Recording Bass

[jobknick]

Hi, I want to record a bass guitar and the amp I'm using doesn't have a line out. I've tried recording straight into the mixer and fiddling around with the EQ but it doesn't really have the sound I'm looking for. Is there anything that i can get to somehow get the sound from an amp into the mixer other than using a microphone? I thought maybe a pre amp or something like this, I literally have no idea though. All I remember is once we were using this amp when playing live and the sound engineer did it with some kind of little box.

Thanks for your help!

 

[legionserial]

I record bass by plugging the bass directly into the line input on my mic preamp.

You can also get DI units specifially for recording bass. I've heard the Sansamp Bass DI, for example, is pretty good. Probably more versatile than using a preamp.

Thare a few ways you could do it really. If you have a nice sounding amp, you could split the signal from the bass, send one into the amp and mic that, and one into a DI unit or preamp, and record 2 bass tracks at the same time. That may give you a little more to play with in mixing. And you'll have a raw direct bass track that can be reamped if you want.

 

[pohaku]

Sansamp RBI. Lots of tone flexibility. Snag a used one off e-bay.

 

[GONZO-X]

sansamp bass di here...


the cool thing about it, is it has 1/4" and xlr...

and can do a parallel 'bypass out'


so, you can take the input from the bass, to the sansamp, and setup the pedal sound, and out to a track or processing..

AND you can take the parallel out, send that to an amp, or a mic pre, or whatever, process it completely different, and then blend the two tracks together to get a single bass sound on mixdown, that is a combo of those two sounds.



so, say, run the sansamp really overdriven, like a full-on ampeg stack, then take the parallel out to a super clean mic pre, and blend the clean and dirty tracks together...

or, eq one track treble, the other output bassy, and blend those together.

 

[Roguetitan]

Behringer Bass V-Amp Pro here, gives me lots of versatility and I can use it for other instruments other than bass.
even works good as a VOX preamp.

 

[tc4b]

+1 for sansamp rbi

I prefer miking a cab, but I couldn't find a $300 range bass combo that I liked even a little, not even just for recording. Snagged an RBI off ebay for ~$200, and I love it. I'll just have to save up for one of these, or, if I'm really patient, one of these. (recording only, no gigging)

 

[ranjam]

SansAmp Bass Driver BDDI is.........

 

[rayc]

Behri BDI21 - cheap, rugged and, (dare I say it), almost as good as the sanamp.
I also split the signal & record mic'd and DI if I can - then blend for THE tone.
If you have a GOOD preamp for mic or similar try that too.
Have you experimented with mic placement?