Can't Get Guitar to sound right when recording

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Simplex09

New member
Hi I'm trying to record guitar using two SM57's and it doesn't ever sound good and I have tried everything. Unless I use a amp sim like softube vintage amp room.

SM57s position
About 1 foot away from the speaker.
1) At the end of the dust cap
2) Edge of the Celestion 75 speaker.
Tried with amp grill off and grill on.

Equipment
Fender Jaguar
Fender Twin Reverb Or 1990s Fender ultimate chorus
Celestion 75
Focusrite Scarlett Solo (3rd Gen)

Here is just a attached audio file I did of "On a Plain" by Nirvana just as a test audio file.

Thanks for your help!
 

Attachments

Simplex09 said:
Hi I'm trying to record guitar using two SM57's and it doesn't ever sound good and I have tried everything. Unless I use a amp sim like softube vintage amp room.

SM57s position
About 1 foot away from the speaker.
1) At the end of the dust cap
2) Edge of the Celestion 75 speaker.
Tried with amp grill off and grill on.

Equipment
Fender Jaguar
Fender Twin Reverb Or 1990s Fender ultimate chorus
Celestion 75
Focusrite Scarlett Solo (3rd Gen)

Here is just a attached audio file I did of "On a Plain" by Nirvana just as a test audio file.

Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
First off, your mic (SM57) is too far away. Put it right up to the grill cloth and experiment with the side to side location.

Also your amp gain is way too high. Sounds super distorted and fizzy.
 
RFR said:
First off, your mic (SM57) is too far away. Put it right up to the grill cloth and experiment with the side to side location.

Also your amp gain is way too high. Sounds super distorted and fizzy.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your help! I had the mic few inches away from the grill so should it go closer?
 
Simplex09 said:
Thanks for your help! I had the mic few inches away from the grill so should it go closer?
Click to expand...
Which was it? About a few inches away or a foot away? (As stated in the first post)

But I’d put it right up to the grill cloth.
 
RFR said:
Which was it? About a few inches away or a foot away? (As stated in the first post)

But I’d put it right up to the grill cloth.
Click to expand...
Sorry should have went into more detail, About 1 foot away from the speaker without the grill cloth or a few inches away from the grill cloth.
 
I’m still confused. Your speaker centre is 10” away from the speaker grill? Remember that the tone changes with changes of just half an inch or so, close in. A foot to 6” is a massive change, 6” to 3” is equally big. Positioning is key. Precise distajce and precise aiming. The sound you captured suggest too much distance and aiming at a very unsuitable point on the cone. I’m struggling a bit to image that sound in the room. Are you sure in the room there is the missing LF and not just the harmonicy mess of the higher frequencies.
 
record it normal levels. then increase it post. After you recorded it make it bigger.

much different then just recording louder..
 
I agree with the above.
Ideally you should be placing the microphones within inches of the driver.
I'm not sure I follow with the grill off/grill on...one foot, one inch business.
Maybe show us a picture of what you mean there?

Either way, try to get the mic within a few inches of the cone of the speaker.

We don't know the tone you're going for but it's very common to find your recording sounds much more distorted than the sound in the room,
so certainly I'd try pulling the gain back a fair bit.
Rinse and repeat that to compare recordings and hear the differences.


You said two sm57s. Are you using them both at the same time?
If so, don't rule out the possibility that they, or the cables, are wired resulting in reverse polarity.

Your recording sounds like you put a microphone in front of a tweeter so I'm betting you put mics front and back two recordings have the same polarity,
or you put two mics in front and the two recordings have opposite polarity.

You can easily flip polarity in your daw - Many eq's (and other plugins) have a button for it so very easy to quickly test and confirm.

Welcome to the forums!
 
Sounds like an extreme phasing and/or polarity issue. How does it sound using just one microphone? Anyhoozle... once you rule out polarity being the problem - make sure the mic's are identically distanced from the source. I've been micing my 59BMRI for many years using two 57's and it does not take much to get significant phase cancelation.
 
Just noticed you’re using TWO SM57s. Not necessary. And yes, you can run into phase problems.

If you want to record with two mics, you’re better off with a 57 on the cone and a condenser mic about a foot or so away.

The 57 will capture what’s coming right out of the speaker and the condenser will capture that, and also how it sounds in the room.
 
Ok so i was messing around some more and here is some pictures of my setup. Micd to my other speaker the vintage 30. Could that cause any phasing issues vintage 30 + celestion 75?
20241110_182743.webp
 

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  • 20241110_183211.webp
    20241110_183211.webp
    1.7 MB · Views: 13
If the distances of the two microphones from their respective drivers are around the same then, no, you won't have phase issues.

The polarity can be reversed between the two chains at multiple points, though.
The speakers can be wired in reverse, as can the microphones or even the cables.

As I said before, thankfully that can be undone in software and it's very easy to tell if that's what's happening.
Take your two recorded tracks and put a plugin with polarity flip button on one of them.

Play back both tracks together, with both panned centre, and toggle the polarity button a few times.
The combination should sound nice and full one way and very thin and empty the other.
 
The speakers are wired up at least on the ultimate chorus with two set of wires coming from the board. So the speakers have their own negative and plus
 
I don't think I've ever gotten a recording that shrill. Barring broken microphones, it sounds like an out of phase situation. You've basically lost everything below around 1kHz! Your sound is centered around 5k, which on a Vintage 30 is where the speaker rolls off about 20dB.

Tinny guitar.webp


Try one microphone, or if you are sending the two mics to different channels, just turn off the other channel. Pan the two mics to opposite sides. That will easily tell you if there is phase cancellation happening.
 
TalismanRich said:
I don't think I've ever gotten a recording that shrill. Barring broken microphones, it sounds like an out of phase situation. You've basically lost everything below around 1kHz! Your sound is centered around 5k, which on a Vintage 30 is where the speaker rolls off about 20dB.

View attachment 146483

Try one microphone, or if you are sending the two mics to different channels, just turn off the other channel. Pan the two mics to opposite sides. That will easily tell you if there is phase cancellation happening.
Click to expand...
Oh interesting thanks for the feedback! Im going to do some recording tomorrow and ill let you know how it goes!! I was looking into it today but I was having internet troubles on my pc so i couldn't upload a new file
 
"If the distances of the two microphones from their respective drivers are around the same then, no, you won't have phase issues."
Are they?


I pointed out polarity reversal can happen anywhere there's wires, so I'm afraid your reply about speakers isn't conclusive.
Pan them both centre and toggle polarity of one track. (y)
If the recordings instantly sound much fuller, that's your problem.

If you can't find a plugin with a polarity toggle, or your DAW doesn't have it built in then yeah,
just listen to each of the tracks in solo...one at a time.
If they each sound full then combine to sound thin, I'd still be betting on polarity inconsistency.

Failing all of that, just attach the two recorded tracks here separately. (y)
 
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