N: Sounds pretty straight forward, but as anyone who's tried to record bass knows, the DI sound by itself doesn't really give the 'full picture' of the bass' sound.

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Michael: That's right. So the next part of the picture is the microphone on the bass amp.

Dave: This gets us some of the 'power' and the sound of the bass amp to give more character to the dry DI sound.

 

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N: So what kind of microphone are you using on the bass amplifier and where do you place it?

 

Dave: Generally a Large Diaphragm Condenser (LDC) is best as the larger diaphragm is better for capturing low end frequencies.

Michael: We've found the best placement is about 10 inches from the speaker, slightly off-axis and angled towards the centre of the cone.

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N: And do you have a preferred make or model of microphone to use?

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Michael: Look, any half-decent large diaphragm condenser will do the job.

Dave: Of course we'd all love to use Neumanns all the time but there are plenty of great LDC's out there and most of them should be fine.

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N: Cool, so the amp microphone plus the DI would be combining together to make a pretty darn good bass sound, but there's one more thing you guys like to do, right?

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Michael: When I'm playing and recording an upright (acoustic) bass, I like to have a microphone in front of the fret board to capture the sound of the fingers plucking the strings and moving about the frets.

N: I imagine that would give the recording a natural 'live' feel...

Dave: That's right. By adding this third element to the mix, the bass sounds real and live again. Not just like an amped instrument.

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N: So what kind of mic would you use here then?

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Dave: A Ribbon microphone works really well in this application.

Michael: They're very natural sounding and beautifully capture the 'slap' and finger noises on the fret board. We'd generally place the mic slightly below the neck-joint of the bass.

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N: Great, so that's the miking side of things covered. Let's head into the control room and talk about what happens to the bass signals there. What do you do in the way of compression?

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Dave: I generally don't compress on 'the way in' (recording). So in mix, the first step is a light limiting to contain the peaks.

Michael: Then we'll use one - or often two - compressors, each set pretty light: maximum of about 2:1 ratio. But usually less, somewhere around 1.2, 1.5:1.

Dave: Each of these just does a little 'squeeze' on the signal. Just gently to keep everything tight but not sounding compressed.

Michael: Having said that, in case one wants some compression actually recorded as part of the sound: I have in various sessions & live used an 1176LN (which was part of my bass rig for a while).

Also I have used an Allison Gain Brain, like those in the studio racks, set to more RMS mode than PEAK.

Dave: The LA2A and 1176 both sound great. In the box I tend to use the Waves Fairchild plug and Bass Rider, as well as C6 for tonal shaping.

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N: Bass is generally panned mono. How are you blending and panning these 3 signals?

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Dave: That's right. We'd keep it pretty narrow panning.

N: And the levels?

Michael: Pretty even, but a bit less of the 'slap' channel. But as always, use your ears and blend till it sounds right to you.

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N: So we've been talking about miking and recording an upright Bass. But you could do pretty much the same thing with a Bass guitar, right?

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Michael: Absolutely. An acoustic bass guitar, definitely, and an electric bass guitar as well. You may not need or want the mic in front of the fret board for an electric bass guitar, it all depends on the music and whether you want that sound and also whether there's space for it – to hear it – in the mix.

Dave: You know, something else that can work really well is using a pencil mic – a small diaphragm condenser (SDC) – behind the headstock.

N: On a bass?

Dave: Yes, or a guitar. I've found that's a good spot to capture some interesting harmonics.

N: Cool, I'll have to give it a try sometime.