bass in recording

Hi ..i'm recording a track played on acoustic useing an altenate thumb style picking ...i'm getting a good recording although not great .......i'm getting in the bass reigion some distortion (through my laptop speakers ) not much but enough to spoil a good track .I'm not so good at recording and need to talk some about distances and such i think .I am using a condenser mic through a boss 864 recorder standing about 3 foot away the mic trying to keep it aimed at the 12 th fret region .Like i say i'm getting a good recording but the lows ( as i believe them to be called are distorting ) .

I have been messing with effects and EQ but read a post that said once the distortion is in the track there is not much you can do to take it out without effecting the rest of the recording .
Its no problem to do it again but i'm out of ideas for how to curb the bass .....the way i pick does involve a lot of bass and it isnt all of it just at the tales ..it vibrates on lesser speakers .I have some Tannoy acoustic speakers where it sounds fine ..but through my laptop speakers and headphones i get the vibration distortion at the bottom end of the bass .

Can someone treat me like a two year old and explain what is happening and how to resolve it for the re-record next time ....like 5 mins ago the kids are due home any time the little darlings .

[rick-slo]

At three feet you are more than far enough away to avoid a directional mike's proximity effect, and the mike aimed around the 12th fret should not the problem. Probably it is the acoustics of your room. Try recording in other locations in the room. Also you can roll off the bass with an equalizer without much worry (try starting around 50 or 60 hz and use your ears to get what works). A soundclip of your recording would be useful for more focused advice.

[Bob Womack]

If it sounds clean on nice speakers and good headphones, chances are that what you are experiencing is simply distortion in either the amplification circuit or the speakers of the laptop. Bass eats up a lot of headroom and especially dynamic bass. Most albums you hear have had a substantial amount of the dynamic range in the bass regions moderated with whole signal compressors or band-specific compressors. This process started with vinyl LPs where an overly dynamic signal would literally throw the needle out of the record's groove and has gone on to become part of our recording vocabulary. Your recordings are probably just too dynamic for the laptop's built-in system.

Now you are faced with a decision: Do you want the laptop's limitations to be the standard you use to decide the sound quality of your recording?

Bob

Ah now am understanding you there as i have had this trouble once before when i hooked up my tannoy speakers to the mixer and had it all good .then put it on the pc ( which is not a bad pc by anymeans ) and the bass was off the register .Tried to edit it and ruined the whole mix ...more than once .

It is a dilema because you have to take into concideration what other people will be listening on also .

I think you have to go with quallity all the way though ....thanks Bob for putting a name on it for me " Dynamic's " ..thanks for explaining this to me .

[Ty Ford]

"It is a dilema because you have to take into concideration what other people will be listening on also."

And that's what separates great recordings from others. Welcome to the club!

When I'm mixing for a client, I make a point of switching between two sets of monitors, one normal studio pair and a smaller pair, to demonstrate that the mixes "translate." The term means that while the sound from the two systems will obviously sound different, they both still sound OK.

Short Story: A friend called, exasperated that his single, finger-picked acoustic guitar piece would not translate. If he got the bass he wanted in the little monitors, it was way over the top on the big monitors. If he pulled back on bass the big ones, he didn't have enough bass in the little ones.

The little monitors speakers were physically incapable of reproducing the 60 Hz to 200 Hz range that was easy for the big monitors. Can this marriage be saved!?!? Sure......the secret is OVERTONES.

Instead of trying to force 60 Hz out of a little speaker, jump up a few octaves and let the upper overtones do the work. In this case, 400 Hz worked. By increasing 400 Hz by 4 dB. We got the bass to pop out of the little monitors nicely and not get messy on the big monitors.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Ty Ford