Does anyone here know any good bass cab micing techniques, i'm looking to get a nice round bottom with pronounced mids. To achieve a aggressive sound. Im looking for mic suggestions and placement suggestion. Im working with a Beta 52 and a SM57 to hopefully grab a bit more upper mids.

i've always used D112s with great success...mixed with a healthy portion of direct signal as well. sennheiser e602s are pretty decent too, because among other things they have no SPL limit.

i like recording bass cabs in either as dead a room or spot as possible- or cover over it and the mic with a large comforter or sleeping bags.

additionally, if using one mic, i usually like to put the mic anywhere from 1-3 feet away pointed at the center of the cone. i always try to get a lot of low end bass sound to tape- but i think it's always important to aim at the center to get lots of brightness as well. it's very simple to get rid of brightness later- but adding brightness to a track recorded with none is always irritating and futile.

with 2 mics though- i would try the 52 on the closest cone to the floor, near the rim of the cone and the 57 on a cone higher up in the center.
make sure the phase is all good and you should be pleased.
also- i try to limit both mics equally- usually setting the threshold around 0 or +3 at an 8:1 ratio. this way, only the really wonky loud notes are getting nudged and there won't be any silly secondary overtones being boosted as a result of compressing rather than limiting. i see it alot these days where jerks overcompress bass and then think it's out of tune or the bassist is playing the wrong part- when in fact- the track is being so squashed that the overtones are being recorded louder than the fundamentals.

as for an aggressive sound, i would mic closer than farther and dialing in some additive EQ around 700Hz does wonders for bass "growl" and 1.6KHz for the actual notes being played.
for cool "nasty" i also really dig putting lots of things that rattle around the amp so they go nuts on certain notes. things like toolboxes, jars filled with screws, bikes, etc. it's subtle but usually pretty exciting and/or interesting- especially on a solo or quiet passage. (but then again- i am generally know for being kind of a weirdo!)

and above all, if you are moving mics around for awhile and still nothing is sounding great, try tweaking the amp, changing the amp, or maybe
even (but hopefully not) the bassist!

If you have a D12, try it for the low frequencies, otherwise a d112 will work fine, i guess.
For me, the Beta57 is a good choice specially with distorded basses (and guitar). It is bright and punchy and, in fact, has just the "57" in common with the SM one !

have a nice day

Patrick

for me the beta52 is fine, especialy for dirty bass (it worked fine for me a week ago). got a lot of bottom end. if you want more mid peraps try to mic the beta52 close but put a static mic some feet away and kill the high end of this one just to keep the mid. mix the two.
but peraps just had more mid to your bass sound (peraps it's sound silly but for me it was the answer)

I usually mic bass cabs with a Neumann fet 47 aiming at the centre of one speaker an a dynamic on another. D112 (very rarely...), RE20 (my favourite mic for this application), Audix om3 (has worked well ocasionaly), 421 (when one has been available....) I sometimes get very good results using parallel compression/limiting on the bass.

Javier Ortiz

bass axe is always a challenge!
without getting to fancy,414 always with a re-20,d-112,57,old d-12 ,m-88,beta 52,
blended will work fine.if you have that small very affordable shure sm98! that can be used as 414 or just by it's self?(cost 1/4 of a akg 414
all the above mics work well solo too.
pedals really help also-boss c2 blue compressor w/3 knobs rules for adding a tight yet cool grit to the bass for about $55.
i think DI's are gay but if you use it running into a optical compressor or a dist of some type they soung fine.
last and most important !
use your ears cuz that's how all the great recording fucks get it down.
good bass and rig!
been recording about 6yrs and have found lower volumes on tube heads keeps the low end tight!
solid state rocks both
don't need to blast svt's to make them sound great on studio speakers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!and that ride outside that has a stereo worth more then the car.

try to get a decent condenser mic to pair up with one of your dynamics. that'll capture the upper mid 'attack' a little better, whereas most dynamics alone will sound pretty 'DI like' (except maybe the SM7).

i'm not too sure about recording, but i've gotten a very good live bass sound recently by di-ing it and then sticking an sm57 just off centre from a cone. send both singals to a light compressor et viola; BOOM and CLUNK.
(yes, i know the 57 is a shitty mic to use for bass, but the venue i work at has a rather paltry selection of mics. there's just not enough bass-response on it, hence the di as well.)