Mic placement on guitar cabs - critical!!!

[Del Pickup]

I've read stuff about how, when you're recording, the tone of your guitar can be fairly drastically altered simply by moving the mic around until you find the 'right' spot on the speaker. But, until last night I'd never really had a problem with getting a tone that I liked and had always just put an SM58 close up to the grill cloth and roughly midway between the edge of the speaker and the cone.

I was doing this when recording a new song and just wasn't happy with what was getting recorded. The tone off the guitar and amp sounded fine when I was playing but when I listened back, it sounded harsh and almost overdriven - nothing like the clean(ish) tone I was hearing in the room.

So, I moved the mic from in front of the lower right speaker on my 57 Twin to the top left speaker and angled it more straight at the speaker (it had been at a slight angle to the grill cloth before).

What a difference that simple change made. Now I can hear the same tone on the recording as I was hearing in the room when I was playing.

Sometimes the simple things in life (and recording) take a long time to learn!!!

[Papa Joe]

In my opinion,the placement of the mic is more critical then the choice of mics.I always use at least two mics in different locations,then record each one on a seperate track..works for me...

[woodman]

before the RIP forum existed, there was a good thread on this subject with examples of three common miking techniques, and the differences were dramatic — i can't find it now, but maybe somebody else remembers it and can dig it up.

i generally spend 10-15 minutes trying to find the sweet spot ... it's a PITA, but yields good results that save time in the long run trying to tweak up a less-than-perfect track.

my recording mentor says he usually starts with the mike pointed straight at the voice coil like a bull's-eye. i was horrified, since that defies all the conventional wisdom, but this guy's results are undeniable (notably Southern Culture on the Skids).

along the way, i've learned that effective miking technique for live performance and for recording are two very different animals.

[Faraldi]

Gotta give yourself time on this. It's kind of like the carpenter who says, "measure twice, cut once."

For whatever reason, I really like SM57's in the studio but I hate them live.

Also, having one extra mic out just in the room, maybe 10 feet from the cabinet and recorded on a separate track, then used in the mix later on could bring good results. Can even use that track solely to add reverb and keep the others dry.

I LOVE recording!!!

[Donnie55]

Mic placement is everything. In the old days thats all you had.
My guitar mics are :
SM57
421
and lately that CAD 7000 ribbon mic , live and in the studio this has been great.

www,myspace.com/redtele2

[sax4blues]

Originally Posted by woodman

I generally spend 10-15 minutes trying to find the sweet spot ... it's a PITA,

So do I understand that you... 1)set the mic 2)play 3)listen to playback 4)repeat?

[woodman]

Originally Posted by sax4blues

So do I understand that you... 1)set the mic 2)play 3)listen to playback 4)repeat?

yep ... nowadays, i can usually get in three tries max, but in my rookie days, i'd sometimes go 5-6 rounds, sweating the minutiae too much.

[Del Pickup]

I took at least 5 or 6 attempts at this before I got the tone I was hearing in the room.

I don't understand what might have changed cos I'd been positioning the mic in the same place previously and didn't have a problem until now.

[tonewoods]

Originally Posted by sax4blues

So do I understand that you... 1)set the mic 2)play 3)listen to playback 4)repeat?

More like:

1)set the mic 2)play 3)move mic, and announce (while recording) exactly where the mic is newly positioned 4)play 5)move mic, and announce (while recording) exactly where the mic is newly positioned 6)play 7)move mic, and announce (while recording) exactly where the mic is newly positioned 8)play...etc.

Listen back, and pick the one you like the best...

[woodman]

yeah, what he said.

[Old Cane]

Originally Posted by Del Pickup

I took at least 5 or 6 attempts at this before I got the tone I was hearing in the room.

I don't understand what might have changed cos I'd been positioning the mic in the same place previously and didn't have a problem until now.

Could it be the preamp settings are different than usual?

[Del Pickup]

I guess I might have moved the treble and bass controls on the amp. It's the only thing it can be - although I would have expected to have heard the difference when I was playing.

Anyway, all sorted now and the track's sounding good.

[jason spell]

You said you've been placing the mic in the exact same spot previously and getting good results, only now it doesn't work for you.

Could it be the track? If you did your drums/bass/other instruments with different techniques or different tones on this go around, the mic position that was working may no longer allow the guitar to sit in the mix like it once did. Even if its just the tempo of the song varying from one song to the next, sometimes the mic needs to move a bit to compensate.

If that's not it at all, are your strings dead now, but they were fresh then? Are your tubes going out? Is there more humidity in the air than there was before? Are you sure the mic is EXACTLY in the same spot? Are you using the same equipment chain on your guitar and on your mic that you were before? Are your tastes just changing?

There's always some variable (or multitude of variables) that can account for the difference in sound. That said, if moving the mic a different angle is what it took to make you like the tone, that's excellent! Go with it!

[markxander]

Anyone have any really cool alternate ways to mic a cab?

A buddy of mine always closemics, but if its an open back cab, he also puts a ribbon mic between the back of the cab and the wall - really nice results, especially with old fenders.

[Old Cane]

I've done all sorts of things over the years. Close mic....almost always. Mic from 2', 4', 6', across the room, etc. Mic from the back. Mic from the side. Put the amp on a bathroom counter and the mic in a tiled shower stall. 412 on it's back and a mic hanging from the ceiling. But almost always a close mic, too.

When I worked with 8 tracks for years it mattered. Now, with almost unlimited tracks in a DAW you can mic until you run out of mics and preamps. Use the one or two you like the best.

[ADK Teleman]

Originally Posted by woodman

before the RIP forum existed, there was a good thread on this subject with examples of three common miking techniques, and the differences were dramatic — i can't find it now, but maybe somebody else remembers it and can dig it up.

i generally spend 10-15 minutes trying to find the sweet spot ... it's a PITA, but yields good results that save time in the long run trying to tweak up a less-than-perfect track.

my recording mentor says he usually starts with the mike pointed straight at the voice coil like a bull's-eye. i was horrified, since that defies all the conventional wisdom, but this guy's results are undeniable (notably Southern Culture on the Skids).

along the way, i've learned that effective miking technique for live performance and for recording are two very different animals.

Woodman,
This may sound really silly...but when I was in college and taking my intro to and advanced multi track recording our professors were absolutely adamant about us using studio diagrams and measurements for every mic/instrument. I hated doing it but man it sure makes life easy...I now rarely have to take more than a couple minutes to mike my gear now....my silly reason...I made templates for what worked best. That said in a new studio I will always take a tone of time because of the acoustice...but the templates save on average about 20 minutes of time...just my experience and opinion..:) but you are totally on point my friend,