miking a guitar amp??

I

iravage

New member
hey,
I just got all the stuff i needed to start recording, audio buddy pre, delta 44, sm 57. anyway, miking acoustic guitar sounds real good, vocals sound ok, but miking my amp sounds terrible. Im using a peavy 110 (tube) amp, the amp is real bad so i guess that might be why. But how do i go about geting the best sound, where do i point the mic,how far away do i place it? Do i Blast my Amp and turn down the mic pre, or turn the volume on the pre up and turn down the amp? the guitar also somtimes has a crackly noise in it, which is especially noticable when listening in head phones.
thanks in advance
-Andrew
 
The bad news is no matter how good of a micing technique you use, it wont make the recorded sound come out any better than the sound coming out of the amp....with that said, start off by experimenting with the amp to get the best possible sound you can get coming out of the speakers....then take the mic and mic it right up against the grill pointing to the edge of the speaker cone at an angle.....of course this is just a general starting point and you may need to back the mic up a bit or you may need to point it further into the speaker away from the cone....find what works best for you.....
 
Hey thanks, just by messing around with the amp i got a decent sound. the crackling was because the tracks were to loud, so i cut them down a bit. i can't get anymore equipment yet, but im just curious, what could you buy to get a better sound from a guitar amp, other then a new amp?would a better preamp, or better mic help? or is it really just how good the amp sounds?
Thanks
-Andrew
 
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....im adding another question, why is that when i have a few tracks goin at once i here a little crackling or buzz? when i lower the voumes it helps, but the vocals are usually pretty buzzy when played with everytig else. all the tracks sound fine when played seperatly though. just wondering if you guys had any ideas,
-Andrew
 
As far as getting a better sound, it would depend on what expectations you have....i would think an amp modeler like the pod or j-station would be a step up from where you are (is that a Minx110?).....J-Stations go for $149 thse days and you can dial in a sound immediately without fooling with mic placement and preamps and all that....

Also, if the vocals and each individual track play back fine, then its probably just the overall level of the mix needs to be cut down....if the software you are using has a vu-meter, check it or use the deltas meters to see what the level is when you play all the tracks together...if you are hitting 0db then that is your culprit....also make sure you have downloaded the newest drivers frim the m-audio website....
 
....J-Stations go for $149 thse days...

Geez.. I wish we had those prices in Sweden too...

AND! Gidge, you're drunk. Now go to bed!!!
 
Wow, good suggestions gidge. about the 0 db being the culprit, you were right. Even after i lowered everything, i played the whole thing, looking at the vu meter and i hit 0 db. now i know to make everything less then 0db, that really helped make everything sound much better. i went to the m audio site and got the new drivers, im not sure if it helped or not, but it couldnt have hurt. Thanks again,
-Andrew
 
oops... maybe it was doing that because when i went to upgrade the sample rate to 96000 i clicked 9600 instead, still good to keep it under 0 db though, you can hear it a little...
-Andrew
 
if you are recording at 24 bit, 41.1 or 48 is more than high enuff of a sampling rate....from 48k to 96k means you are using twice the disk space plus making your hard drive push twice as much data and if you want to use DX effects you will quickly bottom out your track count....but if you have the mack-daddy computer with 40g hard drive and twin PIII's, you are set up....otherwise......

Im bed...im going to drunk.....
 
hey, im starting to consider geting the johnson j-station, beacuse micing the amp is just not working for me. I have heard many samples of it on the internet, i even listened to the samples on your site (gidge), the guitars in those songs were done with the j-station right? Sounds pretty good. Do you think its worth it?It has to be better then this zoom thing right? I read theres some type of midi connection on it, is this a midi in or midi out?
Thanks
-Andrew
 
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Yeah, thats all J-Station on those tunes (clean,dirty,guitar,bass)....keep in mind that I posted those through a thread that explained that I pretty much threw recording quality out the window...didnt even tune up before....just used the J-Station presets for everything.....

the Midi in/out is used so you can control it with an on-screen editor on your pc....really cool because you can tweak controls that you cant without it......

at $149 you will definitely get your moneys worth....if you search the BBS you will see countless threads about the Pod, J-Station, and all the others and what it boils down to is, while it may not be as good as having an awesome amp and micing it, its very adequate at being a reasonable facsimile of several amps....and it has decent effects too....
 
Hey, maybe im confused of the purpose of the midi in and out, but my electronic drums have a midi out, and i have been using the headphones out which sounds awful. Can hook my drums into the j-station and put it though that way?
Thanks
-Andrew
 
The use of the Midi port on the J-Station differs from the use of the midi port on your electronic drums.....for the J-Station, the midi port is just used as a way of transferring the controls data from the unit to the PC....for your drum machine, the midi port is used to send actual midi data into the PC...you wont be able to connect the two by midi ports...im curious as to why your drum machine sounds awful....is it that the machine has an awful sound to start or it just doesnt record well? which one is it? does it have a line out?....
 
hey,The sound isnt awful, its just ok. from reading the forums i thought to get the best sound you should use the midi out. its a Headphone/aux out. i'll probably end up geting the j-station...
 
I dont think that sounded bad at all.....

Do you need a J-Station?....not if you are happy with your tone.....

Which Zoom unit do you have?....Did you record that direct or thru amp?......
 
seems like that Zoom unit is pretty decent.....If I were you Id definitely wait until I could try one out in person until Id consider the J-Station...you are definitely getting a very usable sound for now.....
 
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