As I understand it, the 4099 Dvote Core series all have different sound pressure levels to match the instrument they are paired up with. Additionally, the if you compare their pickup patterns the 4099 is a Supercardiod, there are better DPA microphones for Double Bass, but they cost way
more than the 4099 Dvote Core. The Remic Green is in the same neighboorhood price wise with the DPA.
There are two mics in the 4099 Core series with different sensitivity and max SPL ratings.
Per the website:
This microphone comes in two versions:
- 4099 CORE Mic, Loud SPL (red marking on gooseneck) – used to close-mike most types of instruments
- 4099 CORE Mic, Extreme SPL (yellow marking on gooseneck) – used to close-mike extremely loud instruments, such as drums and some brass
When you order a 4099 for bass, you're actually ordering a kit with a cable and XLR adapter, a microphone mount, and the higher sensitivity mic. The full manufacturers part number is (4099-DC-1-201-B). Some websites call it simply 4099B.
Here is an article from the DPA website on
How to mic and record a double bass . The 4099 is the least expensive mic mentioned in the article.
I have not used the 4099, but I do have experience with the AMT S25B. Before my comments, here is a rather long thread were people seem to strongly prefer the 4099 over the AMT.
I thought the AMT sounded fabulous for solo bass, but it was not very usable with an amp. It's been awhile, but I believe at the time the bassist was blending a Gage Realist with the AMT through a Dtar Solstice Preamp. He wound up running mostly the Realist and then trying to dial in just a little bit of the AMT to sweeten the sound a bit, but even a little of the mic seemed to push the rig quickly into feedback.
The other problem is bleed from surrounding instruments really degraded the signal of the bass to the point that I didn't feel the mic was usable. Our bass player sat fairly close to the drummer in concert band and big band, and the bleed especially from the cymbals was really obnoxious. I believe the 4099 has better rejection than the AMT due to a tighter polar pattern, but my impression was I was hearing the sound of the cymbals reflected off the face of the instrument. The 4099's tighter polar pattern will not fix this.
To make matters worse, the somewhat distorted sound of the cymbals coming through the amp interacted with the acoustic sound of the set and caused some nasty phasing. The bass player tried turning down the treble on his amp. This made the cymbals sound even more unnatural, and also degraded the quality of the bass's tone. He didn't keep the AMT for long.
So I agree with the earlier comments in this thread that suggest a mic may be usable for FOH use, providing there is some means to control bleed from surrounding instruments. This could mean locating the bass away from loud sound sources, or perhaps using moveable acoustic isolation panels known as gobos.
I plan to stick with contact mics for live work.
