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We've got studio time booked!

That's an exciting thing to hear. Technology has made recording easier than ever, and many of us, ( including me ), record at home. But there's still nothing better than working in a professional studio, with a professional studio engineer / producer. Welcome to Rob's Bass Bulletin for May 2019. I was playing bass on the new Tahni Handal album at the Fire Station in San Marcos last weekend, and it got me thinking I could share my experiences so that when your time comes, you can have the best possible studio experience.


Getting the best results from your studio time starts before you leave the house - put on a fresh set of strings, check your intonation, and, if you have active pick ups, put a fresh battery in your bass. Make sure your amp is ready to go too. Bass may be recorded direct, but most engineers these days like a combination of direct and amp sounds. Gary at the Fire Station provided a Neve direct box:

and also mic-ed my amp:

You can see that Gary originally had the mic directly in front of one of the amp's speakers, which is the conventional way to do it. After we played a little bit, Gary moved the mic to the vent at the bottom of the amp:

That's definitely a little unusual and I asked Gary why he did it. He said 'I'm getting plenty of definition from the direct box. I need the THUMP from the amp, and that's where it's coming from'. There are really 2 things to learn here. The obvious one is that vents or ports on your amp are where the low frequency punch comes from. Equally, or maybe more important is that if you do the conventional thing and the sound is OK but could be better, don't be afraid to try something else, and always trust your ears. If moving the mic hadn't improved the bass sound Gary would've simply moved the mic back. In fact, it did give him that 2nd component, ( thump to go with the definition ), he was looking for.
 
Along with me, Gary was recording Mark Leshner on drums and Tahni Handal on guitar and vocals. I didn't count the mics on Mark's drum kit, but there were plenty:

 
Gary also used panels to build an impromptu isolation booth for Tahni's guitar amp:


All of that takes time, and that's the second key to success in the studio - step 1 = make sure your gear is in good shape before you leave the house, step 2 = once you get to the studio be patient - the engineer is dealing with dozens of of sources of sound and trying to blend them into the best track possible. That takes time, and the best results come when everyone involved is relaxed and patient. Here's a picture of the Fire Station control room - that's a lot of variables:
Here's another view:
With Tahni's amp behind panels, we had just enough separation to make overdubs possible. Tahni and Gary wanted a very live feeling for the finished recording, starting with having as much of the rhythm section tracks as possible consisting of Mark & I playing live together. That brings us to step 3 for studio success - have all your material learned before you go in. We were well enough rehearsed to be able to finish 13 rhythm section tracks. A couple were fine as they were, but in most cases there were one or two ugly bass moments, ( most typically my finger landing on the fret instead of the space between or something equally silly ), which were quickly & easily fixed. One thing that was new to me and actually worked out really well was that Tahni & Gary don't do the standard 'play-the-song, go-into-the-control-room-and-listen' thing. Instead, we would do 3 or 4 takes of a song, 3 or 4 takes of another, and 3 or 4 takes of another before going into the control room to pick the best take of each song. This kept us warmed up and playing smoothly, and greatly reduced the amount of time spent walking back and forth between the main room and the control room. I think the tracks benefited from that. Gary has been working at the Fire Station since it opened in 1985, so when he says 'OK, I think y'all have a good one there', it's a pretty safe bet you can move on and start working on the next song.

So success in the studio really comes from 3 things - having your equipment ready, being patient, and knowing your music. If you do that, things will go well, but why would you want to? Incredibly hi rez home recording gear is available at very low prices, why does anyone need a professional studio anymore? Here are a few reasons:

Professional engineering makes a huge difference - and having someone else keeping an eye and ear on the technical side frees you up to just play. Also, someone like Gary not only has as much experience with mic selection and placement as I have with chord progressions and grooves, but he also has a huge array of mics to choose from. Take a look at this:
The cabinet behind my amp with all the drawers is the Fire Station's mic 'box'. Each drawer is for a different type of mic:

That selection of mics cost a lot more than my car, and Gary knows what each and every one of them does best. The rest of the gear in a good studio is similarly prolific and diverse.

Finally, there's the fact that a full band has all the room it needs to set up and play - something I can't say about my home studio.

So if the budget is there, you and your gear are prepared, and you're ready to work a the group's pace, a recording studio is still probably going to give you the best results.

That's been a lot of stuff! I'm going to conclude with a studio anecdote and a track. 

In 1977 Steely Dan were recording 'Aja' and had hired Chuck Rainey to play bass. Chuck thought the chorus of one of the songs, 'Peg', was a perfect place for some slap 'n' pop bass playing, but songwriter / producers Walter Becker & Donald Fagen felt that slapping was a cheap fad and told him explicitly NOT to slap on their record. Remember those panels Gary used to isolate the guitar amp? Studios are full of them. Chuck turned his chair a little and moved a panel over so the guys in the control room couldn't see his hands. When the chorus came around, Chuck got his thumb involved and did what he thought sounded best. You can hear it any time you hear the song, and Chuck plays it and talks a bit about it here. 9 times out of 10, ( at least ), that gets the bass player fired and someone else gets hired to play what the producers want to hear, but Chuck's instincts were right and what he did helped make the song great.

That's it for now - keep the bottom end rumbling!

Rob.
 
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