Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

[75lespaul]

What are your favorite techniques to mic a cab and what are your favorite mics and preamps?

A great tip I heard was to make sure you mic the back of an open cab as well as the front. Jimmy Page swears if the mic placement is good you don't even need an EQ!

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

Glad you asked this question as I am just setting up a mic in front of my cab.

 

[Low_fidelity2100]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

Micing the back of a Open cab is Good, But in my experiance its best To only Mic either the Front Or the Back For each take. Otherwise you might end up with phase canceling, and that always sounds weird to me (but sumtimes sounds really kool on the right song).
One thing I like to do when Micing an amp is, Close mic with one mic, Right on the center of the speaker. Then Take another mic, and Put it about 6 feet away and about 3 feet Above where the speaker is. And then when ya mix it in, Use the close mic as the Main sound. And Mix in the Distanced mic just to get a little more "room". Helps to give a song a More "live" feel I think.
I also Like to Mix up the mics I use alot. Seems like most people tend to stick with One or two mics for guitars. But I like to Use Lots of different mics, A different Mic for each Over dub. And I've found That you can get some really kool guitar sounds By Useing super cheap crap mic's. Like those cheesy "firstact" microphones walmart sells. If you use one of those for one track (or two) and Then Also use an Sm57 on a few Other takes. It seems to have a nice contrast to eachother, and sounds really good. One mic is Really Hifi, and the other is Soo muddy its unuseable on its own. But the Combination of the two together is fantastic.

-edward

 

[seafoamer]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

my favorite technique is to use my ears to find where i think it sounds best.

 

[SOLO GUITAR STEWIE]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

Micing the back of a Open cab is Good, But in my experiance its best To only Mic either the Front Or the Back For each take. Otherwise you might end up with phase canceling, and that always sounds weird to me (but sumtimes sounds really kool on the right song).
One thing I like to do when Micing an amp is, Close mic with one mic, Right on the center of the speaker. Then Take another mic, and Put it about 6 feet away and about 3 feet Above where the speaker is. And then when ya mix it in, Use the close mic as the Main sound. And Mix in the Distanced mic just to get a little more "room". Helps to give a song a More "live" feel I think.
I also Like to Mix up the mics I use alot. Seems like most people tend to stick with One or two mics for guitars. But I like to Use Lots of different mics, A different Mic for each Over dub. And I've found That you can get some really kool guitar sounds By Useing super cheap crap mic's. Like those cheesy "firstact" microphones walmart sells. If you use one of those for one track (or two) and Then Also use an Sm57 on a few Other takes. It seems to have a nice contrast to eachother, and sounds really good. One mic is Really Hifi, and the other is Soo muddy its unuseable on its own. But the Combination of the two together is fantastic.

-edward

excellent advice....thats what I do...but digitally with my pod

chris

 

[aleclee]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

I like the sound of a condenser mic about 12" off the speaker. For a lot of stuff, I don't like the sound of close miking. Using the condenser adds a bit more room ambience.

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

57 close mic'd near the axis; adjust to taste.

 

[vinterland]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

my favorite technique is to use my ears to find where i think it sounds best.

Yep great advice. However, you generally can't go wrong with an dynamic close and a large diaphram further away.

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

Any opinions on preamps? I've got a presonus tube pre and a studio projects vtb-1 and they are both pretty good for what I do. I'm eying up an ART MPA gold, but that will have to wait for a few months.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

for hobbiest recordings, I don't think that you'd notice a difference between any decent preamps and higher-end stuff

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

for hobbiest recordings, I don't think that you'd notice a difference between any decent preamps and higher-end stuff

That's what I figured. I wanted the ART as an addition for when I get two amps going at once. Not sure if the sound will be better than the two I have, but the reviews are really good on it. I think it has compression in it as well as an eq.

 

[GoMano]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

my favorite technique is to use my ears to find where i think it sounds best.

That is the best advice you could get.

Don't adhere to any set rule; your ears (and eyes, so you can make sure your VU meters or whatever input LED's aren't telling you your console is about to blow up) won't lie. Always remember, the pioneers of recording, and thereby the one's everybody STILL try to emulate (like Tom Dowd for example) EXPERIMENTED with MIC PLACEMENT to get all those tones we all dig so much.

Having said that - take Seafoamer's advice - move the mic around - try two mics, one against the cone and one away. I NEVER mic the backs of open-backed cabs, but then when I recorded Seymour recently, he had me put the mic straight into the back of his cab, and the tone was stellar coming into my desk. So, just listen. Your ears won't lie.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

That is the best advice you could get.

Don't adhere to any set rule; your ears (and eyes, so you can make sure your VU meters or whatever input LED's aren't telling you your console is about to blow up) - Always remember, the pioneers of recording, and thereby the one's everybody STILL try to emulate (like Tom Dowd for example) EXPERIMENTED with MIC PLACEMENT to get all those tones we all dig so much.

Having said that - take Seafoamer's advice - move the mic around - try two mics, one against the cone and one away. I NEVER mic the backs of open-backed cabs, but then when I recorded Seymour recently, he had me put the mic straight into the back of his cab, and the tone was stellar coming into my desk. So, just listen. Your ears won't lie.

Was seymour's cab open or closed back? Just curious.

 

[GoMano]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

Was seymour's cab open or closed back? Just curious.

Open

 

[MikeS]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

Experiment away. The possibilities are endless because not all cabs are the same, not all mics are the same, and not all rooms are the same. I've used a few different positions with a Sennheiser 609 (dynamic) and have found the best location for it is about 12" off the face of the cab on axis. Moving further away and off axis begins to pick up more of the room's natural tone and reverberation. How much depends on the sonic qualities of the room you are in (because I know few of us on this forum record in engineered spaces).

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

Great stuff guys. I'm a little nervous about mic placement because I accidentally maimed a man in a mic placement accident.

No really.......

Hopefully lots of people read all this advice and learned lots of stuff. I know I have so far. I'll be trying lots of it tomorrow.

 

[Alvin Lee Fan]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

I try not to get too fancy on this stuff since I have an easily blown mind :smokin:

I usually put the mic about 2/3 of the way between the dustcap and the outside rim of the speaker, then angle it back towards the center of the speaker. Depending on how loud I'm playing, I'll move the mic back and forth towards the speaker. I have an old audio-technica mic that sounds ok, but can't take a lot of sound pressure. If the levels are good and I still hear clipping, I move the mic back a little.

 

[Alvin Lee Fan]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

Oh, preamps. I'm just using a cheap Behringer UB802 mixer. The mic pres are good enough for what I do.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

For me... Dumb Luck seem to trump any scientific approach I've used. I just think of the speaker as a Spot light and the sound coming out is a light beam. I just place my Mic. where I feel the light will shine the best.:6: If ya really want to get crazy? Think of ambiance as shadow's. place a 2nd mic in the shadow.:13:

 

[Alvin Lee Fan]

Re: Micing a guitar cabinet, your favorite tecniques

For me... Dumb Luck seem to trump any scientific approach I've used. I just think of the speaker as a Spot light and the sound coming out is a light beam. I just place my Mic. where I feel the light will shine the best.:6: If ya really want to get crazy? Think of ambiance as shadow's. place a 2nd mic in the shadow.:13:

Wow man :smokin: