I generally use a ribbon mic with good bass extension (stc 4033, 4038, RCA 44) fairly close to the body near the bridge, and a pencil condenser pointed at the plucking hand (bow contact area for arco playing) These two should be equidistant from the top plane of the top of the body, as the body tends to behave like a bellows and radiate low frequencies across the entire top. The back contributes to the sound as well but it is stiffer and doesn't move as much. I balance the two mics onto a single track, the ribbon mic for weight and the condenser mic for articulation, and I'll often have the ribbon mic going through a gentle compressor to even out the wolf notes a little.

I have occasionally borrowed a technique from the great bluegrass bass player Lorne Rall; he used to wrap blue paper painter's tape around his plucking fingers, and the little "snap" the strings made as they popped off the tape made for excellent articulation that made a big difference in the recordings.

I have seen a lot of pictures of mics wrapped in a towel shoved under the bridge, in the old days it was typically an Altec 150 "coke bottle" mic, and I think Altec even sold a little trapeze harness for their mics to be suspended in this way, and I've tried it and hated the result. It always seemed like a "clever" solution that was so proud of itself it persisted despite sounding awful.

steve wrote: Sat Nov 20, 2021 10:09 am I have seen a lot of pictures of mics wrapped in a towel shoved under the bridge, in the old days it was typically an Altec 150 "coke bottle" mic, and I think Altec even sold a little trapeze harness for their mics to be suspended in this way, and I've tried it and hated the result. It always seemed like a "clever" solution that was so proud of itself it persisted despite sounding awful.

I have got great results this way, Also with a cmv563 in cardioid, pointed straight at the body.

airloom wrote: Sat Nov 20, 2021 7:19 pm

steve wrote: Sat Nov 20, 2021 10:09 am I have seen a lot of pictures of mics wrapped in a towel shoved under the bridge, in the old days it was typically an Altec 150 "coke bottle" mic, and I think Altec even sold a little trapeze harness for their mics to be suspended in this way, and I've tried it and hated the result. It always seemed like a "clever" solution that was so proud of itself it persisted despite sounding awful.

I have got great results this way, Also with a cmv563 in cardioid, pointed straight at the body.

I did it for a live performance in Preston Bradly Hall once (hella reverberant space) and it worked well. It was some kinda Gypsy Jazz (not a super PC way to describe it, but I've never heard it described any other way) thing and the player moved around a lot. He Dancy. I just used a SM87 if I remember correctly. With the limited resources of the Chicago Cultural Center, I can't think of any other thing that would have worked. 57 on a stand? PCC on the floor? That's about all we had at the time.

Hey y'all! Long time reader, first time poster.

I've had some success recording fingerstyle bass parts with a mic in the bridge pointing up towards the fingers. To mount the mic here in the least invasive way (so it won't come into contact with - and therefore dampen - the body of the instrument + isn't an eyesore), I've found that the density of the pick-and-pluck type foam to be the best. Punch a hole in the centre of that foam, but make it far too large for the bridge so that when it's condensed it provides reciprocal pressure on the inside of the bridge, keeping it from falling out.

An SDC is the way to go for this, and an omni will give you what you need regarding low frequency extension. As a one-mic solution in a pinch, it can really help for players that move excessively, as the microphone will never move off-axis from the player's plucking articulation.

As an aside, it might be worth marking your player's comfortable position on the floor with some tape outlining their feet so they have some kind of reference point relative to your carefully placed multi-mic set up. With that sort of visual guide, players are usually pretty good at policing themselves. Another thing to consider is how any multi-mic'd set up will introduce phase cancellation at certain frequencies. You might find this particularly noticeable when the player changes keys.

bishopdante wrote: Wed Nov 24, 2021 4:18 pm DPA have a pretty sensibly-thought-out mount for their miniature lav mics, which clips onto the strings between the bridge and the taipiece:

PICTURE

This looks cool and practical, but how does that work at all?
The average mic stand could have a lot more points of decoupling, and you will still get all kinds unwanted transfer from the stage floor.

OP here. Thanks to all for these responses. Mostly it's seeming to reinforce my own usual practices, but that's fine.

As I mention above, my standby for about the past decade has been a large ribbon (Melodium 42b) or other good fig-8 mic at the body, and smaller (M160) at the fingerboard. I've almost positively gotten this best practices advice from this very forum, as well as probably digging through gearslut and shit like that.

As I also mention above, I've had a DPA omni (4060) that I've pulled out again for mounting near the bridge with its handy little clip, and I've found it very unsatisfactory--in my experience, in that position it's been quite midrange-y and inarticulate, in comparison. I also don't see how I could use it for reinforcement to my standard practice and keep them in phase.

I am very curious that nobody here besides airloom typically does a spaced omni pair, so I'll have to borrow some good ones and see how it goes, thanks airloom. Tight spacing plus a center mic is three mics on the bass, which seems excessive but is probably fine.

But here's something I am really curious about:

steve wrote: Sat Nov 20, 2021 10:09 amThese two should be equidistant from the top plane of the top of the body

Steve, are you referring to the plane of its top ridge running from the peak of the back face to the peak of the front face? If so, what I find surprising about that recommendation is that the upper (articulation) mic would then be farther back than the lower (body) mic, when the lower mic is more susceptible to getting blown out hard by that proximate low-freq sound. Am I misunderstanding?
Generally, I try to have both mics equidistant from the plane of the front face, which means that, since the bass is in a slightly reclined position, the upper mic is inched forward a bit in comparison to the lower one -- the opposite of how I read your recommendation.

I'm also surprised that nobody has mentioned using an expander. Am I the only one who finds it near-essential? I absolutely blast these preamps, and some cleanup with a good working expander is a tremendous help.

Bubber wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:07 pm I'm also surprised that nobody has mentioned using an expander. Am I the only one who finds it near-essential? I absolutely blast these preamps, and some cleanup with a good working expander is a tremendous help.

This is kind of a head-scratcher/potential learning op for me and seems counter-intuitive? - what are you getting out of this? could you elaborate on what process you're using here? If you're using outboard gear, what model? If ITB, which plug-in? And maybe a bit of info on your settings?

Garth wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 11:03 am could you elaborate on what process you're using here? If you're using outboard gear, what model? If ITB, which plug-in? And maybe a bit of info on your settings?

It's how I send that noise floor the rest of the way to hell, Garth.
I have a few older Symetrix outboard compressors. One of the functions is a downward expander, so I bring the threshold to right around the noise floor and then bring the ratio up some, and fast attack, long release. It's just a gate with a more gradual (variable) dropoff, so without all the shitty choppiness. I don't think it would work as well if I were starting with crappy mics and pres, so I think I'm probably just lucky that these old boxes can work on it.
It's not as big of a deal when I'm not blasting the roof off of the preamps. They're quiet all the way up until they're not.

Bubber wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:07 pm Steve, are you referring to the plane of its top ridge running from the peak of the back face to the peak of the front face?

IANFMS, but this is the plane I pictured from what he said:


edit to add text description for the visually impaired: a plane asymptotically resting on the piece of wood that has the f holes carved into it, barely touching the "highest" point of that piece if the instrument were laid on its back.

brephophagist wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 1:31 pm IANFMS, but this is the plane I pictured from what he said:
...
edit to add text description for the visually impaired: a plane asymptotically resting on the piece of wood that has the f holes carved into it, barely touching the "highest" point of that piece if the instrument were laid on its back.

That seems totally reasonable and is what I do already, so I'm going to guess I must have misunderstood the description.