to record my bass. I will have to finish that at home in my own time. I'm going to take my AudioFire AD convertor when I am working on the next project and hopefully the guy that runs the studio won't mind me using it. Better to stick to what I know works in this case. [quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1375460053' post='2161784'] Gainstaging on the preamps was not set up right would be my guess... [/quote] That's the first thing I looked at. Even at low levels the bass sounded dampened. Just doesn't have the attack I want or use to hearing. I can't blame the Mackie desk or pre-amps because I bypassed them completely and went straight into the front end. The guide drums were recorded with an ambient mic, so I can't tell if the kick drum or the low tuned racks are going to suffer. We are recording the drums tomorrow (I know...I know...beyond my control) so I will see if we get the same problem there. I might be missing a trick with that Focusrite...I dunno...after a few google searches I haven't found much help. If my AudioFire nails it at that studio in a few weeks time then I am definitely going to give that Focusrite a wide berth in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironside1966 Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 It might be worth double checking that all the digital connections in the studio are running off the same clock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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