D.I. or amp for bass guitar?

DI for me. It's hard to make a bass sound good in a small room, especially if you are getting an amp designed for a bigger room. The main design goal for a bass amp is power - not what you need to move a microphone diaphragm.



Before you go spending money, experiment with all of the direct inputs in the preamps that you already own. You may be surprised.

And I do both.

The amp by itself rarely sounds better than the DI, But the DI can sound a little sterile especially if you're trying to do something aggressive. So I use the DI to split the signal, and blend the amp and DI together. But the amp does need to sound decent otherwise the effort is futile.

I too do both

and the amp is hard to get sweet but worth it when you do



DI is very usable in the mix with less efforts



It all starts with the bass guitar and the fingers



The amp can be used for special bits and effect bits

use it in short busts and mix in when you need to say something

automate the mix



practice the mix tricks .. eq and comp



when you mix both together try filtering the very low from the amp and let the low waves of the DI to dominate



sometimes all you want from the bass is the low drone

I know bass players want the fingers and picks and strings edges etc

but often there is no room with other guitars and vocals and keys etc



it can't all be lead at once

let eh bass pop through for short runs and notes

once the seed is planted in the listener ... you can squash the upper tones and the listener will still follow without hearing ... ???

yeah I know ... weird

For the money you would pay out for even a mediocre bass amp you can get a seriously fine DI that will cure all your doubts about DI sounds. Look into bass preamps. Alembic, SWR , Hartke, and Conrad just to name a few. All tube and none slacker.

Another big question - how deeply have you explored the settings on your Bass POD? Which version is it? Have you edited the settings on the computer? There is a lot of flexibility in the deep editing features of the POD. Make sure you explore it before spending money.



Just for the record, I use a Bass Pod XTPro almost exclusively for recording. I've been able to find a couple of tones that work well with my rig, but I'm going for an old school R&B P-bass with flats through a B-15 vibe.

Pre EQ means something that is before the EQ. In this case, the DI out from the amp.



Post-EQ is after the EQ is applied, of course.

sorta both



I have had very good luck recording with a good quality active DI or pre, So I would recommend starting there as others have already pointed out. This is a must (IMHO). However, I can say I have also had surprisingly good luck applying the Ampeg SVX plugin from IK Multimedia. Been able to get some really good tones with it and saved me the hassle of trying to mic up an amp in my cruddy little hobbit size room.



these

Dedicated bass pres? Or mic pres with a DI option?



There are four really really good bass preamps that I know well. They are all KILLER instant great bass sounds and they are those sounds you hear on most great recordings.



SWR Interstellar Overdrive. IMHO THE BEST! Tubes....Fender based tone stack...this is what bass sounds like. Alembic. A close tie for first place. Demeter. Great bass pre. Conrad. Yes, my friend Conrad builds a bass pre based on the preamp section of the Sunn 200S head of the 60's. It is KILLER and is also tied for first place.



I dont know how much money that your budget quote translates to in dollars, but you'll have to find these online. The SWR isnt made any more. The Conrad is about $700 usd. Look it up on his site. conradamplification.com I think will get you there. The Demeter is on their website too and of course the Alembic stuff is still available and is the most expensive of the lot.



There are lots of other options such as a micpre with DI inputs. Very good sounding stuff there. Research research research.

As far as research goes, I assume you have seen the [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.basstast…"]Basstasters preamp [/]="http://www.basstast…"]Basstasters preamp [/]page. Tons of samples.

Great link Bob. I have a Hartke Bass Attack pedal. It works really well for the money.

Tube Bass Pre



In the studio I use an Alembic F-1X tube bass preamp and use a direct signal from that and blend it with one or two mics on a cabinet (usually a 421 and/or beta 52). I love the F-1X and would recommend it, a used one runs around $600 however but worth the investment. There is a used one on bassnw.com right now actually, that's where I get all of my bass gear. I also like Demeter pres I just haven't used them as much as my Alembic. I have used only DI in recording bass before and have gotten perfectly good signals but now I always record with both DI and mics on the cabinet and blend them together. There's just something missing when only using DI. The character of a speaker can really make a difference in a lot of cases.

monkeytastic, post: 296917 wrote: I'm now looking into the preamp options, but am hitting a brick wall trying to research them online. Could anyone recommend a decent preamp (tube would be nice)? My budget is ideally £400 ish but can now be stretched a bit if called for

I would suggest an active DI like the LR Baggs Para DI or Fishman Pro EQ DI. Both run on phantom power, have tone controls and volume controls.



I spend some time with my LR Baggs unit in getting the perfect bass tone, then run the bass through a compressor to smooth it out. But having that variable tone control and volume is really the trick. With most DI's, if you don't like the tone, tough..there is no fix. The LR Baggs Para DI is a wonderful unit for bass or acoustic instruments.

I use a Tech 21 SansAmp RPM, rack mount. The price isn't prohibitive and it allows me to mix tube with straight sound.



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