Ive even heard of bass players loving their old strings so much they boil them when they get dirty!

Thanks Makeshift I agree with you about Bobby Owsinski's book. Our library at the TAFE college I teach at is full of some great books on sound engineering.

I am also now reading Bobby Owsinski's book 'The Mastering Engineer's Handbook' I have got a very nice mastering job on right now so brushing up on concepts. Fortunately the mixes are fantastic and it really rams home the concept that once a mix is fantastic so very little is actually needed in mastering. Leave it alone!

But while all the concepts in 'The Mixing Engineers Handbook' are great and timeless I just want to say that be careful about some of the concepts that have been outlined in 'The Mastering Engineers Handbook' That book was written in 2000 and now we are 11 years on from that and things have changed a lot.

Bob Katz said (at the time)  you must not add gain or normalise due to sonic degradation but they are still talking using Sonic Solutions on a Mac. Now we have got 64 bit processing and double precision processing even on 32 bit systems so that is not true these days. Also they say you can only use expensive analog outboard gear for mastering and that of course is also not true. We now have some fantastic digital plugins that can do all of that with ease now. But everything else in the Mastering book is great and still true though.

Sorry to go OT from the bass thing we are talking about here. The stuff in the Mixing Engineers Handbook has got huge amounts of info about recording and processing bass.

I use a 1x15 ;-)






I have a personal preference for flat wound strings... and I let them get ancient before I think about changing.



:-)

What exactly do they do to the overall tone; is it a deader/ mellower sound

 
The highs/harmonics are diminished... and the fundamental is more "thumpy".
Think McCartney Ric sound... and you'll be in the ballpark.

i put new strings on my bass about 2 months ago,  but have only played them for a total of an hour or two. I always wipe down my strings with WD-40 after each use...so they retain that sound I like.

WD-40 is your friend. <-----+1

I'm not too educated on some of the equipment you guys have, nor have i ever played with most of the techniques you use. miking is out for me, i do not own an amp. but if i did it would be ampeg with 10's.

I think I'm doing alright. I made a good setting with comp and eq from trial and error.

what really saved my arse is adding a touch of stereo widening (ozone 3)to the master buss. everything was panned out wel, but it took my stereo image and further enhanced it bringing the middle out and so clear now. I'll post a song in the near future.

montezuma


Regarding some of the earlier advice to record with new strings unless you want a 60's sound...I recall reading old poster 'yep' remark that James Jamerson the bass player on old Mowtown songs never changed his strings and barely ever saw to it that his bass was conditioned at all. One of the best bass players of all time. So...whatever I suppose

Tell that to Leland Sklar, one of the best and most sought after bassists in the history of music spanning 4 decades and on over 2000 albums of various styles of music. To me, changing bass strings is important and improves the sound ten-fold. If it doesn't for you, James Jamerson or yep, you're all just gifted. :) I'll take a nice, clean, "ping" type sound that I can control over settling for old, dead sounding strings that can't get "ping", any day.
 
-Danny

But on the internet...

sometimes 'zing' is the most annoying frequency of all.

you really have to make these calls on a subjective and personal level.

ultimately, you want to have as much of a 'signature' bass sound, as you would a guitar sound, or keyboard sound.

differentation, is a glorious thing.

 I was hoping that you would post Bapu, being the resident AM bass guy :0). I plan to listen to these when I get home!

bapu


Pay no attention to flimsy kick on Walk Away. I've been meaning to redo that one.

Fixed. 


Finally.

Starise

Middleman


In music, nothing is set in stone.

Dead strings live strings, a good musician makes it work. If it doesn't work, then you change strings.

I am starting to get this same mentality. I am always looking for why something is the way it is. Kind of like another thread I posted on where a lot of people said that something worked for them but not exactly why it worked or why they preferred it and few examples were given. I am glad that old strings are working for you guys , don't get me wrong and I am glad new strings work for others.

Given my limited knowledge of metalurgy and alloys I can venture a guess for or against new strings and it would go something like this.....metals tend to harden and grow more brittle with stress. The more you bend a metal the more rigid it becomes and the extent to which you bend metal determines how long it will last.Eventually the metal will fail or break completely if stressed under constant pressure and flexing. Alloys that guitar strings are made of, weaken over time. This is noticed more with lighter gauge strings because obviously they are not as heavy/strong as bass strings are. If the metal gets increasingly harder and less resilient, then it would stand to reason that the sound coming from the strings will have less character due to the harder work hardened metal.

Strings are also under pressure at all times, and this  would seem to contribute toward the weaking and hardening of the string...........so........if a bass player likes old strings it could be because he never stresses the string enough to cause it to loose the character he/she wants it to have or maybe the old string character is what they are looking for, not a lot of pop but more of a bassy sound devoid of any upper transient character.

In theory a new set of strings have more character because the metal is new and unworked and why Danni says that it has zing.  I personally like bass with character and some transients happening in other places, so I guess I would be the type to change strings more often.

I think I may have answered my own question here. Playing low on the 1st two strings of a bass isn't likely going to change a lot either way. Playing higher on the upper strings I can see where you could see a difference in your sound.

Keep in mind...and this is important. Some guys do not know how to set up a bass (or any other instrument) properly. When they put on new strings....they get a fretting out sound that is annoying and pretty hard to dial out if you record like that. Now, "some guys" in my world amounts to about 75% of bassists and guitarists I know. They don't touch action, intonation or truss rod adjustments. All of that stuff there can contribute to a good or bad bass tone.
 
When you have a bass that is not set up properly, it will not play properly nor will you have notes that are as healthy as they could be. That means, you hit an E somewhere and when you hit an E somewhere else, the pitch is not identical. Or, you play on one spot of the neck on a string, and then in another spot on a different string and you wonder why the tone changes.
 
Enter new strings into the picture. Your intonation is out already because any time you put on a different gauge string (or even the same gauge string made by a different company) your intonation is going to be slightly out or way out. This also effects your string action. It could end up lower and fret out making an annoying noise, or it can be too high and be a bit more difficult to play...while still being out of tune because your intonation is out. Need I mention the truss rod is probably whacked out too...which makes for horrible playability, cheap sound if the truss is too loose, fret noise if too tight...and you have a mess on your hands.
 
When you have a properly set up bass that is intonated correctly, has the right strings on it for the instrument, proper pick up height, right amount of tension on the truss rod, action set up for the player and the right type of strings (roundwound/flatwound etc) this bass is going to blow everything in the dust no matter who plays it.
 
Also keep in mind, my explanation of "ping" is exactly like Ed mentioned. It sounds a bit like a piano. A slight musical percussivness that has beautiful, natural sustain that isn't synthetic or introduced by way of effects. That said, just like a guitar, sure there has to be a bit of a break-in for the strings when they are new...but that usually takes about an hour. On a bass with old strings, you can't get this sound. Period....end of story. With a bass with new strings, you can dial it out if you want less of the ping and you can alter it. With old bass strings, you have to simulate it by pushing 2.5k up or using a pick...other effects....it just sounds bad to me. With new strings and all your ducks in a row, you can get ANY sound you want just about while maintaining full control.
 
String selection: Some basses sound bad with roundwounds, some sound bad with flatwounds. You have to experiment what works best for your bass. You also have to take gauges into account because they serve a purpose in the tone. If you are a pop/slap/funk bassist, lighter gauge strings with lower action will not give you the sound you are looking for as easy. You're better off with a fatter gauge and higher action so that when you pop or slap, it sounds musical instead of the sound a bass makes when it breaks a string. For rock you can get away with lighter gauges and lower action...but even there, it depends on how hard you pull or pick. It's way too easy to get that fretting out sound if you have light gauge strings and use a heavy pick or pull too hard.
 
Trust me when I tell you...you may think a bass sounds like a bass....but the more you get into this recording stuff and know what to listen for, the more you'll understand just how important a good bass tone is to your mix. You don't just want to feel the bass, you want to hear it. It must have an identity....just like a guitar tone. But, if old strings is what people like and it works for them...so be it. It works for some things...it really does. But for the stuff I do....anyone being totally into the old bass strings stuff will be the ones that settle for the bass being a low supporting instrument with no definition, and they'll spend countless hours trying to make it sound good and fit in the mix. Stylistic preference....maybe...but to me, it's of the utmost importance and what has changed the low end in my mixes. I can't tell you how many times I've struggled with bass tones in the past when they were recorded with old, dead strings. It's not worth the hassle unless you're recording something classic rock or super old school. But...what do I know...
 
-Danny

I have one of these and it seems ok to me.... Julien (it's a KORG)