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Double Bass Going mic.....ATM350 a good place to start?

HateyMcAmp

HateyMcAmp

Apr 13, 2006
1,469
1,165
Queen City of the Plains
Disclosures
Krivo Pickups
#1
Hi guys,

I've read a bunch of mic threads, but they all seemed to assume a certain (horns/drums) stage volume. I have a slightly different situation than most....

I'm an acoustic folk musician who never plays with a drummer (professionally, anyway.) Every place I play has some sort of PA, or the group goes completely unplugged. I've been using a bass max, fdeck, and a gk mb150s combo with my gut-strung DB. I'm underwhelmed. Mediocre sound that often overpowers the other (acoustic string) instruments on stage as far as stage volume. Given my current gig situation and setup, I think I might be a decent candidate for a FOH mic, which I have no first hand experience with. I don't really need any extra stage volume, so I've been seriously considering ditching the pickup/amp stuff for most gigs and getting a nice clip on mic like the ATM350 or something else in that price range.

Are there any pitfalls my enthusiasm glosses over? I know I'll need a mic preamp, if for no other reason then phantom power. Will I run into feedback issues when dealing with big stages and multiple monitors? If I ever needed to run a bit of the mic into the monitors, would I be in feedback town?
 
#2
JayB said:
Hi guys,

I've read a bunch of mic threads, but they all seemed to assume a certain (horns/drums) stage volume. I have a slightly different situation than most....

I'm an acoustic folk musician who never plays with a drummer (professionally, anyway.) Every place I play has some sort of PA, or the group goes completely unplugged. I've been using a bass max, fdeck, and a gk mb150s combo with my gut-strung DB. I'm underwhelmed. Mediocre sound that often overpowers the other (acoustic string) instruments on stage as far as stage volume. Given my current gig situation and setup, I think I might be a decent candidate for a FOH mic, which I have no first hand experience with. I don't really need any extra stage volume, so I've been seriously considering ditching the pickup/amp stuff for most gigs and getting a nice clip on mic like the ATM350 or something else in that price range.

Are there any pitfalls my enthusiasm glosses over? I know I'll need a mic preamp, if for no other reason then phantom power. Will I run into feedback issues when dealing with big stages and multiple monitors? If I ever needed to run a bit of the mic into the monitors, would I be in feedback town?
Click to expand...

Jay,
I love the sound of those types of mic's but there pretty prone to feeding back. Their other mic the AMT SP25B has been coming up in the Talkbass Classifieds on a reqular basis. It's got better feedback resistance. There is also the Ehrlund Pickup that sounds very natural and simply sticks onto your bass. Go to the site and click on the pickup link to see it. It runs around $400.00 with the pre amp.

Ric

http://www.ehrlund.se/
 
#3
I've been using an ATM350 for the last 2 months. I like it a lot more than any pickup I've used, or any other mic. However, I haven't used the AMT or Ehrlund, so who knows.

I haven't experienced any feedback with it (playing in an orchestra), and have only had good experiences with it. It is quite loud, and the sound man and I had a large output without it showing up on the board. This caused a bit of bleed until we learned what the mic needed, and now it is fine.

Mics are trial and error, I think. I was pretty nervous about receiving my ATM350 and thinking it'd be horrible, but it's one of my best purchases I've made for my DB.
 
#4
JayB I think your situation sounds like a real good candidate for mic only to FOH. Like you said, if you can get the monitor thing under control, it should sound very nice.

Sure I would think the ATM is probably a good place to start. Please let us know how it works out.
 
#6
Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm pretty much convinced I'm going to give the microphone thang a go and will probably order one after the holidays.

How about the AT Pro35 as an introduction to FOH mic-ing? Cash is tight as always. I've seen both good and bad reviews of this thing, but bluegrassers (who play in similar volume levels to myself) seem to like it well enough. Has anyone used both?
 
#7
JayB said:
Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm pretty much convinced I'm going to give the microphone thang a go and will probably order one after the holidays.

How about the AT Pro35 as an introduction to FOH mic-ing? Cash is tight as always. I've seen both good and bad reviews of this thing, but bluegrassers (who play in similar volume levels to myself) seem to like it well enough. Has anyone used both?
Click to expand...
Howdy again. I have not used either. But you've probably seen this, esp maybe the posts near the end. I trust fingers.

Mic v. pickup, just no contest for me. Especially without a drummer pal ...

Make a good sound. :)
 
#8
JayB said:
Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm pretty much convinced I'm going to give the microphone thang a go and will probably order one after the holidays.

How about the AT Pro35 as an introduction to FOH mic-ing? Cash is tight as always. I've seen both good and bad reviews of this thing, but bluegrassers (who play in similar volume levels to myself) seem to like it well enough. Has anyone used both?
Click to expand...

They are both very nice mics - the Pro35 has all the highs taken out of it whereas the 350 has a very wide range. We use the ATM350 to the house with an Underwood into a Fender Bass Amp or whatever the promoter provides for stage monitor purposes.

Its a great setup for bluegrass/acoustic music. ;)
 
#9
I'm in a similar situation, no drums, all acoustic gigs. I traded my speaker cabinet for an AMT with a super pre and have never looked back. Get a good sound out of the bass acoustically and you won't have feedback problems when you mic it.
-J
 
#11
JayB said:
Ok guys, here's one more microphone noob question. I'm about to get a pro35 for only FOH. Assuming I'm going into a board that supplies phantom, will I need a preamp or hpf? Could I just put my fdeck in the chain?

-Jay
Click to expand...

No preamp necessary. The sound man will do what needs to be done with the mic signal when it hits the board - you just play! ;)
 
#12
Yikes. I have pretty shifty eyes. I'm not sure I'm to be trusted.

I recently did a show in a big theatre (800 seat) no amp, ATPro35 into the house. The sound was killer. Even the soundman commented.

For ~$120 they are pretty hard to beat IMHO.

tip though. Don't use the built in bass rolloff. Run it flat and us the HPF in your amp or pre.
 
#13
JayB said:
Ok guys, here's one more microphone noob question. I'm about to get a pro35 for only FOH. Assuming I'm going into a board that supplies phantom, will I need a preamp or hpf? Could I just put my fdeck in the chain?

-Jay
Click to expand...

If you are going FOH just tell the soundman you need phantom power. Run the bass rolloff flat. No pre necessary. Let him work his magic from there.
 
#15
That is definitely true when you are dealing with big FOH systems or even big bass rigs. That's why I recommended to leave a signal to the FOH flat (and uneffected for that matter) and let the sound tech work his/her magic. Best case is I just send a mic. Sometimes they want a signal from the pickup just in case.

When you are dealing with little DB amps (like the little AI or GK) in a club setting with no FOH support or need for it I think the HPF is just the bandaid you need to tame any weird runaway lows. I use the Fishman Platinum Pro because, in addition to the the HPF, it also has a 5 band EQ, a compressor, and a phase switch. I don't think any of these individually are awesome but between the 4 I can get a usable sound in any room.
 

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