You're Playing Too Loud?

[kslight]

I've noticed with bass players especially, they often will make clicks and clacks on the pickups....Really fun job.

Is there a technique (foam rubber under strings?) to remedy this? Or is it purely a touch issue with the player?

If they play too hard/have the pickups adjusted to close to the strings, or have too light of strings for how hard they play, or if they hit the pickups with a pick while they are playing, that can cause this.

[JGriffin]

I had a bass player here for an entire album who was absolutely convinced the clacking sound had nothing to do with his playing and that I didn't know how to properly set levels and that it was clipping. After a number of sessions and numerous attempts I finally explained it in the most basic way possible and he seemed to understand. When it came to mixing he undid that understanding and would ask me to go in and edit and "take down all the spots where the bass is distorting on harder hits". Really fun job.

I think I worked with that exact same guy!

[Brett Siler]

Take out 2khz-4khz, aka clackzone. EQ or even multiband compression.

[Spark]

Watching it happen, I felt like Jimmy Fallon's computer guy from SNL years back... I just wanted to say "MOOOOVE" and have him get out of the driver's seat and watch someone who actually knew what he was doing (ME, of course)!

Nick Burns, your companies audio engineer.

[GooberNumber9]

Touch issues are pretty huge when it comes to recording bass players. If it's not timing then it's touch. Any bass player who can play at just the right time with just the right intensity can go far with that.

Maybe yelling out "you're playing too loud!" isn't the best way to massage the artist. It can make a big difference to let artists know when their technique is going to show up badly in the final product and at least give them a chance to make some adjustments. Many of them really just don't know the consequences of what they are doing, and not all of them have egos that are too big to learn something new in the studio.

[drumsound]

I've noticed with bass players especially, they often will make clicks and clacks on the pickups....Really fun job.

Is there a technique (foam rubber under strings?) to remedy this? Or is it purely a touch issue with the player?

I've seen people put gaff tape over the pickup. I can't remember if I've done that or not.

[Randyman...]

I've noticed with bass players especially, they often will make clicks and clacks on the pickups....Really fun job.

Is there a technique (foam rubber under strings?) to remedy this? Or is it purely a touch issue with the player?

If they play too hard/have the pickups adjusted to close to the strings, or have too light of strings for how hard they play, or if they hit the pickups with a pick while they are playing, that can cause this.

Ditto. A very forceful player and pickups that are set too close to the strings = poo-poo! I agree the solution is to fix the bass (set it up correctly) and not to tell the talent to change their technique mid-session...

[frans_13]

Another thing that could go wrong: if it was a bass with active eq or anything with a battery in there. I came across instruments that couldn't cope with their own output, so you had to turn the volume on the bass a bit down. Could also be a sign of the battery dying. Another reason for playing less hard would be if the strings are too "wiggly" and don't have enough tension. You play it too hard, you get a hit+miss intonation, clanking noises, uneven dynamics and a soft and dare i say sh-itty tone.

[thunderboy]

As a bass player, I was definitely guilty of this. It's a mix of aggressive playing and sub-optimal action and/or pickup height. The balance can be skewed in either direction, even to the exclusion of the other, in my experience. The other problem - the REAL problem, I think - is that we (bass players) quickly become deaf to it. Fortunately, when faced with the stark reality of it during a recording session, more reasonable personalities will correct themselves. Personally, I was very surprised the first time I heard playback of myself during my old band's first recording session. It was a by-product of my style, which had evolved over the previous 6-7 years, but one I managed to quickly overcome. My band mates were very happy.

[Gregg Juke]

My dear departed friend Joel was a wonderful musician with great facility and much more than a modicum of taste. But he had that "clack" thing, and it was very consistent, because over a 20-30 year span, he had developed a habit of slapping the pick-up on his Fender P on the backbeat along with the snare drum on 2 & 4.

Whenever we were recording, it drove us crazy, but it was so hard-coated into his brain that there was no way to adjust the technique; we had to learn to hide it on the mix end...

GJ

[cale w]

As a bass player, im totally guilty of being a string tapper between notes and in rests, as a way of keeping time and rhythm for myself. It's definitely something I have to be aware of in a recording. As to playing "too loud," I know that bass players will have the best control over their dynamics when they can hear themselves almost too well. If you're doing overdubs but you're burried in the mix, your subconscious response is to dig in harder. When I record bass, I like to have the playback/headphones up to the point where if I hit a low E as hard as possible, shit will explode. Like instant monitor death. Then I have control of the full dynamic range of the instrument.

All that said, the sound of a bass getting played too hard is just gross, especially direct. I don't find a lot on instances where laying into the strings really provides the punch the player is after; timing, tone and note choice are 99% of the battle. Let the drummer be the transient punch.

[Snarl 12/8]

I heard a while back, and have come to believe, that the bass is bassier when played quietly. I guess it brings out the fundamental more and less overtones? Or maybe I'm fooling myself, as is often the case. Anyone else feel this way? (About the bassiness, not me fooling myself.)

[cale w]

That's the mentality I have about it, Snarl. I read somewhere that's what the reggae/dub guys do: instrument loud, and a light touch on the strings to reduce the overtones, and get that big fat fundamental. I dicked around with preamps, compressors, lowpass filters and such trying to nail that tone, and it really does all come down to technique!

More to the point of the OPs situation, I would suspect the producer was telling him to not dig in so hard, but wasn't articulating that sentiment so well.

[Snarl 12/8]

When I saw the Bad Brains and they went into their reggae stuff at the end of the set the guy started playing up by the 12th fret too. That gives a deeper sound and keeps you away from the pickup too.

There's all kinds of "valid" techniques out there though. I jammed with my dad once and he gave himself a blood blister after about 5 minutes of playing (and he plays all the time, so it's not like he has flimsy hand skin), so he was obviously "digging in" really hard, but it sounded awesome. When he digs in though, he does it across the strings, not into the pickups/body of the bass.

So, "it depends" wins again. Probably.

[drumsound]

I heard a while back, and have come to believe, that the bass is bassier when played quietly. I guess it brings out the fundamental more and less overtones? Or maybe I'm fooling myself, as is often the case. Anyone else feel this way? (About the bassiness, not me fooling myself.)

That is true to some extent. Then you get into what part of your finger is doing the picking, and where on the string you're playing.