The Great Guitar Microphone Shoot Out, Part I -- The Contenders

[TwilightOdyssey]

Following up on my multi-mic thread a few days ago, I liberated a few mics from storage today to run my mic shoot out and determine

a) if multi mic'ing is a viable option for my next album
b) which mic(s) has (have) the sound I want for the guitar tracks

The Contenders:



Representing the Dynamics:
- Shure SM57
- Audix D2
- Sennheiser e609

Representing the Condensers:
- Audio Technica PRO37
- Oktava MK 319

Representing the Ribbons:
- Cascade Fathead II

I will be taking a reamp guitar bit and mic's from several positions and then mix and matching to see what yields the best results.

Let the contest begin!

[beaubrummels]

Re: The Great Guitar Microphone Shoot Out, Part I -- The Contenders

What mic preamps will you be using, btw?

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: The Great Guitar Microphone Shoot Out, Part I -- The Contenders

For this I will keep it simple: one amp, no effects pedals, no additional mic preamps or outboard processing. I own an SSL channel strip, Golden Age Pre73, Focusrite OcoPre and ISA One, though ...

[beaubrummels]

Re: The Great Guitar Microphone Shoot Out, Part I -- The Contenders

Nice selection. Even after the direct mic shootout, some of those pre choices you have could further balance out the various mics you have and make for some interesting combinations still - like the 57 through the 73 paired against the 609 through either the SSL or the ISA in a stereo mix.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: The Great Guitar Microphone Shoot Out, Part I -- The Contenders

I totally agree, but the main thrust is to see if there's a base tone I like and whether it's worth the extra effort to multi-mic. You can certainly do some tonal shaping, esp since most of my mic preamps have input transformers which can be pushed to even further color the sound (the OctoPre is the only one that doesn't have an input transformer).

The issue with using preamps now is that they will also be moot later as the final recordings feature constant switching between various amplifiers (I have 6), loudspeakers (I have 4), microphone preamps, and effects. To do a truly comprehensive test is impossible due to all of the variables and the fact that in a single song I may have 4 different guitars and many many multiples of differing amps, speakers, and effects.

My last album has a truly silly amount of guitar tones and textures.

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: The Great Guitar Microphone Shoot Out, Part I -- The Contenders

This should be interesting.

BTW, I've never noticed your avatar before Twilight but I love it.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: The Great Guitar Microphone Shoot Out, Part I -- The Contenders

Hehe, thanks!

Well ... this is proving to be very educational. And quite daunting!

After some faffing about, I quickly realized that the 2i2 is absolute pants when trying to use for reamping; you have no way of routing your monitor path, which makes critical listening impossible since you cannot separate the audio from the mic input from the DI track. Plus, your audio output is tied to the monitor control so
a) You have something between the recorded original signal and the reamp
b) You have no way of verifying if your your carefully calibrated level is now outputting anywhere NEAR the level you balanced your reamp unit at

Fortunately, I also happen to have an 18i20, which is BRILLIANT for reamping.

A quick equipment swap and I was ready to get down to business.

Tracked 60 seconds of 2 guitars using all microphones in 3 positions:
- dead center on the dust cap
- on the outside edge of the dust cap
- midway between the dust cap and the speaker surround

I did this with every microphone aside from the Oktava, because that mic has zero adjustment unless you have a boom stand, which my iso cab does NOT.

Sooo ... now to tart up the tracks a bit, mix em all down and them move onto Part II -- the Singles.