Recording an amp far away from console.

C

CharlesThomas

New member
Here's the short version of this question:

Guitarist is in the control room. Obviously, deck, monitors, and console are in the control room.

Speaker cabinet is in a room 100 feet away.

What's the best way to manage things so that this will work out?

1) Put the amp in the control room and run really long speaker and mic cables.

2) Put the amp in the room with the cabinet and run really long guitar and mic cables (seems like it would be really noisy and have large potential for RF interference).

3) Use a wireless system on the guitar and run just a long mic cable.

4) Something else??

I have access to a snake and/or direct boxes, if that makes any difference.

I'm just not sure of the best way to go about recording in this situation and still keeping noise to a minimum.

Thanks much! :)

Charles Thomas
http://www.mp3.com/CharlesThomas
http://www.mp3.com/HotterThanKarl
 
Hey Wassup Charles!!! Long time no see!!! Hope everythings fine
with you!
Recently, I had a git player over my lil basement studio! I have built a sound room with a control room off to the side.
I had the amp (I used a Crate GFX amp mic'd with a SMack 58)
I built a Mic patchbay into the wall to eliminate long cable runs so
what I do is is plug the mic to the patchbay and then out of the patchbay to a DI and into the board. I don't know if this will help you but it works great for me!

Take care of yourself!
Peace
Mr.Q
 
Yeah....what he said!

Stay away from the wireless. The compression that results can't be fixed if its not to your liking.

I've always had the amp in the control room with the speaker cable run out to the cabinet room. If a cable has to be used to cover that distance, your be best off using a balanced mic cable than a guitar cable.

My 1 cent (+1 cent tax)

Chernapalooza
 
A follow-up question: Is there danger of interference or bleed-through if I run the speaker cable and the mic cable side-by-side for longer distances?
 
heres the deal: run long speaker and mic cables. in P.A. applications, it is common to run speaker cables of 100 feet. Use 16 or 14 guage wire. As for the mic cable, XLR balanced cable can be run for over 250 feet without interference, provided the source mic is designed to be balanced, and the preamp you are plugging into is balanced. there should be no noticible problems with running the speaker and mic cables side by side.

Matt
 
The above is all correct, and good ways to go about this CT.

I will add one more little trick that will make all the difference though....:)

Put your preamp close enough to the mic so that you can just run 1 cable from the mic to the preamp. You will find that you will get a much better sound if you keep the mic cable (mic to preamp) lengths short and the line cable (preamp to recorder) long, at least in this situation.

Microphones put out a very low voltage, and running that low voltage over even 100' is obviously not as good and is more prone to other problems that the much higher line level signal would be. This of course creates a situation were you will need someone by the preamp who is adjusting it for you, but you will need someone there anyway moving the mic placement too, so they can do both. Just use a talkback mic with them on headphones (you will need some kind of headphone amp) or use the primitive method of just "yelling down the hall" to them....:)

On another note. I am finishing up a big project I have been working on early next week, and my schedule is open for a week or so after that, so I will get on that mix for you then.

Ed
 
Thanks for the advice, Ed. I'll probably avoid this whole problem by using an SM57 instead of a condenser.

Can't wait to hear that mix! Really looking forward to it.


CT
 
CharlesThomas said:
Here's the short version of this question:

Guitarist is in the control room. Obviously, deck, monitors, and console are in the control room.

Speaker cabinet is in a room 100 feet away.

What's the best way to manage things so that this will work out?
Click to expand...


I would put him in the distant room with the amp and cabinet, mic it, run it through a snake to the control room.

A guitar and cabinet speak to each other and interact. Take advantage of it...great overtones and harmonics...crank it!!:cool:
 
Re: Re: Recording an amp far away from console.

RSMITH123 said:

>Guitarist is in the control room.

I would put him in the distant room with the amp and cabinet
Click to expand...

Yeah, if the guitarist were someone other than...oh... ME, I'd do that, but since I have to be in the control room to run the deck and so forth, I'll have to settle for running a long speaker cable. ;)

Besides, no guitarist would want to hang around in the dark little cement hole in which the speaker cabinets are going to be. Heh.

CT
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top