Some advice on a speaker

[ericlingus]

I've been interested lately in things like playing back my drum beats through a speaker and then miking it. As well as synth parts,etc. I'm looking for a speaker for playing back tracks and miking them. I was wondering if I should just use my amp for this or buy a little PA speaker or something. Any suggestions?

 

[soundchaser59]

If you dont mind the loss of fidelity, then your amp (I assume you mean you guitar amp??) will be fine.

But guitar amps are not made for fidelity, they are made to make guitars sound good.

If youw ant fidelity then you will have to use something made to deliver fidelity, like a good full range speaker, or a keyboard amp or an acoustic guitar amp. And then it will be more of a challenge to mic because they are usually 2 or 3 way speakers.....

 

[ericlingus]

yeah I was actually thinking about a keyboard amp. What ones would you recommend that are cheap?

 

[Alexbt]

Keyboard amps DO NOT come cheap, especially good ones.

I suppose Roland is the king of keyboard amp manufacturers, though I have an old Crate amp that was made by some other company.

 

[metalhead28]

Why don't you just use the same speakers you're mixing with? You have monitors, right?

 

[ericlingus]

I tried miking my monitor. But can't close mic it. WIth my SM57 anyways. It produces a loud hum. I'm going to buy a condenser mic pretty soon. SO i'll try it with that. But i'll give it another shot with the 57. I didn't take much time into doing it yet.

 

[soundchaser59]

I tried miking my monitor. But can't close mic it. WIth my SM57 anyways. It produces a loud hum. I'm going to buy a condenser mic pretty soon. SO i'll try it with that. But i'll give it another shot with the 57. I didn't take much time into doing it yet.

Wont be easy to do that without creating some kind of feedback loop.....

My favorite amps of the year right now are Traynors. They make acoustic and keyboard amps, they are the best cheap amps you can find.......or they are the cheapest good amps.....however you want to look at it.

I think Roland makes great sounding instruments, but I've never been impressed with their amps or speakers, not bad, just not right for anything I do. For a little more $$$$$$ you can do a lot better......but you did use the word "cheap."

Since this sounds like it may be more of an experiment for you right now, maybe you can rent an amp for a week and see if it works out, before you commit to buying one??

 

[metalhead28]

I tried miking my monitor. But can't close mic it. WIth my SM57 anyways. It produces a loud hum. I'm going to buy a condenser mic pretty soon. SO i'll try it with that. But i'll give it another shot with the 57. I didn't take much time into doing it yet.

Well, you will need to turn off your input monitoring.

 

[ericlingus]

thank you i'll try that. Btw im still having that fucking pick scraping problem. Any advice on how to fix it besides better technique? I've gotten better at picking but it still does it. I think it may still produce that noise even with really good technique. It doesn't do it as bad if I play the riff on the A and D strings as opposed to the D and G strings. The scraping comes from the G string. Not as bad with the D though.

 

[soundchaser59]

you can try using a felt pick, but you'll have to condition it first, soften it up by playing bass with it for awhile. I use a conditioned felt pick on some leads when I want a smoother sound.....

 

[ericlingus]

yeah that'll probably help. I think im making a bigger problem out of it than it is. I've been listening to some black metal albums(this is the music I play) and I notice that sound a little bit on the tremolo picking parts.