HOW TO BUILD A GREAT STUDIO BASS RACK
In the past, all that studio bass players had to do, was simply carry their bass. Nowadays, it’s common for session bassists to bring multiple basses to the studio along with the entire signal chain they prefer to use. That signal chain can be as basic as bringing their own direct box or it can go all the way up to a high end studio bass rack that includes preamps, EQ, and compression, along with a pedalboard for effects. Too much? Only if you really want control over your recorded sound and if you do enough studio work to make the effort worthwhile.
There are pros and cons to building a highquality bass rack.
Cons: The cost of high-end gear; a rack filled with great signal processing can cost thousands of dollars. Another is the burden of carrying that rack around; even in recording centers, cartage companies (and recording projects that will pay for cartage) are disappearing, so you’re most likely going to be moving the rack around solo. For that reason, a strong back and a roller cart, such as the Rock N Roller R8RT, is of big help.
Pros: in addition to having the bass sound of your dreams, you’ll also gain a measure of protection from engineers who might not be as sympathetic to the nuances you’re trying to capture. Once the engineer sees that you can run directly into his recording device, he’s less likely to use his possibly inferior compressors and EQs.
Get a DI
If you’re thinking about upgrading your recorded bass sound, A Designs REDDI works great for those who prefer the sound of tubes, and if you like Class A solid-state electronics, then the Avalon U5 is marvelous. The maximum output of both the REDDI and the U5 is line level, which means that you plug directly into the recorder, without going through a microphone preamp. But more pertinent to today’s topic, you can plug the output of either of these DIs directly into a high-end compressor.
Tone
The DIs mentioned earlier have massive amounts of output gain, so you don’t have to use a microphone preamp to get the levels you need. However, a great mic preamp can make a great-sounding track even better. For e.g. Vintech’s X73 is based on the classic 1073 module, while the Great River MEQ-1NV starts with the classic design but adds modern updates to the circuit. It’s certainly feasible to record with the REDDI or the Avalon U5 plugged directly into a compressor, but add the subtle great old-school preamp and EQ, and you’ll have a winning combination.
Compressors — Beyond Pedals
There are great-sounding compressor pedals available these days, but when you move to high-end, single-channel, rack mounted optical tube compressors, the difference can be amazing. Some great compressors are TubeTech’s CL 1B; or the vintage Universal Audio LA-2A, or the Retro Instruments StaLevel, patterned on the classic 1956 Gates Limiter. Also, the Sta-Level’s gain reduction circuitry sounds different than the optical circuit used in the CL 1B or the LA-2A, but that might be exactly the sound that suits you.
Lastly, a power strip/power conditioner is for great studio bass. Furman makes one to suit your needs: the M-8Lx. If you’re not a pedalboard user, then you might want a rack mounted tuner, such as the Peterson VS-R StroboRack. And finally, you’ll want to choose the right rack. A lightweight rack case from Gator or SKB may be perfect. If you have the option to move your gear then go for a heavy-duty road case. If you’re a bassist who wants the best sound possible, then these tips will set you in the right direction.
ABSOLUTE TRIUMPH IN DIGITAL PROCESSING!
One of our favourite plugins, Soothe has gotten a major upgrade! This plugin has undoubtedly been one of the most important tools in our arsenal in recent times. It magically allows you to take out or tame the harshness and edgy qualities that are sometimes associated with digital recordings and is usually the first thing to reach for if we need to fix a less than stellar recording. The Soothe code base has been completely rewritten. The plug-in's latency has been roughly halved, to around 45ms. CPU burden is also reduced by a new ability to set a higher quality mode for offline renders than is used in real time so that you get the best possible quality when bouncing your mix. This is a feature we would love on more plugins that offer to oversample of some sort. The interface has also undergone a facelift. It is now presented in a more EQ-like interface that allows you to focus on the frequency ranges that need it most. This makes it a lot easier to use and lowers the steep learning curve that it had before. This analogy has been developed further in Soothe 2, with bands now offering a wide range of shapes including shelving, tilting and notch filters. The entire plug-in or individual bands can operate in M-S as well as L-R mode on stereo material, and it's possible to freely weight the processing towards one side of the stereo signal, both globally and per band. And whereas the original Soothe was essentially a mid-range and high-frequency processor, Soothe 2 can do useful work at the bottom end too. You can also specify attack and release times to govern the processing. In the original, the response was pretty much instantaneous: unwanted resonances would be eliminated as soon as they started and for as long as they lasted. The ability to set a slower attack time has obvious applications, especially on drums. This should also help lower any artefacts that may occur by lowering the attack times. There’s a new addition of a side-chain input. Again, this has several potential applications; for example, if one instrument within an ensemble is sounding harsh, you could employ Soothe 2 on one track, but trigger it from another instrument thereby carving out space for the former in a mix. The biggest development, though, is the addition of a second processing algorithm. Soothe 2 can operate either in a Hard Mode, which is similar to the original, or the new default Soft mode.
All in all, this plugin is an absolute triumph in digital processing. The only limitations we found were the side chain functionality is yet to overcome delay compensation issues and the new version is not backward compatible with the old one. So for existing Soothe users, version 2 will be installed alongside the older version, which will continue to work so that existing projects can be loaded unchanged. Small compromises on an absolute workhorse of a plugin and we cannot recommend it enough for professionals in the audio game.
A LOT FOR LESS!
The audio landscape is permanently changing - from large scale consoles in studios to a fully-fledged one right in your bedroom. If you are still not convinced, take a look at the latest offering from SSL. A manufacturer is renowned for its amazing consoles through which a lot of the hit records we’ve known and loved were made.
The SSL 2/2+ are two versions of twin-channel USB audio interfaces. SSL know a thing or two about high-end design so it is great to see then forging a path into the smaller interface market with a pair of small form factor USB of interfaces with class-leading mic preamps and the addition of the 4K analogue enhancement which we can only hope are direct descents of the 4000 series consoles. They also offer studioquality monitoring along with an SSL Production Pack software bundle, which includes the SSL Native Vocalstrip 2 and Drumstrip plug-ins. They claim that the converters are straight from the alpha link so it should be a really good deal at that price point. And for what it’s worth, it looks cool sitting on a desk. The form factor, while its nothing new, looks solid and well built. The SSL 2 offers 2 x SSLdesigned microphone preamps, a Legacy 4K - analogue colour enhancement for any input source, inspired by classic SSL consoles, one high-grade headphone output, 24-bit / 192 kHz AD/DA AKM Converters, monitor mix control, Balanced monitor outputs and is bus-powered. The 2+ in addition to this offers an additional set of outputs(unbalanced RCA for DJ mixers), an extra headphone out and MIDI connectivity. Most people might opt to spend a bit more and just get the 2+ as it offers a bit more at a very small price bump. We are quite excited to see what else SSL decides to make for the home studio market if this is their first official foray into the same.