Recording Bass: DI, Mic'ed, or both?

[King Boo]

what is the bass tone you guys are usually chasing? I go both usually, i dont really like my bass to be to up front in the mix, alot of compression a little bit of EQ does it for me. but what about you guys? how do you guys like to record and mix your bass and all that good stuff.

 

[Leuchty]

TSE B.O.D.

DI'd of course.

 

[KingAenarion]

Bassist in the room

Tie line/long cable through to recording room/area
DI before the Amp
MD421 and AKG D112 on Amp. Sometimes an AKGC414

 

[fleshwoodsteel]

I tend toward the DI route, going straight into the Sansamp RBI into my DAW. I'm experimenting with taking the direct (unchanged) signal out of the sansamp into my guitar preamp (ENGL e530) and recording both tracks and then mixing the distorted track in to allow it to sit better with the guitars. Still tweaking but we're getting there.

 

[petereanima]

DI'd + Amp mic'd. Then mixing both.

We usually use a bigmuff in front of the amp, with very extreme settings, so having an additional "clean" signal is almost a "must".

 

[keshav]

I take a DI signal as well as from my Axe-Fx. My Axe-Fx bass patch is set up for a really rounded, warm tone which anchors the bass to the kick. With the DI signal I simply use Cubase 6's VST Amp Rack, with the Plexi model, believe it or not. It makes for a very clangy, edgy and midrangey kind of tone which really cuts through the mix and glues the bass to the lower end of the guitars.

All the stuff on my soundcloud page has this exact bass tone setup and is what I'm using for my album as well

 

[fleshwoodsteel]

^ Well, Keshav, I'll have to bow to that advice, because that bass tone is just stupid good.

Not hijacking the OP, but since it's clear that a lot of us are mixing a DI and some distorted signal (amp or otherwise), are there eqing tricks here (hi pass on distorted signal, low pass on DI?)?

 

[keshav]

^ Well, Keshav, I'll have to bow to that advice, because that bass tone is just stupid good.

Not hijacking the OP, but since it's clear that a lot of us are mixing a DI and some distorted signal (amp or otherwise), are there eqing tricks here (hi pass on distorted signal, low pass on DI?)?

Haha thanks for the kind words man!

You know, it's weird but I do pretty much zero post processing on the bass in my mixes :/ Except maybe some tiny surgical cuts at annoying frequencies. Like you mentioned about high passing one track and low passing the other...occasionally if I'm recording a band I do that, depending on the kinda tone they want and the kind of gear they have. But for my stuff, the source pretty much does all the work haha. The bass itself (it's my friend's EBMM Stingray 5) and brand new strings just make for a gorgeous direct tone.

I have to say though, that Cubase VST Amp Rack is quite the bomb haha! Don't like it on guitars but for bass it really sounds good, especially if you're after that sparkly Justin Chancellor-ish tone

 

[Ermz]

Both are ideal.

I normally record only the DI, and then reamp into distortion boxes/cabs/whatnot afterward, as it makes life easier when editing.

I usually end up with 2 or 3 different bass signals to mix for the final tone, after which there is commonly substantial post-processing EQ, compression, limiting & multiband to get 'there'. Your own mileage may vary, depending on your source tone, and what you're willing to settle for. Professional album tones are a different story to what most will say is 'good enough' for a home recording, so it really depends how far you want to follow that rabbit hole. Truly great low-end is a search which can take decades.

Take all that with your own grain of salt. There are plenty of clips on my site which provide examples of what the above approach results in.