Appropriate Amp Volume when micing a cab?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Uladine
  • Start date Start date
Uladine

Uladine

New member
I'm thinking of taking my amp home to record guitars at my house. I dont use tubes so saturation isnt an issue. I was just wondering how loud I need to keep my amp to get a good signal when recording because I dont want to blast out the neighbors or anyone else that happens to be in my house.

By the way I'll be micing a marshall 4x12 cab with an SM-57 into a mackie 24.4 vlz mixer with xdr preamps.

Thanks.
 
i always just set it as loud as it needs to be set.

get the sound you want to be recorded, and whatever volume it needs to be - so be it.

mic it close for a more "studio" sound, mic it far for a more "live" sound.

mic the first speaker cone in the signal chain for close micing(follow the chords if you can see it in the back of the cab...i think its usually bottom right.)...probably doesnt matter so much though.

umm what else have i learned....

you'll notice that when you close mic, even a tiny movement of the mic's angle will get you a pretty big difference in sound.
for the most part, if you move it towards the cone's edge - you'll get more of a low end, kinda muffled more i'd say. Towards the cone's center will give you lots of mids/highs and maybe get to be pretty harsh, depending on your distortion.

also, get your distortion how you want it to be first, then back up a little bit on the crunch before you record - i think you'll be more pleased with the results.

oh yeah, i wrote all that about dist. guitar - but many of the same basic concepts apply for clean too i bet..i really dont do much clean though. haha. acoustic or dist. for me..!
 
Cab miking

I believe that the only tru tone comes from the cabinet.I just started recording in my project studio about a week ago and our guitars sound pretty damn sweet unmixed.I also talked to Andy Sneap(Major Metal Producer) and he told me that a thick sound is achieved from less gain on the distortion.Alot of people said that sounded a little dumb but i am not complaing.I used a sonic maximizer on my 4x12's and it made a huge difference in sound.It cleaned up that unwanted fuzz.My preamp was an art tube mp er some shit but it has a preset nob for many setups.So far so good.Any more suggestions for a better tone email me at milkmymother@yahoo.com.I will try anything.
 
Andy Sneap, though I dont know who he is, is absolutely right. When the gain is high, you overdrive the amp so much (that is how distortion is achieved, setting the gain until it "clips" a whole lot), that it naturally compresses the shit out of the signal. When you let of the gain a little, you still get plenty of distortion but more dynamic range is allowed and it sounds much punchier.

A guitar mixing tip i recently heard from a friend, whose cd sounds awesome, is to not only double track the rhythm guitar during the chorus but to also do a third "midrange" track. You just take out all the high end and lowend, basically like an am radio or even a telephone, and put it pretty low in the middle of the mix. Just to fill in the guitar sound

Eric
 
You may need to crank it up if speaker breakup is part of your tone.

I second the notion that less is more in the gain dept. when it comes to recording. I use this approach in my tones in general. When setting the preamp gain I crank it until I find the max saturation then back it down just below that point to let the amp "breath".

For tight rythym tones try recording 2-3 tracks of guitars with completely different EQ's and less gain. Of course you need to be able to duplicate your tracks precisely for this to work.

Another approach would be to play through 2 amps at once with different tones/mics.
 
Make the amp sound good in the room that it's being recorded in....... then mic it (using your ears to tell you where to place the mic......)

Also - get the amp off the floor.............
 
Thanks guys. I think I'll just have to get all my stuff over here and start experimenting. I know my rig is capable of good tones and modest levels, I just want it to translate well through the mic.

Thanks for the tip about getting the cab off the ground. Would the casters on the cab be good enough?
 
Uladine said:
Thanks for the tip about getting the cab off the ground. Would the casters on the cab be good enough?
Click to expand...

You need to get it up higher than that. I've got a couple plastic milk crates that do the trick.
 
I keep thinking of the story about Vernon Reid, when he recorded "Cult of Personality," and have something like ten 100W Amps, all cranked all the way up. The engineer (I don't remember who it was) said he couldn't go into the room, even with hearing protection. Vernon used no hearing protection. That sound, when I first heard it, just about killed me.

Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Depends on the sound you want,try to record in the bathroom if you have tiles on the wall and get the mike back a little from the speaker on an angle works for me. record some and listen to the play back ,adjust your bass treble etc and mike placement until you get a sound you like. make sure you play it back against drums and bass etc you've already recorded to make sure it blends in. as you may have already worked out you can record a killer guitar track but when you play it back with all the other tracks no amount of eq can make it blend in nicely.

dont forget the vibe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top