What is wrong with miking a bass amp?

  • Thread starter Thread starter NYMorningstar
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NYMorningstar

Recording Modus Operandi
I have read lots about having the bass going direct for recording. My bass player is using an older bass amp (Traynor) that doesn't have a direct lineout for the PA. Last week we were recording a few tunes live and I had to mic the amp using a SM58. The recording sounds good to my untrained ears and the live sound was pretty decent too. What exactly is wrong with that set up and why?

Thanks in advance,

Bob
 
NYMorningstar said:
What exactly is wrong with that set up and why?
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There's absolutely nothing wrong with that set-up if it gives you the sound you're looking for!

I usually take both a DI and a mic'd cab for the bass tracks for flexibility later.....
 
There's nothing 'wrong' with it. On the contrary, for recording, most people will prefer micing the amp instead of taking the line output.

Taking the line output is the quick and easy way. If you have no line out of the amp, you can use a DI in between the bass and the amp, feeding the signal from the bass directly into the board, without having it going thru the amp first. Or you can put some DI's in between the amp and the cabinet. (Not all DI's allow this!)

What you have to take in account when using DI's and direct outs:
When using a DI, or direct out, you are taking the signal somewhere along it's signal chain. This means, you don't get the sound the way the bassplayer wants it to sound. Most experienced bassplayers will have a certain guitar-amp setup of which they like the sound, setup for their sound. If you use the DI in between the guitar and amp, you'll get the sound of the guitar, you don't take the amps sound. If he's overdriving the amp, you'll loose alot of his sound...

When you take a direct out of the amp, or DI in between amp and speaker, you take it right in the middle of the chain. The amp is setup to have it sound thru the speaker, so the EQ will NOT be set in an appropriate way when you take it from there and use it with another amp/other speakers...

That's why alot of amps have a switch next to their line out to choose between the signal before the preamp or after.

I take both signals whenever I have the chance... Combination of both, DI for highs, mic for lows is a common thing to do...

The SM57 is not a mic of choice for bass, it's not designed for the freq-range of a bass amp. But in budget setups, it's used quite often that way...
 
There is absolutely nothing wrong with micing the cab. Alot of times it may be preferable if it's an ambience you are searching for. Don't know if you have any SM57's in your arsenal, but they are great for this purpose.
 
nothing. You might want to consider the placement of the mic to get variations in ambience. To far way and you lose the edge and get too much room ambience, too close and you get undeveloped waves off the speaker, thrash and flutter noise of the cone, or hardware rattles. It too depends on the type of transducer your micing as to the mic placement, 10's, 12's, 15's. The only 18" I ever mic`d was the EV's but that was not for recording, 'twas live only. As several have mentioned previously, a DI in tandem with the live mic gives a phat, warm, yet well defined punchy live sound. Compression is like salt on French fries too.
 
Wouldn't a different mic than a 57 handle the spl of a bass cabinet better? I realize you could turn down, but volume could be a part of the tone.
 
AKG D112 (or D12, if you can score one!) is very common............
 
Barefoots explnation in that thread is a good one.

For the simple folk who don't want to get to deep into the issue it's simply becuase a direct recording is usualy better defined and more in control in the low end.
Also a room sound might contain to much ambience and that will cause a muddy and unclear mix as room ambience isnt (usualy) all equal in all freq's which might cause your bass to sound boomy.

Something that should help control the low end is to prop the Amp on a chair and to keep the mic close.


Barefoot...I await your corrections :D
 
Shailat said:

Something that should help control the low end is to prop the Amp on a chair and to keep the mic close.
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There are many known miking techniques to good bass tone. Mixing the DI and miking the source is almost a de-facto standard in recording bass, electric bass to be more specific.
Another technique is putting the cabinet on its back( but not on the floor) inside a closet and miking from above, experiment with tilting at angles as well. What your trying to do is control the expression of the long wavelengths, lf build up and enharmonic vibration of the room structure. I heard somewhere that you can put your bass amp in a car inside your garage just like some ppl turn their cars into vocal booths for home studios/gaage studio. But just a Bruce said, do whatever you have to to get what ya want. Im still happy going DI with the VTB-1 on my bass tone.

SoMm
 
rushfan33 said:
Just curious..... why question it if it sounds good to you?
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I questioned it because I was told at a music store that I should never mic the bass because their waves are 15' long and it causes phase and distortion problems. It didn't have those problems when I tried it so I thought I'd ask, sit back and learn.
 
Take salespeople's "advice" with a grain of salt, unless they've already proven their skills/knowledge to you before.... a majority of them couldn't record their way thru a children's sing-along!
 
In my experience, Guitar Mart sales pukes are dumber than a bag of hammers. I've heard more disinformation spewed by these pre-pubescent zit farms.
 
Track Rat said:
In my experience, Guitar Mart sales pukes are dumber than a bag of hammers. I've heard more disinformation spewed by these pre-pubescent zit farms.
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Beautiful desript'!
that even surpasses "most likely to impersonate the afterbirth of a bastard rat".
 
NYMorningstar said:


I questioned it because I was told at a music store that I should never mic the bass because their waves are 15' long and it causes phase and distortion problems. It didn't have those problems when I tried it so I thought I'd ask, sit back and learn.
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Why would a long wavelength cause phase and distortion problems??? You gotta learn more on recording, it's really fun if you can break down those salesmen and laugh at their face. :D It's one of the reasons I wanna know all this stuff. hehe
 
Wait a minute. Then how do I get a 15' wave to fit in my 1/4" di patch?:confused:
 
the only 15' wave I ever saw was out of the port on a sub-bass cabinet with 2 EV 30" styrofoam transducers putting out under 40 hz. Sprinkling baby powder in front of it at about 4 ft the waves were actually about 4" apart , but the distance they traveled before all the powder dissipated was about 15 to 18 ft. The cabinet was 18 ft long. It raised a dust cloud in the old Braves stadium one afternoon when a dude manually powered up and clicked the mixer on last.

That salesman should have a 15' wave stuck up his poop chute.
 
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