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Would I be better off buying a mic or a DI box?

#2
it doesn't hurt to have your own di. most venues with pa will have one, but not all of them do speaker level di, which is the bomb if you have an svt. countryman di's and radial jdi and jdv do it. it's brighter than micing but not as annoyingly bright as plugging straight in. and i did buy my own mic, too, though i'm going to just do a vt deluxe di for a while and see if i can live without micing.

one problem i've run into with doing mic and di is getting the second line. and even if i get it, a fair amount of them end up turning the mic off anyway. they figure you'll never know the difference, i guess. but i check. oh yes, i do.

another big problem has been resistance to the mic. i've had a handful of soundmen give me stick over it. not a problem if your band owns the pa or is hiring the sound company directly but it's caused problems for me before. wussies. so they may have to eq it a little...big deal.

anyway, if you're only using pa once in a while and it's always rented or hired out, they always have a di and mics so it may not be worth it to you to make the investment for a handful of gigs. but if you play more than a handful of gigs and/or you supply your own pa, you might want to get a di and/or mic of your own. there's ways to get the sound of the svt out there in pretty much any price range. even a not-so-expensive di blended with a 57 or 58 sounds really good for live work.
 
#4
We probably won't ever have to supply a PA for any gigs outside of vocals. Both the guitarist and I's rigs are loud and our drummer doesn't have mics. We'll probably be playing every month or two as far as I can tell & most places we play will have us mic'd (with their mics). I just wonder because the last time we played the sound guy asked if I had a DI & seemed put off that I didn't. He mic'd me with a 58 & it sounded pretty good but not as good as the Audix I recorded with.
 
#6
I always prefer to do both.
Reason 1. If nothing else I have a back up.
2. Usually the DI and the mic sounds are different. Sometimes varying wildly, and with both you can blend the two sounds to taste.
3. Even if your amp has a built in DI, sometimes for no apparent reason it can do bad things. Mostly ground loops 60 cycle, where an external DI will give you better control over that.
4. Micing a cab will more often than not sound more like the amp on stage.
5. A DI gives you a clean signal for frequency slotting.
So, I say get a 57, and a decent DI. If the sound guy wont run ONE MORE xlr out for you, be nice and ask him please, because that's what you would like :-)

YMMV.
P.S. I have mixed bands that the bass amp has died. More than one actually. Without the DI, it would have been a show stopper. With a DI, you can limp through the show.
 
#7
I mix shows sometimes on sixteen channel boards.
kik,snr,toms,flr.tom,bass,keys,keys,guitar,bg vox,ld vox, bg vox,sax,trumpet, trombone, guest vox, 2nd guitar etc.
it's very real, and very easy to run out of spare channels on a board. when the sound person says they don't have a spare channel, don't take it personally.
 
#8
You won't get the low end from a mic that you will from a DI (in part because the low end does not come out of the cabinet).

As to general tone, it depends. Most bass rigs are very colored - what comes bears little resemblance to what the bass actually sounds like. So do you want the coloration, or do you want the true tone of the instrument? If the former, add a mic to the DI. If the latter, just use the DI and run the bass rig as low in level as possible.
 
#9
TimmyP said:
You won't get the low end from a mic that you will from a DI (in part because the low end does not come out of the cabinet).
Click to expand...
he's got an svt 810, which is sealed, so the low end does come out of his cabinet. and the low end comes out of all cabinets. i think you meant to say it doesn't come out of the speakers in a ported cab. to which i say "it doesn't matter." the lows still end up hitting the mic because they're omnidirectional. whether or not the mic picks them up is up to the individual mic, but i never had a problem with it using my pr 40.

taurus1 said:
the ultimate is to have both. but I'd rather go direct than just mic. micing a loud bass amp isn't as easy as guitar. it's more difficult to capture the full range of the bass signal.
Click to expand...
micing a bass amp is every bit as easy as micing a guitar amp. however, it helps if you have a mic that has some good low end response.
 
#11
I like a 57. it doesnt get the full spectrum but it gets all the gooey character. but i always blend w/ a di. an ev re20 might me my choice if i had no DI. but as jimmy mentioned (I never gigged w/ a svt, sorry to say) if the cab will provide the boom the 57'll do just fine! btw this is all by an inch - i dont want to give the impression the 57 has no lows. . .
 
#15
JimmyM said:
nope. to get low end, it usually takes going into the $250-300+ range.
Click to expand...

not my intention to take this thread somewhere else but can you give me two or 3 options?

i am in the market for one mic!

EDIT: taken from Thomann

"
AKG D 112

AKG D 112 dynamic microphone - cardioid polar pattern, frequency response: 20Hz-17kHz, 210ohm impedance, includes clamp (SA40). Suitable for bass drums, bass amps and tubas etc
Click to expand...
"

What about that one? 145 euros
 
#16
I just got a 400+ bro and am about to nab a Heil PR40.
Depending on how much resistance I get in Houston (which shouldn't be much), my next step will be something that can reamp the Speaker Out signal (like the Countryman, Radial JDX, etc..).

The 400+ has an XLR out but based on the reviews if you push the amp at all it gets kinda noisy and not great sounding. Plus you gotta hit the Line Level at the board so it doesn't blow up the Input which is just another hassle.

I'll miss the DI on my 750. Used it Post on Sat. night and the sound guy was flippin' out!
 
#17
cmaranhao said:
not my intention to take this thread somewhere else but can you give me two or 3 options?

i am in the market for one mic!

EDIT: taken from Thomann

""

What about that one? 145 euros
Click to expand...

a d112 will work. I like the ev re20 because it's a bit more versatile (but I use it on other stuff) there's a heil mic too that I read some great stuff about (not sure of the model, but it's a big dynamic) also a shure beta 52

and, maybe in the middle $$ wise, Mercenary Audio sells a 57 w/ a better tranny in it. Supposed to be more like a sm7b - get more lows and it's around $130-ish I think. I've been dying to get one . . .

having said all this I'd just be a little careful - sometimes there can be too many lows in a mic. for example, recording my LMII or minimark w/ the re20 is WAY too woofy and muddy. the 57 does the trick there. . . something to think about
 
#19
Mic'ing is great when feasible, but if you currently don't have either I suggest arming yourself with a quality DI like a Radial JDI first. Then worry about getting a bass-rig-friendly mic when you can afford it. You, IMHO, SHOULD have a good DI in your arsenal at all times--live or in the studio, and don't rely on the DI out from an amp, or assume the house will have something good. A JDI is less than 200 bucks and is a world-class DI. It will last you forever.
 
#20
pbass2 said:
Mic'ing is great when feasible, but if you currently don't have either I suggest arming yourself with a quality DI like a Radial JDI first. Then worry about getting a bass-rig-friendly mic when you can afford it. You, IMHO, SHOULD have a good DI in your arsenal at all times--live or in the studio, and don't rely on the DI out from an amp, or assume the house will have something good. A JDI is less than 200 bucks and is a world-class DI. It will last you forever.
Click to expand...
as much as i hate to admit it, i've come to that conclusion after 2 years of using a mic. i love mics, but it's a di world, and sooner or later some soundman is going to force you into it and you won't have much of a say. happens to me less and less these days, but it still happens. so it's better to have something you like at the ready than the crappy $30 di's they probably have because the bands bust up all their good stuff.
 

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