The amplifier is such an integral part of the sound of the electric guitar that it’s very unusual to hear an electric guitar without one. It’s possible to DI an electric guitar but its comparatively unusual. 

Nile Rodgers’ famous funk riff on Le Freak is commonly held to be a DI but it is actually a DI combined with a clean Fender amp, mixed together with the polarity inverted. Prince purportedly recorded the guitars to Kiss as a straight DI but it’s not just the 80s which produced clean DI electric guitars. Looking back to the 60s the famous jangly Rickenbacker of the Byrds cover of Mr Tambourine Man was a straight DI. There are other examples but if we were to consider bass we would see straight away that to DI a bass is a standard technique, not an exception. I have no data on which is more common out of DI or amp for bass. It’s probably a safe assumption that both is the most common choice, though how often both get used is another matter. However when talking about just DI or just miked amp, I’d guess that DI is more common by quite some margin. I think if you had to choose just one (and you don’t) most engineers would rather forgo their amp than their DI.

I have to say I’m probably not one of them. I love a miked up bass amp and, while I used to DI bass exclusively, these days although I usually record a DI, I rarely use it without an amp model or at least a Sansamp plugin. Practices do of course vary by genre and if you were to ask and engineer who works mostly in rock genres they would most likely give a different answer to one working in R&B.

So what are the pros and cons of each? If you’re a DI person are you missing out not using an amp and considering how many great records have been made with just a DI bass, should I revisit the ‘naked DI’?

DI

Starting at the beginning, what about just using a DI? The advantages of a DI apart from the simplicity is the directness (pun intended). You are recording the sound of the pickups. That’s all. The good things about that is that you’re getting the sound of the instrument without the frequency and time domain contribution of an amplifier. While flatter and more neutral than a guitar amp, a bass amp still colours the sound. It also responds more slowly than a DI, particularly models with 15” drivers, so if you want the whole output of the instrument from the lowest lows to the finest detail of fingers on strings then the DI is the way to go.

But which DI? Can you use interface inputs or do you need a DI box? Practicalities come into play here as a DI box can be deployed next to the player minimising cable loss. You might think your interface inputs are just as good as an external unit but that very much depends on the Interface input and the DI box. Any interface input has to be Hi Z to be electrically compatible but some interfaces such as the Pro Tools Carbon feature switchable impedance settings which can have a dramatic effect on the tone of passive basses. External DI boxes vary in quality from the cheap and cheerful active units to some really exotic offerings replete with valves and transformers. The late Al Schmitt was a master of capturing the right sounds at the tracking stage and he was unambiguous in his preference for a quality DI over an amp as can be seen in the video below from PureMix.

While it is usually the job of a DI box to faithfully capture the tone of the instrument, one of my favourite devices for bass is the Sansamp. I like the venerable Sansamp PSA-1 plugin for Pro Tools and I’m a huge fan of the free BOD bass overdrive plugin but hearing this rack mount unit expertly deployed with a Rickenbacker by Greg Wells is pure joy, and if you’re hearing the words ‘Sansamp’ and ‘Rickenbacker’ in the same sentence and assuming that it’s a distorted ‘rock clank’ kind of tone then check out the video, it’s deep and round and gorgeous!

Amps

So if DI’s are so good, why would anyone go through the faff of setting up an amp and microphones? Anyone who is a devotee of the amp approach will tell you that there’s something different about recording air moving past a mic. For me for clean tones it’s what amps gloss over. They round the corners off the sound in a pleasing way. I think of it as the difference between a dynamic and a condenser mic on a source, the DI is the condenser with all its detail and the amp is the more relaxed dynamic.

However amps are frequently run harder, introducing distortion and when this distortion crosses over from a little fur on the sound which adds warmth and audibility, but sounds clean in context, to an overtly distorted tone, the techniques associated with recording electric guitars come into play.

For mic choice I typically favour dynamics and mic from further away than the up against the grille approach of a guitar amp. The Sennheiser MD421 or Audio Technica ATM25 in my case, basically anything I’d use on a floor tom is a good choice but when tones get dirtier many would reach for a 57 and mic close. How should you mic a dirty bass amp? Here is Jacquire King with PureMix demonstrating his approach to guitars.

The reason I favour amps is that while they often sound less impressive than a DI in solo, they often sit more comfortably in the track, usually containing less very deep bass and frequently with a high bass/low mid push which can work well with kick drums. This is of course very genre and arrangement dependent though and there really are no rules.

Check Phase

Well actually there probably is one rule. If you are using both amp and DI (or multiple mics on the amp) check polarity and preferably time align for phase alignment. I favour Sound Radix’s Auto Align but it can be done manually, here’s Vance Powell using the Little Labs IBP. For exactly this purpose.

Amp Models

Lastly we should talk about amp models. When I record electric guitars I’ll always take a DI as well as the amp and frequently it gets used with an amp model plugin along with the amp for a quick faux double track in the chorus or similar, especially if there is an alternate take on a playlist I can use. Using a DI with an amp model is potentially the best of both worlds, the convenience of a DI take when tracking and the sonic character of an amp in the mix - perfect, right?

It very much depends on the amp you choose and there are rather fewer of them available than for guitar. The Brainworx Ampeg B15 on UAD is my go to but there are other choices. I know the sound of an SVT well and I’m left unmoved by the models I’ve heard. If you can find something you like then great but I’ve yet to find something I like as much as miking up a decent amp.

Reamping

Of course it doesn’t end there though as if you have a suitable Reamp box, or an interface with a reamp output, Antelope Audio very conveniently provide these on some of their interfaces, then you really can get the best of both worlds. When people think of re-amping they probably think of electric guitars but keep it in mind for bass. If you want a real amp but can’t deal with the amp bleeding all over everything while you’re tracking it’s the way forward.

Do you track bass using a DI, an amp or both? If you track both how do you use them? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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