How's this you think? (Micing Guitar Cab)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Myriad_Rocker
  • Start date Start date
starbuck26 said:
I wonder if you've actually listened to see which speaker sounds the best? When --I originally read that in the guitar recording bible I found on here--can't remember the author--he mentioned that at some point, you've got to take your ear plugs out, and actually stick your noggin in the fuckin cabinet. He said it would instantly jump out at you which speaker sounds the best.

When I read that, I thought it was bullshit. But then I tried it, and instantly I was like "yeah, this one does sound better than the other." Just something to think about. It seemed your speaker choice was arbitrary.

He also mentioned that to test it with your head at full volume you make an instant decision, as if you are that close to the cab at the volume where you have total speaker involvement--i.e. everything vibrating harder than... you know ;)--you can stand about a minute without damaging your hearing. :eek:
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That's the Slipperman "Recording Distorted Guitars From Hell". And yes, I'm familiar with it.
 
Aha! Slipperman...

Figured you already heard of it... But every little bit helps.
 
xstatic said:
Lee, I used to choose a 57 8 out of 10 times. I have tried all of the other obvious options such as sennheiser 609 and 906, Audix I5 etc... A few years ago I picked up a Royer R121 though. Since I got that, it has been rare that I have pulled out an sm57 on a guitar cab.
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+1

although I do not own a R121, I picked up a Beyer M260 ribbon that is my first choice for guitar cabs now. Right up at the grill, dead center produces some great results.

I will also throw an old Unidyne 57 up there just to blend some in but it's not usually that much ...

sa3.jpg


mesa.jpg
 
dalley said:
though I do not own a R121, I picked up a Beyer M260 ribbon that is my first choice for guitar cabs now. Right up at the grill, dead center produces some great results.
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Those little Boogies record really well, don't they?

.
 
chessrock said:
Those little Boogies record really well, don't they?

.
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yeah Chess ... I think one of the points you always touched on that is very important is THE SOURCE. In this case the amp ... The Mesa was Studio 22+ that I picked up to record my own stuff ... it had a nice crunch, but it lacked some of the newer modern gain of the rectos that I needed for some other client projects.

I managed to get a nice vintage tone out of a single rec after a couple of hours of tweaking so I sold the Studio and got the Rect-o-verb. The Mesa tone controls are very responsive, much more so than a JCM800 or the like I have found.

Getting a tone out of the amp that I am happy with and slapping that Beyer has made things easier ... it took me awhile to get past the garbage in/garbage out theory of micing guitar amps

The Carvin Legacy in the other photo was a project I did with an old bandmate ... the amp itself sounded good but he insisted on using that Boss GT pedalboard as a preamp which sounded like shit. 1500 bucks spent on a decent all tube rig and use that pedalboard as a preamp. I don't get it ...
 
Sonixx said:
My suggestion is to master one mic first. With a good source and mic placement, a 57 will do what you want.
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Thumbs up to that.
Start off simple. You might not even need more mics if you master using 1 mic.

Eck
 
dalley said:
The Carvin Legacy in the other photo was a project I did with an old bandmate ... the amp itself sounded good but he insisted on using that Boss GT pedalboard as a preamp which sounded like shit. 1500 bucks spent on a decent all tube rig and use that pedalboard as a preamp. I don't get it ...
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I have the Boss GT6. It has no definition and adds a layer of scum over any signal. I'm gona try and use my amp for the sounds rather than the GT6 from now on.

Eck
 
I suppose I'll be the bad guy and tell you that your clip sounds pretty crappy. It's all high end fizz. It'll never stand up in a mix.


You can get an excellent guitar sound with that amp, (it's what I use most of the time) and 1 mic. Drop the other 2 and start with the 57. What are the setting on your head? I'll bet you have way too much gain.
 
HangDawg said:
I suppose I'll be the bad guy and tell you that your clip sounds pretty crappy. It's all high end fizz. It'll never stand up in a mix.


You can get an excellent guitar sound with that amp, (it's what I use most of the time) and 1 mic. Drop the other 2 and start with the 57. What are the setting on your head? I'll bet you have way too much gain.
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I'm not hearing all high end fizz...can you elaborate? I was running about 12 o'clock on the gain. Presence at ZERO. 10 o'clock on bass, 2 o'clock on mid, 1 o'clock on treble. Modern mode, channel 3.
 
Myriad_Rocker said:
I'm not hearing all high end fizz...can you elaborate? I was running about 12 o'clock on the gain. Presence at ZERO. 10 o'clock on bass, 2 o'clock on mid, 1 o'clock on treble. Modern mode, channel 3.
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Hes talking about the grainy sound that lies mostly in the high mids.
Not sure if its possible to cut the grainyness with EQ (without killing the tone) or if you might try adjusting the mic very very slightly and finding the spot on the speaker where you get a nice amount of high end without the grainyness.

Eck
 
ecktronic said:
Hes talking about the grainy sound that lies mostly in the high mids.
Not sure if its possible to cut the grainyness with EQ (without killing the tone) or if you might try adjusting the mic very very slightly and finding the spot on the speaker where you get a nice amount of high end without the grainyness.

Eck
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I bet it came from the 4033...
 
ecktronic said:
Hes talking about the grainy sound that lies mostly in the high mids.
Not sure if its possible to cut the grainyness with EQ (without killing the tone) or if you might try adjusting the mic very very slightly and finding the spot on the speaker where you get a nice amount of high end without the grainyness.

Eck
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Yeah, I'd call it grainy. Don't think eq will really get rid of it either. He needs to cut back to 1 mic, get a good solid sound and then add a second one only if there is a need to capture something else. Not sure why everyone starts out with 3 mics but can't get a good sound with 1. I get a better heavy guitar sound than 95% of the shit I hear here and I never use more than 1 mic.
 
HangDawg said:
Yeah, I'd call it grainy. Don't think eq will really get rid of it either. He needs to cut back to 1 mic, get a good solid sound and then add a second one only if there is a need to capture something else. Not sure why everyone starts out with 3 mics but can't get a good sound with 1. I get a better heavy guitar sound than 95% of the shit I hear here and I never use more than 1 mic.
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I used just an SM57 on all the reference tracks that we're doing. I'm fairly happy with the outcome but there's just something missing. Hence the use of the other mics. I put what I what on there, record it, delete what I don't want. Just at the cost of a little more disc space.
 
Myriad,

One more thing, I don't know if you're into the whole "turning studio drivers into microphone" fetish, but if you are and depending on what kind of driver, you can get some interesting low end from a cab if the traditional low freq mic isn't doing it for you.

Just throwing it out there.
 
Always an interesting topic...

I tend to think 3 mics is too many for a rhythm track unless you are doing something really funky on purpose. The sound you got wasn't necessarily "funky" but it was a bit fizzier than I would like to start out with. I suppose it could be EQ'd a bit for the mix later and end up acceptible eventually. The thing I am wondering is if you are using these mics panned around the place, and you have a 2nd guitarist who is probably going to be recorded in a similar way, and you are probably going to be doing some overdubs; then how will you get any seperation from the tracks? I think you should think about making sure the mics sound good when all of them are panned down the middle while recording so that later on you can pan them to one side or the other without going to crap.
Besides a 57, my #2 mic for guitar is often a Beyer M69. Don't hear much about it, but I got a decent deal from a coworker and it has been pretty useful. Sometimes I'll track one guitarist with a 57 and one with the M69. Only occassionally will I add a condensor or something. And almost always the top speakers of a cab, or put a combo amp up on a chair. Sometimes if I decide to use a couple mics on a cab, I will end up using different speakers; usually only if one mic gets in the way of the optimal placement of the other though.
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On the GT6 or whatever, I have an older GT3 (or 5?) that I used to use for playing live mostly. It was really cool how you could route your amp's preamp signal through the board and incorporate it into presets. Unfortunately, it negatively impacts the sound (especially if you don't have the volume set optimally on the thing), so I eventually just started leaving it in the effects loop bypassed most of the time and only turning the loop on for special effects sounds.
 
I took a minute with your clip and here's where I'd probably initially nudge it. The bottom's got this looseness that I'd want to improve.

Gtr Clip
 
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Reggie said:
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On the GT6 or whatever, I have an older GT3 (or 5?) that I used to use for playing live mostly. It was really cool how you could route your amp's preamp signal through the board and incorporate it into presets. Unfortunately, it negatively impacts the sound (especially if you don't have the volume set optimally on the thing), so I eventually just started leaving it in the effects loop bypassed most of the time and only turning the loop on for special effects sounds.
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My favourite thing about the GT is the tuner. :D

Eck
 
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