What do you think of - DI and Mic at same time?

[bass nitro]

Hi there.Just wonder what would happened if you mix DI and Mic on live?What benefits would be?thanks

[eyeballkid]

yes. You get the clear tone of the DI to feed the soundman a signal easily EQ'd as needed for FOH mix and you can blend in the tone of the cab to fill it out. Sounds GREAT in the right hands.

[scotch]

It's the best of both worlds! Combining sources can impart a whole extra layer of tone & presence in the final mix. It also gives the foh engineer creative choices during the show. It also allows the bassist to be more experimental in their amp & effects settings, while still always providing a solid & "safe" clean di (for instance)..

A di + mic'ed amp work great assuming the following are all true:

a) The front-of-house engineer is good at their job and have enough time to get both sources set-up and balanced.

b) Your amp and di have complementary tones appropriate to the music you are playing. For instance, at a 'rock' show, you might have a clean, pre-effects di and a dirty, effected amp. It's important that both tones work well together and are different enough to be worthwhile sourcing both to the foh.

c) The venue is large enough to make it advantageous to mic up your amp. In a small venue, it may be pointless to mic the amp as you may already be filling the room.

[TimmyP]

Di goes deeper than any cabinet, and has more clarity without the usual click and clank from a cabinet horn that's turned up way too hot (and which add nothing that's musically or tonally relevant - just rhythmic noises).

Amp and cabinet may in certain circumstances add characteristics that are desirable additions to the DI tone.

[staindbass]

most live shows use that configuration. the di for clarity, and the speakers to add some "dirt" or "grunge" or " texture". on my rig, they take the bass with a di before it hits my rack. then they have a di after my preamp , to get my compression. then they mic the 18" ev and jbl tweeter horn. its nice to have 4 channels on the board johnny a. staind

[MuzikMan]

Originally Posted by staindbass

most live shows use that configuration. the di for clarity, and the speakers to add some "dirt" or "grunge" or " texture". on my rig, they take the bass with a di before it hits my rack. then they have a di after my preamp , to get my compression. then they mic the 18" ev and jbl tweeter horn. its nice to have 4 channels on the board johnny a. staind

Very nice! Do you know if there are any drawbacks to having four channels, such as time alignment?

[Eric Moesle]

I was having some pretty bad phase alignment problems running both a mic and a DI on my bass through the PA. What was happening was that the blended signals were thinning out my sound.

I picked up a Radial Phazer and it solved the problem 100%. I highly recommend one for people using both a mic and DI and blending them through the PA.

[Stick_Player]

Originally Posted by Eric Moesle

I was having some pretty bad phase alignment problems running both a mic and a DI on my bass through the PA. What was happening was that the blended signals were thinning out my sound.

I picked up a Radial Phazer and it solved the problem 100%. I highly recommend one for people using both a mic and DI and blending them through the PA.

This can certainly happen, even when recording.

If one of the channels can be phase inverted (at the board), this can resolve the 'canceling' or thinning effect. Just be aware of this unwanted result.

With a digital recording system, the two waves can be visually aligned.