micing guitar amp with a mic preamp

tvaillan

tvaillan

New member
Was wondering if people use mic pre's when tracking guitar amps. So far, it has been my assumption to just mic the amp, line the mic to the mixer and that's all. (SM57) Been getting good results, but am just wondering if the 'best' results are with a mic pre with EQ set flat. .. Or does the fact that the amp has an EQ eliminate the need for a mic pre?

Silly question perhaps.

Thank you.

Tristan
 
if you have a mic, you MUST use some kind of mic pre. there is no option. if you hear noise from the mic, you are using a pre. haha.

but - mic the amp
mic chord to your pre

then pre out to whatever you arte recording to.

that is the simplist way i assume.
 
thanks.

Well there's no question that a mixer provides a current loops for mic's that don't require a phatom supply. That's the setup i have now .. in this case, do i consider the mixer a type of cheap preamp ... or should i go get myself a tube preamp?
 
tvaillan said:
thanks.

Well there's no question that a mixer provides a current loops for mic's that don't require a phatom supply. That's the setup i have now .. in this case, do i consider the mixer a type of cheap preamp ... or should i go get myself a tube preamp?
Click to expand...

Any mixer with an XLR mic input has micpreamp`s...
And no, you certainly do NOT need a tube preamp.

What do you have?

Amund
 
tvaillan said:
Was wondering if people use mic pre's when tracking guitar amps.

Click to expand...

That is exactly what you are doing.

Mixers usually have a channel strip. Mic input, and/or line input, aux send, eq, pan control, fader, sometimes a switch to assign the channel to a "buss".

Think of a channel strip as a mic pre with eq and some other options built into the mixer.

am just wondering if the 'best' results are with a mic pre with EQ set flat. .. Or does the fact that the amp has an EQ eliminate the need for a mic pre
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you are asking...

are you asking if it is better to set the eq on the amp flat and the use eq on the preamp to get the sound you want? Usually no. Get the amp sounding how you want it, mic it, and run it into a pre amp, usually better to have no eq on the preamp (most standalone preamps don't) then into your recorder. It's better to use mic positioning as eq, experiment!
 
What I have is something I shouldn't be using.

It's a ROSS (should be called POS, heh) 12 chanel mixer.

Thankfully it doesn't have effects .. but the effects loop is mono. (dumb)

Basic active EQ.

It's a good 'gig' Mixer .. but recording wise it isn't up to par. (noisy faders , colors the outputs, .. etc)


It does have XLR.
 
James,

It's certainly the amp's eq that i'd tweak .. i shouldn't have added the dumb comment about messing with the preamp's eq. I suppose if i was the engineer at a show, that I 'could' mess with the preamp eq 'in case of emergency' when the guys on stage don't have time to fool around with eq's on their amps.

In the studio, I assume one would just leave the preamp eq flat since the amp should be optimally set.

Thanks for your response James.
 
I completely second the 'mic placing instead of EQ', but nevertheless, it may be useful to do some corrections while recording. An example would be a bass rolloff...

The problem is: the more you tweak when going, the likelier is it that you cannot redo these changes. So you have to have a ***very good' idea of what you're doing if you choose to EQ while going in. I don't (except rolloffs) but used strange mic positionings for sound ideas I had in my head already. The result was only minor EQ while mixdown. Whether this was just beginners luck or not - I don't know...

aXel
 
you're right, mic position is king. i was just saying that in case of emergency, such as a mic being slightly knocked out of place or something on stage, then the preamp EQ can be used as a cheap hack attempt at getting a decent sound until the set is over and you can reposition the mic.


Thanks for all your help guys.
 
EQ won't help you there. In that case you or somebody else has to run their ass up to the stage and put the mic back in place. That's why roadies are always darting around the stage.
 
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