As a bass player, I am used to conforming to the will of others.  Typically my amp isn’t as loud as I like it or I can’t here myself as well as I would prefer or I am pushed into a corner on stage.  These things honestly don’t bother me that much.  Well the stage thing does but what can you do.  There is, however, one thing that does annoy me when it comes to recording.  

 

Bass players are always preferably recorded direct.  That means plugging the bass into a box that smoothes out the signal and sending it straight to the mixer.  This drives me nuts.  I don’t mind wanting a direct signal to use but not using amps at all is ridiculous.  I pay for my gear just the same as a guitarist and for the most part chose that gear because it added something tonally that I liked.  So then why is it the case then when the band goes into the studio, I leave my rig at home?  

 

I think much of it has to do with convenience.  It is probably easier to record that way and even easier to tell a bass player to forget the amp.  I couldn’t imagine a recording engineer telling a guitarist they won’t be using their amp.  Their would be no end to the whining and complaining, and rightly so because a guitarist amp provides a lot of their tone.  But so does a bassist.  My Gallien-Krueger isn’t the nicest amp in the world and isn’t even close to my dream amp, but it still does some positive things for my sound.  It adds some growl in the mid-range that compliments my Precision bass really well.  I also am a fan of the sound my two Avatar cabs put out.  I would be fine with just brining the 2X10 and throwing a mic on it just to get some amp sound on the recording.

 

Which leads to the best compromise:  Do both.  Yes, it is that simple.  Record the bass direct AND place a mic on a bass cab.  You then can blend the two and add as much or as little amp sound to the “clean” signal.  I have recorded my bass this way in the past and it actually works really well.  The additional time will be worth it in the end and I can be proud of the sound that translates through the recording.

 

If anyone else has any thoughts on how their instrument is recorded, likes or dislikes I would love to hear them.

*Update:

Found an article via TalkBass on Sound on Sound that talks a little about what I am looking for.  Here is a snippet.

If you really want to go to town on the bass sound, try combining a miked amp with one of the DI techniques described earlier. Often you can get away with a smaller amp than if you rely on the amp sound alone, as the DI will provide all the bottom end you need. This combined approach is taken by many professionals. The relative phase of the miked and DI’d sound has a profound effect on the final result, so you may need to phase-reverse one of the sources to get the best result. Also, experiment with the EQ of the individual sources as well as their balance, as the EQ controls may not have the same effect as they do when the sources are heard in isolation. Similarly, changing the mic-to-speaker distance will also affect the phase of the combined sounds, so this can be useful in fine-tuning the result.

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