Safety Nets

Since day one of recording on my own, I always strove for a dry track when possible. I liked the idea of a safety net. In my mind, if I messed up with micing, or phase or whatever, the dry track would be the life preserver for whoever was mixing it. I would position it early in the chain, usually right after my compressor and record that way. Sometimes I’d run the DI from the amp as well, not an entirely dry track, but in the same vein.

Fuck. That. 

Truant Minds recently took a look at some older material. This material required me to re-record the song as we’ve been playing it for the last 2 years. With this band, of course depending on the song, I try and do my thing. Sometimes I can’t, because the original parts are exquisite and they have to stay. I can’t change excellent lines, and that’s okay, there is nothing to improve. I have a blast playing those songs. Respect and kudos to the bass players that came before me.

This song was one that gave me freedom. I could do my own thing on this. 

This particular song needed some sway, it has that thing. After a bunch of recordings, I’ve been able to experiment and explore what works. I think this recording was the ultimate refinement of that process. My RBH cab is unbeatable, but I don’t know if I like the CX-115 with a mic in front of it. Or at least not for TM, it sounds great beyond that and I love jamming through it. For Truant Minds there’s this grind I’m going for that the RBH just has. The CX-210 was used this time around, which I like a lot. That cab is solid. the combination CX-210/RBH115 gets me the exact sound I want.

Sorry, I got distracted talking about cabs.

Anyways... so for this song I wanted to capture that sway. So I went with two mics, One on the 15 one on the 10. I had a DI from the amp. That DI track is currently chilling in my trash bin. This was also the first TM recording with my #1.

(I’m about to get off topic a bit, skip the next two paragraphs if you don’t care about my Precision Bass)

Short story:

In high school I worked during the summer,

saved a few bucks and bought my first Fender Precision Bass. This bass has seen a lot of bands, many situations and a ton of different strings. It’s always been my go to. When I joined Truant Minds it was strung with flats, so it was a never used. I was also trying to go for a bit more top end tonally, maple boards worked better in that regard. But then I got some new Curtis Novak pickups in it (which rule) and thought “what if I throw some DR Lo-Riders on it and see what happens?”.

Dude! The neck felt like home. It just felt right. Everything felt right. It sounded incredible, it sounded right. Those pickups feed dirt exceptionally well. Goddamn. I love that Precision.

So.. sway... yeah. P Bass+ (Boss CS2-> Fuzzrocious Demon-> Fuzzrocious Broke Dick Peanut Gallery)+cranked Gallien Krueger= my favorite bass recording so far. 

I’m proud of everything I’ve put out, but this symbolized a refinement of the process. I found an equation that worked! 4 sources were useless, I’m so happy with 2 now. Less confusion, less mucking around, more playing. 

I got rid of the safety net, and it was an excellent sonic decision. We all have safety nets, and they might not be sonic ones. Since this revelation I’ve been trying to uncover my nets and challenge them, bass related and life related.

It's more fun this way.