Recording: 'It's Not Happening' bass

With light audio recording, your rig is compact enough to set up and take down because of space restrictions. And your recording techniques are as simple as they can. So, when my SO went out for a bit, I quickly set up to record bass for It’s Not Happening!

It’s Not Happening bass: rig run down

As ever, BandLab brings the noise in my head out via the gear in this list.

Additionally, you might spot a new toy in that list. Why yes! I did obtain new monitors, in the form of the Samson MediaOne BT3. I spotted a great deal and felt I’d be silly not to get them.

Needless to say, there will be a review when I’ve had more time to play with them.

Preparation

As noted, I had new monitors. However, my audio interface was still part of my old monitors.

Certainly, I wanted to play with my new toy. But I still needed to use at least the audio interface side of my old monitors to be able to do so.

It crowded the dining room table, that’s for sure. But, another new toy is on the way, which should help resolve that…

It’s Not Happening bass: recording

The first session

Step one – set up

Open Chromebook and position the BT3s
Plug in the Studio GTs via USB, then turned it on
- It’s important to plug the USB in first, or else BandLab won’t pick it up when you open a project
Turn on BT3s
- Again, it’s important to turn these on before opening a project in BandLab, or it won’t pick them up
Plug bass in Studio GTs with instrument cable

I used the Studio GTs as the interface while using the BT3s as my monitors. I didn’t have to, but I really wanted to play with my new toy.

Step two – admin

BandLab can’t be pushed. If it is, it struggles to load projects, and doesn’t save your new recordings.

So, I created a new project to record bass.

Export It’s Not Happening scratch track
Export final edit of drums
Create new project
Import scratch track and drums
Add new track to record bass onto – because I plugged in and turned on the Studio GTs before opening the project, BandLab detected it as the input by default
Turned level of scratch track down so it wouldn’t distract too much from the drums I was supposed to play along to

Step three – record bass

There was an idea in my head of what I wanted, but I hadn’t sat down to work it out for definites. But, after just a few run throughs, I was there.

Tune bass using BandLab’s built-in tuner
Click the record button
Away I go!

Except I couldn’t quite nail it. The bass for It’s Not Happening, wasn’t happening.

The irony!

It was weird. I chalked it up to the apartment being super-warm, and it making my hands all clammy and sweaty. However, we have no control over the heating, so all I could do was strip down to my boxer shorts.

I recorded maybe five takes. And on the last take where I was finally happy, I heard the door being unlocked. I only live with my SO. So, in she walked to find me standing in out living area, in my boxer shorts, with my bass strapped on.

If it wasn’t for the fact that my bass is shaped like an axe, I would’ve looked ridiculous.

Sorry folks. No pictures.

Step four – fix latency issue

As noted previously, BandLab has latency issues. So, with my bass recorded, I had to do a little tweaking to get it in time with the drums.

Go through each of the five or so bass tracks I had recorded, double checking for the best take
Pick one
Trim the beginning of the stem to where the audio starts
Drag it – usually back by a third of a bar – until it’s in time with the drums; it might take a few tries to get it right

For some reason, I struggled with this more than usual, but eventually, I was happy.

The second session

However, after all that drama, while writing this very post, I Iistened back to the take I determined as being “the one” that day, and… I didn’t even like it.

The timing wasn’t hitting it, and neither was the tuning of the bass.

The circumstances were very different. It was 1am and my SO was asleep in the next room. So I had to be quiet. I crept around setting things up quietly.

I opted to record from the comfort of my La-Z-Boy – most things I needed were that side of the room anyway, so it reduced the amount of creeping required

Step one – set up

Put the Studio GT with the audio interface on the floor
Put the Chromebook on top of said Studio GT
Plugged the Studio GT into the Chromebook via USB

You might notice that compared to the first session, I didn’t plug my bass in yet.

Step two – admin

Open BandLab
Open the Mix Editor for the project I created in the last session, specifically for recording bass for It’s Not Happening
Click Add Track
Mute the scratch track completely – focus completely on playing with the drums; I should know the song well enough by now!

Step three – record bass

Tune bass using Hotone tuner pedal – while it’s great idea that BandLab has a built-in tuner, the tuning in the previous session was definitely off, so I opted to use my trusty pedal tuner for this session
Plug bass in Studio GTs with instrument cable
Use my headphones plugged into the Studio GT to monitor, as opposed to hooking up the BT3s
Placed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cushion upon my knee, because rthe axe bass was not designed for playing while seated

Apart from the time and the need to be be quiet, the apartment wasn’t as hot, so I could at least wear a t-shirt with my boxer shorts

And after all that, I had one false start, and then one perfect take.

Step four – fix latency issue

I trimmed the start of the stem as before, dragged it back to where I could see the drums started, and bish bash bosh… I’d finished the bass!

Conclusion

Pros	Cons
The efficiency: as noted before; I don’t recall ever setting up, recording, and taking down so quickly before	Rushing: however, even after recording several takes, and deciding which was the one, when I rested my ears and went back to it, it still wasn’t right – the timing was patchy and it sounded out of tune
The process: in general, using BandLab is getting easier	My apartment: obviously I could open a window… is what I think now

To conclude, after a drama-packed session, this is where we’re at. Next up: acoustic guitars!

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