The oddball dynamic that has basically replaced my 57 is the Beyerdynamic M69TG. And you've surely heard of the Royer 121 in the ribbon mic category. I don't really use condensors myself for a noisy loud guitar amp, but YMMV.

57 on the cone coles 4038 a few feet back, rode nt2 and royer r121, large diaphragm mics from a few feet away to get room sound

KEL HM-1. I've tried this one and it really smokes on guitar amps. You can mash it right into the grill without getting that "rice crispies" effect ... (crackle distortions) . Cheap too! ($99)

Does the need change for big distorted guitars tones?

Will a 57 do the job there???

I've a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with a 4x12.

Whats the best techniques to getting a good sound. I've been told to crank the amp as loud as you can go? does this really make any difference....

good question...

if you doing a crunch guitar and want to maintain 'balls'... i think you need to do things a bit different. the 57 and dynamics will give you alot of the high frequency squeel and fuzz but no meat. and without it, you cant capture a real solid tone.

ive done work with heavier bands almost exlusively. ive found that the guitar tone (distorted) needs to be taylored to the bass tone. if you have a picked bass, an overdriven one, if you tune a step down, a slap... whatever... you will have to compensate with how you record you guitars.

can you tell me a bit more with what sort of sound your going for? and bass rig? also what sort of distortion do you use? strait up mesa rec? i can give you better advise...

peace

depends. a 57 in front of a cab can sound great, as long as your going into a neve and then into a distressor.

try every mic you have in front of your cab with every angle and every distance. what works in your room with your mics and your pres may not be the same with the exact same setup.

try it all, thats the fun part.

steve

dabhoys wrote: Does the need change for big distorted guitars tones?

Will a 57 do the job there???

I've a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with a 4x12.

Whats the best techniques to getting a good sound. I've been told to crank the amp as loud as you can go? does this really make any difference....

Volume matters to a point. Contrary to popular legend, diming out a Marshall or most any amp isn't necessarily the path to guitar Nirvana. Backing down to 7-8 can clean up a lot artifacts and restore a lot of punch and articulation without giving up much in other areas. For most amps and especially for clean tones you need to turn up enough to get the power section going and get some of that nice compression from the power tubes. That happens long before "10" on the volume.

The best dirty sounds to my ear are usually a combination of preamp gain and power amp grind. Most modern amps have that built in but many players put some sort of overdrive in front of the vintage pieces to get a little more juice which is the same idea.

As for mic'ing techniques, they are wide and varied but the more common ones have been outlined above.

The Audix D6 is always an interesting choice. This dynamic mic is more designed for kick drum and bass cabs, but for heavy sounding rhythm guitar tracks, especially for drop-D crunchy stuff, a D6 will sound awesome. I'd use a 57 on the cone, and the D6 a foot or so away.

-Church

I haven't been fortunate enough to try an MD421, Royer R121, or any of the more "expensive" mics. I mainly use a combination of the 57, Senn E609, and an Audix i5. They do the job, although there are other mics that people swear by. It's really hard not to bring out a 57 because the sound is so predictable. I know what sound I'm going to get out of a 57, and most of the time it is what I'm looking for. I'd like to try out the Royer, but not in the budget.

I like to put a 57 on the grill, and move it around until the tonal balance works with the song. Then I put a condenser 5 to 10 feet back, and mix it in this it sounds good, making sure that its not too phasey. I generally print both signals to one track, but thats purely a habit of mine because i'd rather choose the sounds tracking so it frees me up to do different things in mix down.

As far as the amp being turned up. If it has a tube output stage (a real tube amp) it makes a difference. I get clients that say they love the overdriven sound of thier Marshall MGX or whatever they are, but on a solid state amp, all it does is add distortion from the speaker maxing out. The post above is completely right though, taking it to "11" doesn't usually result in the best tone, but taking it above 5 or 6 usually adds a lot of meat. I like to compensate for the increased power amp distortion by backing off the pre amp distortion, so you get less white noise on tape and it sits in a mix better.

K

sennheiser E609, my "go to" mic now, love it!

But sometimes the job just calls for a 57!

Sammyg

I use the usual's a lot: sm57, md421, e609, but I've also had good luck using an Audio Technica 4047 in many cases.

sammyg wrote: sennheiser E609, my "go to" mic now, love it!

But sometimes the job just calls for a 57!

Sammyg

I just pickup a 609 myself and I was really impressed. The detail was just a bit better than the 57. I think the 57 might be better on a really high gain amp though. So many variables!

I tracked a chicken picking country thing yesterday with a Josephson C42...blew me outta the water...

Don't be afraid to try some oddball stage mics either....I've gotten good results for heavier stuff using an EV 454B...big cojones from a little amp.

Kurt Foster wrote: KEL HM-1. I've tried this one and it really smokes on guitar amps. You can mash it right into the grill without getting that "rice crispies" effect ... (crackle distortions) . Cheap too! ($99)

Kurt, where can you order these from?? i searched is guitarcenter, sam ash, and ebay, all with 0 matches.

If you want something diffrent get the most shity mic you can like a 2cent one from a garage sale and mix it with a close 57 and a room mic...... Its funny but really good for punk heavy types 8-)

http://kelaudio.com/

I just got an HM-1 myself - very interesting sound. Thanks for the tip Kurt 8-)

I mainly use a SM57, sometimes I'll use a MD421 or a EV RE20 on the cone. I then sometimes add a Neumann U87 or a AKG Solidtube 2-3 feet away.