# Does anyone record bass in stereo(double track)?



## manana (Feb 20, 2011)

For some reason I get the feeling the "proper" way is double tracking bass. Is this true?


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## Winspear (Feb 20, 2011)

I don't think I've heard of that before, nor can I imagine it very effective. You can get some huge bass sounds with a mono track and bass is far less directional. Some chorus 'doubling' for fattness sounds good but I think double tracked bass would really clutter the mix and give less coherance.


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## manana (Feb 20, 2011)

I see. Im asking because in my track, February 28th by Manana on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
I hear the bass really in the middle. What should I do about that?


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## Kurkkuviipale (Feb 20, 2011)

In every metal track you'll ever listen, bass is in the center, and basically all the lows are. Actually every stereo imager you find on the net works basically like that lows go in the middle and highs go on sides.

That's actually a remain of the analog limited-track world. There never was a reason to double track it. And it's kinda stupid to re-invent the wheel. What worked before will work today.

Some people double track bass in the center. That's somewhat meaningless, as bass consists of... well bass frequencies that are not basically heard, but feeled. You never hear the bass being "ballsy".

One reason for bass double tracking would be the effect of driven bass. The function would change a little, and playing should be extremely tight, but it could certainly work on sounds with higher gain or a distortion pedal.

Never tried, never will, I can get good enough bass sounds out without, so I really don't see the point. Not saying you shouldn't. It's not usual, but experimenting is never bad.

E: Your bass EQ is fucked. You've got too much high-middle range in there, too little of sub-end and 100-200hz range.


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## krypter (Feb 20, 2011)

We've double tracked bass on one of our songs to great effect. Still, we play in standard for the song (which allows more "space" for the bass), and the guitars are doing a fuzzed out "wall of sound thing" and one bass holds the low end and the other did a really great melody line. We took a good part of the low low end out of the melodic bass track and it really added something interesting to the "swirl" as i call it. 

Pretty cool.


Still, it was a one time thing (well scratch that, another song has 5 bass tracks, but thats all it is...bass, nothing else) but i don't really see a use in ordinary songs/tracking. We did it as a special thing to add something sonically different than the rest of the album.


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## Tree (Feb 20, 2011)

What a lot of people do is record the bass direct, double it and distort one for "balls" and use the DI track for note definition/clarity.


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## iceythe (Feb 21, 2011)

This is correct. You _do_ double track, but in a different sense than say double tracked guitars. Bass should normally be in center unless you're aiming for some special effect, which rarely sound appropriate in a cookie-cutter mix.

My recipe for bass comes down to two different tracks. One is direct, with slight compression and EQ. The other track, with a HPF, is solely to add dirt, crunch, high-register stereo effects, reverb / room, distortion and whatnot. I always write comments about extending the spatial field with instruments, however the low-end of a bass should always be center. 

You would usually not want the tracks to overlap anything from 50-300 range because even with highly processed differences, they will cause phasing issues and mud up the sound.

With that said, it's still possible to widen the bass' projection from center. The prerequisites are having a good bass tone with its respective frequencies tamed. You can then _carefully_ use a stereo plug-in to _slightly_ widen the centre. It does this is by taking the original signal, then mirror a copy and send the copy with a minor delay (1-10 ms). To widen the spatial field it pushes the original signal and the copy left and right, like one would do by panning. This will make a stereo effect that you can shape however you want. We're talking very small values, like 15-30 degree spread to increase the sensation of a more massive wall of bass. Too much of this will either phase the bass, giving you the sense that the bass source is coming from behind, or it will just tickle / massage your ears.


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## Kurkkuviipale (Feb 21, 2011)

You can distort and do the exact same as told the bass by just duplicating the original track and HPF->distortion it. There's no reason to double track it. Or at least it's really rare.


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