Bass "amp" Recording (3 diff Places, 3 diff Mics)

[alakis]

So, what we've got here is mic shootout for bass (cabinet) recording!
The instrument is an Ernie Ball Musicman S.U.B X02 bass guitar playing the money riff from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon, it was driven through a fender Bassman 300 amp with a Bassman 215 Pro cabinet.

The signal chain was as simple as possible, which means :
Bass guitar -----> Amp ------> Cabinet ------> Mic ------> Audient asp 8024 console ----> Tascam DA-78 HR (8 track digital recorder at "44100/16 bit") -----> Lynx Studio L22 (through AES/EBU connection) ----> PC Hard Disk (Nuendo 3)

No Pad, Eq or any other processing have been made throughout the process and high quality cables were used for best results. The audient console was used only as a preamp to equalize the level of the mics to be recorded.
The bass player have been recorded at 3 different takes, each time a group of 3 different mics have been recording simultaneously (placed as close together as possible) and each take the group of mics was positioned at different place on the bass cabinet.
The maximum distance between the capsules was about 4-6 cm of each other.
The mics compared in the shootout were, in no particular order :

BeyerDynamic M88 TG (dynamic/ hypercardioid ) $449.97
Shure SM58 (dynamic/ cardioid) $99.97
AKG D112 (large diaphragm dynamic/ cardioid) $249.97

For your better understanding of the recording technique after each take I took a picture showing the position each mic would have been if it were alone. “note :just for the picture, the actual picture would be 3 mics at a time positioned at the same place simultaneously”
So now you got to guess not only in which position were the group of mics “looking at” (at cone of the speaker, at middle between cone and edge of the speaker or at the edge of the speaker), but also which mic from the group you’re hearing.
Match the picture to the equivalent audio file.
The files have been encoded with Steinberg's Wavelab 4 (LameEncoder) 256kbps

[brandondrury]

Cool shootout! Thanks for including the pictures!!

It's really interesting just how different the tones are especially in the 400Hz ballpark with the different mic placements. As expected, the SM58 wasn't nearly as thick and ballsy as the other two, but I could see it being usuable in certain instances.

Great job, dude! How is the Beyer on guitar cabs?

Brandon

[alakis]

How is the Beyer on guitar cabs?

Well actually, nice question. I really don't know and if I have the chance to be in my university's recording studio again, I'll give a try. By the way I have used the beyer for recording the bd and sounds really smooth and bassy (my choice if I'm going after for a jazzy sound)

[ALalexmurphyEX]

My favourite sample it mic1 group 1

[Audio~Geek]

I think my preference is mic 3 except in position 3.
Seems to have the most I could work with in a mix.

[headrheum]

I think in normal conditions in a mix, setups with mic1 would sit correctly without too much tweaking.

3rd one clearly sounded as a big diaphragm condenser and I was right.
Well, epecially in that mic-to-amp distance, to my experience, only soft/sparse arrangements COULD benefit from a higher freq/spectrum and a bigger dynamic range.

For the rest, mic2 sounds better in solo, but as I said, probably mic1 would sit much better without heavy processing.

The performances sounded a little too shy though, I'd like to hear it with a brave touche.

Thanks for the shootout

[Audio~Geek]

no condensers in the test actually.

That's why I was so surprised to like it, I normally hate that mic.

[headrheum]

Oh true, well, I don't see too much use of placing a large diaphragm that close anyway
90% chance that that track would be out of my mix in those 'regular' arrangements.

[alakis]

That's why I was so surprised to like it, I normally hate that mic.

Really? You hate the AKG D112? It's my favourite on bd and works well for bass cabinet, too "as it seems :P"
Well when I recorded the samples I was suprised with the sound of the D112 positioned in the middle between cone and the edge of the speaker, I heard it through a B&W Nautilus 802D and sounded too huge. "note: I don't own the equipment used, I wish I could, actually is my university's recording studio gear"

[Audio~Geek]

I've just had bad luck with them. Used them a couple times on kick and regretted it. Lots of bleed, not a lot of lows, just all wrong for what I was recording. I didn't have many options at the time besides sample replacement.

Audix D6, Shure Beta 91 and Sennheiser E901 are all good mics IMO

Not that this has anything to do with miking a bass cabinet.