Can a guitar amp be too loud?

[PokerDude422]

When you are recording guitar amps i have read some places to have it as loud as you can, but it seems that the sound gets slightly distorted when i do that. I am recording guitars with an sm57. Do i just need to mess with the gain and volume more or is that bogus.

[Ironklad Audio]

turn it up until it sounds how you want it to

if it sounds like ass, turn the knobs until it sounds right

[gtrman_66]

Originally Posted by PokerDude422

When you are recording guitar amps i have read some places to have it as loud as you can, but it seems that the sound gets slightly distorted when i do that. I am recording guitars with an sm57. Do i just need to mess with the gain and volume more or is that bogus.

Not necessarily as loud as you can. You can certainly try to record them too quiet though. I like to get it loud enough to "get some air moving" and get the speaker to break up a bit if I'm going for a crunch tone. For cleaner stuff, I'll turn it down a bit. You just have to play around until you get the sound you like, there are a lot of possibilities out there

[cello_pudding]

there are sound pressure levels that if exceeded you'll find distortion from the mic and it can be not good for it. 57's on guitar not as much as a condenser on loud vocalists...but

[gtrman_66]

Originally Posted by cello_pudding

there are sound pressure levels that if exceeded you'll find distortion from the mic and it can be not good for it. 57's on guitar not as much as a condenser on loud vocalists...but

Right. If you want to run the amp louder, you can back the mic off some and open up some distance.

This is a little drawing I made (don't laugh, this mouse sucks to try and draw with) of the ballpark I seem to wind up in when miking an amp up with a 57 or similar dynamic mic. seems to generally work good most of the time. I may have to wiggle it around a bit depending on the amp, but it's been a good starting point. Sometimes it can be hard to see through the grillecloth, so you have to feel for the edge of the opening and make your best guess.


Sometimes I'll add a MD-421 Sennheiser pointing straight into the center of another speaker of the cab, especially if I want a bassier tone like when I'm doing blues stuff.

[mixsit]

Originally Posted by PokerDude422

... Do i just need to mess with the gain and volume more or is that bogus.

But let's back up a bit. Far from being bogus, this would be the origin, the starting point for your interaction with your amp yes?