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Hi all
I have an issue when recording a band live. They all record in the same room and for some reason there is bleed of the drums through the bass guitar. Not a lot, but enough to cause issues when compressing in the mix. I've tried everything including going direct in and removing all other mics to the interface. Is it possible the bass guitar pick ups are picking up the transients from the drums? If so is there any way of reducing this other than overdubbing or putting the bass player in another room?

Comments

moles Mon, 04/19/2010 - 20:44

It absolutely can happen. Pickups can become microphonic - usually not high quality ones, but I've had a few basses that exhibited symptoms that I could see becoming a problem, as described above.

Have you tried checking out the bass itself? Plug into an amp, set the gain high-ish, and tap on the pickup covers. There should (in theory) be almost no sound generated, but you'd be surprised how much signal you can get this way with a faulty pickup design.

If the bassist is dead set on using that bass, one thing to suggest to him/her is the good old dip-it-in-paraffin treatment. Sometimes the problem lies in the coils looseing from the bobbin, this solidifies things back up. It's a pain, but weighed against the benefits of having the bassist and drummer playing in the same room together (if that's how they prefer tracking) it may be worth the effort.

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