another question about micing amps

C

callipygian

New member
Hello,

I've been trying for the past two days to find some nice spots to place my mics to catch the sound at a decent quality. If i'm playing clean, slower or picking notes I can get it to sound satisfactory, but when I'm strumming chords the distortion really comes out when i playback the recording, which would be the desired thing if it didn't sound so terrible. I'm just trying to save myself from more hours of experimenting than needed by seeing if there's anybody out there that can give me suggestions according to the gear I have. So, here it goes:

*Peavey Bandit 112 (original speaker replaced with a celestion)
*Cad 95 (small diaphragm condenser, I've been using this to close-mic the amp)
*Studio Projects C3
*Audix Fusion drum mic set, which consists of:
- 2 - small diaphragm condensers with responses aimed for the high end
- 3 - tom mics which can probably be used if I want to mic the amp with more than the 2 mics I'm already using (ie. mic the back of the amp)
- 1 - mic aimed for the lower frequencies of bass drums or floor toms
*2 omnidirectional shure mics that may come in handy in times of desparation

Mics run into a Mackie, then to the soundcard...

I haven't tried micing the back of the amp yet, nor have I recording the same track twice and panning them and whatnot, because I figure that if I'm not happy with the original sound, then when I add more to it I will be equally as unhappy at best.
So, does anyone have any suggestions, or should I just keep trying, maybe add some compression or other misc plugins.......or should I give up, consider it a lost cause, sell all my crap and buy something a little less complicated like a pet snake? Or maybe I'll just become a mime.....

Oh yeah, and what exactly are you doing when you're swapping the pin phase?
 
I'd hazard a guess that you're overloading the Cad. Does it have a pad switch?

Second possibility. Your levels going into the Soundcard are too high and you're getting clipping. In which case lower the main output fader on the M*ckie.
 
Ah, perhaps you need to check

Check the input gain control. Mackies, especially the older ones, are sensitive to hot inputs. You are using condensers so the input gain should be set pretty low. You can bring the fader up, it's the pre-amp before it gets to the fader that will overload if the signal is too hot.

It can do this well before the peak light goes off so try turning down the input gain and bring the fader up to get the levels you want. If this doesn't work, the mics themselves could be overloading.

Just a couple of thoughts, give them a try.
 
It's definately not a clipping problem, because I did set the levels to be around 0 db when the faders were at unity. I was afraid that what it was going to boil down to was the bandit. I don't have the cash to buy a better amp because I spent all my money on monitors, mics, soundcard, etc. So that sucks. I guess I'll just become a mime with a pet snake....
 
Can you hear the distorion coming from your amp or are you just hearing it on playback?If it's not coming from the amp then it sounds like something in the chain is clipping.Have you tried differant mics?
 
"Ditch the Bandit."

I have some recordings done with a bandit that sound really good.....I also have some recordings that i used a fender tube amp that sound good. Im going to put a couple up on nowhere radio in the near future. One blues guitar solo that was done with a bandit has as good a guitar tone as i've ever heard. The signal chain is:

1966 fender stratocaster into peavey bandit.
mic'd with a SP C-1 LDC going into a joe meek "british channel" pre...(so don't tell me that a dynamic mic or a ribbon mic is the only way to get a decent recording of a guitar amp....thats bullshit)
So, with that said I will say this...
don't ditch the bandit....

tweak the bandit


"if it sounds right it IS right!"
 
Probably the best advice I can think of to give someone having trouble getting a decent guitar sound...

turn down the distortion!

damn shack...you beat me to the punch

lol
 
I usually play with the distortion at a numeric level of 6 or 7 on my amp, and because of the fact that I have read up on micing amps at various places, I was aware of the "turn the distortion just below where it sounds good to the naked ear" measure. I experimented with various levels, and was at the point where I was between 1 and 1.5 when I came to you guys for help. At that level it sounds good when I play a a more slower style, but the second I start strumming, it sounds like crap. My main trouble is with the higher frequencies, I think, but when I turn them down either on the amp or on the microphones, it lacks definition and is muddy. If the mics were clipping, when I press the solo button on my mixer, the led levels would be topped out when the fader for the mic's channel was at unity gain (0db), no? I'm next to positive the mics aren't clipping.

Thank you everybody for helping, any further suggestions are welcome, but what I'm starting to think is that if I want to do any recording out of my amp at all, I'm just going to have to do the arduous and tedious task of positioning the amp and microphones in just the right spots, with both the amp and the mixer's eq's in just the right spots, doubling up the tracks with layers of clean and distorted recordings of both bridge and neck pickups, then use a load of plugins to chop it into pieces, turn it upside down and smear it all over steinberg's face.

: )
 
I think that you can have mic clipping without clipping your channel signal.Try turning down your amp level or moving the mic away from the speaker some.
 
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