Mic choice for distorted guitar.

[ecktronic]

I want to get a distorted guitar sound like the deftones in the way that it is in your face but has air and space also. Does anyone know what mics/ placement i should use.
I was going to use 2 Rode NT2s close miced on different speakers at different parts of the speakers to get a good tone mix, and then a really expensive Neumann far miced to give that sense of space. Once recorded i would nudge the far mic so it was in near perfect phase with the 2 Rode NT2s. (gonna use a large room and crank the amp so i get a full sound)
I was told that using NT2s wasnt a good idea, but ive seen alot of pictures of pro bands using mics that look like the NT2s for distorted guitars. Cant see why it would be a bad idea to use NT2s or a Neumann.

Any feedback would be brilliant.
Cheers.

 

[Olflattop]

Ecktronic:

I have a couple of NT2's and they are great mic's but I hesitate to use them on electric guitar. They don't particularly respond well to higher sound pressure levels and I don't really like the way they sound off-axis. You have the right idea about double-mic'ing, as you need some room sound, but you can stick a dynamic mic in your favorite speaker and place one of your NT2's at some distance. This does take some experimenting. In general, you can start by placing the ambient mic about six feet back from the speaker cabinet and a foot or so above the plane of the close mic. If you're using a little combo it's usually a good idea to get it off the floor. Finally, if you pad the floor beneath the ambient mic a bit you'll minimize floor reflections which could cause phase cancellations, and if you have a problem there you'l find that your guitar tracks won't translate well to mono. I don't know if this was helpful to you, but I took a stab at it anyway.

 

[ecktronic]

Cheers man. I think i will use SM57 and SM58 close miced and try the NT2 far miced. The floor is made of carpet so im sure that should be ok.
I just aint sure about how to get a stereo image. The way i have been doing it usually is to clone the track and then nudge it a bit then pan, but when it is mixed in mono it sounds shite because of phase canelation.
If i double track, then it might be ok for the strumming parts, but it would be pretty damn tricky to get the twiddly bits exact twice. And i aint realy up for stereo micing the cab as i can see alot of potential phase for cancelation with stereo micing.

 

[chadsxe]

The only way is to practice and record to tracks.

 

[ecktronic]

Yeah well i was looking for some feedback from experience.

 

[BrettB]

SM 57 is a great workhorse that will always give good results. I usually combine it with a LD condensor.

 

[Sage97]

SM 57 is a great workhorse that will always give good results. I usually combine it with a LD condensor.

+1 on the SM57 and an LD condensor.

 

[Exhumus]

If i double track, then it might be ok for the strumming parts, but it would be pretty damn tricky to get the twiddly bits exact twice.

If your guitarist cannot get the "twiddly bits" exactly the same twice, then that's where your problem is and no amount of mics placed anywhere will help you. Since you mentioned the Deftones guitar tone I assume the style of music has it's similarities as well. According to the DVD that accompanied Cannibal Corpse's latest offering, they recorded each guitar track FOUR TIMES and Cannibal Corpse guitar work is nothing BUT complex.

Even the most experienced musician won't get it perfect EVERY time, and if you're guitarist is inexperienced then you're probably looking at even more takes. It will be worth it to you in the end though. In my experience layering a guitar part sounds infinitely more powerful than just miking up multiple speakers, and you'll have less phase concerns.

Also, I don't understand why you're "nudging" tracks. If you're going for a spacial sound, why not just use a delay?

 

[ecktronic]

But nudging the track is effectively a delay. Adding a stereo delay would be of the same effect as nudging. Nudging is real easy to get the exact amount of delay needed.

How does layering tracks make the guitars meatier?