Any special trick or settings for recording good, clean bass via mixer?

[robbocurry]

Here is my 2 cents. To the op. What kind of noise are you getting? Bass guitars have really low signal. They s/n ratio is pretty bad. The noise you may be hearing might just be coming from the bass itself. Everyone is focusing on what is going on after the bass signal. Odds are it's coming right from the source. His amp is not duplicating it because most bass amps were designed to filter out a lot of noise. But listen closely, part of it is probably there. When you are recording it you have a louder mix in the recording than live. This is why you can actually hear the problem.

If it's a really old bass or faulty, it might have a poor signal, otherwise I beg to differ:
If the bass is active it will in fact have a very strong signal. Properly working passive basses should have strong signals too, due to bigger strings and pickups.
Most modern bass amps hide nothing as bass playing into the higher ranges has been explored. Older amps to a lesser extent maybe, but you should still hear a faulty signal at the amp if there is one.
In my experience I've encountered way more noisy guitars than basses. Maybe it's guys using older guitars with classic amps, that's just my experience.
If it's a faulty bass,  there's a good chance you should hear it at the amp before it hits the desk.
It might be the amp, the amp's DI output or the connecting cable. If you have "ground lift" on the DI it might be worth trying it to see if it helps the noise in your recording.
Solo the bass channel and have a good listen with the bass guitar volume up, but the guy not playing just to see what's coming through.

JL is right about using the MF recording feature though, it's not great at all.

[walterw]

The OP does in fact mix for the recording by using the mains for the recording only and aux sends for FOH.

oh, OK.

then yeah, there's no reason you can't get a decent bass level in there. at that point this is just a matter of EQ and mixing choices, same as any other live recording gig. maybe adding some compression and favoring more mids and less bass rumble will help it sit in the mix.

with that setup, he could even throw a mic out in the room to capture the overall sound of the band, since it doesn't have to come out the speakers again.

[JMc]

Well, someone asked "why" I was wanting to record, which seems a little irrelevant to my original question, but I'll tell you...  Because like everything else, this band will not last forever.  I don't know how long we'll be all be able to sustain what we've put together, and I want to be able to create some good recordings that I can play in my car, roll down the windows, crank it to "11" and be able to say "I helped create this".  That's really about it. 

By the way, the dirty bass signal from last week that I mentioned in the original post was just as I thought - due to a bad cable.  The cable was replaced with a new one and last night I had no trouble capturing a nice, clean bass signal.   The recordings are still a work in progress, but to my ear at least, they're progressing very nicely.  If I can get results like this from a live sound mix into two channels, I think I can be happy with that.  Sam, you mentioned the HPF on all the mics, and before seeing your post, I thought of that very thing.  So before last night's gig, I made sure they were set that way. 

Here's an example of how it came out.  Hope there are some Doors fans here...  If not, apologies in advance.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f54mu1jwofhnmw9/Roadhouse%20Blues.mp3

Cheers.

[PeterKorg]

I used to have problems with bass creating a lot of hiss through the pa, we eliminated it by using DI box rather than the one in the back of the amp
I keep the backline bass quite low, for stage only and crank it up in the pa using my ears to balance with the rest of the band.

PS bas amp is, Ashdown Little Giant 1000 Bass Amp and Ashdown Superfly Bass Cabs, really nice rig and small and light

[JMc]

And no more excuses about using the master fader recording app. I'm kind of shocked that anyone who is here in these forums is using it. How many times do we need to discuss alternative recording apps that can be played directly back from the iPad or even iphone? I personally use the tascam PCM recorder to capture my audio. It's free and works great. And I can listen back to check the mix right away.

Are you saying that you can play back the audio recorded from the master fader recording app with the Tascam app?  Or are you saying you can record the DL-1608 mix using the Tascam app?  Or neither?

[Jerrylee]

You can record the dl mix with most audio apps. Tascam, Auria, garage band, and many more.

[WK154]

I use Voice Record in conjunction with Documents to get rid of little Hitlers (Jobs) concept of computers. All free apps. It allows me to transfer files to anywhere I need what I recorded without the iCloud. At present I don't record anything using the DL for many reasons other than this. PCMrecorder (Tascam) stores files within the app and it's not visible to other apps. Strictly a record and play app on the iPad. You can however transfer files to the iCloud

[JMc]

I just want to make sure that I'm crystal clear on this...  So, if I install the Tascam app on my iPad (I tried on my iPhone yesterday and the app crashed and locked up immediately), I can open up the Master Fader app, exit briefly, open the Tascam app, start recording, go back to my Master Fader app and Tascam PCM will continue to record the DL mix in the background the same way as if I hit "record" on the Master Fader screen?  Only it will store it in a different way (within the Tascam app, for example)  that allows instant playback for tweaking purposes? 

[WK154]

I don't know about the iPhone aspects but it works just fine on my 3rd gen iPad. Just don't hit record on MF when using PCMrecord. Just switch back and forth between MF and PCM.

[amitcv]

JMc,
Did you get confirmation on your question? Were you able to record using another App while mixing using the Master fader?

Thanks
Amit