BEST BASS CABS FOR RECORDING

[Hoodywah]

Just run a DI, and tweak it all in processing.



For me, anything loaded with a faital pro 15PR400 is pretty amazing for recording.

The Faital Pro speakers are seriously a thing of wonder but always be careful what box you are loading it into as you can cramp a speaker's style real quick. As far as recording and saving space goes, you don't really need a massive rig for huge recorded bass tone. A single 12" or 15" full range speaker will give you plenty to record. More speakers will, in the end cause some variable, potentially nominal, amount of phasing with a close mic. A DI and a mic always has a little bit of phasing and takes a little massaging of the tracks to get the best out of the combo. I have gotten my best results out of either taking a DI and doing whatever I want to with that (re-amping, plugin harmonic thing, or even just a little EQ) or taking a single mic from a cab (though if the bassist's tone was one that needed the highs of a tweeter, I'd toss a mic on that and throw a high pass on). Bads can be tricky to receive Ed as you never really need as much bottom coming out of an amp as it sounds like you want to hear in the room standing next to it. Get something small and simple and start experimenting. I recently got my own personal favorite bass tone off one mic in front of my 412 (Faital Pro loaded) cab. Spunky, punchy and plenty deep to sit right under a kick drum.

 

[NKBassman]

View attachment 558455 View attachment 558456 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...

Top pic looks like an AKG D112, Shure SM57 and Sennheiser MD421.
Bottom pic looks like AKG D112 and Sennheiser e609.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

The Faital Pro speakers are seriously a thing of wonder but always be careful what box you are loading it into as you can cramp a speaker's style real quick. As far as recording and saving space goes, you don't really need a massive rig for huge recorded bass tone. A single 12" or 15" full range speaker will give you plenty to record. More speakers will, in the end cause some variable, potentially nominal, amount of phasing with a close mic. A DI and a mic always has a little bit of phasing and takes a little massaging of the tracks to get the best out of the combo. I have gotten my best results out of either taking a DI and doing whatever I want to with that (re-amping, plugin harmonic thing, or even just a little EQ) or taking a single mic from a cab (though if the bassist's tone was one that needed the highs of a tweeter, I'd toss a mic on that and throw a high pass on). Bads can be tricky to receive Ed as you never really need as much bottom coming out of an amp as it sounds like you want to hear in the room standing next to it. Get something small and simple and start experimenting. I recently got my own personal favorite bass tone off one mic in front of my 412 (Faital Pro loaded) cab. Spunky, punchy and plenty deep to sit right under a kick drum.View attachment 558566

That little Crazy8 cab I mentioned mic'ing a few posts back uses an eight-inch Faital Pro driver. Again, you don't need a big driver to get good mic'd sound for recording. I've heard that some recording engineers actually say you get a "bigger" recorded sound with a smaller driver. I offer my own (cheaply) recorded mic'd cab as an example.

 

[xk49w]

I would record either bass direct amp voice coil direct and use Redwirez impulse responses to set the cab tone.

 

[Lowbrow]

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

+1 however I always seemed to insist on mics then discarding them in favor of the simultaneous DI tracks.

 

[BazzTard]

Dude, you don't need to mic amps these days, that's old school.Sansamp BDDI is all you need. Maybe add another dry DI too

 

[Jeff Scott]

To add totally unnecessary reinforcement - DI is best for your specific needs and desires.

 

[1bassplayinfool]

Dude, you don't need to mic amps these days, that's old school.Sansamp BDDI is all you need. Maybe add another dry DI too

You are correct sir. I should have said a DI or mic'd cab.

 

[seamonkey]

DI, to a raw track, and to a processed one if you want.
Re-amp later if you want

 

[DwaynieAD]

Plug instrument into computer. That or my Gk 1001rbii's direct out.

 

[John E]

The Mesa's aren't cheap but they are some of the best built cabs in the industry. I like Sennheiser MD 421 II on the 115 and a kick drum mic on the 210. The trick to multiple mics is to make sure the phase is right. You want to line up the initial peaks in the waveform from each mic. We like to take a guitar and tick the highest string without pressing any frets down and very percussive, record that tick with one track per mic, and then enlarge the waveform to see which mic needs to be moved farther away from the speaker. Once you get that your bass tones will sound better than ever.

I do not recommend a 410. They often suffer from phase issues within themselves. The 810He, however, is actually 4 2x10 sealed boxes connected together. That is one of the reasons they sound so good. Plus when recording bass you want to get a 4 Ohm draw on the amp. This is runs the transformer at its optimal efficiency thus sounding the way the amp was designed to sound. Most 410s are 8 Ohms.

 

[depalm]

DB410

 

[jg42]

great River me1nv - and if you want to add more low mids just push that "impedance" button.

 

[M0ses]

Best speaker cab for recording is a DI. Haha.

Actually not joking though.

 

[chris_b]

Even going back to the 70's, I can't remember ever recording through an amp and cab in the studio.

I have always had great sounding basses and DIed into the desk.

 

[punchdrunk]

A nice tube DI is where it's at. Aquire one, let it "warm up" for about 15-20 minutes, then hit record. Simple, beautiful, honest.

 

[CL400Peavey]

The Faital Pro speakers are seriously a thing of wonder but always be careful what box you are loading it into as you can cramp a speaker's style real quick. As far as recording and saving space goes, you don't really need a massive rig for huge recorded bass tone. A single 12" or 15" full range speaker will give you plenty to record. More speakers will, in the end cause some variable, potentially nominal, amount of phasing with a close mic. A DI and a mic always has a little bit of phasing and takes a little massaging of the tracks to get the best out of the combo. I have gotten my best results out of either taking a DI and doing whatever I want to with that (re-amping, plugin harmonic thing, or even just a little EQ) or taking a single mic from a cab (though if the bassist's tone was one that needed the highs of a tweeter, I'd toss a mic on that and throw a high pass on). Bads can be tricky to receive Ed as you never really need as much bottom coming out of an amp as it sounds like you want to hear in the room standing next to it. Get something small and simple and start experimenting. I recently got my own personal favorite bass tone off one mic in front of my 412 (Faital Pro loaded) cab. Spunky, punchy and plenty deep to sit right under a kick drum.View attachment 558566

You dont need to worry about the box my faitals are in.

 

[NKBassman]

My direct rig for the current project.

Channel 1: Countryman Type 85 DI
>
Splitter Box
-> Channel 2: UA M610 > dbx 160A (Tubey/Clean "Amp" sound)
-> Channel 3: Fuzzrocious Demon > SWR Interstellar Overdrive preamp > Radial JDI w/ "Speaker" mode > GAP Pre73 > GAP Comp54 (Xformer Only)

By blending the 3 channels I can get the overdrive I want without compromising anything else.
We tried all kinds of mics and mic placements, but in the end this ended up sounding way better than everything we tried. The speaker mode on the JDI actually sounds pretty great.

 

[Scot]

This is what I record with at home. This thing will translate every little nuance. I love it but it won't be kind if you're looking for something to smooth over sloppiness. Oh yeah, it's a pretty good mic pre too.

 

[Analogman]

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

So how do people go about getting their own sound these days?
I'm aware that your sound essentially comes from your hands / fingers / personality, but to me part of developing your own sound is your amp set up, pedal board set up, etc.

Jimmy Hendrix wouldn't have sounded half as cool was it not for his special fuzz and wah pedals... not to forget his superlead Marshall! He'd have still sounded pretty awesome whatever though!

And before anyone say it, yes he's a guitarist, but drummers have their own sound too.
Just intrigued is all...