buzzy distortion

[DLR Guitars]

I've been doing some recordings, and I'm getting some very buzzy distorted tones. There is either too much high end, or it sounds like bees. The gain is turned way down, so there is not very much distortion at all, and I've tried moving the mic all over the speaker, straight and angled.

The mic is a Sennheiser e835 running through the ART preamp, into the computer.

Any tips?

[Janitor Julius]

Try pointing the mic at the speaker at around a 50° angle and back it off the cone a foot or so to give the lower frequencies more time to develop. A common micing technique I've heard of is an e609 on the grill right at the dust cap, a 57 at the wall of the cone a foot back, and a ldc maybe 3 feet back for some added depth. Of course, some people fancy a mic in the back of an open cab too. Bottom line is, it's all trial and error and there are no rules for micing, only guidelines. You might try starting the recorder, play something, change the mic angle, play it again, change and so on. Maybe do a few rounds pulling the mic back a few inches each time. Then go back and listen and if it's still not happening, you can either just compensate with eq or look for a mic you like better. The 835 is a great mic though.

[DLR Guitars]

Thanks. I've been close-micing, so I'll try backing the mic off like you said. I love the mic and have never had a problem with it, so I know it's my technique on this one...

[String Tree]

DLR Guitars

Pick-up selection can be a factor too.
If you are using the Bridge pu, try the neck pu or a combination of them.

[DLR Guitars]

Backing the mic off helped a lot.

As for pickups, that wasn't an option for the guitar I was recording with. I needed something with a trem, and that job falls to a single HB superstrat thing... Next one I build will have a neck pickup, maybe.

[winny pooh]

It's the amp and/or the speakers. If it's the only amp you have then pull up your eq, boost in a sorta narrow Q up 15db plus and sweep the frequency until you emphasise the nasty frequencies, then change the boost to cut 8dbs plus and see if that helps. Only potential issue is that you may also kill some bite (which you may need in a dense mix) if you are working in the 1-3khz range.

[Martin R]

I'm thinking its the input to the computer.

Are you using any kind of interface or just plugging into the back of the tower?

[woodman]

Originally Posted by Martin R

Are you using any kind of interface or just plugging into the back of the tower?

There's the crux of the dilemma.

[DLR Guitars]

The chain is the e835, Art Tube preamp, into a behringer UCA202 (one of those external soundcard deals). It's the budget version of getting noise into the computer.

[woodman]

Originally Posted by DLR Guitars

The chain is the e835, Art Tube preamp, into a behringer UCA202 (one of those external soundcard deals). It's the budget version of getting noise into the computer.

[DLR Guitars]

I have gotten some pretty good sounds using this setup. For whatever reason though, this speaker cab is very bright.