The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

Bass Amp mic? SM57?

Please note, options are extremely limited in South Africa, so unless its mainstream, please dont suggest it.

art

Plug the bass direct into the G , thats about as mainstream as it gets.

Works good too BTW.

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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

Always do in my own setup, we go from a Cube recording out into the desk.

This is for someone else on some 'other' technology. So I really need a mic suggestion.

art.

I'ld guess Sm57/58. It has a good freq resp. and will withstand high SPL.

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THE MUSIC IS DOWN IN HERE
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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

Awesome. Thanks.

I'd say 57...I'm not too keen on 58s.

Another would be Sennheiser's...oh what is it...E902 I think. Excellent on bass amps as well as kick drums.

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Thanks DC! I think i'll go with the 57's. I know them well enough.

And a lot less expensive, that's for sure.

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Honor is a debt you owe to those that see it in you.

The kick drum mic would be a much better choice, as large a diaphram as you can afford. AKG's D112 is a good choice for bass cabs.

I do need to repeat Geno's statement, the vast majority of bass recordings are direct.

Where's that mad Scot with the predilection for lo freqs when you need him?

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I hear figure-8 mics are especially good for this task.

I've generally recorded bass direct myself, but have read over and over again opinions that confirm Don's assessment of things. Kick drum mics (AKG D112, ATM25, etc.) are good choices, as are the "big three" large diaphragm dynamics - EV RE20, Shure sm7b and Sennheiser 421. These last three ain't cheap by home recordist standards (or at least my standards).

I love Sennheiser.

The 421 is a better amp mic from what I see in the specs (I don't own one) and looks nice and flat (without it's filters applied) right where the bass guitar freqs reside. The E902, a much newer mic, got great reviews and some tech awards, but it is tuned for a kick for sure, pulling down a bit at around 400 Hz. Neither are cheap as far as dynamics go...about 200 for the later and 300 for the former.

Still, all in all, I prefer to go direct through a DI with cabinet sims.

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Honor is a debt you owe to those that see it in you.

DI for me, too. I only tried miking a bass guitar once. The results were less than stellar, even though I was using an ATM25. Could've been because I was trying to use a Carvin guitar amp instead of a real bass amp?

I've used the Shure Beta 52, and actually got as good or better results with the SM-57. Placement is always important; where the mic is seems to be more important that which mic it is.

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To attain wisdom, remove things every day. Lao Tse.

From my reading most of the good bass drum mics should work on a bass amp as well.

I would recomend DI as well and IF necessary reamp the DI to an amp and cab after the fact. You will need an additional box to do this correctly to convert your low impedance line level out to a higher impedance signal like the bass preamp expects.

Phasing will have to be dealt with if you mix the two signals as there will be some latency or delay between the DI signal and the one going throught the bass amp electronics to the speaker then the mic then the mic preamp....... There are two ways to deal with this.

1. Delay the entire track of the original DI signal after reamping to line up with the recorded amp track or move the amped signal "forward" to line up with the DI track.

2. Put on some headphones with excellent isolation and before you record the reamped track play with your mic placement to find the exact spot where you get the biggest phase cancelation of your two signals playing at equal volume. Yes this is the spot you want because we hear the subtle adjustments that cause the most cancelation much better that the subtle adjsutments that decrease it.

Now once you have found the worst spot never put it there again no no no this is when you use your handy phase reverse option built inot every track on the G or your outboard preamp if available as well. This will work for reamping guitars as well as placing a mic in front and behind an open back speaker cabinet or micing more than one cab.

One additional use for mics and electric bass or electric guitars is to close mic the strings in front of the guitar or bass and mix in just a touch of it into the mix. I have not tried this one yet but I have read it can do wonders for making the track seem more "live" like you are really in the room with the guitar playing when listening to playback. The stuff I read about it said this additonal track by itself really sounds terrible though so don't expect it to sound good by itself.

For the last application though I would use a 57 or a vocal/instrument condensor and not a bass drum mic.

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Excellent, Scoot. Though I think that moving the track would be more precise than phase reversal unless you get near total cancellation. I got to experiment with that.

And for sure, string noise is generally high freq.

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Honor is a debt you owe to those that see it in you.