Getting a warmer tone

This is a newby question on keeping my warm tube sound when recording. Advice pertaining to the use of a sm57 would be the most helpful.

I admit I am doing a few things wrong. Where I am recording I am forced to record at lower than optimal volumes. Also the room I am recording in is acoustically horrible. To counter the room I have stuck more to my close miking options.

I've been trying a wide variety of mic placements, but the options tend to provide me with either skull splitting hi's or flat muddy tones. What I want is my recordings to have presence and warmth and not sound like direct in recordings. Any advice and options to look into are greatly appreciated. I am currently checking out tube condenser mics.

Recording gear:
mesa rocket 440
sm57
fostex vf160ex

Recorded clips http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VSGZEO2U

hey moltar,

the gear is ok. how is the sound? does your speaker sound that warm and present as you wish? the mic has to capture what comes from the speaker.

the sm 57 needs some pressure (volume) to start working, but not more than speaking volume is really necessary. place it 10-15 cm from the speaker grill. all eq's set to zero. level the signal close to 0db (or unity gain) to be sure the sound is done by the speaker and not the mic.

that should give you already the first acceptable results. does not matter if you want to play "wet" with effects or straight w/out any. for wet sounds with reverb or flange etc. i prefer 2 mics for stereo and more realistic sound capturing - depends how much you want to process the signal later on. condenser mic are a smart choice ;-)

I picked up a good deal on an Audio-Technica AT4050. A handful of amp settings adjusted and a switch to a tapped neck pickup and the 57 is out performing the AT at least until I find the right spot for it.