Mr.Si Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 Hi guys and gals I'm doing sound for a 3 band concert later this month. one of the bass guitarists has an "Ashdown" amp - which I believe is a gorgeous toy for as bassist to have. He was asking about whether I could mic it up because it sounds so much nicer that way. Trouble is, my mic inventory is: 1x AKG D1123x SM572x SM581x Sennheiser E8352x AKG C10002x Rode NT31x Audio Technica AT3035 (large Diapragm vocal recording mic) and these will be stolen by drums, electric gtrs and Vox So my thoughts are to DI him. But if I could, What would people recommend to use when mic'ing up a bass amp? Cheers, Mr. Si Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
london sound Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 Usually I prefer a DI however if you have to mic up then D112 or Sen E602 should do the job. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 If you can get hold of a DI that will take speaker-level signals in, then you could stick it after the amp.. that of course, if it's the amp/processing that gives it the sound. If it's the speaker, then that wouldn't work. Failing that, I'd try to use a D112.. heck, even a 57 would work =)David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallMike Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 An AKG 414 would be great. Also use them for your kick drum! They can handle an immense SPL. Ashdown amps really are a nice bit of kit, but generally the quality lives in the preamp stage (it incorporates a valve or two), so DI-ing would still sound sweet. Good luck! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 If in doubt use an SM57. If I had time to experiment then I might try an MD421 or D112 on it, hey why not try an RE20! James You don't know what you are going to get untill you try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Si Posted March 7, 2005 Author Share Posted March 7, 2005 what is an RE20?!!!! never heard of one of them! or an MD421 for that matter!! Unfortuanately a 414 is out of budget, though I'd love like 20 of them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ojc123 Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 Don't know about bass but I DI my Ashdown guitar amp. I use the Effects send and it seems to work very well. No doubt someone will tell me I'm doing the wrong thing but it sounds like the amp on its own although I drop the treble a bit because PA horns tend to emphasise top more than the 12" speaker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tour monkey Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 Working on the theory of an beyer M88 in a kick drum, I guess that would sound nice on a bass cab? Someone might care to inform us on that! Munk ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshwah Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 what is an RE20?!!!! never heard of one of them! or an MD421 for that matter!! Unfortuanately a 414 is out of budget, though I'd love like 20 of them!<{POST_SNAPBACK}> An Md421 is a sennheiser mic originaly made for reporters to use, but they are capable of handling large spl's and sound very nice imho and lots of other people's used to be used on toms lots, also sound nice in bass drums. Id agree with James that its a great mic for bass amps used it numerous times myself for this exact job The RE20 is a EV mic its a cardiod dynmaic if I rmeber correctly its a big grey mic and I think also originaly designed for brodcast work. Another suggestions that sounds nice on bass amps is an audix D4 sounds really nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 Ashdown DI outputs are very clean - I'd use it. Solves two main problems, spill is cut down by having one less mic open, and, to my ears, the snag with using anything less than a decent condenser - your 3035 would be good - is that the very lows and very top are lacking. I agree a 57 works, but not at the extreme edges that the Ashdowns are famous for. DI'ing solves this, although, as has been said you miss out on the speaker contribution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benge Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 Usually I prefer a DI however if you have to mic up then D112 or Sen E602 should do the job. Ian<{POST_SNAPBACK}> I completely agree with the above..... as a bassist my self.... I like go straight from bass to DI then DI to Bass Amp.... Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddie Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 If the Amp has an "emulated line out", chuck that into a line level on the mixer, without a DI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 If the Amp has an "emulated line out", chuck that into a line level on the mixer, without a DI<{POST_SNAPBACK}> NOT if your mixer isn't on stage, or very local. 50m of multi and a rather dull, muddy mess emerges. unbalanced to unbalanced is tricky - ground loops seem to happen with boring regularity - which proper DI's don't suffe so much from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 Ashdown DI outputs are very clean - I'd use it. Solves two main problems, spill is cut down by having one less mic open, and, to my ears, the snag with using anything less than a decent condenser - your 3035 would be good - is that the very lows and very top are lacking. I agree a 57 works, but not at the extreme edges that the Ashdowns are famous for. DI'ing solves this, although, as has been said you miss out on the speaker contribution.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yup, I'd DI every time for bass. Need to be a little creative if it's just a line level unbalanced DI, but most decent bass amps have decent balanced DIs that give a cracking output. Yes, you lose the speaker contribution, but you also lose the mic compromise that will normally more than undo that. I remember an engineer insisting he didn't want to DI from my Trace Elliott combo and spending ages dicking about with mics. Eventually I persuaded him just to plug the mic cable into the balanced post-preamp DI and smugly watched him change his mind! Basically, it's stacks easier to DI and the pros more than outweigh the cons every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iksound Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 what is an RE20?!!!! never heard of one of them! or an MD421 for that matter!! Unfortuanately a 414 is out of budget, though I'd love like 20 of them!<{POST_SNAPBACK}> An Md421 is a sennheiser mic originaly made for reporters to use, but they are capable of handling large spl's and sound very nice imho and lots of other people's used to be used on toms lots, also sound nice in bass drums. Id agree with James that its a great mic for bass amps used it numerous times myself for this exact job The RE20 is a EV mic its a cardiod dynmaic if I rmeber correctly its a big grey mic and I think also originaly designed for brodcast work. Another suggestions that sounds nice on bass amps is an audix D4 sounds really nice.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hi guys, the RE20 is a dynamic. these are really good on bass amps. if you want a really big bass sound, you should try DI'ing and Mic'ing the amp, however, you need to make sure you get them in phase. use one channel for the bass, and one for the higher frequencies. this technique is often used in the studio, and you may think its overkill. remember the closer you put any mic to the edge of the cone, the more bass you'll get from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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