inexplicable bass clipping. wtf?

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MoreSpaceEcho
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inexplicable bass clipping. wtf?

Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:41 am

if anyone can figure this out i'll give you $35 and a pair of leather pants...

i'm recording my band, bass player is playing a p bass into the di on the drawmer 1969. we keep getting this weird clicky distortion happening. it doesn't happen all the time, seems to be worse when he plays louder, but its there when he's barely hitting the thing too. it's a sharp high frequency kinda sound, very hard clip and unpleasant. only there on the di track, it's not coming through the amp.

he also has a peavey bass which he cannibalized into a fretless, same thing happens with that one.
we've swapped out every possible cable and tried a different di as well. still there.
here's the thing: it doesn't happen when i play the bass. only when he does.
i was wailing on the low e as hard as i could and i couldn't get it to distort. he can go tap tap tap on the thing and it distorts. WTF? he has good technique when he plays, he's not a caveman pounding on it or anything.

bad juju? black magic? a curse? these are the only things that make any sense, and i will accept any of them, unfortunately they do not help in my quest to record a nice di sound.

anyone?

thanks
scott

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Post by drumsound » Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:48 am

My guess is the something is hitting the pickups. Maybe a string, maybe his fingernails, maybe a pick, maybe his jewelry.

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Mon Apr 03, 2006 8:23 am

that's what i thought too, but no picks or jewelry, and i was watching him play and i swear his fingernails were nowhere near the strings/pickups and it still was happening. but yeah the nails are the only thing of a non-paranormal nature that i can think of. cause mine are bitten down past the point of pain....i can't think of what else could be different....

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darjama
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Post by darjama » Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:03 am

One possibility might be microphonic pickups, so that hitting the body while playing causes the noise. But you did say it happened with two different basses.

If it's not coming through the amp I'd have to think it's something going wrong in the drawmer. Do you have another DI to try to rule that out? If you want the drawmer sound you could run it through a DI and into the line in.

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:13 am

yeah we tried a different di to no avail.

it's a head scratcher for sure.

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I'm Painting Again
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Post by I'm Painting Again » Mon Apr 03, 2006 10:18 am

did you try another cable?

padding down the bass outputs?

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Mon Apr 03, 2006 10:24 am

yep and yep.

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I'm Painting Again
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Post by I'm Painting Again » Mon Apr 03, 2006 10:39 am

did you check the cable coming out of the di?

or the path from the di to the recorder?

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Post by I'm Painting Again » Mon Apr 03, 2006 10:40 am

damit i want those pants..I would look killer in them..

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dokushoka
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Post by dokushoka » Mon Apr 03, 2006 10:41 am

cell phone in his pocket?

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Post by KennyLusk » Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:09 am

It could be the Attack or Release is set too fast. Just for grins try an attack time greater than 25ms and increase your release time too. This happens with Bass sometimes.
Last edited by KennyLusk on Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by tvanveen » Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:10 am

My bass player plays fretless as well...we had a song and I had noticed that there was a high weird sound I couldn't pinpint. he didn't know what it was either. It turned out as he was reaching for one note he was accidently fretting another down on the G. We couldn't really hear it when the band was playing together, it was only fairly obvious when it was DI'd.

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Post by darjama » Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:17 am

SO it happened even with another DI, even if you didn't go near the drawmer? If so it sounds like a technique thing. You've basically changed everything from bass to cord to di to pre, and it's still happening. Seems like the only thing that hasn't changed is the player. Maybe it's a static charge thing. Does he shuffle his feet a lot and wear corduroy? Give *him* the leather pants and see if that helps.

I'd say skip the DI. If you want something to supplement the mic with a little more bass (that's how I use DI typically anyway), how about sticking something with a strong proximity effect in the back of the speaker or at the bass port, reversing phase if necessary? If it's an overdub and a nicely resonant bass, you can even mic the strings (he'd have to play pretty clean though).

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:35 am

he might have had a cell phone in his pocket...you think that could really be it? i'll try that tonight when i get home.

not using the compressor at all...

like i said we tried all different cables, di's, basses....it's a mystery. it does seem like it would be a technique thing but i mean, his technique is good and i was hitting it like a barbarian and there was no distortion...

i like tracking a di just cause i find it adds a lot of clarity to the amp track in the mix. we won't die if we can't do it but i would just like to figure this out.

thanks everybody for giving it some thought, really appreciate it.

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Post by I'm Painting Again » Mon Apr 03, 2006 1:17 pm

I bet a cell phone would look great in the front pocket of those leather pants..

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