Any suggestions on how to mic a guitar amp in stereo??

  • Thread starter Thread starter JonFro
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chuckduffy said:
Well yes, I understand that a pair of human ears is what makes it 'stereo' :-) Steener replied that a guitar is a mono source, and I asked the question 'isn't everything'?
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I take your point.
What I mean is the sound emanates from one place.
If you have two mics xy up close you're not going to get a stereo representation as such, because there's nothing to represent.
I suppose stereo micing a single speaker is like taking a colour photo of a zebra. (That's gota be someones sig line!!)


If you do the same on an acoustic or piano you capture the different frequencies at either side,
or with a kit you get the stereo image of how the cymbals and toms are placed.

I duno where you draw the line; I suppose it's your intentions when micing.
I'd call a pair of mics close to a guitar, piano, kit or choir stereo because that's what you want to capture, from the instrument and from the room.
A pair close to a speaker of any kind, I'd just call two mics on a speaker. Further back in the room is a different thing, I guess.
 
Hey everyone thanks for all the ideas and discussion, it really got my brain working. I had a session the other day and recorded a guitar amp using an SM57 and a peavey lowz both a little off axis, it turned out great.

I also record a lot of acoustic guitar, I was wondering if any of you have any tips on that subject? I usually use an Sm57 up close to the hole and a condenser mic further away for a little ambiance.
 
chuckduffy said:
Is there anything that *isn't* a mono source?
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Yes! Acoustic instruments send different frequencies in different directions, so two microphones pick up different signals even outdoors or in an anechoic chamber. Also, large acoustic instruments such as grand pianos have such a large radiating surface that the source is inherently stereo.

--Ethan
 
Here is my go to approach to stereo micing a guitar can. It haven't failed me yet. 57 and a sm7. Find the sweet spot with each mic. But have them far enough apart so you won't have phase issues. Then pan left and right. I'll usually make a stereo mix bus for the guitars, eq then compress. That's my usual setup for a single guitarist. For two guitars ill sometime do the same as above but on the second guitarist switch the mics to the other side.
 
I usually just put a dynamic right to the cone and a ribbon a few feet back and image with those. Sometimes I'll use a cardioid ribbon close, but a little further back, maybe 4". They tend to be more mid-range focused than a fig 8, kind of like a smoother version of a dynamic mic with another ribbon at least 3 times the distance as the close mic to minimize phasing. This often gives me a good image. I can pan one hard and the other somewhat to place the image off center but with the spaciousness of separation. If I have multiple guitars in the mix, I might pan 1 mic at 11oclock and the other hard at 5 o'clock. For the other guitar I would do the same, or similar in reverse. The 2 mic setup sounds really great for a solo, too!
 
I've used M/S recording with some success a couple of times on guitar cabs.

Once when I just needed one single guitar track that I wanted to be a little fuller and feel like you were in the room without without having to resort to double tracks or ridiculous amounts of reverb etc
Once when I wanted to get the ping pong effect of a stereo delay through a stereo cab

Other than that though I tend to find stereo recordings eat up too much space in a mix and I end up summing to mono

For acoustic guitar in a very sparse mix, I also like M/S or sometimes XY recording from a few feet out, you really get a feel of being in the room with the guitar, but again in a denser mix it's usually a wasted effort IMO
 
I like recording the one guitar through two amps simultaneously. I use a Palmer splitter box or Y cable, output to two different amps on completely different {or even similar} settings and miked with different mics in different positions and different distances from each amp.
Panning may be very close or very wide, depending on the bass and vocals and other instruments. It's "lazy" but lovely.
 
Two mics, pointed at separate speakers, going to separate tracks, adjust for phase, pan tracks opposite sides.
 
Use a single mic and pass the result through a reverb box with a stereo-expander program; mix some of the original signal back in?
 
Double track! Amps are mono sources - makes no sense to make them stereo - I double track as mono and pan each hard left and right. I guess if you really want that stereo sound from a single amp then try placing one mic close to amp (the norm) and a second mic 1.5 to 3 meters away - depending on your room sound - pan the direct hard left and the ambient mic hard right - make sure they are in phase!
 
Micing a mono source with stereo mics does NOT create stereo. As someone else commented, it just gives a sense of room. Here's the right answer for a true stereo mix.

1- Use a quality foot pedal with stereo outs for the pre-programmed presets.
2- Run two lines through a slitter or out of a line out from one amp to another. either mike them separately or set up two mics to capture the room and set the amps far apart.
3- Direct the guitar though a Pod set on a stereo preset and output the stereo direct. (This is used in many studios. Guitarists arrive with nothing but a Pod and a guitar and adjusted and tweaked presets).
4- Copy the track, adjust the eq to make one more High/low frequency, and the other more mid frequency.
I hope this helps. Good luck,
Rod Norman

JonFro said:
Hey ya'll just wondering if you have any tips or techniques that I can try?
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Hate to bring up a old topic, but I hate mono solos. And although I'm not the world's best guitarist, all my little music projects are intrumentsls (soloing all the way threw.) I don't use PC DAW type recording equipment, its just outboard 8 tracks (and just recently a 32 track) Now my 8 track was a Boss BR 800, and it had decent internal effects. And although I hate amp simulation, I could pull it off with this unit. So one plug in and set the rec to stereo, then effects of a bit of delay in stereo (maybe a tincy bit of chorus.) Easy stereo. Now on the 32 track I don't have many good pre master effects. So I went with a pedal/amp/two mic setup. Got to watch how much cable or you start to loose sound. But in basic its a boss metal zone into a zoom MS-70 CDR (which has stereo delays chorus, and other odd ones) into two small cube amps. Each is miced via a SM 57 and 58. Don't ask why a 58 on one and 57 on the other. Now while the 32 track does not do pre effects well, it does have noise suppression. Thus I get rid of hiss there and it works vary cool. Vary cool on some rhythm parts clean or with gain too. But a lot of strait forward rhythms I'll still do the two tracks at separate times. Big reason I like the set up for leads though is when improvising for 3 minutes, I can't come close to doing that same thing again on a second track. But if you don't feel the need to have a 3000 Watt super amp lol. The money you save their you can put into two mics and two small amps, and some type of effect pedal or whatever that will do stereo.
 
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