Mic Placement

Hello,

What have you found to be the best way to mic your guitar speakers for recording? I am looking for a big guitar sound, and have heard that placing the mic a little off axis about 10 feet away is good. What have you heard to be good?

I like to close mic my cabs, 2 inches to the left of the coil and 1-2 inches back, on axis. When working with mic posiitions, it's best to hear only the sound coming from the mic, not what the cab sounds like in the room. In other words throw some headphones on, and re-eq everything that needs to be as it sounds through the mic.

TheMagicEight said:

Hello,

What have you found to be the best way to mic your guitar speakers for recording? I am looking for a big guitar sound, and have heard that placing the mic a little off axis about 10 feet away is good. What have you heard to be good?

Click to expand...

If you are going to mic for a room sound and want a big sound you need a big room with a high ceiling. Putting the mic that far back in a small room will give you an small sound. In a smaller room you can try a cardioid mic on the speaker and an omni on the carpet back about 4 feet. +1 on re-EQing the amp to make it sound right. Put your ear where the mic is and that will tell you plenty if it does not destroy your hearing forever!! To help your live sound you probably should do this anyway just so the sound man does not have to. He may or may not be that smart (or sober, or care).

for my open back c90 combo i have found the sweetspot to be mic'd up close with the mic in the middle of the speaker, but slightly off axis pointing towards the cone

also a lot of the "BIG" sound is done mostly after the recording.

i try first to get a tough well balanced and levelled signal.

if you want to add reverb and effects directly depends on the song (i'd say)

i mostly take the "take" in two seperate lines from two different speaker. if the lick is well done tone-engineering starts: e-que-ing, comp-limiting and setting/adding the right echo/delay times to the tunes. focus on panning and effect volume.

placing the mic's in the room is essential, its abso-bloody-fucking-lootely not done with a sm 57 in front of the cabinet. sometimes even the directline from the slave can be THE add-on that makes it.

try, try and try - and every day you'll find new ways to mike your sound.