Lowering the tone

With lots of amazing plugins available and quite a few choices for DI, sansamp etc, we don’t always have to go to the trouble of micing up cabs to get a great bass tone. But often it’s fun to use what you have available to explore the different possibilities - and maybe hit upon a bit of magic.

This Phoenix Pre and EQ sounds great. The DI is awesome, but we were splitting the signal with a DI box, so went in via the mic input which allows you to drive it for a bit of grit.

Using a Fender Bassman, (the head in the control room, for….control). We had a choice of mics to hand, the JZ V67 sounded great instantly in preference to the 421.

The mic pre is a big part of the sound, how you drive it and choose polarity etc. The Neve 1073DPA is top notch, of course, and this was where the mic signal was headed.

A bit of 1176 compression on the way in is a nice addition to the signal path.

Perhaps the proportions are important. We could use one or other of the bass signals, or a blend, depending on how the mix goes.

Getting comfortable helps….as well as a great instrument, set up and in tune! Or perhaps the magic resides mainly in the fingers of a great player? (Dave Pye, Milo Seabird).