Best Mic for recording bass?

[Barrett]

I hear the Sansamp stuff is very cool, but the neighbors would miss it if I went direct too much. And the groundhogs and moles might come back.
Shreve audio had great prices on the Marshall mics a while back. Musicians Friend and American Music Supply have lots of good mics.

 

[Rippin' Robin]

I use either the studio's SM57 or my own Sennheiser Blackfire 501 or 531

 

[maxoges]

I think it's electrovoice that makes RE-20. It's a great mic for kickdrums and bass. The D112 is my second choice. I guess both are studio standards.

 

[xush]

we've used the shure beta 52 and whatever else was lying around at the time. Seems to do fine, won't hurt your budget to bad.
there's a track w/ a no-name 15" cab miked with the 52 on my sad little page @ [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

It's a Jazz thru a carvin rl1000; the guy's not really a 'bass player', so he makes some strange choices. Wanted it mixed really low, too, but maybe you can hear it. "PP wrong" is the tune.

We've tried just about every permutation of whatever's in the studio at any given time.
PZM's, sm57, CAD large diaphragm, d112's...

It's surprising what will work in a pinch, sometimes budget dictates that you get in there and just make something work.

that said, most bass drum mics do seem to work pretty well.
mark

 

[MtnGoat]

In regards to delaying the direct signal when using both direct and miked signals, how many milliseconds are needed for each inch of microphone distance so that the tracks line up together?
Digs

 

[Richard Lindsey]

Besides the D112, which you see a lot, I've also seen an ElectroVoice RE20 (I think) used with good results.

The Sennheiser 421 is a great mic too. The first time I used one, I rented it and didn't realize they have that bass roll-off ring around the bass. The ring was seemingly labeled with German abbreviations too, which didn't help. Anyway, I accidentally had all the bass rolled off, and the poor engineer, who'd never used a 421 either, was tearing his hair out trying to figure out why this supposedly great mic sounded like crap on the kick .... (This was, obviously, a shoestring production, and a real "duh" moment for me.)

 

[MarkMcCombs]

a pro musician that I know who records and produces does this....

he records just with a DI, then, if he wants to record with a mike'd amp or effects, he runs the recorded track through the amp and thus has his 2nd track. The bass on his records ROCKS !!

the DI'd track has to be real clean, though, with no white noise or hiss or anything.

This method enables him to record at home, or wherever, and then go to the label's studio and use the gear they have to change things (i.e. they have a B15 Portaflex and others at his disposal).

Course, this is high dollar recording he's doing, but it could apply to many of the rest of us.

 

[JMX]

I record direct only.
The hassle of doing mic recording at home isn't worth the effort IMO.
direct sounds better anyway IME, live and in the studio.

 

[Gramatron]

Previously recorded with a sansamp di and a couple other mics, one being the d 112 and it sounded great. Im hoping to get a new d 112 soon. a mixture of di and mics seems to work best. but it is down personal taste i guess. The di gives the clarity and the mics give the warmth and the lows. i like a healthy mix. oh and valve preamps everytime

 

[hbarcat]

HOLY THREAD NECROMANCY!

 

[Kipaste]

I use a combination of DI and SM57. I have a two channel DI box/ splitter. The other line goes to the amp that has a 57 in front of it and the other line goes straight to the presonus interface. I find the presonus preamps to be quite good, so I don't even need a bass preamp. An EBS microbass II is on the wishlist though to make it even better. Depending on the sound I look for I tend to have about 70/30 ratio to 50/50, where the miced cab is the dominant force. Also, if I use effects I put them to the direct line and mix as I please. I usually prefer to have atleast some dry signal in the mix, especially with envelope filters and synth pedals.

 

[kalle74]

I´ve used the following with success:

Shure SM 57, SM58, KSM32
Sennheiser 421, 409, 609
Audio-Technica AT3035, AT4040, AT4047
Heil PR30

Of the above, my favorites are the Heil PR30 and Sennheiser 421. I don´t like "kick" mics (like B52 or D112) for bass cabs. I find them too coloring, and I mainly go for mids/highs, DI gives the clean bottom... Most mics (dynamics and condensers) can take a lot of SPL, so I don´t worry...

 

[KaizerWilhelm]

Since the first time I was in the studio I have used an Avalon U5 DI and a Shure Beta 52 on the cab. The studios I've been in recently don't have either (but a ton of cool vintage stuff) so bought my own Avalon and Beta 52. Best $700 purchase I've made. If you can, use that, it's totally worth it.

 

[nairobijones]

hey, I produce mostly heavy rock and big electric sounding stuff.
to record electric bass I find a good room, not too small (without too much rumble in the walls/windows/bookshelves) Put the cab in there!

I like to leave the head out were I am (if possible) so i can tweak without walking downstairs or wherever (long speaker leads post amp so no noise/loss to speak of).

On the head near the input I put my DI box (Radial or REDDI Tube DI preferably). I place a mic (beyer m88/Opus 65, or flavor of the month large d' condenser/tube condenser/whatever) on the best sounding cone in the cab, right in the middle, where the biggest BASS comes from and as close to the grill as possible/practicable for max proximity effect.
Power it up and get the bassist to play while you tweak. At this point I shoot for cool sounding mids. Lows will come on later when you're correcting the phase and time but I believe cool mids is where a good bass sound is at
(at this stage).
Once ALL the tracking and ALL the editing is done I go into my edit window, select the WHOLE bass cab signal and go smaller and smaller and smaller till i reach the sample rate (or close to it).
Move the cab signal/wave (backwards in time ie LEFT) by hand and eye and ear to match the DI signal/wave
(DI always arrives first).
Match peaks with peaks and dips with dips and the waves should pass threw 0' (zero degrees) at around the same time.

If you've dun it right you can pretend the two signals are each side of a great bendy road as you scroll forward.
As you scroll along the page the road should never get too skinny and never getting too wide, haha..
Then you've got perfect phase and BULLSH*T LOWS.
To check if the phase is right on, Invert one of the signals and hear how it goes from wimpy to knife-fight when you undo it while playing back.
*but lookout you might kick the cones right out of your monitors !!

hope this helps : )

 

[debassr]

I really like the Audix i5. Great build quality, very reliable, sounds great, and at $99 it doesn't break the bank...

 

[Charling]

In regards to delaying the direct signal when using both direct and miked signals, how many milliseconds are needed for each inch of microphone distance so that the tracks line up together?
Digs

its not just mic distance that causes the delay, its just a shorter signal path in general from the DI to the input, so it really depends on the setup. A delay of 1ms is nothing in terms of performance, but is enough to make a sound out of phase or weaker than it should be!

Sound travels at 330M/s, which works out to roughly about 1 foot per Millisecond. If measuring in samples its very easy, too, a sample rate of 96Khz, for example, means 96'000 samples a second, or 96 samples in a millisecond. So a mic placed 1 foot from a source will be delayed roughly 96 samples. 44 for 44.1Khz, 48 for 48 Khz and so on, easy!

In practice, though, a lot of other factors come into play, and by far the most used method is to work it out roughly by science then tweak to what sounds best, always use your ears over science!

Another technique is to put one of the signals out of phase and move it around until it sounds absolutley awful, the worst you can get it, then flip the phase and it should be as 'in' as possible.

I generally use the method nairobijones describes though, easy quick and works well. Not sure if programs like garageband can zoom in enough though, but I may be wrong!

Sometimes the amp and di signals look quite different and don't want to line up together perfectly, leaving you unsure of where 'in phase' lies, in that case a click generator can help, it just pushes a very short sound down the bass' line, making it easy to work out the latency between tracks!

 

[julieslick]

There is no such thing as a "best mic" but I do enjoy a Shure KSM32 or Rode NT3 on a 15 incher... combined with a nice DI of course...

 

[MrTAteMyBalls]

the thread that wont die????

resurrected twice.

still, good info here.

 

[Charling]

man this is only page 2! there was a similar thread that went on a while ago that did the same all the way to page 6 or something, with all the same info from the same people, got to love forums for that!

But hey, I like the online rambling at the end of a long day I guess we all do!

 

[pathdoc2]

I usually go direct through a Groove Tube Brick. I rarely use a bassdrum mic such as a Yamaha subkick or possibly even a nice condenser mic. Going direct usually yields the best results for me.