Beatles bass sound

[Swift59]

i'd like to get a bass sound similar to paul mccartney on albums like sgt pepper.

does anyone have any tips on how to try this in amplitube 3?

thanks

[garfy]

Hi Swift59 and welcome to the forum.

Looking back through some Beatles reference books I have, it appears by this point PMc was predominantly using his Rickenbacker, so the bass guitar itself may well be the place to start as Ricks certainly have their own sound...

Amp-wise, they were using Vox amps by the end of 1966 so it suggests (as well as there being studio photos) that these would have been used on the Pepper sessions. In AT there is no official Vox collection, but you could try the 2 x 12 Gry British Vint or 2 x 12 Open Vintage cabs with the British Tube 30TB or British Copper 30TB amps. Although these are guitar amps, they're roughly from the same family so you could experiment to find a tone that suits.

Finally, around this time they were experimenting with a new-fangled process called DI (yep, something else that the EMI engineers had a hand in developing). Engineer Ken Townsend says that the bass tone was a mixture of mic and DI, while Geoff Emerick suggests that he never DI'd the bass, only used a mic, which would probably have been an AKG C12, so try a mixture of DI and Condenser 12 mic to see what you get.

Hope that helps.

[Peter_IK]

Good suggestions!

I'd also suggest checking out the Rickenbacker model in MODO BASS as a great realistic version of that bass. We also have Rick samples in SampleTank 3. The MODO BASS version sounds great and can sound "Beatle-y" through the built-in amps there or you can send it through AmpliTube using garfy's great suggestions. That copper top AC30 is a great amp I bet it would sound good on bass too, perhaps with a bass cab and/or other minor tweaks.

[carlaz]

I think garfy has covered things pretty well! Just some extra thoughts/notes ....

The Rick bass is probably a big part of the sound. Most stock 4001 and 4003 models should be similar to what Paul used (technically, a left-handed 4001S), though Paul's bass would have had a real "horseshoe" Rick pickup of the sort that was phased out of stock Ricks in the (I think) early/mid-'70s, though you can get replica models of those. And, then, Flatwound strings, I should think, and played with a pick.

There is conflicting info on the kinds of signal paths used, though given the opportunity for effectively unlimited studio experimentation the Beatles enjoyed during the recording of Pepper, one doubts that one size necessarily fit all.

The late, lamented Geoff Emerick has claimed that he always mic'd the bass -- and perhaps DI only came in when Ken Scott was engineering the "White Album" sessions, though nevertheless it at least would not surprise if some of the bass tones on Pepper were DI or a combo of mic'd amp and DI. As garfy notes, bass amps were probably Voxes, and perhaps even more probably the somewhat obscure UL730 and/or UL 430. The 730 was intended for guitar and the 430 for bass, but they were basically identical except for, I think, a tremolo circuit on the 730; I think McCartney is on record as having used both on different given songs on Pepper. These were hybrid amps, with a tube power amp (similar to the power amp of the AC-30s) but a solid-state pre-amp. Since AT's "based on Vox" amp models are mostly AT2-vintage, you might be able to play around with "based on AC-30" models but swapping in a solid-state pre-amp model of some kind. The speaker cabinets were 2x12 with Celestions, I think, but I don't know more than that. (Perhaps similar to whatever AC-30s of the period had, though!) It's understood Emerick liked to put the bass cab in the center of the room with a AKG C12 (with a figure-of-eight pattern) several feet away; so, as garfy suggests, try a big studio room with a Condenser 12 mic model backed off some distance (and move it around until it sounds good!). Photos show STC 4038 ribbon mics as well, though I don't think AT has a model for that; I've also heard Emerick would use a U47, though I don't know if that's true. I understand photos also show a Fender Bassman hanging around in the Pepper sessions, but I don't know whether any bass was recorded with it.

Also, my feeling is that, whether mic'd or direct, the bass signal probably got a healthy dose of Fairchild compressor -- since Emerick slathered that all over everything
-- which is specifically modeled in T-Racks, though I kind of feel like the Tube Compressor from the AT Hendrix package can serve as a "within Amplitube" stand-in. I would start with a slowish attack (around 38ms?) and perhaps the fastest release possible (50ms?). Dial in the input gain to get a few dB of reduction (or whatever the little green lights on the model might indicate), or whatever sounds good, and adjust the output appropriately.

Then, I suppose, for yet more nerdy authenticity questing -- besides cloning Sir Paul's fingers, etc. -- one would want a chain in the DAW with the appropriate models of console and tape machine. I believe some companies may make such emulations, though not IKM.

[Swift59]

Those a great replies with extremely helpful detail.

Thank you all. Much appreciated!

Cheers

[carlaz]

Also, my feeling is that, whether mic'd or direct, the bass signal probably got a healthy dose of Fairchild compressor -- since Emerick slathered that all over everything -- which is specifically modeled in T-Racks, though I kind of feel like the Tube Compressor from the AT Hendrix package can serve as a "within Amplitube" stand-in. I would start with a slowish attack (around 38ms?) and perhaps the fastest release possible (50ms?). Dial in the input gain to get a few dB of reduction (or whatever the little green lights on the model might indicate), or whatever sounds good, and adjust the output appropriately.

I am going to slightly revise my suggestions here on the basis of further "Internet research". I've read that, although Emerick did indeed tend to slather Fairchild compression over most everything, when using a 4-track set-up (as still for the Beatles in the Sgt. Pepper sessions) at Abbey Road, the scheme seems to have been usually to use Altec RS124 compressors across tracks 1 and 2 (on which rhythm tracks were usually first recorded) and the Fairchild across tracks 3 and 4 (where additional overdubs were recorded). Although by this period, McCartney was often overdubbing bass well after most everything else was in place, it seems Emerick much preferred the Altecs on his bass because the Fairchilds were simply too fast in terms of attack; the slower attacking Altecs let more of the transients through for a punchier bass tone. I understand that sometimes Emerick would compress the bass signal 2 or three times to get it more present, though I'm not sure if that means he had two or three compressors in the chain (did they have that many on hand?) or ran the recorded bass signal back through a given compressor multiple times.

Still, I think I've gotten decent results on bass by simply dialing back (to a not-too-fast setting) the attack time on the Amplitube Tube Compressor gear model; it's the only rack compressor "built in" to Amplitube, I think. I have not tried stacking multiple instances of the Tube Compressor model within the Amplitube signal path (such that each does a little bit of the compression job; you can often get a better sound with a bunch of compressors each working a little bit than a single compressor doing a monster crush on its own), though that might be interesting. (When mixing in a DAW, though, I do often stack a few different compressors at different places in the chain.)

I understand at one time Abbey Road themselves made a Altec RS124 plug-in emulation, but I think it was discontinued some years ago, and I am not sure it has resurfaced -- nor am I aware of a specific plug-in emulation from any manufacturer that tackles the Altec RS124. (They are apparently pretty rare, so that may be a factor!) There are other RMS-sensing compressor plug-ins out there (the Altecs were RMS-sensing, rather than peak-sensing), though I'm not sure whether IKM's T-Racks has anything in that category. Just messing around with the Tube Compressor in Amplitube may be the easiest solution!