BEST BASS CABS FOR RECORDING

[Slough Feg Bass]

I'd get a simple but solid 15" cab loaded with a nice JBL speaker.
don't push it too hard, just enough to be a little loud.
throw a decent mic about 10" a little off center, and be done with it.

 

[DannyBob]

Just food for thought - your recording cab definitely doesn't have to be the same as your gigging cab. For recording I use a single 1x10 and when I'm gigging I either go DI to sound desk or have an 8x10 and 2x15.

 

[Big Brother]

What is the best bass cab for recording metal

 

[TrevorOfDoom]

I had a guy offer to buy my Bag End S15 off me the moment he heard his Ampeg B15 through it.

I'd suggest one of those and a parallel DI.
The Bag End's don't have a lot of low low end or high end (they run roughly 80Hz-4kHz), but spectacular mid-punch and character. Everything you don't get from the cab you can get from the DI.

 

[TrevorOfDoom]

As for mics, try the Shure SM7, EV RE20, or any mics with a decently flat frequency response.

 

[Analogman]

the 410he tonally is pretty much a 810e cut in half, in fact we a/b the 410he and 810e in the studio and mic signals sound the same. Ive been using the 410he full time for about 3 years and owned a 810e for a decade before that. the ampeg classic series has been produced in several factories and even countries over the years but in some years the 410he actually has the exact same speakers as the 810e. no one says the 810 sounds thin or that its a top cab. Its just a different voicing than ported cabs. I play 5 string in standard beadg and drop aeadg through this cab. IMO the only negative about it and the reason for most of the bad reviews the cab gets is its an 8ohm cab. a lot of times people don't realize because its 8 ohms instead of 4 ohms that their amp is likely working really hard while under powering the cab. For power I use a crown 1500 xls bridged to power the 410he and I push it pretty hard. most of the bad reviews are people using 350w or 500w at 4ohm heads, so the reality is those small amps are only putting out like 150-250W at 8 ohms into a cab that wants at least double that power to be happy. basically you need a rig that can potentially power an 810 happily to get the best out of the 410he. As far as lows if you're the type of player that uses relatively flat eq for rock or metal than its works fine, if your one who boost lows a lot to play styles like reggae or hip hop its probably not the best choice.

Thanks, thats a very helpful response. And you're completely right about the power issue. These speakers need to be properly supported.
Crowns are excellent. My Power amp is 2k at 2ohm and at 8 is 800 which should be plenty to have a hold of the cab.
Interesting that they sound the same when mic'd up.

Think I will give one a try...

 

[Berk Evren]

I recorded my bass tracks with 2 mesa boogie powerhouse cabinets + DI of my bass amp, so i had 4 different channels to tweak for my tone... i don't remember mic models but we used a kick mic for 2x10 at the center of the cone, one for tweeter, one for 1x15 at the edge of the cone...

 

[Jim Carr]

Can anyone tell me what I might be missing out on by plugging directly into my Focusrite interface? The tone I get is adequate for home recording and with proper tweaking, things sound just fine. I just wonder if investing in a proper DI is really worth it. Recording drums is where the real trouble comes along... But that's for a different forum.

I've found a DI -> Mackie Mixer (helps with level) -> Focusrite -> Logic Pro works well.

 

[Dave W]

Thanks, thats a very helpful response. And you're completely right about the power issue. These speakers need to be properly supported.
Crowns are excellent. My Power amp is 2k at 2ohm and at 8 is 800 which should be plenty to have a hold of the cab.
Interesting that they sound the same when mic'd up.

Think I will give one a try...

You may want to read the FAQ. There is no such thing as under powering speakers.

 

[Scot]

Reamp

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Record direct then reamp. You can try out different cabs in the context of the track. You may end up using a combination of direct and mic'd cab tracks.

Personally, I don't think I would ever find myself mic'ing up the kind of rig you are talking about. That sounds more like a live rig then a studio rig. I would go direct. I don't think I would mic at all unless I wanted to capture the sound of a really special rig like an Ampeg B-15. On the other hand, who knows! Would be curious to hear what you find out.

 

[Slough Feg Bass]

reamping works pretty well, but the articulation of the fingers gets lost a little, and the amp doesn't quite respond the same as when you mic the cab on the original track. I've tried it a few times, and with great success, but I'd rather spend the time on mic placement using a good sounding amp mixed with the DI signal, both with slightly different compression settings, and lay that down to tape, and just be done with it.

The mixing engineer will thank you for this in the morning, one (or more?) less things he/she has to worry about.
They push up that bass fader, they smile a little bit, fiddle with the EQ next to the kick drum, and then they can move on to guitar surgery.

 

[davegt666]

What my band did recently for our upcoming single is just DI the bass with a Countryman 85. Then use the Wave's Renaissance Bass plug-in to get super deep bottom low end. That's followed by a duplicate track of the bass EQed to only have Mids and in them. That track is then run through an overdrive in Guitar Rig. You blend all that together and you get a crazy aggressive but punchy bass tone.

There's a lot you can do with software these days

I tried using a SM57 on BRX but didn't like the results. The method described above worked best for me.

 

[Jim Carr]

What my band did recently for our upcoming single is just DI the bass with a Countryman 85. Then use the Wave's Renaissance Bass plug-in to get super deep bottom low end. That's followed by a duplicate track of the bass EQed to only have Mids and in them. That track is then run through an overdrive in Guitar Rig. You blend all that together and you get a crazy aggressive but punchy bass tone.

There's a lot you can do with software these days
I tried using a SM57 on BRX but didn't like the results. The method described above worked best for.

Yay! Start clean!
Countryman type 85 rules, and can be found at steep discounts.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

Usually when I record I go direct. As for micing the cab, I don't think the size matters. You can get excellent mic'd sound with a tiny cab and cheap recording gear. Here's an example, a mic'd recording of one of my band's original surf-rock songs called "Deprivation." My guitarist buddy used a USB mic placed two feet in front of his drum kit and recorded the drum track. I then laid down the bass track by placing his mic in front of my Greenboy Audio Crazy8, which has a Faital Pro eight-inch driver and tweeter. (I used a P-bass and pick.) Then he laid down the guitar track by putting the same mic in front of his guitar cab. All this was recorded into his iPhone using the MultiTrack DAW. The "recording environment" was an unfinished basement jammed with old toys and instruments scattered about.

Here's the recorded result; does the bass sound huge or what?
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Here's the cab and amp I used. I can use this identical configuration to send sound into a FOH system that fills a stadium. Sometimes we overemphasize the importance of gear size!

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[davegt666]

Yay! Start clean!
Countryman type 85 rules, and can be found at steep discounts.

Yup! The countryman is my go to DI. I got it for under $100 on ebay. It pays for itself every time I record.

Some people do not like it for active basses but I haven't had a problem with how either a passive or active bass sounds through it.

 

[Jim Carr]

Yup! The countryman is my go to DI. I got it for under $100 on ebay. It pays for itself every time I record.

Some people do not like it for active basses but I haven't had a problem with how either a passive or active bass sounds through it.

I have used it for active basses (Lakland, Sadowsky, Valenti), passive (Fender Jazz, Fender P, single coil Fender P, MTD Kingston) and with piezo pickup on violin, guitar, and upright bass. The thing to remember is that it is active. If you have a really hot active bass, you will be sending a very hot signal out of the DI, which can be a problem. You just need a good mixer with a trim pot.

 

[mdogs]

Been doing this a long time and I have never recorded using an amp or speakers.

 

[Jim Carr]

Been doing this a long time and I have never recorded using an amp or speakers.

Every electric bass recording I was paid for either used a DI (radial, countryman, avalon pre), or DI'd and at the same time mic'd via an ampeg tube amp. In every case, the tube amp tracks were discarded. Really.

My paid upright recordings have never used an amp of any kind, or a pick-up.

 

[mdogs]

Every electric bass recording I was paid for either used a DI (radial, countryman, avalon pre), or DI'd and at the same time mic'd via an ampeg tube amp. In every case, the tube amp tracks were discarded. Really.

Upright recordings have never used an amp of any kind, or a pick-up.

Yep, just too damn hard and time consuming to do anything else these days!

 

[1bassplayinfool]

Been doing this a long time and I have never recorded using an amp or speakers.

Every electric bass recording I was paid for either used a DI (radial, countryman, avalon pre), or DI'd and at the same time mic'd via an ampeg tube amp. In every case, the tube amp tracks were discarded. Really.

My paid upright recordings have never used an amp of any kind, or a pick-up.

Never used a mic'd up amp in the studio. Live recording always went through a DI with a mic'd cab mix.