How to Record Solid Metal Bass Tone in 5 Minutes! 

I don't see this mentioned enough but a key factor to a good bass tone is fresh strings. Of course good setup, consistent playing, pedal/amp/cab selection and post processing are important, but fresh strings bring out a lot of aggression and presence on bass.

The root of this sound is new strings! Even with the sansamp you don’t get that tone without the bright rattle of new strings.

Common bass chain I use: BDDI > Darkglass Vintage Microtubes > Interface for simulated 'Amp' sound Radial Bassbone - DI to interface, EQ'ing out some of the stringiness and clackiness I'll always want to get rid of anyway. I can get almost any tone I want from this setup, depending on the bass I'm playing, strings, fingerstyle or pick, etc. It's really versatile. I could track extreme metal with this, or old school country. Doesn't matter.

I am rerecording the bass in some projects and i was hoping that my fav. channel will offer something. Not disappointed ❤️

Sans amp is to bass as like the tube screamer is to guitar..and yea,it shines when its not overdriven..and this coming from a guy that massively prefers overdriven,ALOT bass tones..I tried SOOOOO MANY diff bass distortion pedals too,and I swear,the equivalent to this Sans for distortion is the old Boss yellow bass overdrive..that has hands down the best bass overdrive,distortion ever..good vid

I couldn't agree more on the Sansamp PSA-1 that comes included with Pro Tools. It's a monster!

I bought a used Sansamp Bass Driver Deluxe back in 2015 and I love the tone...and the smile of the sound guys when they see it in my pedalboard

Three weeks, I battled phantom bass. It reproduced literally anywhere but the car. Watched this. Found a free Sanamp bass DI plugin (BOD). Started with your settings but I could tweak to taste. No more phantom bass- it just works! Love your channel, Graham, thanks so much!

Great info and awesome Dead and Divine track!

sounds like a great investment for the home studio

I just discovered you. Dead and Divine is my all time favourite band. Thank

I can't believe I haven't noticed the SVT preset after years of using pro tools and sansamp, sounds so good!

Just bought this Sansamp on your recommendation and copied your settings. Sounds great and doesn't need any "carving" to cut through the mix. And, I'm playing through a cheap Yamaha bass I bought for $80 on Craigslist. Awesome!

Double yes-yes for the sansamp plung, it's a killer if you don't have the pedal ! Great tutorial as alwas, Jordan ! Cheers from france

I was just looking into buying one of these. Thanks for helping me make the decision!

Great video as always! Owning a sansamp pedal really changed my homerecordings a lot! I take a quite similar route like you. I own 2 Squier basses (one of the newer Vintage 70s style for not too low tunings and one old korean with dimarzio Jbass pickups in A/BEAD tuning) that ended up on many stuff I recorded for other people. The combination of jazzbass + sansamp is just a great combination that fits very well into the full mix. Additional thing I learned for recording heavy music with this setup: fresh steel strings make a lot of difference! D'Addario Pro Steels or Rotosound Stainless Steels are my favorites. Adds a lot of clank you hear in modern metal recordings. I run from my sansamp into an older DBX 160XT which is super inexpensive but amazing on bass!

I've had a SansAmp since around 1998. It goes with me to every show and every studio date. It has even saved me live when my old amp fried. I was running the DI out of the SansAmp to the PA and the audience never noticed that my rig went silent.

It’s a killer tone. I got the new sa bass di pedal. I run the bass into a dbx 166xs first to level off the spikes, then into the sa.

You have some of the best mixing tutorial on the internet.

Damn, Jordan...I own you my songs! This sounds great (as everything you recomment/teach). At the moment I'm using Modo bass because I have no bass but as soon as I get one I'll give this a try.

Don’t forget, your first gain stage is where your fingers or pick hit the strings. To get a heavy sound that cuts through the distorted guitars, you need that percussive clack of the strings smacking against the frets. Beat the f__k out of the bass. It can take it.

Nice. Added to my Sweetwater wishlist. 🙂

Hey, for those of you that don't have the actual pedal AND aren't on Pro Tools (or even if you are) there's a free TSE BOD, a great copycat plugin of the Sansamp bass driver pedal.

This thing is certainly cool, but I personally love my DOD FX-91 combined with Hartke Bass Attack. It has exceptional bite and cuts through any mix effortlessly. But, of course, it requires exceptional playing technique to sound solid, any mistake you make is gonna cut through the mix too.

New sub here, really digging your format and direction!!!

I really enjoy the Aguilar Tone Hammer. Sansamp is cool too

Pro Tipp for peolple running on Free Plugins: you can download the TSE BOD overdrive which is literally a simulation of the sansamp pedal c:

This was super helpful! Subbed.

Love this vid. Can you speak on the ompression and eq setting please?

Man, great vid to teach how not over complicate things... only thing I having issues with is some noise that I get when using most of the overdrive plugins with my instruments, specially the ones with the J config, which drives me mad at applying some filter like the noise gate cos those reduce the cleanliness in the sound🤦‍♂️

Antimacy is my all time favourite metalcore record I miss dead and divine so much.

What is your signal chain? Even your D.I. sounds really good, usually it doesn't sound so when recording direct to interface.

I use a sansamp running into a boss bass EQ and that into a boss BB-1X preamp, sounds awesome

dead and divine is tight. maybe you could do a video on how you go about mixing an entire song off of antimacy.

Dude, you have to try DARKGLASS ULTRA PLUGIN. :)

Hey man, awesome video! Do you have any suggestions for those of us not on protools? Cheers!

Hi Jordan ! I see several rack versions of the Sansamp...which one is accurate ? I saw the RBI one, which seems to be the same. Thanks :)

hey great video mate! Loving it ! the sans is very underrated :D what's the fader console you're using there? cheers°

Great tutorial as always, Jordan. On a side note: the drums sound fantastic. Is that real drums or a plugin? How did you manage to get that snappy & fat punchy sound on the snare and toms in particular?

Have you tried the free TSE BOD plugin meant to emulate the sansamp bass driver?

What is the settings for the click track? I always hear that click on heavier music but haven’t found the same one in PT, it cuts through really nice.

what a plot twist: Jordan was a closet bass player all along?!

What is that controller is that with the faders on your desk? Does it allow you to control plugins as well? I use a Softube Console 1 atm but it's got a super annoying bug with my DAW so I'm looking at selling and getting something like the Presonus Faderport 8 (since i use Studio One) or something similar.

Is there a similar or alternative plugin to Sansamp PSA-1 for other DAW's?

Do you end up panning the bass tracks off center at all when you blend a cleaner and dirtier signal like that for fullness, or both right in the center?

is the TSE BOD a similar plugin to this, got it but not had chance to try it out yet been using the audio assault bass grinder for my last couple of recordings

Hi Jordan, awesome tutorial as always! Love your videos. Is there any other good plugin for the Sansamp tone that can be used in Cubase and other DAWs?

What is this midi controller you are using in this video? Thank you!)

I love this pedal, we used it with my older band. Now i have a Kemper and i usually split the bass and make a Disorted High and a Clean Low track and then i add the Kemper "Bass AMP Tone" just to hear it as a real warm amp so that makes it 3 Tracks. Do you think its a good technique or should i buy this pedal ? Thanks

oooh i gotta get one of those pedals. sans amp should give you a cut!

The pedal has better low ends imo really worth to invest on it \m/

This sounds awesome! But what if you don't have the plug in alternative to make the second track more dirtier? Just track with the sans amp again with different settings?

Sounds great! Are there any appreciable differences in sound between the older model in the video and the newer version 2 of the pedal? Are there any good reasons to seek out the older version pedal?

If you are using a darkglass drive would it be too much to use the sans amp too?

Thanks for the tips! Do you pan the two bass tracks? Also I found that compression and a limitter is useful but I having hard time to set all this things, it just doesn't sound right. Thanks again

are you using a .rack pre-amp and compressor after the pedal and before the daw?

Could you please remind me how to set up the plugin to go to whatever we want. Thanks

What about the bass preamp? Do you focus more on bridge pickup vs neck, how do you eq or leave it flat?

For those who want a good free Sansamp sim there's TSE BOD 3 (even for Pro Tools Users): www.tseaudio.com/software/tseBOD There's also the Ignite Amps SHB-1 but that one isn't a Sansamp sim but their own bass amp sim.

Great bass tone. Jman, what amps were used for the main guitars.

Useful stuff , thanks! What about the eq? Just leave it flat?

That's amazing, I have a PSA-1! Have you tried how active pickups affect the tone?

What's your thoughts on active and passive bass pickups?

I’ve always been a giant fan of the bass sound from The Flood by Of Mice & Men. Would there be some adjustments that could be made for that sound or would this be similar to that?

Clean the strings with red spirit, then apply WD40. You'll get a crisp sound. Also make sure you're using good strings like the Ernie Ball Cobalt series.

What about the compression?

15k subscribers what in the actual f"#$ :D Jordan you deserve at least 1M subscribers because you give out just awesome info on mixing that has helped my mixes out so much that words can't even describe so thank you man truly.

can a passive p bass sounds like that too? or only works with active bass? thank you

What is a good alternative vst to the sansamp plugin? Any good free ones?

I don't doubt that the sansamp is good but it's too expensive for me. Is there a cheaper alternative?

what kind of strings you got on it?

Do you think the bass is taking away from the vocal? #dirkdiggler

What app you are using?

Why won’t use sans amp vst?

What's the name of the band from that track??

I love your videos man, your channel is so solid!! Is there a decent way to record bass guitar without a bass guitar? Money is tight :/

i use the b7k from darkglass in the same way :)

This is the sound i was searching for my bass i need to but this paddle

What series is the bass? Affinity? California?

is it direct to mic input of audio interface (phantom power on or off?) ?

0:40 aren't all basses low end basses?

I cant for the life of me get my tone to sound this good through DI on my Cort Bass. Is that Squire really the secret?? 😂

Sounds amazing! I can't buy another pedal (too many) but will aim to get a similar sound from my pre. Thanks! Everything was great in this video; great information, production, presentation and even the makeup. The only off-putting aspect is the screaming. I love guitars and rock, but not the screaming teenager style. If you're teaching something, it worth considering

Miss this band :(

Can anyone tell me the sansamp pedal setting, can't tell

What pickups in your bass?

What band / song was in the video?

Just one thought: it seems to me that you pick the strings very lightly, is there a reason? We are always recommended to play hard on guitars and basses :/

What is your controller for the faders?

Great video, and you are very chill, the world needs less annoying producers lol

I can't even hear his bass in the mix

To me the plugin sounds gated and compressed compared to the pedal

If you really hit your bass hard it will sound even greater

Dead and Divine ♥️

Haha came here for bass left with a sick song

can someone define "good set up"? What does that even entail?

For anyone not using Pro Tools www.kvraudio.com/product/softamp-psa-by-axp

Usa ampeg peavey trace elliot ejp.

There is also the Softamp PSA if you don't have PT. I must say, as someone who follows you for years, I'm disappointed by this one. You've always taught me to value ears before gear so when you put out a video which practically says "this gear will magically fix your bass" it feels off. Obviously people get good bass tones with a diverse array of plugins so I would expect to at least guide us through the process of setting it up, what you listen for in different ranges so that we get a complete idea regardless of gear.

Antimacy!