Need help picking out Bass Microphone...

[david barnes]

I want to start Mic'ing my Genzler Bass rig at a big church I play at and wanted some good recommendations for a good Mic to do it with. I've never mic'd my rig before so I need some good suggestions of products that have been used my the TB brethren.

don't get a mic, go for a direct box.. mic placement is hard to get if youre not keen to it... direct box will go straight in to the mixer board and you can do the same thing

 

[Big Hoss]

I'm in the same boat here. Only issue I had was when I started playing bass at the Church I was at, they wanted me to run DI only. but the subs were right by the pastor so all he heard was bass. He complained so they turned me down to the point where I was playing Mime bass, and I couldn't hear a thing. I have since donated an amp, and a bass. Now at least I can hear myself play, it's a small enough facility that I can project with a small amp and the presider doesn't get blown away by the lows. Ideally I'd love to have a sytem that was designed for live music, but they have bose ( it rocks for spoken word, but sucks for live music).

Typically, for the P&W stuff, pastor is off stage while I am playing. He comes up while the guitarist is doing his ambiance thing, does his announcements welcome thing, we play a few songs, and almost always the last song before pastor comes back on stage is acoustic, although there have been a few where I was playing just prior.... The monitors aren't too loud, so he doesn't get blown out anyway... Our FOH is a strange array of C-Mark passive cabs powered by an array of only the sound guy knows power amps.

 

[CryingBass]

Mic this

 

[Rip Van Dan]

An SM57 is much better suited to this job because the grill is optimized for instrument mic'ing.

However, almost all modern bass amps (including Genzler) have a DI out that will give tremendously better signal than any mic will.

True, but a lot of amps only give you a Pre-EQ choice and even the ones that let you take it Post-EQ are going to have EQ settings that make your bass sound good through your amp and speakers. Miking speakers gives you the sound you expect from your gear. What a lot of good soundmen like to do is get both, an EQ signal (pre or post) from your DI and mic your speakers. Then they can blend the two as needed.

Had a real problem in a recording studio back in the early 70's with miking speakers. It was a studio in Hollywood and they had a bunch of gold records hanging on the wall, so odds are they knew what they were doing. I had my Standel amp that I was running through and they just could not find a good miked recording sound out of it. The amp sounded great live but gave them fits trying to mike it.

That Standel was a 215 cab with 4 round ports stacked vertically to the left side of the speakers. There were very few ported cabs back then and this one would throw a tremendous amount of sound out of those ports - would flap my bell-bottoms (yes it was that long ago) if I was withing about 3 to 4 feet of them. They messed with it for about 5-minutes and then decided their time was better spent sending me directly through the board. So we did the recordings with my amp off and through a DI box.

So yeah, miking doesn't always work and DI's do. Might not always be the best sound, but it's always a decent sound. When miking works, it's often the better sound.

 

[SLO Surfer]

I'm not new to DI setups and have used my Genzler Head cabs at 100's of gigs with great success of just the DI out as the Genzler has one of the best DI's I've heard on a head no matter the cost. Problem with this big church I'm playing at now 2-3 times a week is we tried the DI out and it had considerable feedback no matter the cables or the ports to the board. When use a Mic it sounded much better and clearer. I have another Genzler head coming that the church bought so maybe something has happened to my head since the last show with the di.

And with a DI feeding back you immediately checked your mic/line switch and the sound operator checked his gain settings and dB pad settings and none of that worked so you’re looking for a mic solution now? Right?

Edit: I’d recommend the electrovoice RE-20.

 

[markjazzbassist]

Electro Voice RE-20, very neutral flat sound that just captures your bass/amp sound. no "hyping".

 

[Raw N Low]

I like the Oktava MK-219. Really good condenser mic that picks up lows and tube distortion.

 

[button]

I'm a big fan of the Heil PR30 for live bass. I've tried many mics over the years, but the Heils win.
(Full disclosure I am a Heil endorser.)

 

[bassbrad]

When I want to mic a bass amp, bass drum, floor tom or other low register instrument or bass rich signal source my go to mic is a [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. Unlike a lot of the conventional choices it still has a delivers a useful frequency range while enhancing lower frequencies and standing up to high volume levels and still dynamic with good off axis signal refection.
This has been in my trick bag and has been a surprise solution more than once in unusual situations. Aside from it's intended purpose I have used it for mic'ing a low end heavy guitar cab for 8 string quitar, bari and bass sax, bass clarinet, bassoon, tuba, 9/8 5 string upright bass with a low A. I also used it for a basso profundo who also sings in several vocal groups that literally destroys mics with his voice, not this one.

 

[Xandrell]

Electro Voice RE-20, very neutral flat sound that just captures your bass/amp sound. no "hyping".

Exactly, You can crank it up because it's not a hot mic and EQ the amp because it's flat. Love it.

 

[oren]

This recent review in TapeOp makes the Mojave MA-50 sound promising for bass.
MA-50 Microphone

 

[godofthunder59]

An SM57 is much better suited to this job because the grill is optimized for instrument mic'ing.

However, almost all modern bass amps (including Genzler) have a DI out that will give tremendously better signal than any mic will.

I gave tried almost everything over the years and I am back to the good old SM57!

 

[Ender_rpm]

I've been using an Audix D4 the last few years. Its small, easy to position, and most FOH guys have been familiar enough with Audix as drum mics to be cool with it. Hyperdardioid pattern, very tight pick up. I do run tube amps almost exclusively, and use a decent amount of drive and fuzz generally through tweeterless cabs, so really more analogous to a guitar amp. When recording I run mic and DI, when doing demos at home, its whatever I feel like

If you rely on a tweeter or multi speaker array (15/6/T, 12/3/3/3, etc) you are likely going for a cleaner sound, and a DI is a better bet. There's almost no way to get ONE mic to cover ALL your speakers without pushing it back from the cab a good bit, which kind of defeats the purpose of close micing a cab.

Hope you get the sound issues sorted either way.