How to mic bass with this setup Avalon/Blue

[drewtimfan]

Well a studio pretty much has landed in our hands, and we are still new to the recording thing. We have some nuemann mics, 2 blue bottles, avalon preamp, universal audio preamp, focusrite preamps on our board.

Right now we have the bass running through an original 59 bassman. We tried recording it with the blue mic and it sounded great, but it didn't get some of the lower end.

This is what i am thinking though.

Mic close on the speaker with 2 sm57s...Pan these at 9 oclock and 3 oclock.

Blue miced 2 feet from the amp. Copy this track so there are 2. Pan these hard left and hard right.

This seems like it would get the vibe from the bass working with the bassman.

Now do another take going direct in, and pan center. Then mix them down to either 2 channels panned hard left, hard right... Or one channel panned center. What do you think?

 

[xfinsterx]

Well a studio pretty much has landed in our hands, and we are still new to the recording thing. We have some nuemann mics, 2 blue bottles, avalon preamp, universal audio preamp, focusrite preamps on our board.

Right now we have the bass running through an original 59 bassman. We tried recording it with the blue mic and it sounded great, but it didn't get some of the lower end.

This is what i am thinking though.

Mic close on the speaker with 2 sm57s...Pan these at 9 oclock and 3 oclock.

Blue miced 2 feet from the amp. Copy this track so there are 2. Pan these hard left and hard right.

This seems like it would get the vibe from the bass working with the bassman.

Now do another take going direct in, and pan center. Then mix them down to either 2 channels panned hard left, hard right... Or one channel panned center. What do you think?

Im assuming you mean the Avalon 737?
Yes??

 

[kats]

Try mic'ing the bass with AKG d112 or AT25 or any mic designed to capture the low frequencies, the difference will be huge compared to the mics you used.

 

[AGCurry]

You're trying way too hard.

First of all, if you want low end you're using the wrong amp. The Bassman, despite its name, is a mediocre bass amp at best. I've been playing bass for 35 years, but if you don't believe ME, ask about it in the "bass guitars" section on the Fender forum.

Second, unless bass is your solo instrument, why spend all that bandwidth on it? Bass frequencies propagate omnidirectionally, so there is very little point in miking in stereo. And, the potential phase problems introduced by three mics are not worth the hassle IMO. And don't forget that the open back of the Bassman will provide phase cancellation past about 1 foot.

And, the SM57 is not a great mic below about 70 hz (but, then, since the Bassman doesn't produce much below that point, I guess that's okay...).

Congrats on the availability of great gear. But sometimes simple is best. James Jamerson was recorded direct into the board. Carol Kaye was recorded with one mic on one speaker of a Super Reverb, at LOW volume.

 

[Dr_simon]

Depending on the final sound you want, you may also want to send a line strait into a pre (with a little compression). I do this regularly using a Peavey Cirrus into a Focusrite Platinum Voice Master Pro and really like it.

 

[giraffe]

curry is right.

get a good sound out of one mic, just keep trying untill you find the mic/placement you like. then maby try to get a good di sound to add to it

but relax, and get 1 good sound at a time