Amp Micing

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smallhands

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I am having trouble getting a full sound when I record my guitar tracks. We have one condenser mic (not sure what kind) that we have been trying different placements with, but the tracks still sound thin and empty.
I play a gibson les paul studio through a fender hot rod deluxe and the sound is amazing live, but when recorded it sounds horrible. I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions any of yall might have.
 
smallhands said:
I am having trouble getting a full sound when I record my guitar tracks. We have one condenser mic (not sure what kind) that we have been trying different placements with, but the tracks still sound thin and empty.
I play a gibson les paul studio through a fender hot rod deluxe and the sound is amazing live, but when recorded it sounds horrible. I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions any of yall might have.
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My brother has a Hotrod devill. We have had good luck sticking a SM57 right up on the grill toward the edge of the speaker. Recently we have started using a ribbon mic in conjunction with the 57 and then blending to taste.
The mic you are using just might sound thin. You could probably get better advice if you could tell us what kind of mic it is. Do you know what type of preamp you are using?
 
Thanks, my next guess was to try double micing it. As soon as I find out what kind of condenser mic we have I'll let you know.
 
yup...put a 57 up on the grill, find the sweet spot and you're good to go. ;)
 
I have both an SM57 and a MXL 990. I use them both at the same time when recording electric guitar and I'm happy with the results. But if I only use one, its the SM57. The 990 just doesn't capture enough low or mid-low frequencies to give a beefy result when recorded on its own. Plus it cant handle the SPL of a cranked cabinet without distorting. I have to back it off farther than I'd like to (5' or 6' instead of the more traditional 3' or so). That reduces the low end it picks up as well, and adds a lot of room ambience to the end result. The more ambience, the more distant it sounds in a mix. The more distant, the thinner it sounds. MXL makes a version of the 990 that has a -10dB pad switch as well as a low-end rolloff switch. That might help towards making it a better mic for loud amps.

Definitely invest in a SM57. It has so many uses, and it'll last you forever. It's a very worthwhile investment for a home studio.

And don't tell Sonixx I said this, but the first thing I'd try to remedy thin-sounding guitars is to lower the amount of gain/distortion that you're using. Too much distortion tends to make an electric guitar part sound fizzy and thin in a mix. Remember that how an amp sounds to your ears in a room is usually going to be different to how it sounds to a microphone that's right on the amp's grille cloth. Listen to the amp mic via headphones and hear how the sound changes as you move the mic around (or better yet, let your friend move the mic around slowly and you can play and listen for audible changes due to mic positioning).
 
I'm lovin' my new Sennheiser e609. Round and airy, not nearly as bright as a 57.
 
It's a combination of tools and skills...

Tools:
Gtr
Pickup
Amp
Speaker
Mic
Frequency Understanding

Skills:
Playing ability
Amp Dialing
Mic Placement
Post tracking

Any one of these can be problematic and cause difficulty and for a novice not being able to determine which, including more than one.

I'd definitely recommend a mic more suited to micing gtr cabs..
 
Cool. Thanks for the help. Looks like i'll be ordering an SM 57
 
Tadpui said:
I have both an SM57 and a MXL 990. I use them both at the same time when recording electric guitar and I'm happy with the results. But if I only use one, its the SM57. The 990 just doesn't capture enough low or mid-low frequencies to give a beefy result when recorded on its own. Plus it cant handle the SPL of a cranked cabinet without distorting. I have to back it off farther than I'd like to (5' or 6' instead of the more traditional 3' or so). That reduces the low end it picks up as well, and adds a lot of room ambience to the end result. The more ambience, the more distant it sounds in a mix. The more distant, the thinner it sounds. MXL makes a version of the 990 that has a -10dB pad switch as well as a low-end rolloff switch. That might help towards making it a better mic for loud amps.

Definitely invest in a SM57. It has so many uses, and it'll last you forever. It's a very worthwhile investment for a home studio.

And don't tell Sonixx I said this, but the first thing I'd try to remedy thin-sounding guitars is to lower the amount of gain/distortion that you're using. Too much distortion tends to make an electric guitar part sound fizzy and thin in a mix. Remember that how an amp sounds to your ears in a room is usually going to be different to how it sounds to a microphone that's right on the amp's grille cloth. Listen to the amp mic via headphones and hear how the sound changes as you move the mic around (or better yet, let your friend move the mic around slowly and you can play and listen for audible changes due to mic positioning).
Click to expand...


So you think your guitar amp is kicking out more than 130db? That's what it takes to distort the MXL 990. That's loud enough to break windows in the basement. I suppose it's possible, but it seems more likely that you are simply distorting the preamp input, or something downstream from there, rather than distorting the mic diaphragm.

You are spot on about using less gain, though. Doesn't need that much at all to sound good in a recording.

Remember that higher frequencies will have more power closer to the speaker, while the low freqs will retain power farther from the speaker. In other words, what you hear when you are standing 10 feet from the speaker may sound great, but 1 inch from the grill the microphone will "hear" something brighter and edgier and quite different from what your ears hear. Always record a sample and play it back before you decide if your amp is set right for the recording. My preference is to tweak the amp so that it sounds good on playback and have the mic close to the speaker, rather than tweaking the amp for my ears, and then trying to place the mic to get what I want out of the recording. I tweak my amp while monitoring the sound thru the mic and the monitors. That way I hear exactly what it will sound like when it gets recorded and played back.
 
Tadpui said:
.. And don't tell Sonixx I said this, but...
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off with his head... :D

I agree that too much gain can sound terrible, but I'm definitely of the opinion that gain is not problematic in and of itself but with dialing just the right amount being the quest for the holy grail.

IMO, thin sounding gtrs is a lack of balance and just dialing the gain down is not going to be very satisfying. depending, you'll probably end up loosing the amp's feel and liquidity.

my input is to:

  1. dial the amp for what you like to hear
  2. mic positioning is paramount, just slapping a mic up doesn't cut it
  3. speaker selection really matters
  4. now dial (tweak) the amp to fine tune based on what the mic is hearing and make very small mic adjustments

Also, OP possibly you're prematurely judging the tone before its had a chance to say hello in the mix.
 
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soundchaser59 said:
So you think your guitar amp is kicking out more than 130db? That's what it takes to distort the MXL 990. That's loud enough to break windows in the basement. I suppose it's possible, but it seems more likely that you are simply distorting the preamp input, or something downstream from there, rather than distorting the mic diaphragm.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure its putting out 130 dB, but I definitely notice distortion and clicking/popping when I try to record with that mic too close to my amp. My SM57 can take the abuse with no problems. But the MXL 990 gets pretty nasty sounding on a cranked cabinet. I make sure the levels going into my computer are within reason, and I never see any clipping either on my mixer's preamps or on my comuter's inputs. I always figured it was the mic. I'm not sure where all else there is to clip if its not the mic, not the preamp, and not the input of my Delta44.

Sonixx said:
off with his head...
Click to expand...
:D
 
you may want to give this ES 57 a try it is an exact clone from the SM 57 and sounds every bit as good at a fraction of the cost.
Just a thought
 
I've experienced the same problem with my 990. When it was close enough to the amp to produce a somewhat full sound, it was very cracky sounding, and after moving it away until the sound didnt crack, the recording sounded very thin. I think the combination of the sm57 and the 990 should do the trick, though.
 
one more piece of advice
Mic the speaker instead of the Amp
failcabzg7-1.jpg


:D
 
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