Members Dogoth Posted September 20, 2008 Members Share Posted September 20, 2008 My choices would be a AKG D112 (maybe used for $100 or so), A Beta 52 (if you find a used one it'll still cost $150 plus), or an MD 88 (not a cheap mic so forget it). Mostly what your looking for is a large diaphram Dynamic. There may be some budget Kick drum mics that would work well (like CAD or Samson to name a couple). I gotta agree that if the cost of the mic is important then the cost of the rest of the rig to support the extra low end properly (without blowing up) will probably shock you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alekke Posted September 20, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 20, 2008 I have read a lot of stuff here and I just want to say: 1. I'm not trying to get low end with sm58, I only say it is currently only mic we have. 2. we love distorted bass and we will never stop using it. its just like that, and its not so strange in the world of metal (think napalm death, meshuggah ...) especially as I am the only guitar in the band. 3. buying another preamp for bass would solve our live issues but we are poor and we cant afford it (for now) 4. we use 2x15" speakers for bass and we need something to mic that that would keep the bite of the distorted bass (not only low end like maybe akg112 would) I'll keep in mind for the recommendations you have given to me! what do you think about akg d11? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alekke Posted September 21, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 21, 2008 we got the chance to try and record with audix d6 and it is perfect!. Nice bassy and grindy even if it is a kick microphone! Now we now in which diredtion to look for! Thanks everybody for making an effort! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moody Posted September 21, 2008 Members Share Posted September 21, 2008 why not try a combination? Put your bass straight to a DI to the PA for the clear defined low end, then mic the amp with a '57 or something for the distortion over the top of it. I tend to agree with the full distortion not working on bass, but at least this way you can have both the tone you are looking for as well as the low end you expect. (I have just started using a big valve bass amp recently, huge difference to overall tone - but it's not full on distortion, just lightly overdriven). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zeromus-X Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 we got the chance to try and record with audix d6 and it is perfect!. Nice bassy and grindy even if it is a kick microphone! Now we now in which diredtion to look for!Thanks everybody for making an effort!Cheers! Wait, are you looking for something for live or studio? Big difference. If it's for live music, what kind of PA system are you running? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DBR Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 Shouldn't matter what kind of PA you have, unless your mains are like mine. 200W and that's it. Therefore, use your rig the most you can. for craps sake, take that distortion out of your bass and make it rumble. I heard your myspace sample. There is no bass. If there is, it sounds like another guitar. Distinguish yourself differently from them, otherwise just get a guitar and screw having any kind of bass whatsoever. I am a fan of fuzz, but that's ridiculous! Do not mic that bass, either. There is no way in hell that any kind of microphone is going to capture that extremely huge bass wave. It's going to fly right past that mic, cancelling out all bass whatsoever. Use a DI if you insist on going through the PA. Your amp might even have an XLR output. Mine does. It's not a Behringer, though. It's a combo Genz-Benz 90. If I need any more power, I will go through the PA. It's a nice little amp for the cash. Had an SWR rig. Try shoving one of their Triad cabs in a VW Bug. DBR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tarzanalog Posted September 22, 2008 Members Share Posted September 22, 2008 OK, so I've read this whole thread... and completely agree that your bass player is having an identity crisis and needs to totally rethink his tone. Hey, doing the right thing is never easy... better now than after he upgrades all of his gear for an even louder version of his distorted tone... and still sounds like @$$. Totally ignoring all of the psycho-acoustic factors, the upper frequencies of a distorted bass tone are just going to compete for sonic real estate with the guitars (there ya' go... the guitar players should be outraged that he's stepping on their toes) and the lower frequencies will get lost in drums or just sound like a blurry mess... or make the drums sound like a blurry mess (there... the drummer should be PO'd as well). The bass is a dynamic tunable drum at best... and a thick fuzzy blanket over your entire band's sound at worst. Don't let it be the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alekke Posted September 23, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 23, 2008 We dont have our own PA, we play on medium size venues with PA already there. There are several kW usually on such gigs. Songs on my space are pretty old but still why can't you live with the fact that we love distorted bass and it in one hand serve us like a second downtuned guitar. Sound we managed to get is similar to this one: (look from 1:08) But not that clear, cause we are using cheap behringer and Dick is using 2500euro worth Line 6 Vetta II head. But still, that is the sound we want to use today and we are pretty damn close. Does anyone listens to meshuggah, napalm death, cryptopsy, lock up, sick of it all .... etc.? Those are metal bands with some serious distorted bass sound! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moody Posted September 23, 2008 Members Share Posted September 23, 2008 Does anyone listens to meshuggah, napalm death, cryptopsy, lock up, sick of it all .... etc.? Those are metal bands with some serious distorted bass sound! I haven't listened to those bands, however I did listen to the sample you posted (from 1.08) and I think it sounds horrible. There is no low end definition there. It sounds like a low tuned guitar with the distortion turned way up. If you put a regular guitar over the top you wouldn't hear it at all. I think you will find that most of those bands in recording have good clean bass underneath the layers of distortion, you need something to rest upon besides the noteless thud of the kick drum. Sure put distortion on the bass sound but run a clean signal as well. I know that bass players don't like comparisons to guitarists, and I'm a bass player myself, but some of the best sounding guitar distortions are running dual amps, one distorted, and one clean to give definition to the distortion. If you are going to use your bass like a guitar then follow that lead. One suggestion I would make would be to run a bass amp with a clean signal, run a line out to a crossover and then run the highs (say from 80hz up) to a heavily distorted real valve guitar amp. You'll get a way better yet still heavily distorted bass tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bleepo Posted September 23, 2008 Members Share Posted September 23, 2008 +1 on the dual amp situation. It's the best way to do distorted bass. Not an effective solution with no road crew, however. I've always used DI on my bass live... Post EQ makes the FOH mixer job more difficult most of the time, however. It's not up to your bassist to eq it to sit in the mix. If the PA is several KW, his cabinet is usually for monitoring purposes only. Also, the breakup of speakers can be a desirable sound for guitar, but less than pleasant on bass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zeromus-X Posted September 23, 2008 Members Share Posted September 23, 2008 Same here... whenever I used distorted bass live, I had two stacks -- 2x10 and 1x18 on each stack -- and only one side would be distorted, the other side would remain clean. When recording anything with a distorted bass part, I always, ALWAYS used two tracks. Distorted bass emphasises the second harmonic of the note; that's why it sounds like it's missing that low end thump. Run two tracks, one to get the fundamental, one to get the distorted sound, and you've got the best of both worlds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted September 23, 2008 Members Share Posted September 23, 2008 Same here... whenever I used distorted bass live, I had two stacks -- 2x10 and 1x18 on each stack -- and only one side would be distorted, the other side would remain clean. That's what I do too; I run the gritty sound from Sansamp RBI to the right side of the power amp and on to an Ampeg 4x10. A clean sound goes to the 1x15 on the bottom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tarzanalog Posted September 23, 2008 Members Share Posted September 23, 2008 Ditto... my "bass distortion pedal" is the Prescription Electronics Depth Charge... which blends the clean signal back in to taste. Can you see a trend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bluedogaudio Posted September 24, 2008 Members Share Posted September 24, 2008 I used to use an Audio-Technica Pro25. I haven't tried the newer version, the Pro 25ax. Might be a solution for a smaller budget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members trevcda Posted September 25, 2008 Members Share Posted September 25, 2008 Jeeze! what if someone had insisted that Jack Bruce play his bass correctly and with the correct tone? Or had told Jaco that he HAD to use a pick? Or that anyone who plays bass with their thumbs is doing it wrong? Wait! I'm pretty sure somebody did say all those things at one point or another! Fortunately they didn't listen... Let the guy have his tone! Having said that, the last several posts have really good information (blending clean with distorted feeds) on getting that tone into the PA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alekke Posted September 25, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 25, 2008 I appreciate all the answers and thanks trevcda for the support! I'm sure all suggestions are great, especially the one with DI clean and distorted mixture, but all I wanted to know what kind of low-to-mid budget microphone could support distorted bass sound cause very often the mixing console guy wouldn't want to have 2 channels just for bass guitar. Now I know what our solutions are: Audix D6, AKG D11 or Audio Tehnica Pro25. Thanks all and good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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