guitar amp mic question

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:48 am

alright..i am trying to decide the best option for recording my guitar amp.
I have been messing around trying to find a solid sound but I am not sure what type of mic / positioning i need to aim for. Let me tell you what I am using and you all can tell me what to do/not to do.

I am using a Crate Palamino v16 tube amp (single celestion 12)
I know I want to be using an SM57 or two but currently I am lacking that mic in my collection (should have been my first mic purchase, right?)
So my options for mics are / SM58 or I have a couple GT44's which I am sure can work well enough if I set everything up correctly.
I am using a nashville deluxe tele which gives a pretty good hum.

what should I do ? I wish I knew the best way to get the full room sound of my rig. let me know!

Ben

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 12:48 pm

Well I'll start by saying it's going to be tough to capture what your ears hear for the simple reason that your ears don't hear sound the same way a mic does. Mic's tend to not to have a flat frequency response therefore what you record isn't always exactly what you're hearing in the room. Also the "tone" you may like might not fit well in a mix. As far as the mics go you pratically have a sm57 by owning a sm58. If you're careful you can take the ball off the 58 and essentially have a 57, and you really don't have to be that careful. As far as mic placement is concerned, you should just start at the center of the cone and work your way out until you find a spot that suits you.

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 4:50 pm

thanks...i'll give it a whirl.

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 8:29 pm

That works if your monitors are completely flat in frequency response, that is actually the ideal situation, but sometimes we don't have the privilege of having these monitors. In my case, I normally get a whole lot of frequency response in my guitar signals if I take a good low frequency response mic like the re20 or the beta 52 and place it facing straight in at the center of the speaker, about a foot or foot and a half away (a good large diagphram mic like the AT4050 works too, but play around with the distance from the speaker, if it's too close you might get slight overload in the signal). Then I place an SM57 close to the amp, about 2 inches, placed angled about 45 degrees, facing the middle spot between the center and the edge of the speaker. This allows me to play around with these two signals in the mix and helps me get my desired guitar sound. The trick is to listen through every refference you can get, monitors, pro headphones, even consumer headphones can give you a "consumer" perspective.

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:07 am

you should try a md421 or a beyer 201.
these things do the trick everytime.

i usually use two to four mics.

one (maybe a sm57, maybe a 201) goes right upfront aiming diagonally at the centre of the speaker, at the edge of the cone

second ( a lot of the times, a sennheiser md421) goes back about 8 inches, aiming at the spot between the middle and the edge of the cone.

third goes behind the cab (i dont do this often, but it can help getting a bigger fuller lowmid-end)

fourth maybe a condenser as a room-mic.
i like the studioprojects C1 for this, a couple of feet in front of the amp.

you dont have to use all the mics, sometimes i record m to one track if im happy with m.
i usually compress all of them all of them on the way in.
(i compress everything at mixingstage, so why not)

sometimes its cool to print them separately, so you can fiddle around with them at different passages in the song.
also panning them in opposite directions can get you a big sound, but i only do this with one-guitar-player-bands

Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:38 pm

or you could get a Sennheiser E609 and get pretty darn close. I've tried using an SM58 like this, and does sound arguably different from an SM57 (at least to my ears it did).

E609's and SM57's are both great electric guitar amp mics for under $100/each.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:47 pm

I wish I knew the best way to get the full room sound of my rig. ... in this case there's the answer..... and rosemary wins..... ok johnny tell her what she's won..... if ya want room ... dont close mic... just make sure the room sounds as good as ya think it does....

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:49 pm

I wish I knew the best way to get the full room sound of my rig. ... in this case there's the answer..... and rosemary wins..... ok johnny tell her what she's won..... if ya want room ... dont close mic... just make sure the room sounds as good as ya think it does....

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 1:14 pm

I have a couple tricks that I do. Recently what I have been doing is this:

Start with getting a good guitar sound. Usually this involves trying multiple guitars, multiple amps what ever it takes to get the right sound for the song.

Next, get a 57 try it up against the grill a little off center and pointed straight at the cone. Then move it from 0 degrees to a 45 degree angle slowly until it gets that sound. If you have an assistant use them to help with this, if not, just run out and change it and then go back and listen. It takes a bit of time but it will be worth it.

Next, get a 421. I will usually use this on a second speaker, but if there is only one, then I will position it so that it is the exact same distance from the speaker as the 57. It doesn't have to be the same angle. I usually just use this one pointed directly at the center of the speaker, and slightly to one side or the other of the cone.

Finally, I will use a condenser mic like a AT 4050, Studio Projects C3, Rode K2 (tube), akg 414, or whatever else I have available. This mic is the one that really opens up the sound. I will position it from 3 to 20 feet back depending on the sound I am after. I will usually flip the phase and make sure I have it in phase for testing, and flip it back when I am ready to record.

If you want to hear an unmixed session I recently recorded using this method, check this out. Guitars were recorded with either just the 57 and 421 or the 57, 421 and AT 4050. Also, the preamps were API 3124+ and some of the guitars were compressed going in using a pair of distressors. In this mix there is absolutely no eq or compression used inside protools on guitars or bass. The only thing that has been eq'd and/or compressed is the drums.

Archery - Powerlines

Best of luck!

steve

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