Which bass cab and amp do I need for a small studio?

[EgorI]

Hi everyone!

Its a small studio, but I want to make a good sound on recordings (no band rehearsals with a drummer at all - only recordings for a lone musician). May i just buy some behringer 30W combo and it will be enough - or do I need a 500£ amp plus 500£ cab?

What cab do I need (if I need)? 4x10? or, for example, Hartke 115 will be enough? Or 1-speaker systems are only to produce lows, and for middle I need to add something like Hartke 4x10? Or any cab with some big and some medium speakers will be enough?

Lets say, I can spend some money - but everyone always tries to spend less)) i can see some good options like some nice combos around 300£, but then I think "What if they are good for playing but will be not so good for a mic'ed recording?" Or "Maybe I need a full stack" but after "People need full stack for gigs only, but for recording some 2x12 cabinet will be more than enough"

I'm not very experienced. Well, I need your advices!

 

Edited February 5, 2019 by EgorI

[sifi2112]

As most people are going ‘featherweight’ you could go the other way & get the (older) heavy stuff as there’s a lot of great quality gear going pretty cheap coz no one wants to lug it  not a problem for you if it stays put in your studio.

Just make sure if you go combo you can unplug the speaker so you have the option of try different amps (or cabs) & maybe look for quiet fans or convection cooling if mixing at low volume.

Also, cranking a small amp might be desirable opposed a large powerful amp .. just my 2c

Edited February 5, 2019 by sifi2112

[EgorI]

But the problem that I just do not understand now the class of a gear... What people use to record a bass on pro level? 1x15? 2x12? 4x10? Or all of them, mixed?

[sifi2112]

I wouldn’t try competing with the pros unless you intend to try make some money out of it .. studio we record bought a Neve preamp & fancy mic (for bass drum) that set him back £2.5 grand or so .. pro level gear gets real expensive quickly, just look a the prices of studio compressors etc ...

Edited February 5, 2019 by sifi2112

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 3, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[EgorI]

7 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

a small amp with a single driver is all you will likely need.

Do you mean "with a single speaker" (and maybe a horn)? Just do not understand what is "driver".

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 3, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[dave_bass5]

A lot of people like the TC Electronics BH250 amp, and this comes in various combo form as well. Something like the 1x12 will be more than enough. It has a nice DI out, a tuner, very good EQ and you can load effects in to it.

https://www.tcelectronic.com/Categories/Tcelectronic/Bass/Combo-Amplifiers/BG250-112/p/P0BRK#googtrans(en|en)

[lemmywinks]

Why bother with an amp? You just need a preamp which you will have already.

[bassmachine2112]

Hiho just use a preamp/DI pedal like a BDI21,cheap as chips ,use the DI out to record.I got mine over a decade ago s/h for £6.

Great pedal use it in front of your amp,go sansamp straight to desk/PA which I do for some gigs and of course recording.

[Dan Dare]

9 hours ago, EgorI said:

But the problem that I just do not understand now the class of a gear... What people use to record a bass on pro level? 1x15? 2x12? 4x10? Or all of them, mixed?

Recording bass "to pro level" is usually done direct in. You don't need large numbers of large cabs (even if studios mic' up an 8x10, the mic will only be pointed at one driver). All you need is a preamp/front end. Always tickles me that people spend a fortune on Ampeg B15s "because Jamerson used one in the studio", despite that fact that the bass was recorded direct at Motown and the rig was only for monitoring/so the band could hear the bass.

[Lozz196]

When we record I go from my preamp pedal to the desk, and gave the amp/speaker miked up. The addition of the amp/speaker brings a warmth and depth to the sound. My amp has a preamp valve so I’d probably look at a low-wattage valve amp like an Ashdown Little Bastard and a small speaker cab to go with it. No need for big wattage amps & big cabs in the studio, but I would want amp/cab in there as well as DI.

[Pea Turgh]

What mic will you be using to record the cab?

[chris_b]

The last home recording I did, I put my TH500 DI'd straight into Logic. A much better sound than any of the bass samples provided by Logic.

Most studios I've been in since the 70's have preferred to DI the bass. That is the most prevalent way of recording a bass. Unless you want to capture the sound of a speaker breaking up, an amp doesn't add anything over a good quality bass and DI.

[stingrayPete1977]

What you want is good quality studio monitors, I haven't recorded with a physical amp since about 2001

[Wolverinebass]

21 hours ago, sifi2112 said:

I wouldn’t try competing with the pros unless you intend to try make some money out of it .. studio we record bought a Neve preamp & fancy mic (for bass drum) that set him back £2.5 grand or so .. pro level gear gets real expensive quickly, just look a the prices of studio compressors etc ...

What studio is that? Abbey Road?!! That is proper insane. Waves plugins - £30, Heil PR40 mic - £350. Job done. Spending that amount of cash, you'd better earn more money than God from your studio.

As someone who uses analogue emulation plugins and has also used neve pre-amps, the difference isn't that much sonically.

[chris_b]

8 minutes ago, Wolverinebass said:

What studio is that? Abbey Road?!! That is proper insane. Waves plugins - £30, Heil PR40 mic - £350. Job done.

It's not "insane" to know the difference between a home studio and professional studio if you want to go into business in the recording industry.

[Linus27]

I guess it depends on the recording technique. In most cases, you would DI straight into the desk and not use an amp. I was watching a video on Sunday and Sting was saying for all The Police recordings he always did this and then double tracked a lot of his bass lines with a double bass. In most cases I have recorded direct in but I have also recorded in a live room where the producer has wanted to get a recording using a mic in front of the speakers but this is less common. Depends on the band, producer and what you are trying to achieve.

[Wolverinebass]

Just now, chris_b said:

It's not "insane" to know the difference between a home studio and professional studio if you want to go into business in the recording industry.

My point was that the turnover you'd need to justify that would be immense. I should say as well Chris, I run my own studio part time. I know plenty of people who do it professionally as well. Virtually none of them have an 1176 compressor or Neve console. Virtually none of them have a Neumann U87 either. Why? Because the difference is negligible as compared to mics which are half or even a third of the price. 

As long as your gear isn't crap and more crucially, you know how to get the best out of it, the term "professional" has very little meaning in terms of gear. The idea of having to have massive amounts of expensive gear to run a recording studio is dead and has been for about a decade.

[operative451]

What they said - forget amps, especially if you're not going to be spending loads of money on mics. Everything i record 'properly' goes DI via a POD tube pre-amp sim, and for the video stuff i do its recently been a Zoom B3n right into the audio interface but actually the best results come with a Behringer BDI 121 what they said up there!

This is for metal but its still got some good tips:

 

[Jack]

If you just want to record bass guitar well, use Helix native. It'll blow your mind on guitar too. If it has to be an actual amp then I'd be hunting down an Ampeg B100R, or, with more money, a B15.

[Cat Burrito]

I appreciate this is always personal but having recorded extensively I've tried everything from my cab to studio cabs to D.I. My personal favourite now is the Sansamp VT bass pedal into a D.I. Hands down this was my favourite bass sound. They often crop up here or on EBay second hand around £100. Worth checking out.

[paul_5]

DSM Omnicab is REALLY useful for recording bass - Direct 'thru' output means that you can record straight from the bass to re-process later if you need to.

[Skybone]

There are numerous options available if you want to try different things.

As has been said, you don't necessarily need an amp these days, you could get a dedicated preamp pedal(s), an amp modeller, or simply get some plug-ins for your computer DAW (depending on your processor & memory capabilities of course).

You can get a B3n relatively inexpensively, or you could look at an older Zoom B3 for less.

You could also look at getting a Line6 HD500x or the Rackmount version, and you can cover amp/cab/effect modelling for both guitars & bass (with the HD Bass Pack). If the modelling side is of interest, then you could look at some of the higher end, latest generation modellers, like Helix or HeadRush, as they do "cut down versions" of the "full fat" units (HX Stomp, Helix LT, etc.).

If you're still thinking about an amp, then maybe look at something like the Ashdown Toneman, or the Ashdown AMP ranges. Toneman is an exclusive range built for Thomann, the AMP is an exclusive range built for Musik Produktiv. Both ranges are based on the Ashdown MAG 300 Evo iii, so a proven amp. The Toneman combo is a 1x15, and the AMP combo is a 2x10. Just bought one of the AMP combo's, to use with my HD500x.

[Phil Starr]

For recording I'd think most people would pretty much DI for bass, just cutting out the room acoustics would be good. However you might just want the feel of an amp whilst you are playing. There are two ways of going about that, I've just spent a couple of hours practicing with everything going through my PA, a little Alesis mixer going into a couple of RCF ART310's (PA speakers) I can feed everything through that including backing tracks, my vocals, the lot. Normally I use headphones but I fancied making a noise and feeling like I was playing live.

The alternative is a proper bass combo, a lot of little ones are just for practice when you get your first bass and they aren't very satisfying to play. If you are going down the 'proper' combo route then the key is for you to go and try them out. They don't need to go loud so it's just the sound quality you need, if you really like the sound then that's a great amp and you'll use it lots, if not then why buy it I've got a little Hartke 10" Kickback which suits me but that's just my taste.