Elec. Guitar Micing - Help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter timothypberner
  • Start date Start date
I suspect that you're experiencing trumpet player syndrome. As in the sound you think you make isn't the one everyone hears. Nobody listens to their guitar cabinet with their ear stuck in front of the speaker. The mics are capturing the sound, probably quite faithfully - but it's just not what you or the player hear standing a few feet away, which is the direct sound, plus the ports or vents, and other drivers all combining. If you stand in front of the cabinet and it sounds good, then stick a decent condenser where your ears are, and it will sound similar. The trouble is that this often sounds a bit 'revealing'. Your ear will, if it's loud, be using it's own compression/protection system, and this tend to hide some less than ideal components. The good mic will record these, warts and all. It's like when you record with a video camera at a gig. What you think you heard is rarely what the camera heard, and sometimes video people use really good mics, but are amazed it sounds rotten. I suspect what you are hearing may well be quite accurate - just not what you want.
 
I'm noticing something here that no one else has picked up on, correct me if I'm wrong. Perhaps it's just something in the recording or soundcloud compression or something, but I hear the faint sound of pick hitting strings. Especially in the Marshall clip. If that's what I'm hearing, you're not recording anywhere near loud enough. Not even close. Make sure you're turning those amps up loud.
 
Thanks again guys!

You're right about the picking sound - we try to not crank the amps too much so our neighbours don't complain - when we are making actual recordings, we'll crank them up, don't you worry 'bout that! ;)

We had a quick go tonight, and its sounding much better! There is some noise in the background because I spontaneously decided to use our bathroom as a reverb chamber since its next to our recording space, so you can hear a little bit of air-con and my family in the background, but its just the general idea of the progress we've made that I was hoping for you to hear. Also - its not so crunchy in this clip, but hey - it sounds not bad! https://soundcloud.com/user-988481022/much-better-1

Thanks again guys! :) Problem solved!
 
ecc83 said:
" are you sure, no one hears that anyone harshness but me...? "

I wonder how loud the amp is you are recording
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Greg_L said:
I hear the faint sound of pick hitting strings. Especially in the Marshall clip. If that's what I'm hearing, you're not recording anywhere near loud enough. Not even close. Make sure you're turning those amps up loud.
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timothypberner said:
You're right about the picking sound - we try to not crank the amps too much so our neighbours don't complain - when we are making actual recordings, we'll crank them up, don't you worry 'bout that! ;)
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Crank it up for the tests too.
Testing at low volumes is going to be really misleading. It'll make you think you've a whole lot of problems that you don't and possibly vice versa.

It's like these people who sing something high in a light weak falsetto to find out if they can reach it.
They can't. :p

That clip you posted last is nice enough, but bluesy clean crush isn't really comparable to what you had before.
You can sort of get away with lower volumes playing that kind of stuff.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Testing at low volumes is going to be really misleading. It'll make you think you've a whole lot of problems that you don't and possibly vice versa.
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This ^^^^^

Low volume amp tone testing is basically pointless.

IMO, YMMV, but not really.
 
"Crank it up for the tests too."
+1 in the bad old days of tape you always knew to back off a few dB for the actual take/live performance.

Now we have 100dB DRs and can record at neg 20 or less (you ARE recording at neg 20ish aren't you?!), not a problem.

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
you ARE recording at neg 20ish aren't you?!)
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Is that a thing? Cause if it is i haven't been doing that thing. I basically record so i am not any wheres near clipping. For the guitars i do, i generally am at around -8, -12 and depending how much gain i use on the guitars i can sometimes push it to -6.

Why would i i do -20 that seems low? Generally curious here, not meant to be malicious or condescending or whatever?
 
miroslav said:
:D


I agree...you need crank the amps and set them up for recording based on that.
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Right. Maybe not literally "cranked", but amps need to be in their happy zone. That might be cranked, but it also might be at 5, 6, 7, whatever. I know one thing, tube amps are NOT in their happy zone if the sound of your pick hitting the strings is as loud as the sound coming through the speaker. No. Just no. I don't care if it's a one watt amp or a 100 watt amp. You need to be making some noise to get the most out of everything.
 
Greg_L said:
Right. Maybe not literally "cranked", but amps need to be in their happy zone. That might be cranked, but it also might be at 5, 6, 7, whatever.
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Right...that's what I meant.
Crank them to the same level you plan on recording them at.

Of course, if you plan on recording them at a very low level...it's not going to be generally good...IMO.
Low-level crunch sounds weird to me, and never records as well....'cuz the amp/cab ain't doing any work.
You get a lot of nasty fizz...and moving the mic around doesn't do very much.../cuz again, the amp/cab aren't working, and they haven't hit their sweet spot. You want to move that speaker to take advantage of different mic positions.
 
I've personally never heard an amp that sounds or records better than it does at a level that might be uncomfortable for the rest of the house. That's just how it is. Maybe some solid state garbage sounds better when you can't really hear it, but this guy aint using cheap solid state junk.

The guy mentioned he has a DSL. Recording that amp at polite bedroom practice level is like creeping through traffic in an Indy car. You're not getting a true representation of what it is or does, and you're definitely not getting the best out of it. You're not even tickling the speakers.

Even the Vox AC15 is loud as shit when used properly. 15 watts of tube power is getting serious. It seems like a small number, but those are loud amps. It's not Marshall halfstack loud, but it's still loud enough to piss off a wife, and that's how it probably should be used.
 
The problem I always had with the real low wattage amps (or turning a high wattage amp way down low...aka "bedroom level")...is that it just wouldn't move the speaker all that much, which means the cab was also not resonating or contributing anything...
...and while sometimes, you can get an OK sound like that in the room, when you recorded it, it just never sat right in a bigger Rock mix. There's always something lacking and/or unpleasant about low level amp sounds in a recording....unless you're doing the entire recording low level....like, it's for some very light jazz/easy listening stuff.
 
miroslav said:
The problem I always had with the real low wattage amps (or turning a high wattage amp way down low...aka "bedroom level")...is that it just wouldn't move the speaker all that much, which means the cab was also not resonating or contributing anything...
...and while sometimes, you can get an OK sound like that in the room, when you recorded it, it just never sat right in a bigger Rock mix. There's always something lacking and/or unpleasant about low level amp sounds in a recording....unless you're doing the entire recording low level....like, it's for some very light jazz/easy listening stuff.
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Right. Exactly. And that's one reason I don't buy the whole low watt recording amp trend. It's silly. These low-watters think "power tube distortion" is all they need. Those little amps really break up! Yeah, sure they do, but the single speaker is either in a tiny box, sounding small, or it's not even breaking a sweat. They freak out over getting those power tubes cooking while paying no mind to the speaker that's laughing at them for not even working it a little. I think people greatly underestimate the role of the speaker as the last stop of the tone chain. Also, those little amps are not quiet. Not friendly apartment living quiet anyway. A 5, 10, 15 watt amp can be loud, and if you're turning those little amps down to be quiet, you're defeating the purpose of the purpose you were already trying to defeat.
 
I'd say judge the tools by the results in a mix. If it sounds good, it is good.
 
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