Over the past year I have been collecting recording gear from all over and, just about to start recording my 5 piece band DIY. The bass player in the band is not one that likes to part with any money nor does he have that much, so I have been buying pretty much every piece of equipment we need, just so if things fall apart I can walk out the door with it. Anyways he is using a fender bassman 100 for his bass amp (not the best but it serves the purpose) anyways how should I record his bass?
options:
1. He has a Direct out on the back of his amp
2. Bass straight into Mackie CFX-20 mixer (hence the D.I. box question)
3. Straight into ART pre-amp then Motu828
4. Straight into Motu828 (using on board pre-amp)
5. Mic Bass amp
Thanks
Brett
PS
Here is our equipment
Mics:
(1) Studio Projects C1
(2) SM-57
(2) Sennheiser E835
(2) SM58
(1) Nady small condenser Mic (cheap)
and AUDIX Drum Mic package
Mixer: Mackie CFX-20
dbx 48pt Patchbay
Behringer Headphone amp w/ various AKG headphones
Interface: Motu828 Firewire
Micpre: 2 channel ART w/ digital out
PC running Sonar 3.1 pro
Comments
My guess would be that the direct out on the bassman would be no
My guess would be that the direct out on the bassman would be noisy. I would suggest buying a Whirlwind DI for $20 and using that direct and also throwing a bass drum mic infront of the cab if you like.
I am a bass player and I always wanted my cab mic'ed, but with one exception, the mixer always used the DI.
I also think that passive basses sound much better DI... the one time my cab mic was used it was when I was playing my stingray... the DI was noisy but the cab sounded OK.
Record and/or listen to all of your options and see what you got
Record and/or listen to all of your options and see what you got. If you find them all to be unacceptable, then you go from there. A passive DI may not buy you much if you don't have something decent to send the output to like a great preamp. An active DI may or may not provide the tone you are looking for that is missing. I would try to work with what you got now and see where that gets you. With the gear that you have, I don't see how a DI is going to make much of a difference unless you willing to spend to get a really great one.