Micing Distance on guitar cabs

J

joswil44

New member
I generally have been doing ok recording heavily distorted guitars, but recently I had the second occurance of recording guitars where I believe too close of mic placement and amp volume combination have created a hint of fuzzyness that I cant seem to get rid of without re-tracking.

I think part of the problem stems from Recording all the drum tracks for many hours with headphones on.

By the time I am tracking guitars my ears have probably fatigued a bit and I didnt catch that fuzzy sound when I was searching for good mic placement.

The rough mix was pretty decent but by the time I got to mastering I really couldnt avoid bringing out the ambient fuzzy noise from the guitar tracks.

As far as micing goes, I generall use a 2 different guitar cabs, 2 different guitar heads, and 2 different mics.

For this session I used a Marshall TSL100 I believe, and my own Peavey Triple XXX head. We played through a Mesa 4x12 Cab Vintage 30 Cab and Marshall 1960A 4x12 Cab.

I used a Beta 57 on the Mesa Cab and an Audix I5 on the Marshall Cab.

Mic Placement was basically within 1-2 inches from the grill cloth around the outside edge of the cone slightly angled in toward the center of the cone.

I felt as the the sound was fine at the time but am wondering if I should have backed away from the speaker a bit more.

I am curious what range of distance people are using when micing?

And do you back up a bit on fairly loud volumes?

I guess I was affraid of making the guitar sound a little distant.

If you track at 3 or 4 inches away will it turn out alright with some compression or something later on?

Anyone else have any safety guidelines for circumstances like this so you dont have to go back and redo what you couldnt necessarily hear the first time?
 
basically to most of those questions its a matter of opinion the main thing is to record in a systematical way (so you can remember each position) different positions on/off axis each speaker near or far when you have a load of different clips check em out find the best and put the mic back there once all done start to tweak it. as for compression my view on it is if the guitars up loud use very minimal as the speakers are vibrating very heavily and can only move so much. but an idea to bear in mind is if it sounds good go with it because it is good! so try the compression if it works go with it! any way a bit more wisdom o the subject from some one who obviously has a lot to say: http://www.badmuckingfastard.com/sound/slipperman.html
 
Its all in the sound you want. If you get too loud though, it will overpower the mic.

Me, I like placing the mic around the 2" mark. I also don't record all too loud.
 
Pretty simple...if you're going for an upfront sound in the mix then close-mic it and turn the amp up to where it sounds good (and doesn't destroy the mic ;)).

If you want the guitars a little further back in the mix then maybe start with 6-8" away and turn the volume down slightly.

You get the idea. That's what I do. I usually listen to the song on headphones while placing the mic so I can get a rough idea on how it will sound in the song.

As for the "fuzzyness" make sure it's not your amp making that noise. And make sure you're not recording too hot/clipping.

As you can probably tell I'm not an expert with recording amps. And I don't have a lot of experience but keeping it simple like that has always worked for me the few times I have put electric guitars in my songs.
 
Mic placement on multi speaker cabs can be a little tricky. Often one speaker will record far better than another. Sometimes you will have to back the mic away several feet and get an overall cab sound to get the sound right. There is no set rule, you just have to experiment to find what works best and no 2 mics or cabs are exactly the same, so the experimentation part is a constant part of recording.
 
Could be more to do with the type of distortion you are using or using a bit too much distortion. Could be mix placement also. Try right in middle of cone and right at side then try out inbetween at various places.

Yeah ear fatigue will definetly make it very hard to judge certain frequencies. Id either take a break for a day before doing guitars, and/or import a commercial reference mix that you like the guitar tone, and try and get close to it while recording.

Eck
 
For my 2x12, I'll usually have a 57 on one speaker and a 609 on the other, the 609 pointed at the center of the cone, 57 at the edge. I pull both mics a few inches back from the grill cloth. I'll usually use a Sharpie as a guide. Distance can be your friend when trying get distorted tones.
 
You can still get a nice heavy sound 3-4" away.
Also, if you are getting too much "woof" or boominess you can try going a help by going a little bit off axis - 45 degrees horizontally off axis can sound pretty dang good on some amps for a nice metal guitar tone.
 
I'll preface this with saying I record & track in the same room, so noise is an issue. That said, what works best for me is:

1 - Set up the amp so it sounds awesome (typical settings for big huge rhythm guitar on tube amps are bass at nearly 0, mids at least 11:00-12:00, treble to taste, presence off for rhythm, volume at at least 7, gain to taste)

2 - Place & move an SM57 (or mic of your choice) around with the most accurate, yet outside-noise-reducing headphones you can (or just turn 'em up & pray you can hear later :p) until you get a sound you really like. I like to do the same with an LDC 3-5' away from the amp, pointing at one of the speakers.

3 - Go back to the amp head (which should be in or near whatever you call your 'control room' :p) and adjust settings to taste.

4 - Profit! :)
 
Here's a trick I use.

Tweak the amp to get the desired tone and saturation that you like to use playing live. Then, reduce the gain by 25% to 30%. Recording digitally, you'll get that same live sound you are used to by doing this.

Mic'ing the amp...maybe you should use one mic on one speaker...phase issues can sound fizzy. Try close mic'ing off axis at a 45% angle across the cone.
 
If using a SM57 on a cabinet, I will pretty much have it up against the grill cloth, not touching though. The angle and position in relation to the speaker cone itself will vary from cabinet to cabinet when trying to capture that Sweet Spot etc.
 
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