O
odominguez
Guest
In this article we are going to talk about how to get the best sound out of your bass guitar and how to blend the direct signal with the sound coming out of an amplifier with different cabinet setups.
Speaker cabinets for bass amplifiers come in many different configurations. But the most common found in the studio are the 4x10 (4 10” speakers) and the 1x15 (1 15” speaker). There are different approaches to record these two different kinds of speaker cabinets. And there are different microphones used for each one. Depending on the intention of the recording you will find yourself recording them with different microphones every time. But there are some standards that will definitely be a great start point.
The Sennheiser 421 microphone is very common in studios to record many things such as bass amplifiers, drums toms and in some cases even bass drums. In this case I will refer to it for recording a 4x10 cabinet. It is capable of recording very low frequencies as well as giving you some high end for you to use in your mix.
The other common microphone used in recording bass rigs is the Shure Beta 52 (which is also very common for recording bass drums) The B-52 is often used at the studio for recording 1x15 bass cabinets. It captures very well the low frequencies produces by a 15” speaker cabinet, which can go as low as 35Hz in some cases. The B-52 microphone is not that expensive if you are looking for alternatives. The good thing about it is the fact that it can be used for some other application, which makes the investment a little more justifiable.
Now that we have covered the two most common microphones used in recording bass amplifiers, we should cover the positioning of those microphones to achieve the sound we want. In bass amplifiers the most common approach is to place the microphone about 1 or 2 inches of the grill of the amplifier (close miking). And when it comes to placement referencing the speaker, the two methods are (1) ON AXIS, which is playing the capsule of the microphone facing the center of the speaker directly. This method will give the microphone the chance to capture a little more high end through the capsule so that you don’t have to make up for it with an EQ later in the mix.
If you are looking to record a more muffled sound (very common in reggae and some styles of old school funk) you might want to consider placing the microphone (2) OFF AXIS, which as opposed to the previous method, involves placing the microphone’s capsule facing the cone of the speaker. This will block some of the direct sound and will allow for you to get a more “bassy” sound out of the speaker. These two approaches are also very common on recording electric guitar amplifiers, which will cover in the future.
In the next article we will post some photos of this process in real life, as well as some sound clips of how the different approaches sound like without any EQ or any other effects. Also in future articles we will start covering the mixing process and a HOW TO guide to be able to make your bass tracks fit into the final mix without colliding with any of the other instruments in your particular project. Thank you for reading and stay tuned.
Speaker cabinets for bass amplifiers come in many different configurations. But the most common found in the studio are the 4x10 (4 10” speakers) and the 1x15 (1 15” speaker). There are different approaches to record these two different kinds of speaker cabinets. And there are different microphones used for each one. Depending on the intention of the recording you will find yourself recording them with different microphones every time. But there are some standards that will definitely be a great start point.
The Sennheiser 421 microphone is very common in studios to record many things such as bass amplifiers, drums toms and in some cases even bass drums. In this case I will refer to it for recording a 4x10 cabinet. It is capable of recording very low frequencies as well as giving you some high end for you to use in your mix.
The other common microphone used in recording bass rigs is the Shure Beta 52 (which is also very common for recording bass drums) The B-52 is often used at the studio for recording 1x15 bass cabinets. It captures very well the low frequencies produces by a 15” speaker cabinet, which can go as low as 35Hz in some cases. The B-52 microphone is not that expensive if you are looking for alternatives. The good thing about it is the fact that it can be used for some other application, which makes the investment a little more justifiable.
Now that we have covered the two most common microphones used in recording bass amplifiers, we should cover the positioning of those microphones to achieve the sound we want. In bass amplifiers the most common approach is to place the microphone about 1 or 2 inches of the grill of the amplifier (close miking). And when it comes to placement referencing the speaker, the two methods are (1) ON AXIS, which is playing the capsule of the microphone facing the center of the speaker directly. This method will give the microphone the chance to capture a little more high end through the capsule so that you don’t have to make up for it with an EQ later in the mix.
If you are looking to record a more muffled sound (very common in reggae and some styles of old school funk) you might want to consider placing the microphone (2) OFF AXIS, which as opposed to the previous method, involves placing the microphone’s capsule facing the cone of the speaker. This will block some of the direct sound and will allow for you to get a more “bassy” sound out of the speaker. These two approaches are also very common on recording electric guitar amplifiers, which will cover in the future.
In the next article we will post some photos of this process in real life, as well as some sound clips of how the different approaches sound like without any EQ or any other effects. Also in future articles we will start covering the mixing process and a HOW TO guide to be able to make your bass tracks fit into the final mix without colliding with any of the other instruments in your particular project. Thank you for reading and stay tuned.