"ear miking"

I've miked guitar cabs in the studio for a little while, and it always frustrates me how great a sound I can get through my amp and how wonderful it can sound in the room, yet how much the microphone takes that sound and morphs it into something so drastically different when I hear it played back in the control room. I have to pay meticulously close attention to the mic's exact position relative to the speaker just to get a GOOD sound, which still isn't close to what I actually hear coming out of the speaker cab.

I've read up on all sorts of miking techniques, but have never come across this one; Just using basic logic, wouldn't it make sense to get a pair of sensitive unidirectional mics (condensers, maybe?), face them opposite of each other, and put them at head level from wherever you were tweaking your gear. Like... ears??? Whatever phase problems or uneven eq response happens in the room wouldn't matter because that's how your ears heard it when you dialed it in and got it to sound great. The only reason that I can think of why this wouldn't work (with my limited knowledge and experience) is because every mic is gonna color the sound some way, and it wouldn't give the same frequency or dynamic response as the human ear, but if you found mics that came close, wouldn't this be a pretty reliable and consistently easy way of miking in the studio?

Decca Tree.

Generally, you don't want a guitar tone to sound exactly like it does in the room if it's going to be surrounded by other instruments in the mix. Guitars occupy a very wide frequency spectrum, so you usually need to filter out parts of it to fit around all the other instruments anyway.

If you wanted to mic up a guitar cab to sound like it does in the room, then ideally use a mic with a flat frequency response. Then make sure to listen back on monitors with a flat frequency response, in a listening room with a flat frequency response to avoid colouring the sound any further.

Rob

If You've read up on all sorts of mic techniques, surely you ran across these?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORTF_stereo_technique
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_head_recording

The Jecklin disk is easy enough to DIY.

http://www.core-sound.com/jecklin/1.php

Generally, you don't want a guitar tone to sound exactly like it does in the room if it's going to be surrounded by other instruments in the mix. Guitars occupy a very wide frequency spectrum, so you usually need to filter out parts of it to fit around all the other instruments anyway.

If you wanted to mic up a guitar cab to sound like it does in the room, then ideally use a mic with a flat frequency response. Then make sure to listen back on monitors with a flat frequency response, in a listening room with a flat frequency response to avoid colouring the sound any further.

Rob

The other issue is the playback level. If the playback is not as loud as the source it will not sound the same as the source.

And since most recordings are not played at the level most electric guitarists play, the recording must be tweaked to achieve the desired sonic/emotional impact.

Fran

A whole lot of modern recording is about tricking the listening ear into hearing what you want it to hear. The road map to finding "your sound" in the studio is a whole different one from the one you used in developing your live sound.

I've miked guitar cabs in the studio for a little while, and it always frustrates me how great a sound I can get through my amp and how wonderful it can sound in the room, yet how much the microphone takes that sound and morphs it into something so drastically different when I hear it played back in the control room. I have to pay meticulously close attention to the mic's exact position relative to the speaker just to get a GOOD sound, which still isn't close to what I actually hear coming out of the speaker cab.

I've read up on all sorts of miking techniques, but have never come across this one; Just using basic logic, wouldn't it make sense to get a pair of sensitive unidirectional mics (condensers, maybe?), face them opposite of each other, and put them at head level from wherever you were tweaking your gear. Like... ears??? Whatever phase problems or uneven eq response happens in the room wouldn't matter because that's how your ears heard it when you dialed it in and got it to sound great. The only reason that I can think of why this wouldn't work (with my limited knowledge and experience) is because every mic is gonna color the sound some way, and it wouldn't give the same frequency or dynamic response as the human ear, but if you found mics that came close, wouldn't this be a pretty reliable and consistently easy way of miking in the studio?

Maybe you should try a Neumann Binaural head?

...

I've read up on all sorts of miking techniques, but have never come across this one; Just using basic logic, wouldn't it make sense to get a pair of sensitive unidirectional mics (condensers, maybe?), face them opposite of each other, and put them at head level from wherever you were tweaking your gear. Like... ears??? Whatever phase problems or uneven eq response happens in the room wouldn't matter because that's how your ears heard it when you dialed it in and got it to sound great. The only reason that I can think of why this wouldn't work (with my limited knowledge and experience) is because every mic is gonna color the sound some way, and it wouldn't give the same frequency or dynamic response as the human ear, but if you found mics that came close, wouldn't this be a pretty reliable and consistently easy way of miking in the studio?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording

Fran

Decca tree? WTF?
Binaural?
Recording the room will suck because very few musicians listen to the room, they just listen to their amp and not the crappy flutter and close reflections.

Look at your mics. What are you using?
As a starting point try a senn e606/9 pref 906 close miced and then a decent large diaphragm condenser right alongside it trying 45 deg to the centre of the cone or straight but offset. Now try the condenser 1 foot away and then 3 feet away. Line up the close micd wave forms in your DAW, leave the other 2. Blend to taste.

Then add some subtle stereo plate or room verb on a stereo aux. Pan the gtr hard left or hard right but keep the verb in the centre or panned to the same channel. Cut highs above 10khz & lows below 100hz or even 150hz.

If you still suck them get a better amp and/or a better guitar player haha.