best mic for recording bass under £100?

[Thunderpaws]

As the subject says....bass guitar mostly...a wee bit drums.

[Grangur]

Surely the value of the bass is irrelevant?

Or did you mean "Best mic under £100 for recording a bass" ?

[the boy]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1398281004' post='2432508']
Surely the value of the bass is irrelevant?

Or did you mean "Best mic under £100 for recording a bass" ?
[/quote]
Pedant......

[Thunderpaws]

Neither of these comments help, especially the first one!

[dannybuoy]

The SM57 is a good all-rounder, but doesn't capture the deep lows - blend it with a lowpassed & compressed DI signal though and you will have them back again! If it's for the studio rather than live that should be easy to sort out. Be careful of buying cheap ones on eBay though as there are a lot of fakes around since they're so popular.

Otherwise, all the really good dynamic mics that get recommended for bass use are well over £200, although you might be lucky enough to pick one up used - Shure SM7B, Sennheiser MD421, Heil PR40, Electrovoice RE20.

Some might suggest using a kick drum mic, but I would avoid that, they usually have a massive mid scoop, and you don't want your bass to be EQ'd the same as the kick.

[Thunderpaws]

Thanks Danny....I will trawl the web later.

[RockfordStone]

57's you can pick up for dirt cheap 2nd hand. they are sturdy too, never used one on a bass amp mind

[6v6]

IMO for bass guitar just DI - you can add any cab emulation you want later via plugins etc during the mix and you don't have the hassle of worrying about mic positioning and spill.

If you're into heavily overdriven sounds then maybe add a SM57 on the cab and combine it with the DI signal when you do the mixdown.

For kick drum I've had good results with the Shure beta 52, it works OK on bass cabs but the eq curve built in makes it better suited to kick IME.

[JamesBass]

I give you the Superlux PRA 628 MKII, this is a "cheap" copy of the Sennheiser E906. I'll be getting myself a Superlux after using it in a studio and it was great for guitar and some drums as well as the bass!

http://www.thomann.de/gb/superlux_pra_628_mkii.htm

[andydye]

have you considered a samson C01 condensor mic? they've got a really wide frequency response and a pretty flat one too, we've found them very faithful for such a cheap mic! £40 ish from thomann!

[Thunderpaws]

Thanks for all off these comments chatters. Have success so far, though need to look at how to phase invert, or something!

[jazseven]

Personally I D.I through my amp head (GK MB fusion) and then use LePou LeCab2 with Red Wire Impulses as a cab sim. every mic and speaker option under the sun with that setup
another good alternative would be getting a Tech21 SansAmp second hand?

Edited July 26, 2014 by jazseven

[discreet]

Another vote for the [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=4]Sennheiser MD421, it's a killer bass mic. Not sure it can be got for under £100*, though. [/size][/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=4]However, like the above poster I've been recording DI through my GK MB Fusion and that works very well indeed. Fantastic heft and presence. Sounds a lot like a mic'd cab somehow...[/size][/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=4]*Er... no. Not even second-hand by the look. Sorry.[/size][/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=4]Edit: You could have a crack at this... you might get lucky.[/size][/font][/color]
[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SENNHEISER-MD421-U-5-in-great-condition-/201131979233?pt=UK_Music_Instruments_Microphones_MJ&hash=item2ed46671e1"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2ed46671e1[/url]

Edited July 25, 2014 by discreet

[vailbass]

AKG D112, I've used for the last 3 solo CD's on all my bass tracks and I like it very much.

[Sean]

These are great value and have the range https://www.studiospares.com/Microphones/Mics-Condenser/Studiospares-S2000-Multi-Pattern-Condenser-Mic_449950.htm

They're also under £100 and are perfect for recording everything else from a horn section in 360 degrees to vocals to acoustic guitar.

[icastle]

[quote name='vailbass' timestamp='1420250646' post='2647280']
AKG D112, I've used for the last 3 solo CD's on all my bass tracks and I like it very much.
[/quote]

We use a D112 to mic up the bass drum.

I just need to find a gentle way of telling the drummer that he [b]used[/b] to have one of these to mic up his bass drum...

[VTypeV4]

I've used '57s for live and recording many times..

As stated, they don't go super low but certainly do a great job of capturing character and detail especially with a cooking valve amplifier. Normally I'll take a direct out and that covers everything I need (for my bass at least) but for certain 'angry' type sounds, a dynamic close to the driver centre works very well indeed. Alan Davey is a great example..