amplifier position help

S

sk0m

New member
does the position of the amp affect the recording??
ex if i place the amp on the ground or on my desk will it make a difference in recording ?? (i record with sm57)

sry for bad english (greek guy here)
 
Yes, depending on how you have the mic aimed, it will also be picking up some of the inherent room characteristics, so if the sound changes appreciably by placing the amp on the floor or on a stand, the mic will "hear" that difference".
 
More than just the room sound, raising the amp can help cut down on mud. Low end energy exits the amp through the sides, top and bottom of the amp, as well as the front. Putting it on a chair or other surface raised above the floor can help this energy to dissipate instead of bouncing right off the floor and immediately back up into the mic.
Or something like that. Try it, it helps.
 
ty vey much for the info. i Have a bugera combo amp and all my recordings were full of bass and mud thaths why i asked u about changing the position!!
Any suggestion on "how to record combo amps" ex sound treating a certain space etc etc?
 
not only will raising an amp off the floor make a difference but other things will too. Try setting the amp at different angles to the wall, this makes a big difference if you are trying to capture some of the room sound. You might also want to try tilting the amp so it faces upward a little. Mic placement makes a lot of difference in how the mic "hears" the amp, to find the best placement experiment, listen through headphones to hear where it sounds best.
 
Dani Pace said:
not only will raising an amp off the floor make a difference but other things will too. Try setting the amp at different angles to the wall, this makes a big difference if you are trying to capture some of the room sound. You might also want to try tilting the amp so it faces upward a little. Mic placement makes a lot of difference in how the mic "hears" the amp, to find the best placement experiment, listen through headphones to hear where it sounds best.
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ty very much .Could you plz answer this one too? i Have placed my amplifier so that it faces towards the other end of the room (the closest object is at aproximately 2 meters from my chair and a desk ) should i place it facing a wall during recording? Cause i think of treating a certain corner of my room to record vocals amps and acoustics !!
 
i once heard of putting an amp into a "chest" and closing it in there along with a mic

any idea of the relevance of this?
 
Rule number 1 is to play around with it until it sounds good to you.
Rule number 2 is to follow rule number 1.

As far as having it in a corner or facing a wall, you gotta remember that there's gonna be a lot of reflections building up. Depending on the sound you want, this can be a good or a bad thing.
One thing to do is use your ears. Say you're gonna have the amp 2 feet from the wall and facing it, and you're gonna close mic it. Well, throw your head in there an put your ear physically where the mic is gonna be. Is it a cardioid mic? Cover the far ear and cup your hand around the one where the mic will be to try and simulate something like a cardioid pickup pattern.
Does it sound good?
Face the amp out into the room, put your ear up to it and try and find the best sounding position on the best sounding speaker (don't deafen yourself!:D). Put a mic there.
Walk out into the room and try and find the place where the amp sounds the best to you. Put a mic there. If you've got one with an omni pickup pattern, that's the pattern that most closely approximates the way your ears work, so keep that in mind.

When all those suggestions fail, go back to rule 1.:D
 
sk0m said:
Cause i think of treating a certain corner of my room to record vocals amps and acoustics !!
Click to expand...

Great advice from The Cancers.:cool:

I'll just add that, generally, you don't want to put ANYTHING in the corner besides a bass trap.
 
If you're gonna spend the time and money to acoustically treat some of your room (which is a darn good idea) then, no. Rami was right, the only thing you generally want to put in a corner is a bass trap (you can find instructions for making them yourself on the cheap all over Google and Youtube).
And, if you feel like you have to, you can put Baby in the corner too.

If you look into acoustic treatments, it's kind of intimidating to see all the things that you need to do to get your space up to nearly professional grade. But if you break it into little steps (build a bass trap one weekend, deaden a wall the next...), you can get it sounding great. And nothing you are gonna do (assuming you have the average shitty sounding home recording space and not some miraculously pretty sounding room) is gonna end up hurting the sound of the room. It might not help much, but it won't hurt it.
 
ty very much !!! could i send you picturres of what my corner is like and suggest me tha things i should do ? i have no time problems but money is an isue.i am a very good diyer thought so it wont be a problem!!! thnx in advance
 
I would suggest reading up a bit on the basic principals of acoustic treatments.
This Website is a great resource:
http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

Then, if you have more specific questions, post them with some pictures of your space in the studio build forum. They can give you much more specific advice, plus if you look around in that forum, you can see some really cool home studio builds from other members.
 
I try to avoid putting anything (amps, drums, singer etc...) in corners. It seems there are always reflections or something that makes corners just sound bad. This is the case whether faceing into or out of the corner. From my experience, 2 places to avoid are 1, any corner, and 2, the exact center of the room.
 
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