getting a good rock bass tone?

[Sherwood]

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. Incredible tone for $540 US at Musician's Fiend.

I 100% second that. I just did some recording that was way out of my league, and my Bongo through the Avalon sounded better than anything I've ever gotten live. It doesn't hurt to mic your cab, and there have many great suggestions about 57 placement (I agree with the assessment about LF waves taking space to form properly) but, for my money, there's no tone like and Avalon straight into the board. It's quite an investment for one rock gig, but your studio might already have one (mine did.) If you want to hear it, listen to "Joe's Joint" on my Link Removed. That sound is post a great mix and master, but it's very faithful to the original.

 

[shirojiro]

I've always gotten a nice tone with any of my basses into a Sansamp BDDI, mixed with a mic'ed signal from one of several different amps.

I've used an SM57 when we've been in a pinch, but I've also had better luck with a run of the mill Sennheiser MD421.

YMMV, of course. I think the deck will matter as well, Neve, etc...

 

[SnakeAnthony]

Rock 'n' Roll bass has 4 milestones. Fender Prescision basses, Ampeg amps, roundwound strings, and the Tech 21 DI. All are almost nessecities for Rock recordings.

I personally say use both, as far as DI/Mic-ing goes. Use the DI for the straight up tone stuff, but anywhere your gonna use distortion or overdrive, mic it.

 

[vicenzajay]

with the number of suggestions here to use kick-drum mics for mic'ing your cab....unless, for some reason, you need a significant boost in your frequency reproduction between 80 and 120 HZ.

There are much better microphones available (such as the Audix D-4 and others) that have a much more linear frequency response yet do well even in close proximity to a cabinet.

I strongly agree with the suggestion of blending DI and microphone signals to get your rock tone. Much of that tone comes from the amp through the cab, so a pristine D.I. feed probably isn't going to give you what you're looking for.

Jay

 

[detracti]

I've always run direct through a SansAmp & have always been happy with the results.

Always wanted to try the mic thing.

The way I end up eq'ing the bass track on the mixes that I do is incredibly counter-intuitive anyway... end up cutting lots of lows out and really pushing the mids/high mids to get the bass to pop out in the mix.

So if a mic adds nice mids in, I could see where it would be an advantage.