cyberdaniel82
New member
Greetings! I have a question about recording a guitar amp, though it extends to other sound sources as well. At first listen, it may sound philosophical in nature, but I feel confident that there’s an objectively correct answer…
I have three really great-sounding electric guitar amps. I record using either a 1966 Blackface Bassman or a Special Edition Vox AC15. My best-sounding amp, however, is actually an updated Bandmaster. In the room, using my ears, it sounds phenomenal. Crunchy, mid-rangey, articulate. Recorded, though, it completely loses the magic and instead sounds flat and sterile. I’ve tried a couple of different mics and techniques with it, but I haven’t yet cracked the code to capture its wonderful live tone.
The Bandmaster uses 3 10” speakers, which is a rather uncommon configuration. My other amps both record well and feature 12” speakers. My best guess is that maybe 10” speakers, when tracked, don’t translate to my liking the way that 12” speakers do. Again, that’s entirely a guess.
This got me wondering: one of the following statements has to be true of my situation. Which one is it?
1. If a sound source (Bandmaster) sounds great to your ears, it should sound just as great recorded; you just haven’t figured out how to capture it properly.
2. Some sound sources (Bandmaster) simply don’t translate as well as others when miked up. There’s likely no magic bullet that’s going to suddenly make your Bandmaster record as well as your other two amps.
I’m sure a lot of you veteran recording engineers have encountered analogous situations. Given my anecdotal experience, I’m leaning towards answer #2. This is the first time I’ve ever had difficulty getting a sound to translate well/accurately when miked, so I’m fascinated as to whether the shortcoming is with me, or with the Bandmaster. Thanks in advance for weighing in!
- Daniel
I have three really great-sounding electric guitar amps. I record using either a 1966 Blackface Bassman or a Special Edition Vox AC15. My best-sounding amp, however, is actually an updated Bandmaster. In the room, using my ears, it sounds phenomenal. Crunchy, mid-rangey, articulate. Recorded, though, it completely loses the magic and instead sounds flat and sterile. I’ve tried a couple of different mics and techniques with it, but I haven’t yet cracked the code to capture its wonderful live tone.
The Bandmaster uses 3 10” speakers, which is a rather uncommon configuration. My other amps both record well and feature 12” speakers. My best guess is that maybe 10” speakers, when tracked, don’t translate to my liking the way that 12” speakers do. Again, that’s entirely a guess.
This got me wondering: one of the following statements has to be true of my situation. Which one is it?
1. If a sound source (Bandmaster) sounds great to your ears, it should sound just as great recorded; you just haven’t figured out how to capture it properly.
2. Some sound sources (Bandmaster) simply don’t translate as well as others when miked up. There’s likely no magic bullet that’s going to suddenly make your Bandmaster record as well as your other two amps.
I’m sure a lot of you veteran recording engineers have encountered analogous situations. Given my anecdotal experience, I’m leaning towards answer #2. This is the first time I’ve ever had difficulty getting a sound to translate well/accurately when miked, so I’m fascinated as to whether the shortcoming is with me, or with the Bandmaster. Thanks in advance for weighing in!
- Daniel