We've been
looking for a back up for our faithful old Neuman U47 for a
while and when we got our hands on some stunning new U47 valve
copies it seemed too good an opportunity to miss trying them
out against the old mic on one of its favourite applications...the
bass guitar
Part
1: The Bass Guitar (the basics) (sorry
couldn't help myself)
Like
everything in the world of recording, the better sound
you have at source the easier it is to get great results
and this is particularly true of the bass guitar. There
are a few great bass guitars and amps out there but
sadly there are also shed loads of rubbish. Like
all instruments the bass definitely sounds better in
the hands of a decent player and there is not a lot
you can do as a sound engineer to change that but checking
the intonation along the neck is a must and you can
really improve your recordings by getting rid of those
annoying buzzes by setting up the action properly by
tweaking the truss rod and adjusting the saddles. However
do practice this on your own bass first!
click
image above to play video
Part
2: Mic versus DI
The
bass is one of the few instruments that you can actually
get away with recording through a DI box either straight
out of the guitar or from a line out on the back of
some amps. The whole issue of DI boxes is interesting
and you can pay big money for a decent one but where
possible it's always best to have a go recording the
bass with a mic. Some mics like the Neumann U47 have
become legendary for bass recording but more and more
affordable valve 47 replicas are coming along and recently
we have been really impressed with the Advanced Audio
CM47 built by Canadian mic guru Dave Thomas so we thought
we would put it up against the Neumann and some other
mics in a basic test. We're not big fans of mic shoot
outs but you should be able to hear some key differences.
click
image above to play video
Part
3: Mic Position and phase
The
most consistent results come from close miking
and just off centre seems to get the best balance
of sound but of course you can experiment with
different mic postions. In any situatiion where
you are recording something with two or more mics
you have to check for phase problems and on the
bass if you have two mics out of phase you can
pretty well lose all the bottom end. Careful positioning
is crucial and always flip the phase button on
one channel to hear the sound as well as relying
on your phase correlation meter if you have one.
There are pieces of kit out there that enable
you to progressively move the phase rather than
simply flipping it through 180 but they are pretty
expensive.
click
image above to play video
Part
4: Compression
Compression
is pretty much a must on recording bass as there
is often a huge difference in level between the
open E string and something played high up the
neck on the G string. The trick is to just take
off a few dbs at this stage to even up the whole
performance. If you can hear the compresser working
then its too much. Back the attack time off enough
to let the pluck of the string get through and
set the compression ratio around 5:1.
click
image above to play video
Part
5: Other mics
Of
course a lot of you out there wont be able to
afford some of the more expensive condenser mics
we have used here but the joy of the bass is that
you can get pretty good results with almost any
mic and even the lowly sm57 will get you a workable
sound as long as it sounds right coming out of
the speakers. Best first choice will be a large
diaphragm condenser but you really can have a
go with anything and most dynamic mics will give
you a result.
click
image above to play video
The
Results...
We're not big fans of this type of
mic shoot out where you stack up a few mics against each
other as it never really tells you that much about a mic
especially on something like the bass with no fast transients
to capture. However we'd been getting some great results
with the Advanced Audio CM47 on a variety of sessions from
acoustic guitar and vocals so we figured it was a good way
to see if we could hear how close it was to the original
Neumann U47. To be honest I can't hear that much difference
between any of the top end mics and the the CM47 amd ADK
TT area 51 both sounded really nice and I would never be
able to point one out in a blind test. In the end all the
mics sound better than the DI. The Audix has a deliberate
mid scoop for the kick drum and you can really hear that
in this test but the 421 and the good old sm57 sound great....and
the reason?... because the sound coming out of the cab is
good. Here endeth todays lesson......
To
hear the audio files above simply double click on them and
they will play in the media player you have set on your computer.
To download the files, create a new folder on your hard drive
and then right click on the files above and choose "Save
as Target" to your new folder. When you have downloaded
all the files open up Cubase or a similar audio programme
and create a new project. In Cubase go to Import<audio
files and select all the MP3s in the folder. Cubase will ask
you if you want them on the same track or separate tracks.
Choose separate tracks and it will paste them into a new project
for you.SEE
VIDEO.
