We make no apology for featuring another excerpt from “Greg Wells Start to Finish,”. It’s that good! In this free excerpt Greg shows ho he uses a hardware SamsAmp amp simulator to track his bass part. Nothing, else, that’s it!
In Episode 7 Greg explains that he used to record his bass parts through an Ampeg SVT bass rig, but has now switched to using Sans Amp RBI, which is a rackmount bass processor/DI from Tech-21 that emulates the sound of a tube amp. Like the company’s other processors, it’s all analogue.
One of the features he likes on the unit is the Blend knob, which is a wet/dry control. He uses it to dial in a little bit of straight DI sound along with the processed audio. The RBI also has a Drive control, which provides an overdriven tube-like sound if you want. The RBI offers several output options, including separate wet and dry outputs, both XLR and 1/4”, an effects loop and a second input that can be switched to line-level if you’re using the RBI in a chain with other processors before it.
Find out more about the bass processing Greg used and some of the hardware alternatives available at the pureMix blog.
Start to Finish: Greg Wells - Episode 7 - Recording The Bass
In this episode of Greg Well's Start To Finish Series, he composes, records and edits the bass guitar line to add rhythmic and melodic movement to Bryce Drew's song "Lucky Number."
After completing the bass track, Greg recaps Day 2 at Sunset Sound and prepares for the third and final day.
Watch as Greg:
Explains his use of a Sans Amp RB1 to create the perfect bass tone
Composes an energetic and melodic bass line on camera
Performs the bass part
Edits the bass performance down
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If you’re a Pro Tools user you already have access to some of the SansAmp magic courtesy of the very old but still very brilliant SansAmp PSA-1. In spite of its unfamiliarly named parameters it is ideal for bass processing and much more besides. Check out what those parameters do in our premium tutorial below.