Micing guitar amps in a home studio: Your setup?

R

Robus

Well-known member
Curious to know what other people are doing. Judging by the pictures on the "show your studio" thread, quite a few of us are getting by without much room treatment or dedicated spaces. How are you recording guitars?

My "studio" is a spare bedroom. For me the trick to recording electric guitars is to get the amp out of the room where I am playing. Trying to monitor with headphones while standing next to a loud amp is something I never want to do again.

Here's what I've been doing:

Guitar in the studio. A buffered tuner pedal in the chain reduces tone loss from a long cable run.

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Guitar and mic cables go out into the hallway and then into the bedroom around the corner.

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Amp in the bedroom, close-miced usually. I have a different setup when I use a ribbon mic.

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There's about five minutes of hopping back and forth between rooms to dial in the tone controls and mic placement. Then I shut both doors and can monitor through my studio speakers at a comfortable volume. I don't really hear much of the amp coming through the doors or walls at all. Granted, I'm not recording a 100 watt Plexi through a 4x12.

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What's your setup?
 
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Robus said:
Trying to monitor with headphones while standing next to a loud amp is something I never want to do again.
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Turn up the headphone volume. :)

All my amps are setup in line at one wall in the studio . I don't move them or screw around with taking them to different rooms.
I just stand to the side, and turn up the headphone level...and it's just something you get use to, learning how to hear things in headphones, compared to what the really sound like.
It's just a "cue"...and I'll adjust the track levels in the cue/headphone mix so the I can hear more of one or the other as needed.
I like to be able to have things within 2-3 steps...it makes for east adjustments and I can see all my gear from one position in the studio, and I don't have a need to setup or or move any gear per session. It's a permanent studio space, so everything has its place. Of course...I do setup mics, but the amps, keys, drums, etc...stay put for the most part.

And I thought we settled this awhile ago around here...it's "miking" and "mic".
"Micing" is just so wrong (so is "mike")...that spelling makes the pronunciation look like it would be "mice-ing". :p ;)
 
miroslav said:
Turn up the headphone volume. :)
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I've done it, everyone has. Sheer torture, miro. No more of that for me. I could never hear very well the tone I was actually recording. I wasted a lot of time. For me this system beats that with a stick. I hear exactly what I'm recording at a volume that doesn't tire me out.
 
Robus said:
I could never hear very well the tone I was actually recording.
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You don't set your tone with the headphones on...you set it at the amp without them, and you check it with playback through your monitors, not the headphones.
What you hear in the headphones is only the cue mix. I never pay much attention the the quality of the audio in the headphones...as long as I can follow the cues.

Not really understanding what "sheer torture" you experienced...?
The headphones actually make it possible to play with the amp loud in the room next to you.
Without them...then it might be torture.
I usually play with the amps pretty loud, close to full volume...never had a problem with them in the room.
I like to feel the tone coming from the amp too, so I can play off it...no way to do that with the amp in another room.

YMMV...
 
It's true, what you give up is the feeling of the amp in the room with you. Well worth it. Subjecting my hearing to loud headphones is exactly what I don't want to do, and what I meant by torture. I also find it easier to make tweaks on the fly because I'm hearing the miced sound in real time exactly as it is going to disk. For me that saves time. Your guitars sound good, so whatever you're doing is working for you.
 
Moving amps around the house seems like a massive faff to me.

It's not like you're trying to dial in your final recorded sound in your tracking headphones anyway.

Listen to what you've got recorded on good reference headphones or proper monitors.

As miro said, the sound in your headphones when tracking is just for you to keep time really. I use crap hard shell headphones to protect my ears when tracking.
 
Carrying a 22 watt amp into the next room is a massive faff? You should try it. You might get that Blackstar dialed in quicker.
 
I have a lot of options. A dedicated studio space with two treated rooms plus two amp vaults (4'x4'x4'x3').
 
Robus said:
Carrying a 22 watt amp into the next room is a massive faff? You should try it. You might get that Blackstar dialed in quicker.
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Eh, carrying the amp isn't a problem obviously. When you're dialing an amp in you don't want the amp in another room every time you want to move a mic or tweak a knob.
 
my amp is right beside my recorder. I can tweak it while I'm sitting at my mixing desk. I close mic it with an old SM57. You're not going to get much room sound with that setup. I used to put the amp in an isolation room...mic it with a LDC and a dynamic, and have to run back and forth tweaking.
Not anymore....the results are just as good close miking it with a SM57 and having it right beside you when recording.

One more thing...
if your amp is in another room you can't do any guitar feedback ...like I'm having to do on my "homage to Hendrix" tune I'm working on. The guitar and the amp must be in close proximity to do that kind of guitar work
 
I think moving an amp to a better sounding room is a good idea if you can or need to do it. Moving it because a little volume scares you is....:facepalm:
 
My amp is beside me, on an angled stand, pointing at my head. I don't have a problem with volume and headphones (Closed back, tight ear hugging) when tracking in my little room.

:thumbs up:
 
Mr Clean said:
I don't have a problem with volume and headphones (Closed back, tight ear hugging) when tracking in my little room.
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Right.

Same here, closed-back, good fit...I'm not cranking any crazy loud volumes in them in order to hear stuff.
I can still hear the amp with them on...but it doesn't get in the way of what I can hear in the headphones.

I don't make any mic position/mix decisions by what I hear in the headphones from a cue mix.
Actually...it always ends up that whatever I'm tracking (guitar, vocal, etc)...that track is usually louder in the headphone cue mix anyway. It's just that whole "more me" thing...makes it easier to stay focused on that track, while the other tracks are there for the cue only.

Headphone cue mixes tend to be a problem for a lot of folks...singers especially. You just need to think and listen beyond the cue mix. You try and get a decent mix in the cans, I mean, you want to still hear/feel the whole mix...but it's just for cues.
My guitar tone is always different in the cans then when I listen to the playback...because it's studio monitors VS headphones. :)
 
jimistone said:
my amp is right beside my recorder. I can tweak it while I'm sitting at my mixing desk. I close mic it with an old SM57. You're not going to get much room sound with that setup. I used to put the amp in an isolation room...mic it with a LDC and a dynamic, and have to run back and forth tweaking.
Not anymore....the results are just as good close miking it with a SM57 and having it right beside you when recording.

One more thing...
if your amp is in another room you can't do any guitar feedback ...like I'm having to do on my "homage to Hendrix" tune I'm working on. The guitar and the amp must be in close proximity to do that kind of guitar work
Click to expand...

This is basically my setup too. I use headphones when I track as well.
20120324_14.JPG
 
Robus said:
It's true, what you give up is the feeling of the amp in the room with you. Well worth it. Subjecting my hearing to loud headphones is exactly what I don't want to do, and what I meant by torture. I also find it easier to make tweaks on the fly because I'm hearing the miced sound in real time exactly as it is going to disk. For me that saves time. Your guitars sound good, so whatever you're doing is working for you.
Click to expand...

I'm curious what kind of headphones you're using that need to be cranked to ear-damaging levels to be able to hear the backing mix. It might be worth looking into some isolation headphones.
 
A 57 on a cab, probably like most people here.. I keep my mics set up on all instruments and I've got a big enough screen so I can just bop around the room with a wireless mouse. I'm usually within a few feet of the amp when I track gits.
 
I like the amp in a different room. Monitor through the mains in the control room. A good set of mains cranked up will give you "guitar control". I've even been able to get feedback from a Fender Champ.

I also like being in the room with cans, I also like being in the room with no cans and the whole band, mic bleed and all. Gobos help. Sometimes for cleaner stuff, I just go direct into the board, using the console's channel strip as an "amp".

There's a million ways to do it. use whatever method works to get you the desired end result. It all hinges on knowing your room and gear.

:D
 
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