Smooth recording of gain amp?

[drpietrzak]

Hello!

I have historically recorded clean and lower gain blues material when recording. I have been able to get what I want nicely in that area. So I just have not done a lot or recording with distortion and gain. It has not been my thing. But, more recently I have been playing more smoothed Santana like things, or perhaps a smoother toned Via tones. In doing so I have wanted to capture a couple things Iam working on. I have noticed that the sound I am getting from going through the preamp, and micing the cab is not the same tone I am hearing in the room for leads. The rhythms appear OK, it is the lead tone that is not the same. It appears to pick up a fizzy element that is not being heard by me (or others) when in the room with the amp.

I have been doing some reading and have started to try and record more distorted and high gain voiced amps following the advice I am getting there. However, I do not have several tube preamps to run things though (appears to be one of the major things studios do here I guess). So, I was wondering what people here do to record smoother high gain tones.

What advice would you give? (Perhaps it is just that I need to go gear shopping some more here!)

 

[Loserchief]

Re: Smooth recording of gain amp?

if you have the mic directly centered on the speaker that might be the problem since the center of the cone beams out the most high frequencies and in high gain tones that can become audible as fizz. If you haven't already just move the mic a bit away from the center of the cone.
Maybe you're kinda overloading the mic by using a high volume-level up too close. That might also result in some fizz because you're basicly overdriving the signal. Move the mic a way a little more or lower the volume.
Apart from that it could be that your room swallows highs, so that what you hear in the end isn't the same as what the mic picks up and you might need to roll off the treble a little to get it to sound good.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Smooth recording of gain amp?

if you have the mic directly centered on the speaker that might be the problem since the center of the cone beams out the most high frequencies and in high gain tones that can become audible as fizz. If you haven't already just move the mic a bit away from the center of the cone.
Maybe you're kinda overloading the mic by using a volume-level up too close. That might also result in some fizz because you're basicly overdriving the signal. Move the mic a way a little more or lower the volume.
Apart from that it could be that your room swallows highs, so that what you hear in the end isn't the same as what the mic picks up and you might need to roll off the treble a little to get it to sound good.

+1

All of this is good advice. Another thing that you could try is put the mic farther away from the amp and up near your ear while you're recording. Then you'll a better representation of what you're actually hearing.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Smooth recording of gain amp?

The best/easiest advice I've got also has to do w/ mic placement.

Try positioning the mic off-axis to the speaker cone. This creates a drastically different (and arguably much smoother) recorded tone.

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: Smooth recording of gain amp?

Thanks! I will be trying these things out.

I am at home with a sick child today so I will try and get to this latter today. I am using an SM57 as it is my traditional microphone for guitar cabs. I am not running real loud, but maybe I should! Using the above advise, combining it with tilting the amp back and moving the microphone to reproduce the tone from the amp hum at idle it appears to be somewhat off-center about a foot away from the speaker and above the speaker. This appears to get me the same basic timbre of hum to the headphones off the board.

I am also thinking of using a "room" microphone to mix with the SM57. I was thinking of trying it about 4 feet back and above the amp (similar to where my ears are when sitting in the chair I use while playing while recording. This is new to me for electric guitar. Obviously I will need to watch for phase cancellation. I have a couple of MXL microphones (993 and 990) for use with acoustics. I was thinking of using the 990 for this as it is pretty sensitive and relatively flat and articulate (for the price).

Are there issues that jump out to folks with this at this point?

 

[Reckless Abandon]

Re: Smooth recording of gain amp?

I record about 1 1/2 to 2 inches off of the edge of the speaker. Gets a liitle of the cab as well beign smoother

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: Smooth recording of gain amp?

OK. I spent time with the recording tonight. The kids were loud so the room microphone had to go. Fun with families! So, I messed with the SM57 placement. I ended up with it at about 6-10 inches off the grill, slightly off center, about 1/2 way between the cone and edge. It seemed to be pretty good, though a bit gritter. Any father and it started to muffle it a bit.

I think this will work though. I have a 3 minute messing around with it over a backing track I made ... if I get time to mix it down I can post a link if folks want to hear how it came out for me. It may suck (playing and tone) but it was a workable piece/tone for my needs. I tried doubling the lead adding slight delay on one, but ended up pulling the dual as it appeared to me to attenuate the highs a bit, and I like dark already so it is not a thing one wants more of in my case! I have no other effects on the guitar parts.

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: Smooth recording of gain amp?

Here is what I came out with at this point. I forgot how hard it is to get quiet with 2 small kids (5 and 7 years), so it is a compromise. My skill ... that is another story. I fear there is no help there. The backing was developed in response to my grandmother's passing a few months back. So I titled this noodle accordingly. It is about 3.4 mb.

http://drpietrzak.com/music/mn2.mp3

It is still rough, but much better than before. I can work with this anyway. It is still not the same tone as the amp, but it is much closer. The guitar was an LP neck with 50th anniversary Seth Lover, played in the neck position. Clean through the Digitech Twin Tube preamp (no effects) double tracked. Lead though the clean channel of the El Diablo 60C (sounds like the Twin Tube before pedal) using an SFX-03 set to be a bit dark (I like dark). Track is doubled with some echo on one track and none on the other.