Jul 31 2011
Recording Bass Guitar Techniques
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Recording Bass Guitar Techniques
Any recording tips?
I'm trying to record my band...we've got drums, two guitars, bass, and vocals. The problem is that I only have 4 mic inputs, and no mixer. And I'm not interested in doing overdubs.
Are there any good techniques for recording a whole band with 4 mics?
I'm recording with a digital Fostex recorder. It has 8 tracks, 4 simultaneous.
Vinster has it right. With a few mic's spread out around the room and a LOT of listen/move 'em around/listen/play some and move 'em around then you can get pretty decent results, if everyone knows how to keep it down.
When I did this last I put a mic close to the drums, a mic on the guitar, a mic from the ceiling, and a mic for the vocalist. I left my bass amp un-mic'd. With a bit of blending, I actually got a pretty decent lo-fi recording. It sounded very live and very garagey, but it wasn't too bad.
It doesn't hold a candle to the quality I've got now, and I'm not even doing much more - but now I'm recording one instrument at a time, playing to a scratch track with headphones, and replacing each instrument in the click track as we go. Multiple mic's means I get a better, clearer, and bleed-free signal to work with - ambient mic'ing, close mic'ing, different mic's to get different tones, etc etc. I'm using a 4-channel mixer into a computer, with a decent sound card, etc.
With a bit of work I can get nearly professional quality - no discernable noise, solid bass, good imaging, all of it.
It makes you a better musician. Learn how to make an overdub.
Saul
Audio Recording Techniques : How to Mic a Bass Amp
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Learning how to play a guitar
Guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments nowadays. Most band member’s plays guitar and it’s the main attraction for most band to attract their audience. But playing a guitar is not easy; one must posses a natural talent or may learn how to play it in long time by practice. But how these band’s play guitar like crazy? Even without looking at their guitar and fingers they can play it well. Learning how to play guitar has many solutions. One easy solution on how to play a guitar is by picking a certain song from cd or any audio format. First step is to train your ears, try to pick a cd and figure out the songs. This step is very important it helps your listening skills to figure out the song and in the future transcribe what the guitar is playing. In this process as you listen to the song, and hear when the chords are changing (you’ll also need to know what the chord is changing. This is a very simple task, which you can practice whenever you listen to music. The next time you have a song on, try and identify when the chord changes. As you manage to have a chance of figuring out how to play a song, you’ll need your guitar to be in tune with the recording. By doing this takes a little bit of patience and practice, and again, you’ll have to rely on your ear. One of the keys to getting in tune with a recording is to listen for open string in the guitar part. What you need to do in these situations is identify any note in the recording, then find the note which is closest to it on your guitar, and tune your guitar until it matches the note on the recording.
Bass notes is very helpful, to me listening to a bass notes is the easiest way to identify chords. Since the role of the bass in pop in rock music is generally to lay down the foundation of the music, and play the primary note of most chords. Try to pick a song that sounds simple to play-one that doesn’t move too quickly, and uses a basic strummed guitar part. Now, listen to the guitar part, and identify when the chords are changing in the song. Try to identify the bass part. The bass part in pop and rock music usually contains single notes, and is the lowest sounding instrument in the band. Using your guitar, try and identify what note the bassist plays when the guitar chord changes. Using your finger slide it up the sixth string of your guitar, and try every note, until you find one that sounds like the recording. Identify that note. Try playing different types of C chords at that point in the song. When you find the right chord, move on to the next chord change. This is a good method of figuring out songs, although some problems arise. Sometimes bass players don’t play the root note of the chord… for example, they may play the note E, when the chord is actually Cmajor.
Identifying open strings, this technique is particularly handy when you have tried the bass method of figuring out a chord, and in the end failed. The concept is simple: listen for any open strings ringing in the recording, and then find those same strings on your guitar. This method needs you to memorize all the chords. Another method to learn is note by note method. This method requires of figuring out chords, but sometimes, it’s a necessary evil. The concept is simple, simply listen to the chord on the recording again and again, picking out any notes you can hear, and trying to replicate them on guitar. By trying these methods you can easily learn how to play a guitar. But if these methods don’t suite you, maybe you need a companion that can teach you one on one session of guitar lesson.
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