(laid-back guitar and drum music)
- Yo, what's up guys?
We're back, my name's Kenny Beats.
This is Fender Plugged In
and today we're going to show you how
to record a clean DI bass track.
So what we did last time is we took a guitar,
we plugged it in DI, we recorded a bunch of different takes
that we really liked with different tones.
So we would switch around what we did with the tone knob,
what we did with the push-pull,
what we did with the pickup selector
and we would find contrasting sounds
from the same guitar that we really liked
and then play the same piece over and over again,
comped out a couple of sections we really liked,
put them on top of each other
and here's where we're at right now.
(laid-back guitar music loops)
We have two different takes on either side,
left and right hard hard-panned.
(laid-back guitar music switches between pans)
Those two together sound like this.
(laid-back guitar music in stereo)
And then we did a different tone on the same guitar,
just mono straight in the middle.
(laid-back guitar music in mono)
All three together, sound like this.
(laid-back guitar music)
And with the drums.
(laid-back guitar and drum music)
What we want to do here is classic Motown,
James Jamerson direct in, flat bassline
that just holds down the rhythm section
and keeps all of these chords
and all these different takes grounded
with this one bit of timing if I can get in time.
Let's see what happens next.
(laid-back guitar and drum music)
Why do I do certain things in the studio?
Why do I record guitar in certain ways?
Why do I pick certain pieces of equipment?
Because they were on records I love.
I'm not afraid to say that I like
to steal sauce from other producers
and other musicians who I'm a big fan of.
A lot of time in these recording sessions,
people would be going into some Pultec EQ
or they'd be going into some Neve preamp
or something that's really out of hands
for a lot of people who are just in studios
with one interface and one laptop.
So I want to show you a quick way to plug in your Bass DI
and get a tone as good as those records you love
without needing all the fancy stuff in-between.
Today, we're going straight into our UAD Apollo X8
without any DI box or anything.
So we're going straight into the computer.
I'm using one Waves plugin called CLA Bass
and I'm gonna roll back my tone knob just a little bit.
(laid-back bassline to the song)
So I played a bassline in there,
not the best bassline but I played a bassline in there.
I'm gonna take my favorite pieces,
I'm gonna comp them together
and then we're going to see how they fit in
with those three guitar layers that we did earlier.
(laid-back music with bass, guitar and drums loops)
Whenever you're recording guitars or basses this way,
there's a lot of different issues people have with latency
so make sure ahead of time,
you adjust your buffer size down to 128.
Another thing I noticed a lot of times,
even if I'm having latency issues or I'm not,
the bassline for me is always a little rushed
when I play it, I've just come to know how I play.
Sometimes you work with an artist enough
to know how they play and you start
to assume these little things about the timing
when you're comping that bass part or that guitar part.
I know my bass playing is always going
to be a little bit ahead but I want it
to sit in the pocket in-between
where these drums are and where these guitars are.
So I'm gonna take this whole bass stem
that I just comped together,
I'm gonna zoom in really far and I'm gonna drag it,
just a little bit behind where the kick
and where some of those guitars first come in,
adding a little volume fade so there's no clipping there
and then now my bass should sit in the pocket
between those three DI guitar layers
and those drums that we recorded earlier.
(laid-back music with guitar, bass and drums)
So there you go.
That's my basic version of DI bass recording and comping.
A lot of times you have
to know the people you're working with,
you have to know who you're recording.
You start to see what's the best piece that they've played,
which piece can I take and loop?
What should I move back or move ahead a hair
so it fits with everything else in our track?
These are all things you come to know,
the more you start to do it.
On top of that, there's not too much you need to do
with a Fender Jazz Bass or a Pea Bass.
It doesn't really matter what model you have.
These are my favorite sounding basses
on every record that I can remember.
When I go look up a tone on a record I really love,
95% of the time it was recorded just like this,
straight in the room,
didn't have to be this big amp miking situation.
It can be this simple and it can be this good.
I'm using one plugin on the bass,
I'm using one plugin on the guitars.
So right now, you're not running up a whole bunch
of money like you would if you were using DI boxes
and a bunch of amps and microphones
and you're not using any CPU on your computer.
So really, you're getting a great sound
from the guitars the way they're supposed to sound
without having too much on top of them
and that's the beauty of a Fender.
Recording guitars and basses to me always felt
like a mystery, it always felt too hard,
it always felt like I didn't have enough experience.
I'm hoping some of these tips and tricks that I use
on records all the time are helping you guys get
through your workflow a little faster.
This is Fender Plugged In,
my name is Kenny Beats,
I'll see you soon.
(laid-back guitar music)