recording guitar amp with multiple mics: placement suggestions

mile ender

New member
I've received advice on this on the past and wondering if anyone's had success experimenting with recording guitar amps (mine's 100W with 12" speaker) using multiple mircophones.
I'm using a Neumann u89, a Shure PE85L, and a Shure SM62. Obviously there's a major disparity in microphone qualities. Any placement suggestions?
 
find the center and point the Neuman at the "crotch" where the big bubble and the side wall meet, make sure the mic is pressing in on the fabric of the grill, works for me. Then record it a second time and pan both tracks opposite, hard left and right. If it isn't big enough for you do it 4 more times (record same track) and pan all of them different but logical.
Jason
 
I really like thickening up my sound by layering tons and tons of guitars as well. The above advice is pretty good. I'd also think about mic'ing your cabinet with the u89 and a decent dynamic (I'm not familiar with the Shures you're referencing) and messing around with the level and panning of the u89 and the dynamic tracks. Electric guitar mic'ing is one of those areas where you should feel free to experiment.
 
Thanks for the advice! I've actually been doing similar what Bass Jas and cominginsecond described, multitracking a guitar signal that would just sound weak alone. In my experiments, it's resulted in a rather slick, smooth, or gliding sound. (Here's an mp3.) The next recording I'm doing is a garage rock type sound, and I need to mic the guitar amps to sound more punchy and sharp. Examples of tone might be found in albums by Fugazi, Shellac, NoMeansNo, etc. I'd like to somehow get more attack in the waveform, using not too much distortion, but still having it be punchy and aggressive.
I'm rambling here, I know, but any advice as to how I can achieve this tone would be greatly appreciated.
 
Always use less gain than you would for a stage or jam situation. Adding mids (to the guitar tone) can sometimes make it sound punchy as well.


BTW, I like the influences.:D
 
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