Direct or mike'd

[FretNot]

I have a question for you guys with studio experience. Would you mind sharing your feelings or advice on going direct and/or miking your amp? This studio thing is a first for me.
The sax player in our little jazz band is a high school music teacher, where he recently had a chance to set up some recording gear. We very greatfully have access to using that gear after school hours. But band-get-together time is more limited, since we're all on different schedules. Our goal is to put down half a dozen tracks for a demo CD.
We tried it out last night for the first time (trial run). When setting up, the sax player asked me if I wanted to go direct or miked ???? There are 8 tracks available. The drummer was using 3. We're a five piece band. I could use two, if really needed. I didn't want to use band time doing comparison testing. Any recommendations? Thanks!

Andre

[Addison]

Really short answer:

If you had more tracks, you should definitely do both.

But, with your particular situation, I'd say go direct.

It's USUALLY (key word here) easier to get your bass to sound how you want it in post-production from a direct signal, as it's less "colored" by your amp, the mic, etc.

There's LOTS more to say about this subject, so I'm sure other people far more knowledgable than me can chime in and steer you right.

Have fun!

[VroomVroom]

Direct. For lots of reasons, but everything Addison says applies. Plus you won't have to worry about any bleed-through to (or from) any other channels. Here's hoping you'll share some of the recordings with us!

[Big Mother]

In this circumstance, I fully agree with Jerry and Addison, DI.
And as Addison says "There's LOTS more to say about this subject". But if you are just starting off and have track limitations, DI will be far and away the most versatile way to do it.
And with a decent direct box, a Roscoe will sound beautiful, I know mine does.

BM

[()smoke()]

i'll echo what's been said, direct will give you a great sound, and even a great platform if you like more fur on your sound because you can always re-amp your track...

but, for simplicity, DI + Roscoe = Great Sound

[ubone]

Direct is the way to go...

[lwrthnwhalepoop]

Direct, for all the reasons mentioned above. Miking a cabinet or combo is messy, and the only reason for doing it would be if the cab or combo is an inseparable part of your sound, or if you're all tracking together and you're going for that "recorded in our garage" crazy cacophony sorta sound - which is a perfectly valid approach, artistically, for some material. Other than those cases, any engineer can get you a better/cleaner sound running you direct into the board. Often you'll be in the control room with the engineer, which is handy for full-contact co-producing.

[FretNot]

THANKS!

The consensus is clear.
You guys are a pretty direct bunch
I'll give it a go and see what happens...