How should I go about Miking a guitar amp? (Tiny, untreated room)

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BlackSquire

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Hey guys,

Just a quick question,
I have a tiny untreated room to record in and I wanna record some electric guitar.
I have heaps of foam given to me by a friend, would that help at all?
and I heard angling your amp a bit helps with tiny rooms. Does it?

Anyway
The mics I have are SM57 and a Rode M3.
Any tips would be very helpful.
Thanks
 
If you can, I'd actually suggest a DI guitar... Some amp sims these days work wonders. Especially that Axe FX thing. But that's around $2000 to purchase, and seeing as getting a decent one just from Peavey is $150, I'll try to help you with the live way in the tiny untreated room. ;)
If you could provide some room dimensions as opposed to "tiny," it'd help a wee bit. But I'll just assume you're in a small bedroom.
If I'm correct in saying so, just random foam doesn't really do much. Acoustic foam is engineered in a way to give it a high acoustical absorption rating, and just grabbing foam/eggshell cartons doesn't really work in the same manner.
I'm not really clear on what you mean by angling the amp. Link to a picture or something?

But you asked for an answer, not theoretical stuff.
As far as I mic guitars, it's near always either right on the grille or just a few inches off. Considering the volume an amp usually outputs, the sound of the room doesn't usually play a huge factor in the matter as far as I've been able to tell.
If worse comes to worse, just throw that mic right on the grille and move it's positioning between the side of a speaker cone and the center (side gets more lows, center more highs). This way you can try and get a specific tone from the amp without needing to worry much about the room.
 
Thanks for the reply! I have DI'd in the past with fairly good results and i have Amplitube 3 which seems pretty good to me just for this song I thought a real amp would be better. Its hard rock, fast tempo kind of song. My room is infact a bedroom turned recording space. The room is around 3.10m x 2.40m.
 
Thanks for the reply! I have DI'd in the past with fairly good results and i have Amplitube 3 which seems pretty good to me just for this song I thought a real amp would be better. Its hard rock, fast tempo kind of song. My room is infact a bedroom turned recording space. The room is around 3.10m x 2.40m. The green thing in the Pic is a couch :D
 

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oh and there Electric drums! I record with MIDI for those
 
Can you get the sound you like out of the amp at a low-medium volume? If so, turn down the distortion/gain a little and try recording with the SM57 close to the speaker, usually a slight angle, and between the center and edge of the speaker cone is best. Record, listen, adjust. Remember that this way the mic will not be picking up much of the room sound.
 
i would use a palmer PDI-09, or a Radial JDX

take the room completely out of the equation.


and...

to up the ante.....

throw in an attenuator, which is used AFTER (again, i said 'AFTER') the palmer or radial steals the signal from the amp to send at line level.


then, you can crank your amp, get your sound, let the palmer/radial do it's job, and use the attenuator to bring the monitor volume down, does not affect the gain structure of the amp capture, only the volume in the room, and how your cabinet/speaker setup reacts to the voltage.
 
I'd set up by the door with the amp firing down the length of the room towards your couch.

The couch should absorb some reflections from getting back into the mic.

Stick a couple of foam panels in front and on top of the table, just to tame reflections.
 
I'd go with the 57 up on the grill like was said by MJB and just tweak to taste.
Close miking pretty much takes the room out of the equation.
;)
 
I record in an untreated, roughly 6m by 4m room, with one couch, and just put the snare mic from the CAD drum mic set (£120 for snare, kick and two tom mics) right by the grill and I get results exactly to my taste!:
 
ollie99 said:
I record in an untreated, roughly 6m by 4m room, with one couch, and just put the snare mic from the CAD drum mic set (£120 for snare, kick and two tom mics) right by the grill and I get results exactly to my taste!
Click to expand...

Your definition of 'tiny' is unusual! :rolleyes: I wish I had that much room for recording. The OP's room is about 1/4 the size of your room.
 
mjbphotos said:
Your definition of 'tiny' is unusual! :rolleyes: I wish I had that much room for recording. The OP's room is about 1/4 the size of your room.
Click to expand...
well, I didnt exactly mean tiny, I was just stating the similarities in our rooms
 
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