Mixing DI'd Bass to sound less 'present'.

[Space_Crush]

Don't know if anyone else has this experience but I seem to always be able to tell if a bass has been DI'd. I don't like the sound, it's too up-front, sits horribly in a mix and responds to compression in some really strange ways. In a typical rock setting it's always competing with the kick and body of guitars. 

Unfortunately, I don't have a studio with a wonderful bass rig but I do have some great pre-amps, a decent bass, and logic pro. Was wondering if anyone had any tips for tracking and recording DI'd bass so it doesn't sound so DI'd. This seems most apparent when tracking slap-bass. Logic's amp-modelers are cool but I've never been fully satisfied, I've also used UA's SVT model but it still seems to have the same issue.

Thanks! 

[analogika]

The Plugin Alliance Ampeg B15N more often than not does exactly what I want it to. 

[David Nahmani]

I really like Logic's Bass Amp Designer. In combination with an EQ and a compressor I generally can get the sound I want out of a DI recording. For rock, I like to generally duplicate the bass track to blend two different sounds, one cleaner sound and one with more grit. 

I also like to use a touch of reverb on bass, generally automated to be on only in sections where the bass is really prominent and off when the mix gets busier. The psychoacoustic effect is that the bass has reverb throughout the entire mix even though the reverb is mostly off. Not talking about a reverb that sounds like a reverb, just a little bit of room ambiance to make the DI recording breather a little.

[Steve Kudlacek]

I would suggest a few tweaks to your Bass DI track:

1.) Use a Leveling Compressor as the first insert in your FX Chain to manage the peaks coming from your bass. You will likely want to see 5-10dB in gain reduction. I cover leveling compression in this post: https://stevekudlacek.wixsite.com/crowe-sound-lab/post/compressors-demystified

2.) Following the compressor, add an EQ and use it to subtract frequencies that are competing with the kick like in the 100-250hz range. You may want to increase the gain in frequencies around 800hz as well. This is where the top-end mids of a bass shine.

3.) And finally, you may want to add another compressor to the bass after the EQ, but side-chain it to the kick and have it remove 5-10dB from the bass signal when the kick appears. This is called Ducking. I found the Platinum Compressor works very well here. It is colorless. Use a fast attack and fast release, turn-off auto-gain, keep the ratio around 3:1, and adjust the threshold until you see about 5-10dB of gain reduction.