Capturing the Double Bass

[teleharmonium]

I play upright, so I've tried a variety of approaches at different times.

The two that I use now are as follows: either a not too bright LDC about 4 inches above the treble side f hole slightly closer to the center line; or a ribbon mic straight out from the bridge, about a foot away (if I had an RCA type ribbon with a really big proximity effect, I'd put it further out).

If there is any bright percussive stuff happening on the fingerboard (I don't play rockabilly slapping, but I sometimes have used a big guitar pick or fingernails to get some specialized sounds for certain things), I'll use a 451/CK1 right over the area I am playing, recorded to a separate channel and blended in.

It's really important to stand still while playing, or to only move in a way that makes musical sense, ie back or angle away from the mic (by pivoting on the endpin, which doesn't actually move from it's spot on the floor) for lower notes or those in a more resonant midrange area, which gives you another way to control the level like a compressor. I realize that putting the mic on the bass or using the pickup is a workaround for this, but I don't like having stuff on the bass.

[GussyLoveridge]

I guess I'm just playing parrot at this point, but I've had a bunch of success with an 87 4-8 inches off the f-hole and a chest high SDC (km184 or something) pointed toward the neck. I've only really been recording Jazz and kind of classic country sounds.

From time to time if I'm just looking for something warm and wooly without the clack of the SDC, I'll just throw a RE20 somewhere near the bridge that sounds balanced and just use that. You'd be suprised how nice that sounds though. I like to have someone move the mic around while in the control room monitoring. I used to do it myself with cans on, but I find you just can't tell about the real nice low end.

If you're band is monitoring in cans, try comping a little back to the headphone mixes, I generally don't to tape though.

Anyway - what do i know.

[Sculli]

I had some pretty nice results actually plugging the bass into an old Bassman head and BM 2x12 bottom and mic'ed with a E602. Worked great for Texas swing stuff. I don't know what p/u he had.
Peace,
Kevin