Mic the bass

lawrence2 · #1 02-08-2011, 08:31 AM

Hi!

I am sure this was spoken before, but anyway:
I am thinking of puting D.I. from my amp and a mic - for stage, for live performance.
What kind of mic should I use? It is shure 57 (like normally for guitar good enough), or let's say AKG C5 (condensator) or it is better to have a mic for bass drum?
I have cab with no horn... lot's of middle punch, if it has some influence...

thanks for anything

Hellbastard · #2 02-08-2011, 08:36 AM

Check out this thread for more info.

A 57 will work well in conjuntion with the D.I signal. A condenser microphone is not ideal for a love situation because condenser are too sensitive and will pickuo a lot of backgorund noise.

Eric Scholz · #3 02-08-2011, 08:40 AM

I've never had much luck with kick mics. I've tried the Audix D6 a few times, and i can never get it to sit right. I would recommend either an SM57 or, if you can afford it, an RE-20.

Recently I was live tracking my own band for demo purposes, and by the time I got to my bass cab I was out of choices, so I had to use an Audix D2, and I was actually very happy with it. I had to boost the high end a little in the mix, but the raw track was very isolated... almost no bleed from the other instruments.

ben12390 · #4 02-08-2011, 08:44 AM

I would say you would be okay with an SM 57, thats what i use to record bass, so it should be fine live. live i do DI, just because most of my volume comes from my stack as it is.

are you looking for most of your sound to come through the amp, and just filler in the PA, then DI is probably your best choice. it's less sound color, but it suuuppperrr easy.
now if its the opposite, most of your sound in the PA, cause of a small amp or something, then mic'ing is ideal. so use a SM 57.
or a digital reference instrument mic, GC has them on sale for 30 bucks right now, and they are good mics.

Eric Scholz · #5 02-08-2011, 08:48 AM

I work at GC... and trust me, don't waste your money on a Digital Reference mic. People try to return them all the time. They're really designed for 14 year old kids starting up their first garage band, when Mom and Dad don't want to invest a lot of money.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ben12390

I would say you would be okay with an SM 57, thats what i use to record bass, so it should be fine live. live i do DI, just because most of my volume comes from my stack as it is.

are you looking for most of your sound to come through the amp, and just filler in the PA, then DI is probably your best choice. it's less sound color, but it suuuppperrr easy.
now if its the opposite, most of your sound in the PA, cause of a small amp or something, then mic'ing is ideal. so use a SM 57.
or a digital reference instrument mic, GC has them on sale for 30 bucks right now, and they are good mics.

ben12390 · #6 02-08-2011, 08:51 AM

i dont use it on the road, so its served me well so far. i got it to accompany my all SM57 drum mic kit, cause one got destroyed by a drummer. lol.
i guess time will tell how long it lasts, but at 30 bucks, i couldnt resist.

lawrence2 · #7 02-08-2011, 09:02 AM

Thanks guy, I will also check something up, a lots of these informations; you have to try and then you see.
I just want some colour, DI is nice, but no caracter. So, I will try with sm 57, or the mic that they also use it for guitar in most clubs and places that we play.
I also don't think that bass kick mics are ok, I need middle range.
And, ok, so no condens, just dynamic - how far from speaker should it be? And in the center of speaker or on the side of one? I have 4x10 cab - no horn.

rockstarbassist · #8 02-08-2011, 09:05 AM

Live Sound is a better resource than Amps for this question. Lots of info there.

I use a Heil PR-40 when I mic up. I do not like most "kick drum" mics in general as there's too much scoop going on. If you have a competent soundman you could get away with a DI+SM-57 however. Just make sure there's no "gaps" in your EQ at the board, which is usually what I run into when I run two signals, so I just like one or the other nowadays.

lawrence2 · #9 02-08-2011, 09:28 AM

Ok, thanks.... I will check it out "live sound" I didn't even realized, thanks...

lawrence2 · #10 02-08-2011, 09:29 AM

Hm, sorry, what did you mean with "gaps" between singals - EQ problems, to get all frequencies?

Manndreas · #11 02-08-2011, 09:30 AM

I've used Sennheiser E904/604's on the bass amp at a local club when the band insists I mic the amp.

The good thing about the E604 is that the highpass is at 40Hz, while the SM57 is at 70Hz I think. So you get a lot more bottom from it.

http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser...519?Open&row=2

lawrence2 · #12 02-08-2011, 09:36 AM

What about place and distance for mic?
Center or edge of speaker? center of box - so, where is no speaker - I have no horn?
And the distance?

And... yes 604 is from 40, 904 is from 20 !!! But shure sm 57 is from 40 hz also .. si I thinkg it is clasical and ok also from bass

http://www.shure.com/europe/products...ent-microphone

rockstarbassist · #13 02-08-2011, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lawrence2

Hm, sorry, what did you mean with "gaps" between singals - EQ problems, to get all frequencies?

Well normally when people do the DI+mic thing, it's to get the high mids/top end snarl or growl/attack you get from miking a moving driver, whereas the DI provides the low end "foundation", and IME most soundmen don't know where a good crossover point is so it just ends up sounding weird. That's why when I use a mic, I only use a mic and it's a quality piece so I don't really lose a lot of low end (not that my tone is really bass-heavy anyway) so it doesn't get mixed up.
Again, I'd only use a mic+DI setup if we had our own soundguy who knew my tone and could properly EQ each signal to where it sounded awesome.

Manndreas · #14 02-08-2011, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lawrence2

What about place and distance for mic?
Center or edge of speaker? center of box - so, where is no speaker - I have no horn?
And the distance?

And... yes 604 is from 40, 904 is from 20 !!! But shure sm 57 is from 40 hz also .. si I thinkg it is clasical and ok also from bass

http://www.shure.com/europe/products...ent-microphone

Yeah, I've used 57's on bass too. It works, but like I said, the 6/904's are made for drums and bass-instruments, so it has a lot more low end. The decrease in frequency response on the 57 is much steeper and start higher than the 604.

Disclaimer: Even though I work as a soundguy (I refuse to call my self "sound engineer") I have no formal education apart from being a half-educated electrician, so I'm not 100% sure of all this tech-talk about frequency response, dBv blahblahbalh. I just read the charts right now and interpreted them as best I could.

However if you plan on using a DI + mic this doesn't really matter, since the DI signal will have more lows than all three mics. So you'll use the DI for lows and the mic for highs anyways.

To put it this way:
DI + 57? Shure (hurr hurr), I've done it before and will probably do it again. It's a solid mic, just not the best out there.

Just a 57 on the bass? Nah, probably not.

And about mic placement. I usually place the mics a bit off center, and pretty close (1-5cm).