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I'm pretty new to all this recording business and I'm having problems recording a decent electric guitar sound.

I'm running a cheapish (£90) Stagg MCO 5BK through a Tascam USB 122 into my Laptop but the recordings sound very distant and flat and lack any real punch. It's especially bad if I'm using distortion. Single clean notes aren't too bad but anything else is nasty.

Would a better mic ease my problem? I've been looking at the Sontronics Orpheus or the RODE NTK/NT2000. Are these decent mics to use with amps, or could it be my Preamp that's unable to deal with busy guitar sounds? If anyone has any suggestions of a good mic to use with a guitar amp that would be great.

Cheers for any help anyone can offer!

Comments

anonymous Tue, 07/12/2005 - 10:34

First of all I've never heard of a Stagg mic so I have no idea what type of mic it is (dynamic or condenser???) A lot of folks (including myself) have gotten great results from a simple Shure SM57 (about $90 USD). Also before you go out and buy more gear, try moving the mic around a little bit. Placing a mic up close is a very different sound than a mic at a distance. Also a close mic varies greatly as to what part of the speaker it's pointed at (e.g. center of the cone, edge of the cone, off axis, etc.) If you haven't already, try to solve your problem at the source... mic placement.

anonymous Tue, 07/12/2005 - 13:06

Thanks for that dude. I've been trying the mic nearer to the speaker and the results are definitely better, although the increased bass frequencies are a nuisance (but nothing I can't deal with).

People have told me that putting a condenser mic too near to speakers can damage them. Is this true or just a myth?

jonnyc Tue, 07/12/2005 - 14:10

Yeah you can damage a condenser doing that but I haven't seen it done yet, so maybe its all bs. I used to mic my baby bottle pretty close to the speaker never hurt the mic but it often clipped leaving me with a nasty recording. The best sound I've gotten still is with a sm57 slammed up against the grill.

anonymous Wed, 08/03/2005 - 17:16

jonnyc wrote: Yeah you can damage a condenser doing that but I haven't seen it done yet, so maybe its all bs. I used to mic my baby bottle pretty close to the speaker never hurt the mic but it often clipped leaving me with a nasty recording. The best sound I've gotten still is with a sm57 slammed up against the grill.

Every MIC has an SPL rating. You can buy a cheap SPL meter anywhere , put it in front of the source and measure the spl you will know if it is safe for the mic or not then.

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