Recording an amp w/ 2 mics

[MalignantHL]

I am frustrated!
I am an amateur engineer who has had 3 years experience recording and mixing keyboards. I have also composed MIDI for about 5 years. I am also a singer/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist for a band i front. The problem is that i have just gotten interested in recording guitar through my amp. I have an audio-technica AM150 2 channel mixer. I have 2 good microphones (well, the best ones i have), and they are a RadioShack Shure super-omni dynamic 33-1070D, and a cheap RadioShack optimus omnidirectional 33-3030. I have both mics hooked up to my mixer, one on the right channel, one on the left channel. I have this mixer running into the line in on my computer. I use Soundforge XP 4.5 to record.

The problem i have is that i am trying find the best way to record my amp with these settings. I have a cheap fender frontman amp. Our guitarist has a Gibson Les Paul and a Boss Metal Zone MT-2 pedal. I have been messing around with the mics for hours trying to get a good sound! We have also messed around with the mixer settings, the EQ settings on the pedal, and the amp settings themselves. ITS SO FRUSTRATING! Yes, i know miking amps takes time, but we wasted at least 5 hours today trying to set up everything. Is there something im doing wrong? Any tips on mic placement would be appreciated. Anytime we mess around with the mics the signal sounds either too weak or too muddy.

The room i am recording in is a small room. If anyone needs some dimenisions, ill give them on a later post. But anyway, this room has 2 computers in it, and is cluttered with a bookshelf, crap and etc. Maybe the room has something to do with it, but i cant record in any other room in the house! Right now the amp is on the top of a small bulletin cabinet.
PLEASE HELP!

 

[montage]

I'd first make sure that you have a guitar/effect/amp sound you're happy with. If you don't find something you really like, it is going to frustrate you in the end. While I'm not familiar with your mics, I would try one mic fairly close to the amp, and the other much further away, and see how they sound panned hard-left and right.
Hope I helped.

 

[cusebassman]

Like the last poster said, I'm not sure what kinds of mics you have. If you have a dynamic mic, place it right up in front of the amp, and tilt it toward the flat part of the speaker cone (i.e. not pointing straight forward at the center of the cone, but pointing toward a flat part of the cardboard). This generally works well with my dynamic mic's. As for the hard-panning, that usually doesn't sound too good when I record guitar amps with two mics. For an interesting effect you can try placing the second mic (whichever is not already being used) a few feet from the amp, but this will really just make the sound more "roomie" - the recording will sound more like you are in a large room with the amp rather than right there with it. I'm not a fan of this type of sound myself, but it has been used on some classic songs, so I suppose I can't fault it all together. Hope that helped.

 

[laststartoshine]

IMO the hardest part about recording guitars isn't the mic placement, it's how the amp+guitar+any effects sound together. the average guitarist stands in front of his amp, and dials in the settings to his likings. this isn't in fact what the mic hears, so you have to be sure to get down on your hands and knees and get right against the speaker cone.

now i'm not saying do this and then have your buddy blare it at 10


now i'm not sure what kind of sound/tone you're going for, but i honestly dislike the MT-2, IMO it's a tone-sucker and about as apealing as orangejuice and toothpaste.(but maybe it's just me)


once you get a good tone out of the amp, i would placing a dynamic mic a couple inches away from the center of the cone, almost right up against the grill, off axis of the front mesh, but paralell to the face of the actual speaker cone. IMO it helps get a richer, fatter tone out of the amp. too close to the center---it's too harsh, and too far away and it's just muddy.


just make sure the amp+guitar+FX are sounding solid before you worry about mic placement, as, it's hard to make bad tone sound good with mic placement.

 

[blueroommusic]

RadioShack Shure super-omni dynamic 33-1070D, and a cheap RadioShack optimus omnidirectional 33-3030

are both of these mic omni-directional? if so, that may have a lot to do (besides the sub-par amp/equipment/pres/A/D) with it. IMO omni's only sound good on guitars, or anything else for that matter when said mics are in a very nice room.