REcording Djembe and Bass Guitar in a Bedroom studio. TIPS?!?

Skenkl

Skenkl

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Right chaps!!

Whats the best way to record a djembe and a room studio type set up? I've got a pretty good, tight wooden drum from siesta cost about 80squid and its got a nice sound. I want to record this into the PC. I'm at the very beginning of music production bear in mind but know a bit.

I have available to me a mixing desk, and 2 SM58's I think, well I can get hold of them anyway.

-Where is the best place to position the mics?
-Anyone no any good effects to stick on the recording to phatten the sound up?

Also recording bass guitar, is it best to use a DI box into the mixer? Anyone had a play around with recording basses, and got a good sound, in a bedroom studio bear in mind. The bass i'l be using is a Warwick Corvette Active which is a nice bit of kit.

Any help,advice appreciated

:)
 
For recording the bass your best bet is probably to go with a DI box into the mixer, especially if you have a noisy bedroom where micing an amp is a bit impractical. I personally like DIing bass guitar over micing it in almost any conditions. Guitar Rig is pretty useful for amp simulation, but really with bass guitar a clean DI signal is preferable, at least to my ears.

For the djembe, mic placement is largely a matter of trial and error. Typically with two mics you would have one on the skin and then one at the hole to get both the percussion and the bass. As when recording anything with any mic though, there is no "right" way to do it. Try some positions out and then critically listen to them. Make any adjustments based on what your ears tell you. Generally it will take you longer to get the mic placement correct than it will to actually get a nice recording out of it. Very small changes in mic placement can make fairly significant alterations in the sound you record, so listen carefully and never be afraid to experiment.
 
Well.

What Reonstructed said about the djembe seems to 100% nail it for me. One on the skin and one in the hole is the obvious place to start, from there it'll just have to be trial an error. All I can say is "best of f***in luck" haha, cos djembes are NOT easy to record sounding remotely good. Or maybe I just suck. Anyway...

As for bass , yeah, you'll want a DI. mixing the DI and mic'd signal is pretty standard from what I've read, but we never wanted to bother with the bass amp and mics in a bedroom context, so we always just skip the mic part. I think last tme I did any bass recording we borrowed a bass pod, and from that into a tc fatman, but it was all just aimless trial and error, and tbh, the end results werent great anyway

so in conclusion i have no idea what i'm doing in this thread
 
if you can get your hands on a condenser mic like a neumann km84 or something it will pick up a lot more detail. take advantage of uni facilities if you can. sm58s are really good but they specialise in being shouted at and thrown around stages rather than picking up subtle stuff like djembes
but yeah like reconstructed and soliptic said above, experiment, try different positions and just see what sounds best to you.
and if it sounds like you've recorded it in your bathroom hang some drapes on the walls hehe
 
Warwicks OWN!

My #1 bass is a Warwick Corvette FNA.. I record it straight out of a Bass POD's DI output into the soundcard. If you can get a Bass Pod, it is ace - does the job of a DI box plus its got a nice compressor on it which gets applied to the DI output. If your Corvette is like mine ( tho' I think your pickups and active circuitry are different) you may need to back down the volume on the bass as it can be a bit hot for the POD and overdrives the input.

You can also dial up pretty nice amp/cab sims on it, but I'm buggered if I know how to work it all. I widdled some knobs and managed to get a lovely fat sound out of it which doesn't really need anything else to thicken it up. Fattening up bass with plug-ins is still a black art as far as I am concerned.

Ditto what Double_helix said about the SM58's.. great for live use but a bit lifeless compared to a nice condensor mic.
 
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