Recording=No Ambience?

[BassVirtuoso]

RubberDuckyWucky: all i need is a preamp for myself
EC: what do you mean?
RubberDuckyWucky: when i record into cubase
EC: thats the stupidest thing ever dude
C: youre not supposed to go direct in
EC: youre supposed to mic it
EC: especially if youre playing with a band
RubberDuckyWucky: i'm talking about solo recording
EC: you lose ALL ambiance
EC: i know
EC: youre still supposed to mic it
RubberDuckyWucky: you're never going to get a clean tone with a bassamp
EC: you always mic everything


Is this true? Or can you guys help me make my guitarist feel like an idiot...

[Omega Red]

its up to you how you want to do it. i've recorded with a mic, and a DI. alot of the 'ambiance' gets lost in the mixing of the tracks anyways, they'll get over powered by the actual sound of the bass. plus you wont get any feed back with DI

[Linkinbassist]

wait...who are you in the convo?

[BassVirtuoso]

rubberduckywucky

[Jimbobntnr]

ambience = "The total environment of a work of art as it is created by the various parts of the composition working together."

so by definition he is correct that in order to get the ambience it has to be mic'ed.

But, you are correct in that you will get a better tone with a preamp. imo.

ambience includes things like string noise, air, echo from structure, mom telling you to clean your room and coughing/sneezes. So ambience isn't always a good thing. And then we get into frequency response on the behalf of the microphone and the tones that get cut because of it.

[Squirellmeister]

Ambience means back gorund noise I believe.

Why would you want back ground noise?

[BassVirtuoso]

So if you want a clean tone, you go DI?

[Wintermute]

Eh... it's not something there's any single right answer for. It depends on your situation. For instance, last week I was producing a radio session, and we DI'd the bassist there, because we were getting so much spill from the lead guitar on the bass microphone it was impossible to mix it the way we wanted to.

He's right in that DI-ing the bass will lose ambience. But the question is, is that really such a terrible thing? What ambience you would get from the bass microphone would usually be drowned out in a band setting anyway, and a light reverb can replicate it to a degree in any case.

Besides, with many home recording setups, DI-ing the signal gives much cleaner recordings, because cheap microphones are terrible, and people record in their bedrooms, which are crammed full of sources of interference and noise.

Plus with DI and a good set of headphones you can be virtually silent while recording. With a mike, to get good quality you really need to be pretty loud. That can be quite a big deal if you've got housemates / whiney neighbours.