I've heard mic'd bass sound excellent but every time I try it, I'm underwhelmed and end up either using all DI or so much DI that there's no point to having the mic blended in, so I'm eager to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I think distorted bass might be where I hear most of the value w/ a mic on the bass.

For a home recording I feel like I can't beat using a AT4033a (thanks tech room for the suggestion to get this) or even a SM57 on my 15. For the life of me I can't get DI to sound great to my ears. It may just be the sound in my head doesn't play nice, but I am happy with just using a mic at low volume.

I used to be a mic that cab only guy. Recently I've been recording bass direct with 1073 clone with a little EQ and then reamping it with an M88 close miked. I have to drag the miked waveform a little for it to be fully in phase, but once it is it sounds way better than either soloed.

The biggest problem with going all in on DI bass is the dynamic range of the instrument. A bass that hasn't been tamed by the preamp of an amp, an overdrive pedal or the inertia of a speaker can spit out some crazy random transients that are really loud.

Of course, compression can solve this but it can be finicky if you want to gently compress the overall signal, but also crush those short little bursts of volume when the bass guy spasmed a little because he farted and there was some extra attack on one random note. Serial compression can save the day, or just use an overdrive pedal to settle down the range if you don't mind the added hair.

losthighway wrote: Wed Mar 23, 2022 6:39 pm The biggest problem with going all in on DI bass is the dynamic range of the instrument. A bass that hasn't been tamed by the preamp of an amp, an overdrive pedal or the inertia of a speaker can spit out some crazy random transients that are really loud.

Of course, compression can solve this but it can be finicky if you want to gently compress the overall signal, but also crush those short little bursts of volume when the bass guy spasmed a little because he farted and there was some extra attack on one random note. Serial compression can save the day, or just use an overdrive pedal to settle down the range if you don't mind the added hair.

What makes you think DI doesn't have gain staging, compression, etc.? At least nowadays, most bass DI pedals have most or all of these controls. At last that's what my rig has, and I assume most here are at least going through a SansAmp or Rusty Box. All that's missing is speaker reflex which is becoming more and more common in pedals as well. I don't know anyone who would use a plain old transformer-based passive brick to track bass, unless the goal was to get a completely dry track to reamp or send through emulation.

ChudFusk wrote: Wed Mar 23, 2022 7:26 pm I don't know anyone who would use a plain old transformer-based passive brick to track bass

*stands up, waves

Had great results running a Ric straight into a J48* for our last deal. Was expecting to reamp later when my partner was not in the house, but turns out I didn't need to bother.

Please keep in mind this was specifically using fingers and flats and just going for that low-end thump & staying out of the way out of the guitar, so probably a very different sound than most of y'all are going after. I think in post it was just some light smoothing compression.

*edit yeah so J48 actually an active DI but yeah just "straight into the snake" as they say

ChudFusk wrote: Wed Mar 23, 2022 7:26 pm All that's missing is speaker reflex which is becoming more and more common in pedals as well.

This is the biggest thing to watch out for with direct anything IMO (more so than dynamics, which yeah can be controlled with compression and playing technique).. that 'right against the speaker' sound just doesn't sit in a realistic way. If you don't have a speaker sim, a sharp low pass filter in the 3-5k range (depending on how 'guitar like' the bass sound is) will help (which is probably what the speaker sim would be doing anyway, though maybe not so drastic).

I can't select one option because I use a lot of different methods. If it's the live band, an M380 or RE20 front and center on the 15", an inch or two out from the grill cloth. I also do an RE20 on a Champ (at super low volume so the speaker doesn't rattle, often tamed with a fuzz pedal or Rat at a fairly unobtrusive setting) or a TS10 (with a bit more volume). I've gotten a great gritty sound with the headphone out of the TS10 using it as a DI. Also going from the output of a Rat straight into the board. Sometimes I even run the bass straight into the Tascam with nothing in between and have yielded some very nice, clean, round, totally serviceable sounds. It helps that the 488 prints the tracks so narrow by necessity, so it's probably cutting off/tidying up some of that extraneous low freq information. There's no wrong way if you like the end result!

Tom Wanderer wrote: Thu Mar 24, 2022 9:45 am There's no wrong way if you like the end result!

Absolutely this. Not every record should emulate the bass tone from Goat.

I love DI via my Sansamp. I usually want to add some drive/speaker sound, so I'll re-amp that through either my 15" speaker (dig my PG52 kick drum mic) or through a little practice amp with a 4033 or the PG52. I like to put a little drive on it with my EQD Plumes or with my Brassmaster clone. I just built a Megalith Fuzz clone that I am excited to try on the next recordings I do. Phase align the 2 signals and blend to preference.