Bought a Roland 30W combo and picked up my old black Peavey from dad...

[self biased]

using a microphone to catch some of the sound, not a DI. bass gets DI'd all the time these days.

[MikeH]

Yeah, we always DI the bass, the rig then is basically for on-stage sound only.



My new toys.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by self biased
using a microphone to catch some of the sound, not a DI. bass gets DI'd all the time these days.

Sorry, I must emphatically disagree with the use of the word 'all'. For many bassists, with characterless amps, a DI is fine, but its not for all of us. No studio engineer is recording my bass without a mike on my amp, and none of them have have a problem with that.

I overdrive my Hiwatt to get a warm, rich sound which you won't get off a straight DI. Yes, Pods and stuff can do things these days, but that isn't compulsory, or even necessarily what the musician wants. If an amp gives a sound, and you want that sound, mike it.

It still isn't clear whether you are talking about live or studio when miking. Live, if the amp is blasting into the room too, it doesn't matter too much if the PA is using a DI bass, and there are few live engineers who will mike a bass. Some do, though. At my last gig the other week the engineer to look one at my amp and said "I'll put a mike on that for you". She was cool.

It should also be specified, in studio terms, whether the DI is straight into the desk, or out the back of the amp. Many amps, especially old valve beauties, don't have a DI output and there's no point having a lovely valve amp if you're not going to record it.

To hear the richness of a valve amp that I'm talking about, check out my band's album we recorded last year.

http://www.dinerhq.com/music.htm

The tracks Medicine Man, Keep the Wolf from the Door, and Something Sounds Loose all have intros with some bass on which illustrate a warmth of tone that you won't get with a DI.

[MikeH]

You are talking studio, we're talking on-stage no?

The average mic is pretty **** in bass frequencies, they have drop offs in bass frequencies to cut out the bass boost you get from mouth proximity when singing... even in the studio it's hard to find a mic that's decent in the bass range but you get a lot longer to experiment with different mics and frequencies. In a gig situation as an engineer you want something good relatively quickly because there's never enough time to soundcheck...

Really nice bass sound on your stuff, though, that's a great recording.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by MikeH
You are talking studio, we're talking on-stage no?

Right. That's what I was hoping to clarify.

Really nice bass sound on your stuff, though, that's a great recording.

Thanks.

[Saras]

Cort Haus, rock on, nice vocal arrangements as well! You play bass, right?

[MikeH]

I'm kinda between bands at the moment...

my last band has some final recordings we've just made, and I've got my 3rd jam with a new band on Monday..

http://www.muf.me.uk/music/inforyou.mp3

one of our last recordings/demos. I play rhythm guitar... 'bedroom recording' but in a really well kitted out bedroom! Bass was DIed and run through an amp simulator in protools I think.

edit: Got the URL wrong!

Probably the best thing we recorded is the instrumental last two minutes of this one...

http://www.muf.me.uk/music/epitaph.mp3

[Cort Haus]

Yeah, Saras, I play bass on that. I used to do backing vocals many years ago, but our current drummer is a far better singer than me, so I'm spared that responsibility these days.

Is your band playing live these days, Mike? I quite liked it - kinda System of a Down style.

[MikeH]

We've got a reunion gig for Reading Fringe Festival... but that's it. 22nd August, BBBs, Reading.

Rehearsal with new band today though.

[self biased]

i actually made up a myspace page that has my old band.

ressurection pact

[Saras]

self biased

[self biased]

danke. i think for being six years old, the recording holds up remarkably well.

[MikeH]

Wow, not bad for 6 year olds.