bass

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kernowek
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bass

Post by kernowek » Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:44 am

hi
i am new to audicity. my problem is that when i am recording bass , a direct line in with a toneport GX, it comes out with a really bad sound that can be best descibed as really strained and well spiky. what is causing this because recording guitar in this fashion works fine.
thanks

steve
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Re: bass

Post by steve » Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:26 pm

You are probably overloading something, leading to distortion. Check your levels.
If you get a nice clean signal by doing this, but it's just not loud enough in the mix (without distorting) then you will have to use a compressor effect. I would recommend the SC4 plug-in using a very fast attack time. You may also want to use a touch of "hard limiter" as well (also available as a plug-in)
9/10 questions are answered in the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

kozikowski
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Re: bass

Post by kozikowski » Fri Apr 25, 2008 10:15 pm

Buzzy, crunchy bass notes? He's right. You're overloading something.

Bass notes are big and hard to manage. Your ear doesn't hear them very well, so for a song to sound right, the bass notes need to be a lot higher than the rest of the song. If the song mix is already bumping up against zero on the bouncing light sound meters, you will never fit a bass track in.

Keep watch on the Audacity red record meters and any overload lights you may have on your recording equipment. Ignore the song volume for a while and concentrate on getting clean bass.Then rejigger the rest of the song so the total package doesn't smack zero on the Audacity Sound meters.

It's possible you're overloading the sound device. To see if you are, play one note that doesn't sound right and capture it. Blow it up on the timeline and look for flat spots on the top and bottom of the waves. That's flat-topping or clipping. Bass notes should look smooth and rounded always. If no amount of turning things down will eliminate these flat spots, then you may not be able to use this sound capture device for your bass performance. As another experiment, does it sound a lot better if you play softer?

Zero on either the record (red) or playback-edit (green) meters should never be touched. That's where unrecoverable distortion and damage happens.

Koz

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