Go with E. Direct from the bass and miced cab.

E

I usually just wind up using just the amp track, but I will keep a DI bass if I want to experiment with re-amping to a different rig, or if the DI sound fits into the song better. (its nice to have options)

i dont know what svt head your bassist uses, but listen to the di before you track there is one model where the di is almost unuable.

From looking at pictures online and comparing to my memory, the bass amp is either an Ampeg B2r or B2RE. Sorry for the confusion. Also, Mccheese and John, what mic do you usually use?

The Ampeg B series are a pretty week SS design, IMHO. I wouldn't bother running out the DI of that amp. If you have a dedicated DI box I'd run that into the pres, and then mic the cab. See how it sounds, then maybe switch the Di to the podxt, and try that with the mic'd amp. See what combo you like best for each song. You may end up with the DI and Pod. There definately are no rules on recording bass, whatever works, works. I'm guessing you could get some pretty cool tones mixing the mic'd amp and the pod tracks though.

You could also try the Pod through the amp and then mix that with a DI track, lot's of possibilities. experiment and go with what you like the best.

Good Luck!

But which mic to use on the cab? A kick drum mic or an SM-57 style mic?

Try a beta 52 or an akg d12,112, md421??. I like to use a splitter with one into a mic'd cab and the other direct into the pod. Blend until happy. I've got some great tones with the pod alone. Good luck!

Oh yeah, sometimes for me, direct into a great tube preamp has worked great. I've used an Avalon 737 a couple times with nice warm results.

I just did a session last weekend for a latin jazz project. The bass player had a beautiful violin type bass- not a hoffner, a bigger one, very unusual looking- we went in direct through a grace 101 and got a very clean fat tone that did not need any eq- I added a bit of compression in some of the tracks but that's all- oh, and the bass player also had impeccable technique- that really helped a lot!

I use an RE20 on bass cabs a lot. The B2R head has a horrible direct output. The one we use for a practice amp is way too noisy, and sounds like ass.

Again there are a number of mics that can work, depends on the sound you want. LDC's can be cool, kick mics like D112's can be cool, an Md412 is what a lot of people use, and an SM57 can even work for a more mids forward sound with less low bass. It depends on the sound your going for, so your going to have to experiment a little.

just try what you have and go with the one that sounds best to you.

Maintiger is also right in that you don't have to use anything other than a direct in if you have a quality pre and DI. It's nice to have options at mix time though, so I'd recomend tracking both the amp and the DI or Pod. Then you can decide what to use later.

Good Luck!

The Audix D6 is a good option as is the D12/112. An ATM25 has a firmer low end than either and doesnt have as much 'click' in the upper end. That amp head is good for a monitor for the bass live but thats about all. Not very smooth on the frequency response . The cabinet will do okay, find a nice low-wattage head to put through it. Record at a low level...since you're using an M-Box, I'm assuming that this track will be done alone so volume in a room is not an issue. An older tube head ala Bassman,Showman,Deluxe, will all produce a complete range of sound with that cabinet. SWR, Trace Elliot, something of that nature for newer heads. You do not need a lot of power to capture a mic'd bass cab....just a lot of headroom in the amp itself. Experiment...have fun....be ready with the red button.

Thornbyrd wrote: From looking at pictures online and comparing to my memory, the bass amp is either an Ampeg B2r or B2RE. Sorry for the confusion. Also, Mccheese and John, what mic do you usually use?

First choices would be:

Neumann fet 47
akg d 12
akg d 112
RE-20
RE-27

or whatever is available.

Don't forget about a quality bass guitar. I love the musicman's. Such a unique tone. Love em!

My best bass-guitar results have come from mixing an SM57 @ ~6" off the cone (4x10" cab) and a Beta52 @~1" off the cone of a 1x15 cab (had to remove the grill to get it close enough). Very natural sounding bass tone that just sat down perfectly in the mix. The 57 dialed in the "air" and growl while the 52 provided the low-end & punch. No compression or EQ was required...

MilesAway wrote: My best bass-guitar results have come from mixing an SM57 @ ~6" off the cone (4x10" cab) and a Beta52 @~1" off the cone of a 1x15 cab (had to remove the grill to get it close enough). Very natural sounding bass tone that just sat down perfectly in the mix. The 57 dialed in the "air" and growl while the 52 provided the low-end & punch. No compression or EQ was required...

Never miced a real amp.. (only pansy ones) or dealt with a real one for that matter.. :(

how do you get one head to drive two cabnits ? Or is it done in another manner ?

Sidhu

someone once wrote on here that an old fliptop b15 with an RE-20 was the best bass sound ever, and up until that point i hadn't heard that sound so i was a bit skeptical. now i can say i have seen the light.

you can pretty much dial any kind of bass sound you'll need with one of those things. we recently had the re-20 die on us mid-session, and we had to put up a 421 in place of it, and it couldn't even compare. the re20 has this rich fat sound and the 421 had a real tight mid kind of sound. i would highly recommend the re20 as an affordable bass micing solution.

the 421 works decent, but just can't compare to the re20. i have also heard the Neumann fet47, and it sounds really great, but it has a sort of darker sound to it. the re20 is just bright enough, with out being overly clicky.

(disclaimer: without good preamps, none of these mics will ever sound as good as people tell you. you must be using good sounding preamps to really bring out the character of the mic. when i say "good sounding" i mean, neve, api, or whatever else falls into the professional equipment catagory)

good luck

steve

Sidhu wrote:

Never miced a real amp.. (only pansy ones) or dealt with a real one for that matter.. :(

how do you get one head to drive two cabnits ? Or is it done in another manner ?

Sidhu

Most heads have several speaker-outputs on them. Many bass-cabs also have a parallel-out jack that you can use to daisy-chain several cabs together. In the case of the session i was discussing, the bassist was running an Ampeg preamp into a QSC stereo poweramp - one side driving the 1x15, the other side driving the 4x10.

I have to agree with rudedogg. I use an EV RE20 mostly for recording bass and it's given me the best results out of all my suitable mics which are MD421, AKG D112, AT Pro25, SM57, AKG Solidtube, Neumann U87. I usually combine it with a DI from a BSS DI and Bob's your uncle !!

I like the Audix D6 as well.
I read that the Great River MP2NV was killer on bass guitar. So I tried it out...
It was AWESOME to say the least.
The D6 was fat and clear going through it.
Later I used the Great River as a DI (on bass guitar) and it was fanastic as well.

I never used an Ampeg DI that was worth a crap. It's like that on about every model they make (IMO). They just don't make a good DI. ...(they never have)
I think the SansAmp bass DI is a great way to get bass tracks that rock as well.