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Good mike choices for my cabinet

#102
I've read the OP and noticed a bit of information missing. It isn't stated whether there is any bass signal going to the FOH board through a DI. OP doesn't give any indication of the typical venue size. OP does state the rig is an SVT pushed hard. There are many ways of getting a fantastic bass sound into the house, but arguing with the sound crew isn't one of them.
 
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#104
wolfkeller said:
Im tired of the soundman using " i dont have a mike" as an excuse for not miking my cab so im buying one to carry with me
Im looking for suggestions for a solid/tough, roadworthy mike for my ampeg 810 wich i push hard with my svt2 pro. Would a 57 cut it? Im not looking for a $300 mike either.
Thanks in advance
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There is a reason sound companies "don't have a bass mic". It's because 99% of the time they get better results with a flat line out of your head or DI. Don't believe me? Before you blow a stack of cash on a mic, buy a digital pocket recorder instead, and check out what it actually sounds like in the audience. If it sounds like crap, fire the sound company. However I'll bet it doesn't, unless your stage volume is so loud that they can't do anything for you.

PS: You should be recording all of your gigs for quality assurance purposes. Also can help resolve musical conflicts without band members getting their egos in a wad. $60-75 will get you a decent recorder.
 
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#105
wolfkeller said:
Im tired of the soundman using " i dont have a mike" as an excuse for not miking my cab so im buying one to carry with me
Im looking for suggestions for a solid/tough, roadworthy mike for my ampeg 810 wich i push hard with my svt2 pro. Would a 57 cut it? Im not looking for a $300 mike either.
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
I personally like the 58 over the 57 if you want an affordable durable option. Has to be the SM58 though not the beta 58. The beta is nicer for vocals but is a bit hot for a loud bass rig imo.

Last time we recorded we put up a bunch of mics and I ended up preferring a Sennheiser 421 but yeah they are considerably more expensive, probably aren't as durable, and the sonic benefits would probably be irrelevant with the majority of PA systems we play through.
 
#106
Beyerdynamic M88TG would be my first choice by quite some distance. Amazingly good mic for bass amps (and lots of other stuff too).

Sennheiser MD421 is very good too.

SM57 is ok to add some upper mid presence to a DI signal but doesn't provide the lows required in a standalone bass amp mic IMO.

RE20 is a very good mic but it has an extremely flat frequency response and very little (if any) proximity effect so depending on the sound you want it may require an engineer that's willing and capable to sculpt the sound a bit.

And finally the totally crazy suggestion: If you've got nerves of steel and want an old school sound a cheap ribbon mic (preferrably with a foam windscreen) can sound absolutely AMAZING on bass. I've used ribbons live on bass cabs on a number of occasions and the sound was just incredible. I just used one of those ultra-cheap Chinese Royer lookalikes and stuck an SM7b foam screen onto it. Never had any issues. But watch out for air blasts that will shread that ribbon in a heartbeat! Also take into consideration the MASSIVE proximity effect of figure-8 mics and that it will pick up whatever is "behind" it. Excellent side rejection though. Definitely not the right choice for a crisp, modern bass sound but for old school sounds it's absolutely insane!

Stay away from all the kick drum mics, like D112 and Beta52 unless you're aiming for a VERY scooped sound.

But when an engineer says he hasn't got any mics left for the bass amp it usually means he doesn't really want to mic it in my experience. Starting an argument over this with the engineer is rarely a good idea.
 
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#107
Jim C said:
I too liked the DI on the GB Shuttle 9.2.
So much so that it was easy to live with no mic if they would take the tube channel DI'd.

Something that hasn't been mentioned, and it's never been an issue for me, is that it is possible to have the mic out of phase with the cabinet making the bass sound like poop, and the player not knowing.
A single input source can't do that.

For you active, pro, guys, are any players taking a DI, dropping that into a DAW or modeling amp, and than taking this soley to FoH?
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Yes, the chance of a mic in the PA being out of phase with the cabinet is not only possible but almost guaranteed simply due to the time offset. Phase coherency is an issue mostly when the bass in the PA is the same level as the bass coming off the stage. Some sound companies will time offset the PA back to the kick drum in an attempt to improve this. Of course there's also the 50% likelihood that the polarity is incorrect as well, but this is generally overshadowed since phase coherency will be different at every individual spot in the room. Add in boundary reflections and it all goes to hell and only the gross(er) problems show their ugly head.
 
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#108
wolfkeller said:
Im tired of the soundman using " i dont have a mike" as an excuse for not miking my cab so im buying one to carry with me
Im looking for suggestions for a solid/tough, roadworthy mike for my ampeg 810 wich i push hard with my svt2 pro. Would a 57 cut it? Im not looking for a $300 mike either.
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Speaker level DI sends svt power amp sound to FOH. And speaker level DI sends some cab sound to FOH cause the amplifier interacts directly with the 810 cabinet and, the DI "knows" what about of sound the amplifier tries to power the loudspeakers.
 
#111
BergerHead said:
Better go for a d.i. box, miking can turn out another source of hissing, you'll not get better results than with a nowadays's box; getting a "better live touch" must be kinda illusive wishful thinking. I had a Sans Amp Bass driver (that lacks of mid-control), now i'm happy with the MXR M80. And you surely can imagine, that you will not hear any difference onstage at all ... :rollno:
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Super unhelpful reply. Q: What's the nicest cashmere sweater. A: You shouldn't wear cashmere sweaters. You are wring to think that you like them. Q Who makes the best chocolate cake? A: You don't actually like chocolate cake. It doesn't taste good.
 
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#113
corinpills said:
Super unhelpful reply. Q: What's the nicest cashmere sweater. A: You shouldn't wear cashmere sweaters. You are wring to think that you like them. Q Who makes the best chocolate cake? A: You don't actually like chocolate cake. It doesn't taste good.
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You've been noticing that, too, huh?
 
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#114
Deleted member 271037 said:
And finally the totally crazy suggestion: If you've got nerves of steel and want an old school sound a cheap ribbon mic (preferrably with a foam windscreen) can sound absolutely AMAZING on bass.
Click to expand...
I used to own a Western Electric 639B that sounded great for recording my bass.

It's probably the only thing I have sold that I'd like to have back.
 
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#118
Gizmot said:
With condenser mics, you can achieve wide frequency response with small-diaphragm capsules, but not with DYNAMIC mics. Show me a DYNAMIC mic with a small-sized capsule that provides something close to extended LF response and can handle enough SPL to be usable on a typical stage.
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Shure Beta 52, one of the go-to kick mics for live sound. Very similar to the SM 57 in capsule construction, but uses the supercardiodid pattern to great effect.

Note that this may not be my favorite mic, but you asked for an example.
 
#120
beans-on-toast said:
These Lewitt mics are well worth checking out:

Microphones

I've tried the LCT series. Even the lower cost end models are very good. Excellent value for the money. Read the reviews.
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Weird how my mind is working today. I noticed the LCT 640 has dual output. That is a feature I first noticed years ago with the Josephson C700 series mikes. The LCT still just has two opposed cardioids, so the main option is to select polar pattern after the fact by the ratio of mixing, which is a cool thing on its own.

A cool thing about the basic C700A is that it uses an omni capsule and a bidirectional capsule, so there is a separate signal that doesn't have proximity effect. A suggested application is to use the directional signal for the HF part of a vocal but roll off the lows on that signal, so that the lows all come from the omni. This could help mitigate proximity effect problems with any singer who moves around a lot and changes distance from the mike.

It's not $4900 worth of cool to me, but it does inspire me to try something similar using an SM81 cardioid stacked right over an SM80 omni and do the same type of processing.

Sorry for the thread detour.... I'll go away and try this stuff without any more intrusion here.

Otto
 
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