ericlingus
New member
Here is an article i've read about miking an amp.
One mic is almost never enough, but with two or more, phase cancellation rears its ugly head. Nevertheless, we got a trick for that right?
Here it comes.
Put the guitar down. Make it make noise, or take the cable off and stick it on something that will make noise. This noise has to be stable and constant.... a fender strat's hum is perfect for this assuming it has some midrange harmonics to it.
Using your console's meters, bring that noise up to wherever your "zero" is. This will probably require a lot of mic pre gain so make sure your speakers are turned down. Don't let anyone touch the guitar or whatever the noise source is. Once you've got the signal to zero, mute the channel.
Next go into the room with the amp, and put your second mic about equidistant from the speaker as the first mic ... Be careful not to disturb Mic#1.
Back in the control room, bring Mic#2 up to zero.
Now, very importantly, pull Mic#2's fader (NOT mic pre) down to -infinity. Unmute Mic#1. Slowly push Mic#2's fader up towards zero.
If the volume at your final Left Right Mix buss on your console goes up, you need to flip the phase of Mic#2. If your console doesn't have a phase switch, make an out of phase cable. Just reverse pins 2 and 3 on an XLR, and make sure you label that cable so later on you don't screw up some overheads or something. Remember: if the volume goes up, flip the phase.
If the volume goes down, we can proceed... keep flipping the phase until the volume goes down when they are at their zeros.
Now pick up a bat, knife or gun. Whatever you are best with. Threaten anyone in the control room with it and say, "DO NOT touch that guitar! I am going to have headphones on at extreme gain levels and am risking it all so you can have a good guitar sound." Wave the weapon around menacingly until you are sure that they get the point. Kick them out and lock the door if you can't trust em... now is not the time for gags.
Go out to the amp with headphones on. You will hear a hiss or buzz or hum... make sure the hum in the phones is louder than the one you can hear directly from the amp.
Do not cough; you will blow your eardrums right into each other. Be careful of any noise that may be present.
Now, extremely carefully, move Mic#2 back and forth, left and right. Slowly. You should hear a whoosh sound, much like a flanger pedal would make.
The trick here is to find the spot where the least amount noise is coming out of the headphones. Keep moving the mic until you find it.
Have you caught the theory yet? We are looking for the spot where the two mics are the most in phase with each other. If one is phase flipped, then at the most in phase spot, they will nearly cancel each other out. Find that spot! Once you get it, take off the phones and go back to the console.
Turn both mic preamp gains all the way down. Put fader one at the unity position on your console. Play your guitar and turn up the mic pre gain until you hit zero. Now mute Mic#1. Now turn fader two to the unity position. Bring up mic pre #2 until you hit zero.
Unflip the phase on Mic#2 at this point so that both mics are in phase.
Unmute Mic#1 and mess with the faders. Those two faders now become the best EQ money can buy! Turn up one, then the other, experiment to your heart's content. Once you get a sound you like, buss them together and send em to a track... or keep them separate if you want some choices later.
Revel in your glorious new tone!
now when he says "Using your console's meters, bring that noise up to wherever your "zero is", does he mean turn the pre amp gain up until on the meter it says 0? I can't seem to get it exact. I don't have an external console. I mix entirely in cubase LE. I have a firebox audio interface and miking my amp with a 57 and an e609s. So I turned the gain up till it said zero on the mixer in cubase and then I muted it and did the other steps he said. I found out that the mics where out of phase because the final L&R bus went up instead of down when I raised the volume on channel two. He said I would need to flip the phase with a phase reverse switch which my firebox doesn't have. I have a plugin phase reverse switch so I used that. Will that do the same thing? Because I used it and the volume still didn't go down.He said keep flipping the phase till it does down. What's the point of keep flipping the phase? Does that mean just keep flipping phase reverse switch on and off? This is where I got stuck at. I just couldn't get the volume to go down. Could someone help me out with this? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.
One mic is almost never enough, but with two or more, phase cancellation rears its ugly head. Nevertheless, we got a trick for that right?
Here it comes.
Put the guitar down. Make it make noise, or take the cable off and stick it on something that will make noise. This noise has to be stable and constant.... a fender strat's hum is perfect for this assuming it has some midrange harmonics to it.
Using your console's meters, bring that noise up to wherever your "zero" is. This will probably require a lot of mic pre gain so make sure your speakers are turned down. Don't let anyone touch the guitar or whatever the noise source is. Once you've got the signal to zero, mute the channel.
Next go into the room with the amp, and put your second mic about equidistant from the speaker as the first mic ... Be careful not to disturb Mic#1.
Back in the control room, bring Mic#2 up to zero.
Now, very importantly, pull Mic#2's fader (NOT mic pre) down to -infinity. Unmute Mic#1. Slowly push Mic#2's fader up towards zero.
If the volume at your final Left Right Mix buss on your console goes up, you need to flip the phase of Mic#2. If your console doesn't have a phase switch, make an out of phase cable. Just reverse pins 2 and 3 on an XLR, and make sure you label that cable so later on you don't screw up some overheads or something. Remember: if the volume goes up, flip the phase.
If the volume goes down, we can proceed... keep flipping the phase until the volume goes down when they are at their zeros.
Now pick up a bat, knife or gun. Whatever you are best with. Threaten anyone in the control room with it and say, "DO NOT touch that guitar! I am going to have headphones on at extreme gain levels and am risking it all so you can have a good guitar sound." Wave the weapon around menacingly until you are sure that they get the point. Kick them out and lock the door if you can't trust em... now is not the time for gags.
Go out to the amp with headphones on. You will hear a hiss or buzz or hum... make sure the hum in the phones is louder than the one you can hear directly from the amp.
Do not cough; you will blow your eardrums right into each other. Be careful of any noise that may be present.
Now, extremely carefully, move Mic#2 back and forth, left and right. Slowly. You should hear a whoosh sound, much like a flanger pedal would make.
The trick here is to find the spot where the least amount noise is coming out of the headphones. Keep moving the mic until you find it.
Have you caught the theory yet? We are looking for the spot where the two mics are the most in phase with each other. If one is phase flipped, then at the most in phase spot, they will nearly cancel each other out. Find that spot! Once you get it, take off the phones and go back to the console.
Turn both mic preamp gains all the way down. Put fader one at the unity position on your console. Play your guitar and turn up the mic pre gain until you hit zero. Now mute Mic#1. Now turn fader two to the unity position. Bring up mic pre #2 until you hit zero.
Unflip the phase on Mic#2 at this point so that both mics are in phase.
Unmute Mic#1 and mess with the faders. Those two faders now become the best EQ money can buy! Turn up one, then the other, experiment to your heart's content. Once you get a sound you like, buss them together and send em to a track... or keep them separate if you want some choices later.
Revel in your glorious new tone!
now when he says "Using your console's meters, bring that noise up to wherever your "zero is", does he mean turn the pre amp gain up until on the meter it says 0? I can't seem to get it exact. I don't have an external console. I mix entirely in cubase LE. I have a firebox audio interface and miking my amp with a 57 and an e609s. So I turned the gain up till it said zero on the mixer in cubase and then I muted it and did the other steps he said. I found out that the mics where out of phase because the final L&R bus went up instead of down when I raised the volume on channel two. He said I would need to flip the phase with a phase reverse switch which my firebox doesn't have. I have a plugin phase reverse switch so I used that. Will that do the same thing? Because I used it and the volume still didn't go down.He said keep flipping the phase till it does down. What's the point of keep flipping the phase? Does that mean just keep flipping phase reverse switch on and off? This is where I got stuck at. I just couldn't get the volume to go down. Could someone help me out with this? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.