Put a mic on it

[TheRealKong]

If there are enaugh channels left, I prefer DI and Mic. The sound-engineer of our band mixes the both channels. He uses a simple SM 58. Killer sound!

Last done in a venue with 300 people, MuMa SR5, GenzBenz GBE 1200 and Tecamp L 810.

[godofthunder59]

I always mic, I have had plenty of fancy mics I'm back to the good old SM57, it just captures the tone of my amp/cab in that good old school way.

[Kmonk]

Whenever possible I use a mic and run direct at the same time. The biggest problem is that sometimes a DI is noisy and a mic usually can't accurately capture all of the frequencies. Mic placement is key.

[Lee Bruton]

Originally Posted by seamonkey

At first glance it seems sensible. When someone believes they have perfected their tone through their amp and cabinet and want that to be mic'ed through the transparent FOH

The player usually perfects their sound with their ears as they stand a few feet away from the cabinet. They should perfect the sound with their ear right up next to the speaker just like where someone is going to place a mic.

Try it yourself, in a studio put one mic up close, and one back a few feet where the bass player normally stands. You can hear which one sounds like what you hear.

Your tone should come from the pre-amp. Use a DI. You'll have more control of your sound out front and in a studio.

+1

[will33]

Originally Posted by Lee Bruton

+1

Whatever works for you, but I am generally the opposite of this.

And I do know what my stuff sounds like an inch away, a yard away, out in the room, etc.

If all our tone came from the preamp, why even have amps and speakers?

There is no perfectly flat/transparent speaker, yet our entire audience hears us through speakers. They are part of our sound, whether they are MI speakers, SR speakers or whatever. It's live music, it's supposed to sound "alive". Not like listening to a CD through headphones....which are also speakers.....which also sound different.

Just my $.02

[D.M.N.]

Originally Posted by godofthunder59

I always mic, I have had plenty of fancy mics I'm back to the good old SM57, it just captures the tone of my amp/cab in that good old school way.

Indeed. SM57 works just fine, I try to bring one whenever I do a PA'd show, just incase the venue doesn't have a better mic. I've also recorded in studio with them before, and they're more than adequate for straight ahead recording.

[Williamsburgjim]

...just wanted to add-and a gratious thank you for the replies btw- that I almost always EQ live with an inverted smiley face with lots of mids so I can cut thru. (The mic obviously replicated the head/cab EQ and apparently the PA duplicated that tone which I always expect to hear...is this why guitar players mic their cab's I wonder? My buddies Kotch head has a 'cab' signal setting on his head DI-but he never uses it.)

And finally, I wish I could have heard it out front b/c the drummer really noticed the difference. He did digitally record it so I guess I'll find out how good/bad it was after the Holiday. As an old music major in school and having played and listened to many genre's the tone I hope I got was the tone from that 2005 DVD-the older better stuff from K.U.-IMO. Granted, there may have been some minor effects/production tweeks/processing to that bass recording but man that DVD/live tone was real real growly yet still warm... .

(I'll report back for sure, and if it's close to that tone that I think I got, I'll find out what mic it was and PA settings/equipment etc, etc. and maybe ya'll can make sense of it... .) Thanks!

[bigchiefbc]

Yes, I always mic in any room big enough that I would want my bass through the PA. The reason is that I use a somewhat lower-power all-tube amp cranked to the point where I go from kind-of dirty to full-on overdrive most of the time. And a DI is never going to capture that. And although I'm a effects nut, I never found an overdrive pedal I was completely satisfied with.

I always bring my own mic (akg p2) and stand, and insist on using it. Whenever I show up to a gig and a sound guy wants DI me, I just tell him I have my own, and then plug the XLR into my mic. I have yet to have a sound guy question me twice on that practice.

As for mic placement and how I dial in my sound: I have my amp pretty much dialed in to sound exactly how I want it from approx a foot away. And that is exactly where I place my mic. And since I'm usually pretty far to the side of the stage, I don't usually have any problems of other stage sounds bleeding in (such as monitors and cymbals and such)

[Vic Winters]

Originally Posted by anderbass

Yep

Is that a CB radio on the top left?

[Jim C]

Hey Jim
To answer an earlier issue:
It is rare that even a semi-pro board can't take a line out from an SVT, but if that's the case, you can buy an inexpensive attenuator to put inline to reduce the output to FoH

[bjabass]

Originally Posted by anderbass

Yep

you should always mic the edge of the cone.....and are you aware how much SPL you are losing by running that cab on it's side????

[Josh Thatguy]

A local venue (and personal) house rule: FRIDGES GET MIC'D! Ampeg, Basson, Peavey, even GK 810s always always ALWAYS get mic'd into the mix, even if the bassist's stage volume is way up there, even if it's just minimally mixed in to grab some of the bite or growl and put it in the mains. In my case, I get a Beta52 put on one Ampeg, and SM57 on the other, and get a good hi/lo mix at the board. I run a lot of distortion and "sizzle" but I still keep a ton of low end and voice using a 31band EQ in my power amp rack. A D.I. out of my old BBE preamp sounds like a little Crate combo as far as tone, so again, FRIDGES GET MIC'D!!!

(p.s. to the OP- I used to work for Beecroft & Bull on D.O.G. Street, waaaaaaay back when I was a youngster living in that area)

[Bearded Wizard]

I used to DI, but I eventually found as I gained experience and improved my playing and tone, that I couldn't get a sound I liked via DI, neither in the studio or live. It just sounds so flat and lifeless compared to miking my amps.

[JimmyM]

I mic'ed for years, or at least blended mic and DI, then gave into DI by itself for a while and never could get used to my bass sounding like a banjo, so I went back micing again for a few years. And now I'm using a REDDI, which is the first DI I truly ever liked as much or more than micing. But micing is great. The only times I ever had a problem getting the sound of my rig in the house using a mic was when the soundman ignored my directions to make it sound like my amp. Might pick up a little bleed if you can't turn your amp up enough to get a signal to the mic, but other than that, it's way cool and sounds better than most DI's.

However, unless you have total control over your gigs and soundman, it's a DI world for bass, so I recommend having yourself a suitable alternative to the mic prepared. And if you refuse to have a suitable alternative prepared, let the soundman know in advance of the gig so he/she can plan for it. Most decent soundmen will roll with it if you don't throw it on them as a surprise.

[vgbob]

Short answer, hahaha, is what do you need to do? In your case the head DI doesn't work, so you have no other (simple) choice. If you DI out, you may not be getting the
entire sound of your rig, which includes the cab. Sound guys and their systems are all different, they might want one or the other, or both signals. In a live situation a mic on stage is one more thing to get kicked. Everyone has to decide what they like or works best in a specific situation.

[georgestrings]

In the OP's situation, I would either buy my own mic setup or a DI that will work with a speaker level signal - like a JDI or Countryman, and run it off of the cab... I personally would buy the DI 1st, since they're handy to have in case your amp craps out...


- georgestrings

[slyjoe]

Follow suggestions given, not this:

[Bassmec]

Originally Posted by seamonkey

At first glance it seems sensible. When someone believes they have perfected their tone through their amp and cabinet and want that to be mic'ed through the transparent FOH

The player usually perfects their sound with their ears as they stand a few feet away from the cabinet. They should perfect the sound with their ear right up next to the speaker just like where someone is going to place a mic.

Try it yourself, in a studio put one mic up close, and one back a few feet where the bass player normally stands. You can hear which one sounds like what you hear.

Your tone should come from the pre-amp. Use a DI. You'll have more control of your sound out front and in a studio.

Proper Isolation room containing quality musical instrument loudspeakers, quality microphones and a quality sub kick might help the DI a bit.

Nothing you have said so far on this board is anything other than a you don't really need this and you don't need that.
Can you imagine how arrogantly offensive your posts sound to someone who has spent 40 odd years at the top end of this industry and loads of money going that extra mile.

[garmenteros]

I use my radial JDI. Not worth the hassle live for me and sometimes my amp carries the room for small bars.

[Ender_rpm]

Finally got a show where I needed to go into the PS, nothing huge, just a smallish music club. Nice PA, well run, soundchick asked if I had an XLR out to DI, and I countered with my Audix D4. We have been doing a lot of recording, and I used that mic, so I knew how to change my EQ to suit (Less bass due to proximity effect). Sound in FOH slayed, and I was just right on stage. Plus it was fun to feel the stage shake when I hit the subs Helped that the drum mics were Audix, so she was comfortable with it. The band after us had a small bass combo and used a 57, and there was really no bass to be heard out front.