Difference of mic/bass preamp for bass recording

[galder]

Hello,

I'd need to record my bass for our bands EP at home, as well well as our second guitarists tracks. Everything else was done in Pro Tools elsewhere. I already figured about impedance and using a DI box for my passive bass, but what about preamps?

My rackmount soundcard (Wami rack 24) has a 4 channel built in preamp with a gain boost of 45dB, which I understand is generally pretty good and transparent.

But what difference is there for recording bass through a preamp specifically designed for bass and a preamp that's meant for microphones?

I'd imagine that a bass preamp has some bass sound shaping qualities, but I'd also gather that a mic preamp would be neutral - I'd just need to capture the sound of my bass clean and direct as it is and then twiddle with it afterwards on my DAW. Also getting a bass preamp would be an expense since I'd like to be able to record other instruments as well. Zero budget for this one. I'd try different setups with equipment if I knew somebody to lend me some..

Sorry if this question is obvious, but I've been mainly working with electronic music and playing keyboards at home, and it's my first attempt and recording my bass playing myself

Thanks in advance,

- K -

[bluestarbass]

Things that are marketed as bass pres are for live, and plenty fine to record a bass with, like a sansamp.

Any other pre will work just fine, like one that is designed for a microphone. It will need to have a DI basically built in, a quarter inch in, to work for bass. If it doesnt have this then youd just have to get a DI to connect to a pre without a DI input.

In most studios, the bass player will just use what you are referring as a mic pre. As long as your pres built into your soundcard have quarter inch ins then you will be fine with those. If you want to buy a better pre then just make sure you have one with a DI built in or youll have to buy a DI as well.

If your on a limited budget id go with something that isnt marketed specifically toward bass. If you got a general pre you could use it for bass, guitar DI, or record a mic to your cab or something.

[fretlessrock]

It really depends on *which* mic preamp. Some mic preamps are bare bones and rely on clean signal path and good impedance matching to do their job, and assume that you have Q and comp elsewhere. Some are more like channel strips in that they might combine EQ, compression, variable impedance, and possibly multiple gain stages to give more control over distortion levels and dynamic range. Many of them have instrument inputs, which is pretty much like having a DI built in to the box.

Typical choices are:
Bass to DI to WAMI preamp, all effects in the box
Bass to DI to mic premp, some effects in box
Bass to DI to channel strip. less effects in box

Another common signal path includes a good compressor, usually a very distinctive one like a Distressor or a UA, to get that distinctive sound down on the raw track.

How useful a compressor or EQ is on the preamp depends on what you want for the end result. If the part is going to be heavily compressed, then you might want to compress it at the preamp, especially if you don't have a world class compression plugin. it can also help cut down on noise because the compressed signal can have a higher S/N ratio than if you just recorded straight without clipping and then compressed it in the box. I do most recording straight to the preamp on my interface, vi a DI. If you can avoid clipping and can keep the noise down you have a raw track that can be processed any way you like.

[SwamiRob]

You can probably get a reasonable direct sound if it has a 1/4 inch on it. A friend of mine does home recordings with drum machines and such for his solo stuff and other random songs and he plays straight into his on board pre-amp and it sounds good enough. Listen to the guys above if you want a really professional sound though, if you get a good enough source sound you can easily sort it out with a few plug ins though, some EQ, compression and maybe some valve simulators will probably sort it out for you.

Lot's of annoying purist people like me prefer to have our amps miced up, much to many sound engineers annoyance. You can't really get your amp loud enough at home to get away with it though and you'd need to make your room very dead sounding and have very forgiving neighbours, or no neighbours at all.

[galder]

Thank you for your responses. The pre on the rack is the barebones kind, designed to simply amplify input signal. The inputs take in quarter inch jacks, both balanced and unbalanced.. So looks like I'm set to go with a DI.

I was a bit worried that using a wrong kind of pre would have the detrimental effect of using say for example guitar effects on a bass. I'm glad you cleared up things a bit here.

As much as I'd love to try out micing the head and cab I use, I live in an apartment building where even my small practice amp is way too loud to use even on the smallest of volume. Though maybe if I was quick enough with single takes they wouldn't know what hit 'em..

- K -