Recording Direct or miking my cab..

[Music_for_life]

I have a decent equipment but no experience recording with it....We recorded a song miking the cab (we are recording in my flat and we have no experience miking a cab) and the results where bad...the bass was to muddy and the signal saturated. Plus I think my cab is decent for live recording but perhaps not perfect for recording (Hartke Xl 4x10)

My equipment consist of
Basses:Musicman Sr5, Fender Jazz roscoe beck 5
Preamps: Sadowsky outboard pre, Sansamp BDDI
Amp: Gallien Krueger 1001 rb2 with Hartke xl cab
Compressor DBX 160A.

I am looking for the most conservative and safe option, I have some questions..

About recording direct
1-If I record going direct: I go from my bass to the preamp and from preamp to console???
2-It is posible to record Direct without a console??
3-The XLR output is better???

Regardin my basses... I know the passive jazz bass is perfect with my sadowsky preamp, but,
4-Do you recomend to use either the sansamp or the sadowsky with my actIve musciman bass?? (Someone told me it is not good to have two preamps together)

Regarding: The compressor
5-Can I connect my dbx 160A compressor to the console???

To cut a long story short,
6-Do you think going direct is the safer and best way to record for us (we have no experience and we ecord by ourselves and in a house with not perfect acustics)

Do you have a good setting for the Sadowsky preamp?? I have heard flat has the best overall tone

[Shinji]

I'd use both, I gather the amp has it's own DI XLR output? so use that and if you want mic up the cab. You may want to play around a little with mic placement to find the tone you're after. Also try listening to each speaker, to find the best one (they can vary in tone).
If you find that the room is interfering with your sound make a little tent around the cab with some chairs and towels to eliminate sound bouncing off of the walls.
I totally recommend both DI and Mic, this method gives you more to work with when mixing.
Best of luck with your recording pursuits.

[Oreomeister365]

They sound different enough that you should def try both. I prefer mic all the way, but you gotta know how to set it up.

To start, try placing the mic tangent to the (inside) edge of a speaker cone, nearest the tweeter. That's where it sounds best to me.

[alec]

Hope I'm not derailing, but what is a good cheapish mic to record a bass cab with? SM57?
Looking at ~$100. It would be good if it could do guitar cabs and vocals too. Nothing too flash, its just in my living room.

[Shinji]

I used a cheap condenser that lacked on low end, but had great high end shine and by using DI also i could mix the two tones and get a really full sound.

SM57 is fine if you use DI as well, really any mic will do (if you DI and mic) but the better you can get access to will improve the recording. If you can get a condenser for cheap go for that, the SM57 is okay but you will loose heaps of tone from the guitar and bass.Also keep in mind the room you use will have significant impact on your sound.

[Phatbottom]

+1 to Shinji

The mic and room will have a huge impact on the sound. Id DI for sure (your always guaranteed something usable), then blend in some mic (I prefer LD Condensers but options are endless). If your low end is muddy try hi passing the mic track. Make sure everything is phase aligned as well.

Placement is also very important.

Try recording several takes and move the mic around to see how it effects the sound. Choose where it sounds best to you then record. Since you record by yourself, experiment!

[silentmike]

I've found Sound On Sound to be a great resource. Have a butchers at this article:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar9...ordingbass.htm

It should give you a few ideas.