First time profiling my Heritage B-15

The SM58 is pretty much the standard. But, why not try each of the 3....or even combinations?

Quote from lespauled

The SM58 is pretty much the standard. But, why not try each of the 3....or even combinations?

I have to agree, try 'em all.

I think I'd start out with the ECM8000 - experiment with placement a lot, both close and far - and then see what the SM58 could add to the mix (of course you need to be able to sum them - but the ECM8000 requires phantom power anyway, so I guess you'd have the means of doing that). Keep in mind that phase relationships are important, exp. with bass where you want that lower octave - gotta be critical, right?

I'd also try to unscrew the windscreen/grille of the SM58 and see if that made a positive difference. It's the same capsule as the SM57, and this trick supposedly brings the sound closer (although there are other factors to the sound than just the capsule, no matter what people say ;-)).

Since the ECM8000 is omni, it doesn't have proximity effect, so that might make it either more or less suitable for close mic'ing - you'll have to find out.
The ECM8000 is probably better at capturing sharp transients (although that may not be relevant, depending on amp setup and playing style - it is a bass, after all).

You just gotta experiment. None of the mics are particularly usual choices for bass, but don't let that stop you.

What do you normally record this amp with?

You want to profile it sounding like you usually like it to sound really. So the best bet is to start up by just getting the recording sound where you want it then do your profiling once you're happy with what you're capturing in your DAW.

If you're doing this blind without a DAW or any means of isolation then this is going to be harder. My general tips in that situation are - get the mic up close, record in a non-reflective space so less reverb etc because the Kemper wont capture that, it'll just come in as comb filtering which will mess up the profile, same goes for distant micing. The Kemper does close mic'd sounds only.

If you're profiling in the same room that your monitoring speakers are then turn them off before profiling too for the same reason (the Kemper sends the signals to all outputs so you'll end up with some of your monitors in there otherwise). This also applies to the refining step if you do that.

Warning - Don't send your speaker out to the Kemper unless you have a good attenuator in front of it that gives the same load as the speaker (otherwise you could destroy both your amp and the Kemper). So i.e. don't do a "merged" profile till you've nailed normal "studio" profiles and have the required equipment for the job.

Kemper have updated their firmware a lot of times and I hear these days you don't need to really do any refining anymore, however if you find that you want to then be prepared to refine for quite a while, not like in the demo videos where they just played a couple of chords and it was done. I found that I needed to refine for quite a few minutes of noodling around, playing all sorts before it just sort of slipped into place, but this was waaaay back when the Kemper first came out.

Once you've got it dialed in make profiles with different settings on your amp to cover the range of tones you'll need/want. Be prepared also to add in some sweetening effects such as a studio EQ in the X slot a tinge of verb etc, i.e. this is the same stuff you'd do in your DAW when settling the track in a mix, you want it to sound at it's best after all.

Also be prepared for the first couple of times to take a good chunk of your day up, just the whole setup, finding that perfect tone that you want to profile etc. Time flies when you're having fun.

Good luck!

Quote from lespauled

The SM58 is pretty much the standard.

while it is an obvious choice for guitar, I wouldn't expect too much from it when mic'ing a bass amp/cab.
the SM57 rolls off the low end beginning at ~200Hz, you can increase the low end by exploiting the proximity effect, but personally, I'd go for a large diaphragm condenser or a ribbon mic.

be as close as possible with the measurement mic ! i did some measurement mic profiles too

normally for measuring speakers you are 1m away from the speaker but as long as you're not in an anechoic chamber that would mess up your signal totally ... so get as close as possible ... maybe do some dampening of the room reflections because it will pick them up easyly ...

also the acoustic middle is between the cone and the dust cap ... other position have partial movement of the cone and will also mess up the desired linearity of the measurement mic (and i guess you want a neutral profile of course you can experiment ^^) ...

But for Bass amps i only recommend DI... somehow the subbass is lost when profiling it with a cab ... so i would get the Behringer Ultra g ... just connect the DI between Head and Cab so you have the REAL sound of the head interacting with the cab ... and you end up with a great uncolored profile ... when recording you can always find IRs you like and oftne these bass profiles sound also great without a cab ...

another way is do a version with cab and a DI version

the di version has the subbass in it and then just add the cab of the other profile ...