Where I come from the meat is placed on metal crosses 1m from the fire and bronzed 4 a few hours...

In comparison the local meat is kinda funny, but so is the football :-)

But a good cut should b prepared natural, anything else is an "effect".

And so r electric basses.

Most of "the sound" is produced by the player - and even the most subtle changes (sounds equal in solo) can make or break a song.

The bass is the foundation, the basic tone, and all other parts "surf" its overtones, thus cre8ing a single giant instrument - the band.

Any shift in bass color will "color" the song on the spot. So the natural approach is best in most cases.

Having said that, Thai beef and Carpachio r also good, and they r far from being "flat".

I like recording the bass amp as well when I can. I may try several mics, mostly large capsule 4 the color, but I had some 57s there as well.

I then record the amp and di 2 separate trax.

In general, give me a good musician> P-bass > Ampeg SVT and I'm happy.

The di is crucial - bad di's produce bad, murky, thin bass sound.

Next comes the mic pre-amp, with the same role it plays in vocal trax. Different pre's will produce different tones.

I try 2 leave the track natural, I try not 2 compress and just let the player do his thing.

I'm not shy however when artillery is needed.

If the musician is good, lis10 carefully 2 what he has 2 say. Bass players, being tuned 2 the fundamental 4 a good number of years, develop a good harmonic sense, keen hearing, and groove manipulation abilities.

That's y I think (and I have met some) gr8 bass players make gr8 producers and engineers.

Peace,

Zooot