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Mic'ing or Di'ing live for me?

Lebowsky

Lebowsky

Effects Forum Resident
Supporting Member
Mar 18, 2007
1,655
708
Switzerland
#1
I play a GK 1001RB-II with 210 and 115 RBH GK cabs. Now a lot of my sound comes from the way I EQ to the room on my amp.

My sound guy thinks it's better to mic it to get "my sound" and reproduce the amp sound, but I always thought it's easier to use the GK onboard DI to avoid problems.

What would you do? The GK DI has a pre-/post-EQ switch too. If mic'ing, which speaker would use?

I know the "di vs mic" topic been covered numerous times, but I only found one other thread with 115/210 combination.
 
#3
My God
Lebowsky said:
I play a GK 1001RB-II with 210 and 115 RBH GK cabs. Now a lot of my sound comes from the way I EQ to the room on my amp.

My sound guy thinks it's better to mic it to get "my sound" and reproduce the amp sound, but I always thought it's easier to use the GK onboard DI to avoid problems.

What would you do? The GK DI has a pre-/post-EQ switch too. If mic'ing, which speaker would use?

I know the "di vs mic" topic been covered numerous times, but I only found one other thread with 115/210 combination.
Click to expand...


My God in Heaven, you didn't find anything helpful in those "numerous" threads already overflowing around here?

Just do both.
 
#7
A lot of the time, companies will throw in a DI to an amp as an added feature, and some are really cheap. I found a few threads going over why some of the dedicated DI pedals are a lot better (a pedal that's JUST used for a DI), but some of the regular pedals with a DI built in are still better than the amp DI. All depends.
All I know is when I did some sound tests a while back out of my Darkglass B7K, MXR Di, 1001rbii, and my new Gk MBF800, the 1001 was obviously the worst sounding to me.
 
#8
The big question is how much does your cab colour your sound? I use flat response cabinets, so it seems pointless for me to mic my cabinet. A mic also creates more hassles for me, I prefer to have control over my own stage monitor because you never know what a tech will do when your on stage (if they even stay.) A D.I. allows me to do this, a mic does not.

Acidbat also makes a good point, if your built in DI sucks it might be a good idea to look at carrying one in the gig bag.
 
#10
Lebowsky said:
I play a GK 1001RB-II with 210 and 115 RBH GK cabs. Now a lot of my sound comes from the way I EQ to the room on my amp.

My sound guy thinks it's better to mic it to get "my sound" and reproduce the amp sound, but I always thought it's easier to use the GK onboard DI to avoid problems.

What would you do? The GK DI has a pre-/post-EQ switch too. If mic'ing, which speaker would use?

I know the "di vs mic" topic been covered numerous times, but I only found one other thread with 115/210 combination.
Click to expand...
I'm lazy. I ALWAYS DI.

Now, if I were a guitar player it would be different. I'd even use a tube amp.

But I'm not.
 
#11
Hi,

How much effort does the FOH engineer want to put into getting the "best" sound, or most accurate reproduction of "your" sound? If he's willing to dial it in, I say let'em. :)

Through all the clubs and all the summer concerts I've done over the years with all kinds of different sound companies and house sound guys, I've had a real mixed bag when it comes to getting my bass into the FOH. Most will just DI my bass. Some will take the direct out from the back of my GK800RB. Although I've been told it's noisy some sound guys either don't notice, don't care, or it's not really that noisy or they use a gate. Only a few have both mic'd and DI'd my bass. But never has anyone taken the amp's direct out and mic'd the cab.

I have to trust the sound guy and 98% of them (IME) are very competent. I like efficiency so I'm OK with the soundguy plugging my bass into a DI box and calling it done. But I don't use any special effects pedals or anything. For those guys I guess you'd want to use the DI after your effects. But I do think it sounds best when my bass is DI'd to the house and the cab is mic'd. Then you can get more of my rig's sound but keep it tight in the house.

When I'm mixing my own sound from the stage I just use my cheap DI box. If I'm doing sound on my crummy little PA you can bet the gig is small enough that I just want to spread the bass around the room a little while I have a decent stage volume.

All that to say "it depends". ;)

Are you running your rig in bi-amp mode? I would think that if you are going to mic a cab then the speaker needs to be full range. When I used a 2x10/1x15 (full range) rig on stage the sound guy would mic the 15" speaker, place the mic about halfway in the middle of the cone but point it toward the voice coil. When mic'ing my 4x10 cabinet most sound guys would place and point the mic right at the middle of the cone, the halfway point between the voice coil and outer rim. I'm sure there are other configurations too, depending on what frequencies you want to work with. The voice coil has more of the highs and near the rim has more lows.

I think you should experiment and have fun with it, both live and recording. See what works for you. :D


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
#12
BassCliff said:
Hi,

How much effort does the FOH engineer want to put into getting the "best" sound, or most accurate reproduction of "your" sound? If he's willing to dial it in, I say let'em. :)

Through all the clubs and all the summer concerts I've done over the years with all kinds of different sound companies and house sound guys, I've had a real mixed bag when it comes to getting my bass into the FOH. Most will just DI my bass. Some will take the direct out from the back of my GK800RB. Although I've been told it's noisy some sound guys either don't notice, don't care, or it's not really that noisy or they use a gate. Only a few have both mic'd and DI'd my bass. But never has anyone taken the amp's direct out and mic'd the cab.

I have to trust the sound guy and 98% of them (IME) are very competent. I like efficiency so I'm OK with the soundguy plugging my bass into a DI box and calling it done. But I don't use any special effects pedals or anything. For those guys I guess you'd want to use the DI after your effects. But I do think it sounds best when my bass is DI'd to the house and the cab is mic'd. Then you can get more of my rig's sound but keep it tight in the house.

When I'm mixing my own sound from the stage I just use my cheap DI box. If I'm doing sound on my crummy little PA you can bet the gig is small enough that I just want to spread the bass around the room a little while I have a decent stage volume.

All that to say "it depends". ;)

Are you running your rig in bi-amp mode? I would think that if you are going to mic a cab then the speaker needs to be full range. When I used a 2x10/1x15 (full range) rig on stage the sound guy would mic the 15" speaker, place the mic about halfway in the middle of the cone but point it toward the voice coil. When mic'ing my 4x10 cabinet most sound guys would place and point the mic right at the middle of the cone, the halfway point between the voice coil and outer rim. I'm sure there are other configurations too, depending on what frequencies you want to work with. The voice coil has more of the highs and near the rim has more lows.

I think you should experiment and have fun with it, both live and recording. See what works for you. :D


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
Click to expand...

Very helpful, thanks!! I will discuss it in length with my sound guy. We are lucky enough to have a great guy that always comes with us whenever he is available.

Regarding bi-amping, I suppose you mean the GK bi-amping using a 4-pole speakon cable? The yes I do, so that I can turn the horn completely off :)
 

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