OK, I got me an SM57, and I'm really likin it...the clean guitar sounds GREAT, when I was listening to the playback it sounded very very good...now, my problem is with the overdrive. I have a Marshall VS100 combo, and the overdrive for recording is just too sharp and fuzzy sounding...I've got the mic very close to get a bass-y tone, and the levels are down at 0 (I have a Tascam 424 MKIII) but the sound is still friggin fuzzy, as opposed to a little more warmer, almost "grinding" classic rock-type distortion. Is my mic placement bad? Should I turn down the treble? Turn down gain? Help!
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Fuzzy Bunny
- Thread starter El Barto
- Start date
Yes, Mic placement is everything!
Use a headphone cue system with the mic going into the phones to place it in the sweet spot.
It's takes a lot of experence to know what your listening for.You want the details of the sound but not the speaker lobing effect & cabinet resonances.You also dont want the mic
trying to handle too many transients,so too close, is not the go 2ft to 6ft works for me. you've got to move it around a lot to find the spot, but when you find it it knowing that you have it is the difference between engineers & hobists.I cant explain exactly what I go for because I dont rationalise the process.
But the main thing is the dynamics.
the microphone dosn't have to work too hard.
When you have a lot of bottom end the proximity effect is screwing up the sound.
The mic is too close or in the line of fire of the speaker lobing (Polar Pattern),
you want detail but not noise .
Make some test! record the results plotting the positions on the floor some how.
get the picture of what the speaker in the cabinet together is producing & plot it.
Then work around the edges for the sweetest sounding placement you can find where the mics
got all you need but not any more.
In the mix you will have to take out the low end of the guitar to have it sit properly anyway , so why not let the mic do it for you
in the rec stage.Every time you touch EQ you add phase shifts ! so if youn dont have too, it is going to sound more natural period!
Regards Michael H
Use a headphone cue system with the mic going into the phones to place it in the sweet spot.
It's takes a lot of experence to know what your listening for.You want the details of the sound but not the speaker lobing effect & cabinet resonances.You also dont want the mic
trying to handle too many transients,so too close, is not the go 2ft to 6ft works for me. you've got to move it around a lot to find the spot, but when you find it it knowing that you have it is the difference between engineers & hobists.I cant explain exactly what I go for because I dont rationalise the process.
But the main thing is the dynamics.
the microphone dosn't have to work too hard.
When you have a lot of bottom end the proximity effect is screwing up the sound.
The mic is too close or in the line of fire of the speaker lobing (Polar Pattern),
you want detail but not noise .
Make some test! record the results plotting the positions on the floor some how.
get the picture of what the speaker in the cabinet together is producing & plot it.
Then work around the edges for the sweetest sounding placement you can find where the mics
got all you need but not any more.
In the mix you will have to take out the low end of the guitar to have it sit properly anyway , so why not let the mic do it for you
in the rec stage.Every time you touch EQ you add phase shifts ! so if youn dont have too, it is going to sound more natural period!
Regards Michael H
try an off-axis mic placement- I usually like it at almost a 45% angle and pointing at the outer edge of the speaker cone from about six inches away (your results will very)- I usually like this for overdriven parts and for clean I like it right up againt the center of the speaker cone an about an inch away (again your results may very) there are literally thousands of ways to get good guitar tones and every amp and guitar will be different- just experiment