Recording Bass Guitar

menamestom

How do you record bass guitar? DI, Bass preamp, Mic up, Mixture of DI and Mic. Plug in amp sims?

How do you get your best sounds?

Interested to know different approaches.

HollowAxis

Usually clean DI (I love the Orchid Electronics DI boxes) (Or have used a Radial in the past)
Put DI sound through an amp or speaker sim in the Audioease Speakerphone plugin.

In the past I have got good sounds from an MXR M80 Bass DI+

Only ever miced amps a few times, but it always turned out less than what I wanted. (Last time I believe I was micing an Ampeg 8x10 cab, some 1x15 cab and a gallien krueger head), using Shure Beta52A, Audix i5 and AKG C480B mics.

Cirrus

It kinda depends on the material and the situation - a lot of the time a DI is all I need. Either clean or a Sansamp with some grit dialled in to suit the track. Sometimes, an actual bass amp and cab is just the ticket but a lot of it depends on the room since even close miked, standing waves can cause problems.

My main thing is that the bass sits in the mix right, and that usually means finding a good midrange character. The low end weight is obviously important, but I've tended to find it's the midrange where the bass lives or dies.

Fretwired

DI via a Line 6 POD HD or via my soundcard into Amplitube or an excellent Yamaha bass plugin.

randomhandclaps

I was never 100% happy with anything until I got one of these -

http://www.ebssweden.com/content/images/products/microbassII_front.png

Winny_Pooh

A good DI/transformer based mic pre or a Reddi if you have the cash. If you do mic then you cant go wrong with an RE-20, alot of the time mics work well to blend in for smoothness rather than being the main source.

Cirrus

Yeah, RE-20s are great - pretty flat down in the low end, if you want to actually capture the sound of the cab!

I once recorded a cab with an SM57 and Beta 52, accidentally routed the '57 to both tracks... it actually sounded ok, had a nice grit that suited the song.

menamestom

HollowAxis said:

Usually clean DI (I love the Orchid Electronics DI boxes)

I'd never heard of those but they look amazing value for money.

HollowAxis

menamestom said:

HollowAxis said:

Usually clean DI (I love the Orchid Electronics DI boxes)

I'd never heard of those but they look amazing value for money.

Yeah they are, I read about them in as SoundOnSound review and got the smallest one, silent and small, can't ask for more.
I also got the Orchid reamping box.

They perform the same as any Radial stuff I've used.
I can't bring myself to buy a Radial when these things work so well.
In the same vein I've got an ABY pedal from Bright Onion pedals, less than half the price of a Radial and it works incredibly well running two amps.

Danny1969

Depends on the type of sound the player has. If he's using an Ampeg valve head and speaker then I will mic it and take a DI as a lot of the flavour comes from the speaker. If it's some Ashdown or Trace Elliot or Mark Bass rig etc then I normally just DI it and use plugins like Sansamp 

A Shure Beta 52 works well on most large bass cabs but you have to be careful of the room as your get problems with some notes being either amped or reduced in volume due to the reflected waves from the corners. The Di is a safety net as if you do fuck up the mic'ed track you can send it back out from the DAW into the room and mic it up again. 

Cirrus

I think you mistyped "Crashdown" and "Trace Failalot"...

Danny1969

Cirrus said:

I think you mistyped "Crashdown" and "Trace Failalot"...

Your not wrong, Last 6 bass amps I have fixed have been Ashdown and Trace's ..... The Ashdowns are particuly  unreliable 

mike257

For a straightforward, natural bass sound, I'm quite happy with a decent sounding bass played straight through a DI box with no mucking about. If amp breakup or general amp tone is a big part of the sound then I'll add a cab mic and blend to taste.

I'll also always do this live with bassists who use pedals - I'll take a totally clean DI signal before any effects to keep a big fat clean bottom end and then whack a mic on the cab to get the effected tone plus the response of the amp and speakers. Blend and filter to suit. It rescues those bassists who use drive pedals designed for guitar that make their bottom end vanish, means they get the dirt without losing the weight and power.

Snap

I DI either via my POD HD or through my interface into Guitar Rig. My interface, Komplete Audio 6 is perfect for it.

I'm using some of the kit in Rammfire (guitar rig priduct) for bass sounds atm, some crackin amps and cabs in that product.

As Cirrus said above, I agree, the mixing of the bass is the hardest part, particularly if its being mixed in with a load of electronic stuff. I find myself dropping thelevel a lot and using EQ to get it to cut through as needed.