What should i do for recording?

[guitarist_44]

Me and my band rented a Yamaha 16G workstation to record some songs. I have figured out the machine very well. Our band plays mix of rock music with punk, and we have 2 guitarist's in the band along with one bassist. One guitar has distortion, the other one is usually clean. We both have basic epihphone guitars with strat bodies.

My Questions...
I heard that it is best to plug the bass guitar directly into the input on the mixer. is this true?

For the distorted guitar, should i mic the amp that i use, or just plug the guitar directly in as well, except i have a pedal, so it will still get that distorted sound.

Any advice on that, or anything else for a band that is home recording for the first time would be greatly appreciated.

[Easto]

If you want to record the Bass directly into the mixer you'll need a DI box. As far as your other quesitons... just start experimenting. Example: the guitars, You may want to record the signal "clean" and add the distortion later. If you record the distortion and you later want to tweak it you'll have less options that if you had recorded it clean. Like I said. I would just start experimenting.

[Dogbreath]

Guitarist dude...
On the guitar micing...I'll usually put my 57 right on the grill, a couple inches out from the center and tweak it from there. Look for the sweet spot. Sometimes I'll mix that in with a DI'd guitar playing the same piece. I end up with 4 total guitar parts, each running a different eq, panning, maybe different amp or using different guitars. It's all in experimenting.
On bass....I like to run a DI mixed in with a mic'd cab. Blend to taste. I use a Beta 52 or the D112 to mic up with. Pretty good sound. I'm sure there are other great mics but these are what I have.
Jus' my 2c..............

[Codmate]

I like the sound of a good bass-guitar straight into the desk/pre.
I find it easier to mix for some reason.

Sometimes I mic up the strings acousticly to get a bit of extra attack and some string noise.

I find that I need a really nice bass amp (a Polytone or something) to beat the sound of the DI.

I don't really like those SansAmp units for recording, although they are handy live.