does anyone mic their amps live instead of going DI?

[DaveParker39]

And if you do, are there upsides? how you make it work? I love my live amp sound.

 

[_Some Dude]

Yes, when I can, but I don't insist on it.

If there's only one channel available, I use a DI. If there's a second channel, I'll mic and blend that with the DI signal. The mic is mostly for midrange colour, the lows are from the DI.

 

[Bob_Ross]

^^^This

 

[Michael4bass]

Yes, I use a RE-20.

Bassically, Michael

 

[Stylee Mousse]

For smaller rooms mic all the way. The Mic (and possibly cab) roll off keeps the mud down.

also transfers intentional dynamic information, up to and including breakup, and fx as colored by speakers.

 

[beans-on-toast]

A mic captures the sound of a system that runs through the pre-amp, power-amp and the speaker cab and even the air and reflected surroundings. It's complex. A DI takes a sample of that signal tapped off at one point, All DI's color the sound to some extent. It doesn't tell the entire story. Both approaches are useful.

Capturing the live sound that you hear is not so easy.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

Hey Kicky, it's only hard if you don't have good rapport with the FOH. So it really depends on what kind of gigs you do. And yer personal skills? For me, I often would just request the cab get a mic, friendly-like but not framed as a question. If asked why (relatively rarely) I'd say I run some FX, split channels, whatever and they usually just did it. If they really wanted a DI as well I'd say sure and not worry about it.

I know the trend is against mics these days for bass but all sound guys still expect to mic guitar amps so any festival-type stage setup (or multi band stage plot) will have mics ready to go for guitar cabs. a 57 or sennheiser 609 paddle mic are perfectly capable of getting a bass cab, no need for special mics, though RE20, SM7 etc are a bit nicer.

 

[higain617]

I did it for years as I used old heads within DI's. It always sounded fine (from what I was told).

 

[J Wilson]

I wonder why in big touring sound rigs there's no bass cabs mic'd inside isolation boxes as they some times do this for guitar cabinets.

 

[HolmeBass]

I follow the sound engineer's lead. So most of the time just DI.

But some SE's will suggest using a mic instead of DI and I am like "sure"!

A very few times SE has suggested both mic and DI. Again I am quick to agree. One of those times SE puts an SM-57 on my cabinet. I ask if he plans to sue the mic for the highs and the DI for the lows, and he informs me he plans to do the exact opposite, and likes the 57's low end roll off.

Inside I was like "this guy is crazy" but I kept my mouth shut, partly just to keep things civil, and partly b/c this guy had a lot of road experience.

It was one of the best recorded live tones for my bass that I've ever heard. Like so many things in music, what you do is not actually as important as how you do it. He had mastered placing the 57 to exploit the proximity effect for a thick low mid presence, and exploit the mic's low end roll off as a de facto HPF.

 

[john_g]

I wonder why in big touring sound rigs there's no bass cabs mic'd inside isolation boxes as they some times do this for guitar cabinets.

Just cuz

 

[stigbeve]

I would prefer it but's it has been a soundman's preference exactly one time out of approx 40 shows I've played in my life. The Knitting Factory in Reno, they actually had two soundguy's.
I just go post EQ DI out of my amp normally.

 

[FugaziBomb]

Both mic AND DI, but for good reason:

I run a split signal, with my pedal board - including ODs - running through a tube pre/power combo and into a 2x10, which gets mic'd. My other side is a low pass at ~150hz which is run through an SS pre and Crown power amp into an 18" subwoofer. I send the desk a DI of that side. This gives FOH separate lines for my effects/treble and clean/low end.

For most folks though, I'd say don't bother and just DI. In fact, leave the amp in the van and just run direct in of you can. I swear every bassist I know that had to go ampless for one reason or another sounded better than they did though their amp

 

[ole Jason]

I always ask for a mic but don't insist on it with my originals band because I'm playing w/ fuzz on at all times. I hate the way DI fuzz sounds but the awfulness can be mitigated at the board if the sound person is good. I plan on getting an amp or pedal w/ cab simulation at some point.

 

[Seashore]

Most shows I play are small, and the amps carry the room. I like to be miked when possible. DI is fine blended in for reinforcement, if it's available and necessary, but enough of the tone comes from the old tube head I use that it's just not right without the miked sound.

I'm in the middle of rebuilding the bass rig for my new band and we'll probably end up using my bandmate's solid state head live, so I'm tweaking our bass sound to translate through that setup. It'll probably make it easier to get the right sound through a DI. But I anticipate most of our shows will still involve the amps carrying the room.

 

[Krakmann]

Salud!

The only time I remember I was miked, was when playing through the backline Ampeg fridge of the band we supported.

I always go bass->pedalboard->DI, and from that to FoH and amp/monitor. The only change is the DI, that can be an external one or the one in the head/combo.

 

[Gurnmagic]

Both is the way, sounds so good but hasn't happened in years.

 

[_Some Dude]

I run a split signal, with my pedal board - including ODs - running through a tube pre/power combo and into a 2x10, which gets mic'd. My other side ... I send the desk a DI. This gives FOH separate lines for my effects/treble and clean/low end.

This is more or less what I'd prefer to do, but most soundmen seem to prefer to just DI, so they get everything through the DI.

 

[silky smoove]

I wonder why in big touring sound rigs there's no bass cabs mic'd inside isolation boxes as they some times do this for guitar cabinets.

Likely due to the size of isolation boxes being too small for bass cabinets resulting in a bit pile-up of low frequency information in a not pleasing way. A guitar cab can get away with this and in some cases may benefit, but bass cabs are more of a challenge in this regard. You could combat this by building a larger isolation box, but that's one more big thing to haul on tour, and modern DI solutions for bass sound really good.

 

[Kijuer]

And if you do, are there upsides? how you make it work? I love my live amp sound.

I'd love if so-called "sound guys" here in Italy did... I have never met one.
So I went my own way in order to "cabsimize" my DI sound. Like it or not, it's a cheap combo... and to me it sounds magnificent, with both the P bass and the Stingray.

The advantage is that whenever I need to tweak something on my amp, I won't mess with the direct signal settings, and if I need to tweak that for the "guy who tries to twist knobs pretending to do it consciously" I can re-adjust it on my amp.