Stereo mic my guitar amp - advice please

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pure.fusion

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Hi all,

Yes I want to Stereo mic my guitar amp. I've been close mic'ing with a SM57 and blending it with a room mic (Rode NT1A).

I have two LDCs and I want to try the stereo thing. No, the LDCs are not matched. They're not even the same brand! I just want to try it out.

Can anybody give me a starting point with regards to distance from the amp and distance between mics? Or add any info here?

Cheers,
FM
 
Why?

Simply because I've worked hard to get a great guitar sound but am always disappointed to hear the recorded result. It just loses that 'magic' when it gets mic'd up.

I've heard and read about the stereo mic thing earlier this year (was it Allan parsons? ) and just want to try it since I have two mics here.

I know that blending in some room from my LDC adds some naturalness to the dry close-mic sound. I was thinking maybe I can use more of this, so go the dual room mic.

FM
 
pure.fusion said:
Simply because I've worked hard to get a great guitar sound but am always disappointed to hear the recorded result. It just loses that 'magic' when it gets mic'd up.
FM
Click to expand...
That lost magic is the reason why I mic the cabinet up in another room and have the amp in the control room with me, listening through the monitors.

That way, you don't get hung up on what the amp sounds like in the room. You get a chance to set it up to sound great through the mic, which is what's important when you are recording or playing a show where the amp is miced through the PA.

For the most part, what the amp sounds like in the room doesn't make any difference, because the rest of the world is going to hear it through the mic. In my studio, most of the time, there is no one in the room to hear it.

I know that doesn't help with the stereo technique. However, unless your amp is a stereo amp, any stereo-ness will be coming from the room itself. So it would make sense to think of it more as micing the environment that the amp is in, than micing the amp in stereo.
 
Thanks for your comment. Yeah, good idea for the amp / cab separation. I've actually been thinking about doing this cause I'm sick of the "rattle" I get from my combo, but that's another story.
Incidentally, does the lead that joins the amp and cab draw a lot of noise? Is that a problem for you?

RE Stereo mic. Look, no big deal. I was hoping someone would just come out with "yeah you want 3 foot from the amp and separate the mic's by blah", but obviously it's not that common - which tells me something.

I'm no stranger to spending time in the studio and I'll sus it out myself.

Cheers,
FM
 
On your amp-to-cabinet cable - are you using a SPEAKER cable or a standard instrument (guitar) cable? Switch to a speaker cable if you are not using one. They have more power capability.
 
A stereo mic setup, as commonly understood, is not the only or necessarily a good way to get a stereo sound in the mix. Lately I've been doing a close mic (SM57) and far mic (any of several condensers), and then sliding the far mic in the DAW to put its direct signal in time alignment with the close mic. Then I set levels and pans as needed in the mix. It sounds much more solid than leaving the far mic as it is, and it's very mono friendly.
 
^^^^^^ what BSG said..

And it's a mono source emanating from a small area - you can't really "stereo mic" it. You can use mulitple microphones as suggested. Different thing.

And I've never got a really good primary sound from a cab with an LDC, but YMMV... luck!
 
Stereo is achieved by recording 2 different signals.
just because you have a mono amp does not mean you cannot
Record in stereo. You have 2 ears. They don't hear everything
The same from a mono source. You hear in stereo.

Reflections and diffused sound mixed with the direct
Sound arriving at 2 mic's or 2 ears at different positions
And orientations from the source is stereo regardless
If it's one amp, one gunshot, or one car horn honking.

Close mic your amp and play in the spot where it sounds
Good to you. Place a mic where your ear is, face the mic the
direction your ear is hearing from. add another mic from
Where your other ear is hearing. Experiment.

Sliding the 2nd and 3rd mic tracks in time with the
Close mic will sound thicker/full and louder when mixed
But doing so removes the stereo aspect because you are
No longer hearing each source at different times.

Lots of guitarists dial in a tone that sounds good
To THEM on stage when their amp is at their ankles
Behind them. What the mic hears is totally different.
The mic is not facing away from the amp 6' above it
With a fleshy directional filter around it attenuating
HF like your ear does.
 
Uhdinator said:
But doing so removes the stereo aspect because you are
No longer hearing each source at different times.
Click to expand...

The idea that to be stereo it must have timing differences is overly rigid. To be stereo a mix just requires some difference between left and right. The difference can be timing, level or frequency response.
 
Stereo can mean a lot of different things to different people. It's not clear what you're after. Wider sound field Mono source? Double tracking's not an option?

Why not ITB Reverb?
 
Right....the word "stereo" gets tossed around a lot...and it means different things in different contexts.

Stereo mic techniques are pretty specific ...there's not a whole lot of fudging you can do ('cuz you disrupt the stereo image).
I'm not sure you need to stereo mic a guitar cab...but simply using two mics (which doesn't = stereo technically)...you just have to work the room. There is no "put one mic at 2' and the other at 6' from the amp" standard formula, because there are many variables to consider.
1. sound you are after
2. amp sound
3. room sound
4.song production sound

So you take all that into consideration and then try some mic positions.
I've had a mic 2" away from the grill and another 3'...and sometimes one 2' away and another 6'...
Most times I try to keep it simple and just use one mic at about 12"-18" away, there's some "air" in-between but I still get most of the punch from the cab...and if I want the room out of the equation, I drop a "tent" over the whole rig. That way what I hear is what I get.
 
One thing you could try is record your music twice, place one recording in one channel and the other in the other channel. You'd be surprised how it comes out. Then play with the pan in post and see what you can do with that as well.
 
nittany1 said:
One thing you could try is record your music twice, place one recording in one channel and the other in the other channel. You'd be surprised how it comes out. Then play with the pan in post and see what you can do with that as well.
Click to expand...

Or do both. Double track a double mic setup.
 
I guess I'm from the curmudgeon camp that strictly defines stereo tracking. To me a guitar amp is a mono source and can't be tracked in stereo. You can double mic it and get different sounds in the two tracks. But two tracks are not always stereo tracks. And in this case, they aren't stereo - they're just two tracks. It's not wrong or bad to do it. It's just not stereo.

Grumble grumble. :)

You might try one mic near the center of the cone and another nearer to the edge of the cone. Watch out for phase problems. That combination can sometimes work well. But it's not stereo dammit. :) :)
 
TripleM said:
I guess I'm from the curmudgeon camp that strictly defines stereo tracking. To me a guitar amp is a mono source and can't be tracked in stereo. You can double mic it and get different sounds in the two tracks. But two tracks are not always stereo tracks. And in this case, they aren't stereo - they're just two tracks. It's not wrong or bad to do it. It's just not stereo.

Grumble grumble. :)

You might try one mic near the center of the cone and another nearer to the edge of the cone. Watch out for phase problems. That combination can sometimes work well. But it's not stereo dammit. :) :)
Click to expand...

I probably would call it double rather than stereo micing, but I have no problem calling it stereo when I mix it that way.

People get way too uptight over the word stereo. It really refers to any technique that gives any spatial dimension to sound reproduction. If one were to be truly strict about the term they would have to include pinnae effect and the exact dimensions of the head including the distance between the ears, characteristics which differ from one person to another. You couldn't make a "true" stereo recording that worked for more than one person.
 
And if you're room doesn't have a nice natural reverb to begin with, then you're not going to get it in your mic...no matter where you put it in the room.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
People get way too uptight over the word stereo. It really refers to any technique that gives any spatial dimension to sound reproduction. If one were to be truly strict about the term they would have to include pinnae effect and the exact dimensions of the head including the distance between the ears, characteristics which differ from one person to another. You couldn't make a "true" stereo recording that worked for more than one person.
Click to expand...
Technically, that's a binaural recording you are describing.
 
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