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Mic vs DI vs "Blend of Both"
- Thread starter Joblivion
- Start date
If you are playing super loud, some degree of caution may be warranted with some mics. I don't think I would cram an LDC in a bass drum for example. Even some dynamics can be damaged in a bass drum.
Do a DI clean track, then you can re-amp it to get a head/cab/mic or even external pre-amp in the mix.
And most would be modeling like Amplitube and not require an external re-amp loop.
In a home or project studio setting, reamping rules. I've used the radial pro reamp box for several years in my studio with great results. I'll run a di (radial or Countryman) into the interface. We record rhythm tracks live, so having one less thing to worry about with bleed is so nice. I'll then go back and reamp into my Shaw B150 and Shaw 115. I'll take a signal from the direct out from the head and mic the cab (great results lately using the EV re320 flat). I'll time align all three signals, and mix and match to get what I want. My tired old mid '60's b15 with both a mic and & di between the amp and cab sound wicked good too!
I have both the Amplitube SVX as well as the Softube Amp room stuff.... They sound great, but not nearly as good as the Shaw or the b15.
I have both the Amplitube SVX as well as the Softube Amp room stuff.... They sound great, but not nearly as good as the Shaw or the b15.
If I want to record my pedalboard, should I have my DI at the beginning or end of the signal chain?
I use a focusrite scarlett 2i2 so technically I could plug the pedalboard into the DI or have DI and the pedalboard on 2 separate tracks. I wouldn't be able to use a mic but they would both be direct.
Is it worth it to have completely clean DI signal or should I include my pedalboard in the DI signal too?
I use a focusrite scarlett 2i2 so technically I could plug the pedalboard into the DI or have DI and the pedalboard on 2 separate tracks. I wouldn't be able to use a mic but they would both be direct.
Is it worth it to have completely clean DI signal or should I include my pedalboard in the DI signal too?
I believe it's fairly common to record two tracks, one processed and one dry. If later you decide the processing is not perfect, you can reamp the performance and try again. If you only have the track with effects, you can add more, but you can't dial them back.
I know it's been a while lol. I have another question.
Let's say you have more that two signals you want to add to your DI signal. For example, combining tweeter, main cab speaker and DI. Would you just go about doing that by low passing your cab speaker, high passing the tweeter, and bringing the resulting sum of those signals in balance with the DI? Or, would you choose the DI as your low's, cab speaker as mids, and tweeter as highs?
Let's say you have more that two signals you want to add to your DI signal. For example, combining tweeter, main cab speaker and DI. Would you just go about doing that by low passing your cab speaker, high passing the tweeter, and bringing the resulting sum of those signals in balance with the DI? Or, would you choose the DI as your low's, cab speaker as mids, and tweeter as highs?
I wouldn't jack with mic'ing woofers and tweeters. Just use the DI.
Years ago I did a recording session and the engineers wanted to mic my amp and run a DI. They mic'ed only the woofers.
Most bass cabs run the woofers full range. If you need/want the super bright sound you get from a tweeter, you should easily find that sound in a full-range DI signal.
DI , always
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Depending on style of music , any mic will do EXCEPT scooped kick drum.
421,441,57 ,58 , 905 , 906 , RE20 , ATM25 , ribbon , condenser .....
You want the ability to have these mids , to cut it if needed , to tailor the sound.
You cannot Invent/create frequencies that are not there
The Phaser also saved my As* Live on my bass monitor multiple times.
Essential for any bass player's tool kit me thinks
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Depending on style of music , any mic will do EXCEPT scooped kick drum.
421,441,57 ,58 , 905 , 906 , RE20 , ATM25 , ribbon , condenser .....
You want the ability to have these mids , to cut it if needed , to tailor the sound.
You cannot Invent/create frequencies that are not there
The Phaser also saved my As* Live on my bass monitor multiple times.
Essential for any bass player's tool kit me thinks
Ok. So let's say I am going for a more electronic/keybass sound but want to use effects. Should I still record a clean DI signal as well as an effected DI signal + Mic'd cab?
Yes - record both
Later on when doing the mix, you may want to add or reduce the effects. This works best if you have the clean original track to start over.
Later on when doing the mix, you may want to add or reduce the effects. This works best if you have the clean original track to start over.
Yeah, this has been my experience, as well.
When I first started recording, more than three decades ago, I always recorded bass with both a mic and DI, and usually combined both when mixing down. If I had to discard one, it was almost always the mic track thst got sacrificed.
Eventually, I gave up micing the bass altogether, unless there was a very specific reason why I needed to hear the bass speaker cabinet into a microphone.
These days, I almost never use a microphone. Instead, I might use two tracks to record a dry signal (like from a BDDI parallel out) along with a wet signal (DI out, post EQ/comp from my amp).
The bass tone that I favor most often in my recordings is the rather aggressive low/mid prominent sound that my Mesa Subway produces when tweaked a certain way so I want to make sure I get that down post EQ.
But for insurance purposes, I'll record a totally dry sound just so I have options available, even if I don't use it.
I used to use an EV B-215M speaker cabinet when recording and it had a 6" mid driver in addition to the pair of 15s.
The mid speaker added some snap to the sound when playing live, but I found that it was more hassle than it was worth to run a separate mic from it because everything I needed was available from the DI out, anyway.
I've never heard of anyone hating a Beta 52A on bass guitar, but YMMV. I mean, sure it may not be the sound you are looking for on a certain project, but its frequency response pretty closely mimics common eq settings for bass guitar. Trace Elliot's famous Pre-Shape EQ curve is a boost at 50 Hz, a cut at 400 Hz, and a boost at 2-5 KHz. You can also pair a Beta 52A with a Beta 56A or 57A.
I don't bother with miking cabs. I use a Countryman Type 85 as a safety DI of the dry instrument feed, and a DI out of whatever instrument preamp I am using, both live and in the studio. I only have one Beta 52A, anyway, so that's being used for the kick drum. I've listened to a *lot* of kick drum mic comparisons, and the Beta 52A is what sounds best to me, with maybe the Sennheiser e-series also in my range of preferences.
I don't bother with miking cabs. I use a Countryman Type 85 as a safety DI of the dry instrument feed, and a DI out of whatever instrument preamp I am using, both live and in the studio. I only have one Beta 52A, anyway, so that's being used for the kick drum. I've listened to a *lot* of kick drum mic comparisons, and the Beta 52A is what sounds best to me, with maybe the Sennheiser e-series also in my range of preferences.
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For my home recording i have tried combining a DI and Amp sim and seem to always end up just using one or the other singularly and kinda chasing my tail when trying to combine.
I have one of the Origin Bassrig 64 sims for the amp going in fed from a DI split.
Given this is analogue and on the same 2 channel preamp/convertor as the DI they are in phase from the outset which helps. I can see on the recorded waveforms too in Logic they are time aligned and in phase.
I compress the DI a little going in but the Bassrig compresses naturally once driven somewhat.
I EQ both going in a bit too to just attempt to get 'better' sounds that are 'improved' singularly and in the mix.
As said though, i always seem to end up with 2 slightly differing end products that i just choose one from down the line and not ultimately combine.
Bass is pretty unforgiving when combining in my experience and its hard to keep a balance of the instrument.
Maybe i need to try some of the filtering techniques suggested as an experiment.
I guess it doesn't matter so long as it works in the context of the mix.
I have one of the Origin Bassrig 64 sims for the amp going in fed from a DI split.
Given this is analogue and on the same 2 channel preamp/convertor as the DI they are in phase from the outset which helps. I can see on the recorded waveforms too in Logic they are time aligned and in phase.
I compress the DI a little going in but the Bassrig compresses naturally once driven somewhat.
I EQ both going in a bit too to just attempt to get 'better' sounds that are 'improved' singularly and in the mix.
As said though, i always seem to end up with 2 slightly differing end products that i just choose one from down the line and not ultimately combine.
Bass is pretty unforgiving when combining in my experience and its hard to keep a balance of the instrument.
Maybe i need to try some of the filtering techniques suggested as an experiment.
I guess it doesn't matter so long as it works in the context of the mix.
So it's been some time lol. I am starting to agree with the impulses but I also do like to mic the cab too. I have a question with reamping/ balancing all the used signals.
In the case of using multiple mic sources (or cab IR's), how would you blend the signals? Leaving them relatively whole and just blending levels or would you high pass some low pass others to help even things out? For example, if I am using a beta 52 and sm 57, would I just blend the 2 with the DI as is or high pass 1 and low pass the other at a certain point and blend the result with the DI?
I am not sure. For the clean DI, I think that was low passed mostly for high end. The others likely leveled, EQ’d and probably some compression. But I don’t know for sure, I told the engineer what I wanted and he made it happen.
Here’s one of the songs from that record.
With the quality and ease of reamping in most DAWS I go as simple as possible and run my bass into different voiced preamp pedals thru a DI and into the interface. I want to set a proper character and then let the mix engineer set the bass in context. I honestly don't recall the last time I recorded a live bass or guitar amp. Mics are still essential for drums, vox and other purely acoustic instruments.
