Does this bass DI sound off?

[MackieFX]

I bought an ibanez SR375E the other day and have been working (un-successfully) to dial in some tones.
https://www.ibanez.com/usa/products/detail/sr375e_02.html

I noticed a couple of issues with the sound while playing around

1. The DI sounds 'clicky' to me - I lowered the pickups and raised the action a touch and some of it went away but theres still a pretty harsh transient.
2. Lots of string noise - Im not sure if this is normal
3. The pickups are HOT - not sure how much of an issue this is. Im assuming having the 3-band EQ set to the center where there is a tactile bump is unity (+/-0dB)

Anyway I recorded a short DI track to show you guys - does this sound right???

DI:

 

[Ba55Man1ac]

It sounds fine to me for a dry track. My first instinct is to put some compression or light overdrive on it. Plop it in a mix & see how it sounds. Bass, even more than guitar imho, needs to be tweaked while listening to it in a mix. A great sounding solo bass sound might not work in a mix, & a clacky, scooped mess might sit nicely.

Yep, flat is usually at the detents in the pot's. Don't be afraid to turn the volume on the bass down if it's too hot... it shouldn't affect the tone on an active bass.

 

[MackieFX]

It sounds fine to me for a dry track. My first instinct is to put some compression or light overdrive on it. Plop it in a mix & see how it sounds. Bass, even more than guitar imho, needs to be tweaked while listening to it in a mix. A great sounding solo bass sound might not work in a mix, & a clacky, scooped mess might sit nicely.

Yep, flat is usually at the detents in the pot's. Don't be afraid to turn the volume on the bass down if it's too hot... it shouldn't affect the tone on an active bass.

Thanks for the tips man!

Im a little confused on the active bass thing - with guitar its kind of easy, you either have active pickups or you don't. It seems with bass you can have passive pickups but an active EQ, or Active pickups with an active EQ... Im not sure what mine is >.<

 

[RevDrucifer]

Not unusual, but that fretnoise can drive you up a wall if you don’t want to hear it. I spent nearly a year sorting out bass tones and fighting with them, while the problem the whole time was my bass, the AxeFX was delivering killer tones consistently but the bass wasn’t allowing them to come through.

A bass’s setup, string gauge, tuning, length are a bit more important, IMO, than a guitar’s setup. I can make a shitty playing guitar work for me, but trying to slap and pop on a bass that’s not setup right or tuning down without setting it up, just asking for horror stories.

I had a nightmare of a time getting my Warwick to hold it’s tuning with the action I wanted in the tuning I wanted. Eventually, I realized the bass just sounds like shit, bought a 4-string Spector and have been in heaven since. Dropping the action even just a pinch will incorporate some fret noise really fast, you can tame some of it with an EQ but it’ll still be there. I think Korn just said “Fuck it, let’s make it our thing!”

Listen to a bunch of isolated, “bass only” tracks on YouTube, you’ll hear a lot of clanging around in them!

 

[unix-guy]

Isolated bass tracks are typically not great and DIs are even less so!

I would also suggest adding a bit of compression and listening in a mix.

 

[selta]

Thanks for the tips man!

Im a little confused on the active bass thing - with guitar its kind of easy, you either have active pickups or you don't. It seems with bass you can have passive pickups but an active EQ, or Active pickups with an active EQ... Im not sure what mine is >.<

Active pickups in bass are very rare, limited to just a small handful from EMG basically. Your bass has passive pickups and an active preamp.

 

[JoeW-NC]

Sounds fine to me. Bass can sound like total bASS dry. Record it along with a reference track, and the annoying clicks and buzzes will disappear.

 

[dr bonkers]

I bought an ibanez SR375E the other day and have been working (un-successfully) to dial in some tones.
https://www.ibanez.com/usa/products/detail/sr375e_02.html

I noticed a couple of issues with the sound while playing around

1. The DI sounds 'clicky' to me - I lowered the pickups and raised the action a touch and some of it went away but theres still a pretty harsh transient.
2. Lots of string noise - Im not sure if this is normal
3. The pickups are HOT - not sure how much of an issue this is. Im assuming having the 3-band EQ set to the center where there is a tactile bump is unity (+/-0dB)

Anyway I recorded a short DI track to show you guys - does this sound right???

DI:

Tonality of the DI sounds like the typical bass DI.

If you hate the clickiness, there's 4 possible solutions:
1. Play with a more gentle touch on the pick.
2. Play gently with your fingers.
3. Try nylon, half wound, or flat wound strings.
4. Raise the string height so it isn't abusing your frets.

String noise is all about muting and damping with your unused fingers on both hands ( and side or base of your picking/plucking hand) as well as practicing getting your fingertips on and off the strings with no slide or drag. A little string noise is cool, but too much string noise becomes distracting.

Compression is a nice icing on the cake, but you need to address the fundamentals with your setup, strings, or technique first, otherwise you go down the road of trying to compensate with compression and EQ settings of dialing out things that are in the fundamental source material that is coming from you and the instrument.

If the pickups are hotter than your other instruments, turn the input block gain down on the preset or turn the volume knob down on the bass.

Never play bass alone and judge tone! Always play against a drum track and guitar tone track that you like. Then you will know if your playing and tone fits in the frequency pocket or if you are setting yourself up for bass versus the world scenario instead of trying to fit yourself in a mix, be heard, and not obliterate everyone else.