Suggestions For Micing Ampeg 8x10...

T

This Is Poison

New member
I'm very new to this forum and I can only assume that there are hundreds of posts regarding micing amps (some of which I have read.) From what I understand, you get a much better sound by going the DI route. My problem is, the bassist of my band would really like to record using his ampeg 8x10 (which is understandable.) Could anyone suggest some good micing techniques? I'm really new to recording at home, or anywhere for that matter, so please explain everything as best as possible. THANKS.
 
I have an ampeg SVT rig from like 72 or something like that. The Electro voice RE20 would be my mic of choice. It can handle the spl that comes out of that thing. + it goes down to 20HZ. I've also had good results with a D112 kick drum mic or Audix D6

I would put one somewhere towards the top of the cab to keep away from standing waves. do not place it directly on the center of the cone. face the mic strait at the speaker about 3" or so away slightly off center. you might take the grill off as well to avoid rattle. Also throw a room mic up if you can to capture some of that sonic air movement they create. ??? it worked for me. but experiment as much as you can. If you find a better way, let me know
 
First off, I would make sure that he does not let the cab get too loud. For micing purposes it will only serve to make things sloppy, and not bigger or fuller. I learned a cool trick form Ulrich Wylde (ala Deftones, Rage, White Xombie etc...) for capturing that big bass sound. It really surprised me, but he uses a small diaphragm condensor rather than the standard kick mic.
 
I agree about the RE-20. A friend I recently recorded has an Ampeg rig. Its the one of the newer Classic series rigs I believe. Its sounds sooooo freaking good.

Where you put the mic depends, of course, on the sound you need for the context of the music but I have gotten great results placing the RE20 in the center of the top 4 cones about 3' back tilted towards slightly inside of one of the cone centers.

I like to take a direct out from the head too for a cleaner low end ..... I usually dump most of the mids and upper mids right out of the direct and use the mic to fill that .... but you can get killer results with just an RE20.

If you do use a direct signal along with a mic'd one, keep in mind that you'll want to put a few milliseconds delay on the direct signal so it doesnt create any phase issues or filtering with the mic'd signal.

I have also achieve very nice results with a CAD e100 ...back a bit further about 5' or so.

One thing to keep in mind is how loud the amp is with regards to how much the speakers are being driven. Cranking it is gonna give you lots of speaker compression and if you are like me it will prolly sound great to you in the room but lots of speaker compression can muddy things up in the mix so you may want to back off on it a bit.

Again it totally depends on what sound you need for the music but generally having the amp a little LESS cranking results in a better mix for the recording .... just like with distorted guitars its usually is easier to get a better mixed tone with less gain and distortion than you might normally have live.

I find with recording bass its generally better to have quite a bit more mids and high end than you may normally use live also. It will prolly sound like ass solo'd but in the mix, especially if its a dense mix, it helps keep the bass present and clear. You'll prolly find you can attenuate quite a bit more low end in the mix than you might think you should in order to keep the low end of the mix cleaner and clearer.

I know my buddy's Ampeg rig has TONS and TONS of low end. Thats what I love about it. But I ended up shelving out a lot from the track in the mix. But in this particular case I had a lot of that low end comming through in the drum overheads too since it was part of a one room live recording (for the basic tracks).


-mike
 
just a repeat of other posts but......
volume doesn't seem to help bass like it does git.

di's are nice and can solve a lot of problems, but in order to really get a good bass sound i find i usually need to mic it also.

the mic will depend on the situation, i have used a re27, b52, at4033, mkl 2500, even a blue ball (with a di remember), what ever works that day. (a re20 is a safe bet though)
 
I've recorded an SVT with a D112 and been happy with it. Never tried an RE20.

One thing to pay attention to is the direct out sound from the SVT head. Could have been the particular model I worked with, but I found the direct out to be fizzy and ended up using a Sansamp for the direct sound. The fizz could be because the bass player wanted a distorted sound and so the direct sounded like crap just like a guitar amp's direct out when distorting its preamp.

I agree that using the low end from the direct and mids & highs from a mic is pretty effective.
 
xstatic said:
I learned a cool trick form Ulrich Wylde (ala Deftones, Rage, White Xombie etc...) for capturing that big bass sound. It really surprised me, but he uses a small diaphragm condensor rather than the standard kick mic.
Click to expand...

if i forget to use my 451 next time i track bass please slap me. :eek: :D

Mike
 
As always, it depends on the song and the sound we want.
I am not much of a fan of DI.

So I would use the cab, and I usually mic one of the corner speakers about 6" away. Ideally though, I like using a 1x15 cab. That way there's no phase or delay issues between speakers.
Also, it does not need to be very loud, just good enough that the mic is working to potential to get a good s/n ratio from the mic's self noise.

Mic choice? I really am a fan of a sm-57, that is only if I havn't used a 57 on half of the other tracks/instruments for the rest of the song. Too much of the same mic (especially a 57) will sound too colored, as if the whole song is EQ'd to the sm-57 curve.
I like a D112, but there too you might make the bass guitar cover too much of the bass drum range if using the D112 on the kick.
I've also had good luck with the Oktava mk319.
 
have you considered telling the bass player to STFU and quit whining? :D
Seriously, all of these are good suggestions, the Oktava works good if you mic the back of the stack too. very bowel moving low end
 
Throw whatever mics you have on it and see what you like. Every mic gives you something a little different.

The last bass tracks I recorded, I used an ATM-25, a small diaphram condenser (Rode NT5) and a direct signal all mixed together.

If you have enough inputs, you should run a direct signal from his amp in addition to the mic(s) and mix those to taste. You can always delete the extra tracks later if you don't like the results.
 
xstatic said:
First off, I would make sure that he does not let the cab get too loud. For micing purposes it will only serve to make things sloppy, and not bigger or fuller. I learned a cool trick form Ulrich Wylde (ala Deftones, Rage, White Xombie etc...) for capturing that big bass sound. It really surprised me, but he uses a small diaphragm condensor rather than the standard kick mic.
Click to expand...
I totally agree. Only problem is if you have an SVT ( they don't do not too loud) well to an extent anyway
good I idea with the mic though I will try it.
 
xstatic said:
It really surprised me, but he uses a small diaphragm condensor rather than the standard kick mic.
Click to expand...
Haha... I didn't even read that before I posted. I stumbled on to this trick a couple years ago because all I had available was a kick mic and a SD condenser. I really like using both (and DI). The kick mics I've used capture the low-end nicely but seem kind of flabby. The SD condenser seems to add some tightness back to the bass.
 
petermiller said:
Only problem is if you have an SVT ( they don't do not too loud)
Click to expand...
I doubt this would be a problem for a kick mic, but you might need a pad on the SD condenser.
 
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