Ambient Mic vs Close Mic + reverb

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pure.fusion

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Hi all,

I'm trying for a (more) natural guitar/amp sound by using a close mic into the cone of the amp and an ambient room mic. Mixing the two does give me a slightly more natural sound but it's not really rocking my world.

I haven't tried it yet, but I think from previous knowledge that I would get better results by just using the singe close mic and then apply reverb to mimic a nice room. This should be more flexible and perhaps you could get better room sounds than your own physical room.

Is that what you guys do?

So, I'm trying to get my head around the double reverb thing . By that I mean, if I double mic'd my amp (close & ambient) in a nice (physical) room and achieved a good natural sound, I'd probably apply some reverb to this output to use in my mix, yeah?

Well, if I close mic the amp, apply a room reverb to fake the ambiance and call this output my "mic'd amp", I would still want to apply a reverb to this output to use in my mix.

So does this mean I have to run the resultant source-and-room-reverb signal into another reverb effect? Or does applying two types of reverb independently to the signal source have the same result?

(Hmmm, reading this back, I hope I've explained myself well enough..)

Cheers,
FM
 
You can always try reamping! Bet you would like that. ;)

And I think it's time to let your avatar go to the bathroom! Looks like he really has to go! :D
 
You're overthinking it. Just mic the amp and use reverb if you want to. All that double reverb stuff is unnecessary and will probably sound sucky.

One thing you might wanna consider, well two things: 1) if the room sucks, the "ambient" mic track will probably suck. 2) Using a close and far mic introduces phase issues. You might wanna try sliding the ambient mic track to match the close mic track to get em in phase and blend to taste, or flip the phase on the ambient mic track.
 
Yep, probably putting too much attention to it - You're both right. I'm reasonably happy with close mic and reverb. All my recordings have been like this thus far.

Yep, I',m across the phase issues, thanks.

But I do listen to CD's from fav artists, and listen to their guitar sounds, and hear a much more natural sound. I'm just trying to head towards that...

FM
 
moresound said:
NO NO put him back!


Have you tried using a ribbon mic on your amp?
Click to expand...

No chance! The little guy has gone to god - too much bitching about it's distracting nature :p

No, no ribbon mic. Only two mics in my cheap-ass studio. SM57, and a Rode NT1a (LDC)

I've had the Rode all around the (treated) room and although I wouldn't know a good room sound if I heard it, it sounds "ok" to me.

Bv Ok, I mean that the repsonse is not booming or lacking in any particular frequency and the amount of room seems to differ quite relative with the distance of the mic.

FM
 
And there are under $100. ribbon microphones out there that would be ok on an amp.
 
I found a cheap reamp hookup. Neither a direct line nor my passive direct box were doing the trick and the Radial X-amp was out of stock at GC. So i used a 1/4 to XLR cable out of my interface to a Male to Male adapter to a CP8201 mic impedance matching transformer into a Marshal. Worked great and cost $180 less than the X-Amp.

I'm thrifty like Jesus! :D
 
What I did once was to load the session track to my lap top when into a three story concrete stair way and played the track out of the laptop into a powered speaker then recorded that. It was very special verb effect!
 
LOL! Many years ago I dragged a vocalist into a stairwell and had them perform there for a similar effect--closest thing to a cathedral I've ever achieved without actually being in a cathedral!

Bob
 

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moresound said:
What I did once was to load the session track to my lap top when into a three story concrete stair way and played the track out of the laptop into a powered speaker then recorded that. It was very special verb effect!
Click to expand...

Bobbsy said:
LOL! Many years ago I dragged a vocalist into a stairwell and had them perform there for a similar effect--closest thing to a cathedral I've ever achieved without actually being in a cathedral!

Bob
Click to expand...



It is something special. That particular time, that verb effect was the center of the whole albums sound and was asked on numerous occasions which hardware verb unit was used ..... many guessed the Eventide H3000. ;) Our secret is safe here right? :cool:
 
What I typically do for lead guitar stuff that needs to sit forward in the mix, is to double mic it. A close mic about 3" away (typically an SM57 but I use an e609) with a second mic farther away, we're talking at least one meter, probably two meters (your RODE can do this, but I typically use a Fat Head II). No phasing issues, mix to taste. If I ever apply reverb, I only apply it to the second track.

The further mic is where I get most my tone, I'll add in the e609 for some grittiness.
 
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