Miking A Guitar Amp

[Guitar4life0000]

Simple question, when miking a guitar amp, how loud should you have the amp? Quiet? Loud? Very Loud? Or does it even matter?

Also, are SM57's TRUELY one of the best amp miking mics?


Thanks!

Steve.

[pipelineaudio]

needs to be loud enough so the amp itself sounds the way you want it ideally.

57 works fine, but its not as easy as most people make out

[jndietz]

If its a tube amp, unfortuneately you have to crank the bastards to get any good tone out of them So as long as your parents, your neighbors, your dog... blah blah... as long as they don't care... GO BANANAS!

If its a solid state, go buy a tube amp.

And yes, the SM57 is pretty much an industry standard in miking guitar amps.

[Guitar4life0000]

hahah okay I have a tube amp and an SM57 so that helped a lot, thanks

[WhiteStrat]

Originally Posted by Guitar4life0000

Simple question, when miking a guitar amp, how loud should you have the amp? Quiet? Loud? Very Loud? Or does it even matter?

Also, are SM57's TRUELY one of the best amp miking mics?


Thanks!

Steve.

1) Q. How loud? A. How loud is it when it sounds good? I can record mine quiet enough to let people sleep in the next room. But that's not where it sounds the best. The amp sounds best when the power tubes start warming up at around 4-5. Nobody's sleeping through that! So I use an attenuator to bring the volume back down. Bottom line is that you can record it as quietly as your preamp will allow. If you've got lots of clean headroom in your pre, you can turn the amp down, and the pre up. More importantly you have to start with "where does the amp sound the best?"

2) SM57? Yes. The debate rages and there's always someone to say that some other mic is better. And lots of other mics are better for certain things. But a 57 is a workhorse that do almost anything you ask of it. I've used 'em on everything, and even as my mic collection has expanded to include lots of more expensive specialized mics, I still use it all the time--esp. on guitar cabs.

[Guitar4life0000]

alright, thanks man!

[tubbabubba22]

can u use a large diaphram condenser to mic guitar amps if you are just using a softer clean tone?

[tunetown]

Many great records used SM-57 on guitar cabs. You will need to find the sweet spot on your speakers. This can vary from amp to amp. Depending on your budget, you will also have good results with the Royer 121 ribbon mic or other ribbons. They works best a little further back. Maybe 6 - 8 inches as opposed to the 57 which is usually placed as close a possible.

There is some good reading here http://www.badmuckingfastard.com/sound/slipperman.html
if you can handle the language.

Cheers
Peter

[PhiloBeddoe]

Yep, 57 is fine but it can take some work to make it sound good. IMHO the reason it isn't quite as sure fire as it used to be is because it sounded better recorded to tape. These days a lot of people are turning to ribbons to get a smoother top end and fuller sound, sometimes combining a ribbon with a 57.

As far as volume, this often goes with the size and wattage of the amp. Smaller amps don't have to be as loud because the often tubes saturate and speakers break up at lower volumes. But if you have a 100W amp on '1', it's probably not going to do much for you.

No rules of course, do what sounds good.

[NYMorningstar]

Another thing to keep in mind is to use less distortion than you normally have when recording and remember that the track doesn't have to necessarily sound good on it's own to sound great in the mix.

[WhiteStrat]

Originally Posted by PhiloBeddoe

Yep, 57 is fine but it can take some work to make it sound good. IMHO the reason it isn't quite as sure fire as it used to be is because it sounded better recorded to tape. These days a lot of people are turning to ribbons to get a smoother top end and fuller sound, sometimes combining a ribbon with a 57.

As far as volume, this often goes with the size and wattage of the amp. Smaller amps don't have to be as loud because the often tubes saturate and speakers break up at lower volumes. But if you have a 100W amp on '1', it's probably not going to do much for you.

No rules of course, do what sounds good.

Never thought of the tape vs. digital issue w/the 57's, but you make a good point. I often just use a 57 for scratch work, but my best sounding guitar tracks are a 57 with a ribbon (sometimes an i5 with a ribbon). Good call.