mic'ing a 2X12 combo

  • Thread starter Thread starter ryan_p
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ryan_p

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Hey, I am recording a demo for my band at the time. I was wondering what the best technique for mic'ing a 2 X 12 combo amp (in your opinion) is. It is a crate gfx 212 with a les paul studio and a sm57. I know most of you will probably say to buy a different amp, but buying more equitment is not an option...we are just trying to get the best sound we can with what we have, even if its not good in your opinions. I have messed around a lot of mic placement, but I would be interested to see if there are any other cool ideas I have not tried. Like doubleing up mics, one right up close then anohter about 3 feet back? I was told a 60% off center axis about 1 inch from the speaker is the best. We are looking for a really full distorted sound, similiar to bands like bad religon, strike anywhere or pennywise. Once again, with our current setup we are just looking for the best sound we can get, which probably isn't good in your standards, so please do not just say to buy a new amp or somehting. Thanks a lot for the help.

Ryan
 
Try one mic on the grill (move it around to taste) and one on the back of the cabinet with the phase flipped.
 
I used to have the same setup as you, i had a s470 crate gfx 212 and shure sm57. I just miced it to the top right about 6 inches away. I truely couldn't get a good sound no matter how hard i tried though :(.

More then mic position, tweak with the gain and shape to get a good sound.
 
Different mic positions can give you more interesting results but the overall guitar/amp tone is still the most important thing. You can do tricks like putting the guitar amp in the bathroom and mic it outside the room down the hallway. But if it's crappy tone it will just sound like a weird crappy tone.

I was recording a killer slide guitar player yesterday and I put a pignose in the kitchen and had him play in the next room. There was a large doorway with a lot of bleed. I miked his electric guitar at the 12th fret with a LD and picked up all the string noise from picking and slide with a cool bleed over of the distorted pig nose reverberating in the kitchen. I also miked the pignose from a few feet away to mix in as needed.

Just be creative and you can get some cool effects if the guitar sounds good to begin with.
 
hard to get a good tone out of those GFX amps.....lord knows I tried for years. I think the best sound I ever got recorded from mine was with a sm57 about 2 inches away dead center between the speakers with another mic about 3 feet back. I think the Crate tone sux .....good luck man
 
dude...I listen to the same bands and record several punk rawk bands. Let me tell you how.

the key to getting that punk rawk sound is to make it in yo face! Put that mic close about an inch away outside edge of cone pointed somewhat towards the center. Watch the bass knob on your crate. This may be where your shitty sound is coming from. For some reason you turn the bass down on a crate amp and the volume decreases considerably, not just the bass, so watch out for that.

After you've got a good sound, here's the cool part.

Punk music has all kinds of down stroked palm muted shit. If you've got a good distortion (and a good right hand) you can emphasize the attack on those palm mutes by using a compressor with an attack setting. Lightly compress the guitar with a relatively slow attack time at a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio with 2-3 db of compression.
 
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