Mic Placement

[raymo]

I just mic'd my DSL 401 to record a "lesson" for my buddy, and I placed the mic (SM 57) about .5 inch away from the grill and dead center of the cone. My tone came out real britle and nasal sounding and not very pleasant. But hey it was just a lesson tape so when I heard the outcome I wasnt worried about tone.

For future purposes whats a good placement to get a nice warm thick tone thats not all nasal?

[Chuckracer]

Re: Mic Placement

Try moving it off center. Record some, move it a half an inch, record, move, etc....til you find the sweet spot.

[diablomozart]

Re: Mic Placement

i like about a 45 degree angle towards the cone for my sound...d.m.

[jackson1]

Re: Mic Placement

It's hard to record that natural full sound with just one mic and one track. My best experiences comes from observing the following.

Firstly, you need a mic that can capture low end freq well and not get saturated easily. I've used a SM57 myself and it sounds a little thin to me. It could be compensated with some post eq though. I like a Sennheiser MD421 tonality much better but it's damn expensive.

You also need at least two recordings preferably with different mic positions. One closeup in a 45 degree angle to the cone and another one carefully selected for a fat sound with lots of OOOOMP. You will find that near the walls and corners in the room or just behind a 4x12 cab. Then you mix them together. Often three tracks works better, 2 panned 70% L&R and 1 in the middle.

Too much distortion from your guitar setup flattens the sound as well in a recording, and tends to make your tracks weak in a full band mix.

Tonal diversity is the key word here and makes the overall recorded sound more full - just like your ears will pickup sound and reflections (two ears, placed apart).

[AlexL]

Re: Mic Placement

A few things to keep in mind here:

One, the other posters were right, you do not place the mike in the dead center of the cone. If you want to do a close-miking of the amp, aim it off-center of the actual speaker.

But also remember to treat the microphone like your ear. When you have that perfect tone set on your amp, where are your ears in relation to your amp? Is your ear right in front of your amp, or is it the amp on the floor with you standing up, a few feet away? I would guess the latter, not the former. Placing the mic farther away, closer to the position of where your ear would be, will help you recreate the sound of the amp. Using multiple mics, on plcaed close and one as I just describbed, will help you recreate the tone your ear hears.

Acoustic guitars work the same way. Placing a mike six inches in front of the sound hole will never recreate the tone of the guitar that your ear hears, because your ear is never right in front of the sound hole. Again, one mike close to the guitar, and one about shoulder height will help you reproduce the tone your ear is hearing.

Another tip is to record electric guitars loud, and squash it with a compressor. It will give you tons of sustain.

Hope this helps.

- E.

[ March 22, 2003, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: AlexL ]

[raymo]

Re: Mic Placement

Ok thanks guys. Next time I'll give it a whirl. My Amp is sitting on top of my 4x12 and I just have a very little mic stand cause its all I could afford at the time, so I just propped it up on a chair. I'll mess around with different settings next.

As far as EQ'n after and stuff, all Im doing is going SM57 : Tascam Porta 02 : Kenwood Stereo to make the master tape. All this being done in my bedroom about 8.5' x 9'.