1st time recording a mic'd guitar amp - any hot tips?

[Capriccio]

Just to clarify, you think the distortion on the first track is just a few ventures over the 0 dBFS line at the mp3 stage, because I barely left any headroom?

You said that recorded at about -10db and that will be ample headroom so my guess is that it must have been the louder MP3 conversion. You will have the original and can listen to satisfy yourself that the recording was fine.

my idea is that I'll learn more if I figure out how to get good results from not-so-good equipment.

The ideal way to mix and listen to recordings is in an environment that faithfully reproduces what was recorded, that is, in a room and with equipment that do not colour or alter the sound in any way. Laptop speakers will not be faithfully reproducing all frequencies evenly. Some headphones are very good but headphones create artificial stereo separation. You will find that a properly acoustically treated room, with competent monitors and a known sweet spot in which to listen are the best that we can do - or aim to do. Pwersonally I don't think you will, to quote you, "learn more if I figure out how to get good results from not-so-good equipment," but I do think you learn how hard getting a neutral, uncoloured sound is from poor equipment. This is a struggle many if not all of us home recording types have with our limited space and limited budgets for acoustic treatment and equipment.

 

[miroslav]

I don't think you will, to quote you, "learn more if I figure out how to get good results from not-so-good equipment," but I do think you learn how hard getting a neutral, uncoloured sound is from poor equipment.

True.

I never quite understood the mentality..."Yeah, these are suck-ass monitors, but if you learn how to mix on them, you can mix on anything."

Why?

 

[Sifunkle]

I like what you're telling me... rationalisation to spend $800 on monitors instead of my student debt, my car or food Also, for once, I can semi-legitimately blame my current equipment rather than my woeful lack of skill.

 

[panchouu]

I second what Capriccio said: record it dry, no reverb until mixdown. And be isolated, or get as far as you can from the amp, so to listen what is being recorded, not the amp itself.

The guitar for the intro, to me sounded perfect, the other one apeears a little muddy (moving the microphone would help), but maybe it sits perfectly in the mix, I have no reference.

I have been in lots of recordings, and have seen a million forms of placing mics, and in any recording book, after drums, electric guitar is the most covered instrument. With dynamics, large and small diaphragms, close, far, on/off axis. A combination that I like a lot is to record with 2 mics: SM-58 without the windshield (is it called like that?) on axis nearly touching the speaker, and an Audio-Technica 2050 at least 12 inches away, position varying where the song dictates best (check the phase!), then blend the mics as you think sounds best, the SM-58 will get a lot of lows/low-mids and almost no high end, the AT gets the opposite, so instead of using EQ, you move the faders.

 

[SubLunar]

I responded earlier about not being able to find the "sweet spot" in mic'ing the cab. I considered a Direct Box, but these only seem to be useful in a limited amount of situations. I have the right gear I just wasn't getting the sound I wanted out of the mic from the cab.

Well, I determined I was using an unbalanced RCA input on my soundcard (Delta 1010LT), so I switched and used the balanced XLR out from the mixer to the XLR in on the card and viola! I hadn't considered the balanced vs unbalaced part of the equation, but it makes a huge difference in the quality of sound I'm getting now. Granted I still have to find the "sweet spot", but it seems like the increase in sound quality through the use of a balanced connection has made the sweet spot easier to find. So that's my two cents.

 

[Spare Dougal]

I very rarely move from the U87 (or any large diaphragm condenser mic) about 6 to 12 inches away from the cab. The close/far movement controls the bass and the on axis/off axis moment controls top. Once you've got it sounding good on the amp, make final adjustments like that. Simple.

Top tip.

as said, get the amp to sound right.

Then turn down the gain.

Then turn down the gain again.

Just keep turning it down for ages.

Now go


Seriously though, high gain always seems like it'll be great, then it sounds like fizzle.

So true. Just makes your trouses flap but sounds shit. Get it sound good at low levels then turn the monitors up.