3 Steps for PRO Bass Recordings | The ULTIMATE GarageBand Beginner's Guide (Pt 15)

Bass is the foundation of your song. Getting a nice, tight, consistent bass part will give you the low end your mix needs.

Plugin mentioned:

This video is the 15th video in The Ultimate GarageBand Beginner's Guide series where I'm bringing you 30 bite sized videos showing you EVERYTHING you need to get started in GarageBand from the first time you open it until you are exporting out your final, mastered song.

#garageband #garagebandtutorial

[jackblack]

Old guy here, just started recording my music after 35 years. Love your work. Thank you

[rickrocks]

Thank you very much! I have always struggled with finding the best settings for recording bass. Your break down was clear to understand and efficient. I will learn much from your tutorial. Once again thanks for your much appreciated help.

[diosgenes]

God Bless! what a great video! so many thanks for sharing!

[Gee-no]

I don't play bass much, I play guitar and keys and write but I bought a Squier Jazz bass 20 yrs ago and I use it to this day. In drop C btw.

[RafaelSosa]

I was waiting for this video, refreshing for hours!

[pageluvva]

I always just went to the presets. I guess I was scared to try anything else. Your lessons give me the courage to try. Thanks my friend.

[richrichk]

Yo this is sick! This dude tutorials are the best. Gotta put some respect on em

[petset]

For bass, playing style is also a variable. Playing with a pick is brighter than playing with fingers, and the slap guys have their own tones. The modern electric jazz guys seem to love the farty bottom (not for me, but it's a thing). I'm primarily a finger player, and because I prefer bass tones, I play closer to the neck than the bridge, because it affects tone as dramatically as playing open strings versus fretted counterparts. Sometimes I'd play with a pick if I wanted something specific, especially if reverb or other effect dependent on bright tones is introduced for a song. Recording, or in a large venue, the instrument went through a direct box before the amp and microphone. For recording (earlier days of course because I'm here to learn) I went through the DI and the amp, and amp selection makes a big difference. I never wanted to lug around a heavy Ampeg SVT tube amp (and large and heavy 8 speaker cabinet), and for large venues and festivals, PA mains are what the audience hears, not my amp. I mention that because I eventually learned by the early 80s to not push my amp, because it's not what's heard, and I'm the guy paying to repair things when they break. Smaller venues and recording meant a mix of the amp and direct box signals, but I still didn't push my equipment. I'm older than old, but wanting to record material brought me to needing to learn tech.... including amp modeling. It's magic. If I want Ampeg warm tones for bass, it's on a selector switch. If I want a clean solid state sound like a David Eden or older Peavey or Acoustic 370 sound, they're available. Marshall, various Fender, or wildly distorted rectifier amps for guitar are a switch away. Glad I'm still around to have it available. Thanks for another great video on recording real instruments.

[augustofarias]

Great content! It’s the small details that make all the difference.

[DavidWinloMusic]

I had not discovered the flexitime option before, that's super useful! I have some old stuff I've been thinking about trying to polish up and release, this could help me avoid having to re-record a bunch of parts that are just not quiiite in time and work out what settings I used a year or two ago when I knew much less about recording and would've had some weird settings going on.

[giljusino]

Lots of good tips. I’ve never been happy with the tone of my bass recordings. I’ll try all your pointers on my electric bass. I actually use a mic to record my upright bass, so I’ll work in some of your techniques here as well. Many Thanks

[chrislanesr]

Learned a very cool tip on punch-ins that I wasn't using. Thanks for that!

[guitarexmusic]

Great work and content. This is helpful!

[terryrollins]

This is exactly what I needed! I just got a new Jackson bass I haven't even plugged in yet 🙃 🙌

[LanceLoz-brbc]

Great job! Well documented and very useful! 👍

[pte]

Thank you for explaining the circle. I was getting two tracks of guitar and didn't understand why.

[MikeGuerr]

This was very helpful information on using the Peak/VU meter and amp sims. My bass rig is a Mesa WD-800 and 212 cab, and I use my Behringer XR18 as my recording interface. I typically record on 2 tracks simultaneously; one track is a Shure Beta 52a micing the cab, and the second is a DI from my amp head. This allows me to record the tone of my amp as it is in a live setting, and also allows me to use my pedalboard. Once recorded, I can then balance the mix of the DI and Mic tracks.
After watching this video I’m going to download that Peak/VU meter and will use that on all my recordings going forward. I will also record a third track by sending a clean signal (pre pedalboard) to another channel in my interface. Then I can experiment with the bass amp simulator and effect on the clean signal. I’m very interested to hear how they sound.
Thanks again for this video!

[ChrisScian]

A great tutorial...only thing I might add as a helpful tip is to watch switching between notes that you fingers don't slide on the strings as that's tough to eliminate that unwanted sound afterwards...that being said, I recorded a recent bass part with a very trebly tone and without a pick which might have contributed to this.

[GaryHubbs]

Even though I use GB on iOS I am loving the content. The DAW might be different but the principles transfer

[LA]

Great a that way....Di info. ...perfect..thanks