So, you want to record your guitars and you want them to sound awesome, right? Well, here's a few tips.

First and foremost: What the thing sounds like in the room is important when mic'ing up a cab.

These clips will show you how your amp should sound in the room to get a nice EQ balance (for high-gain, of course. How many clean or barely driven clips have I ever posted? )

First, an SM57 set up right on the speaker: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8290798/sm57%20 ... 20cone.mp3


Now, we'll listen to the room sound mic'ed with a Rode NT5 pair at the opposite end of the room: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8290798/nt5%20p ... corner.mp3

As you can see, the sounds are completely different. This is simply how it is. The room sound is considerably more midrangey and always will be.


Now I can't teach yous guys the nuances of mic'ing a speaker. It's way too in-depth to just say "put the mic here and it will sound amazing." It doesn't work like that. It's 100% trial-and-error. A few tricks, though. Dick about with the mic with headphones on while playing a single note palm muted and not palm muted with your free hand. This will give you a pretty general idea of what is going on. A reamp box comes in so handy here it's ridiculous. You could also try throwing in some flat response earplugs and move your ear about on the speaker grille to find the sweet spot. I've tried this with good results. Don't do it without the earplugs though, you'll end up saying "huh?!?!?!?" every time someone speaks to you. We don't need more deaf people.


That's all for now. I'll add on to this as I think of shit.

I've never really bothered to pay attention to the room sound with close micing guitars, I've always figured it doesn't really matter unless the room is made of aluminum or has some completely ridiculous resonances since it's 95% what's coming out of the speaker.

It's not really going through a mic but it's good to know what it should sound like as a reference, I think. Especially since most people don't have super-isolation headphones or a separate room to mic their cab in. BUT... the room has more to do with the end result than most people think. My old guitar room was an oblong sunroom with tons of windows and siding on the walls because it used to be a porch. When I moved to the new house with a giant L shaped room, my tones improved significantly.

I record mine in an L shaped room also, a moderately sized one with carpets and several of the walls of have noobie egg carton sound treatment. I tend to place the maplifiers in the bend of the 'L', just because of no real reason. Anything worth changing? I've always just been semi-satisfied with my tones.

I keep everything at the very end of the room, centered in the wide part. That's just where I put them when I moved in. Haven't really experimented with it at all. It sounds good to me where it is. What works, works.

Although I think having the whole length of the room for the sound to blast off into is generally a good idea. L shaped rooms tend not to have tons of weirdo resonances like a square or normal rectangle shaped room, as far as I've noticed.

Even with close micing, you can never fully escape the sound of the room. Even if you don't think you're hearing it. Reflections, standing waves, all that stuff can and will come back to bite you in the ass. And sheer volume's not proof against it either- it's not as if you can drown out the room; a big-ass box throwing down 120dB everywhere is going to Make Shit Happen.



Makes sense. Asymmetrical rooms are better, and the center is pretty well the worst place in a normal-shaped room. Also, the usual stuff applies- on the floor, close up against the wall = more bass.

Oh, and re: having the whole length of the room- my experiences back this up. And not just with cabs, either. Use the length if you have it. Science! tells you this is great for clarity (there's a formula for this) for monitoring/general listening, but for instrument micing you'll probably want to play around with it a bit- the aforementioned stuff against the wall/more bass, for example.

This is a Good Thread Idea. Sticking a 57 up near a 120dB source unfortunately does not make Physics! step outside to have a smoke. (Iso cabs, anyone? )

Oh, and the palm muting thing in the first post is a very good idea. Unfortunate bass things can happen there.

And Geoff- now I want to record in a room made out of aluminum. Thanks for that.

I agree with all of this post.

I really should spend some (any) time on my guitar sounds, but i just don't seem to give a fuck. Tiny room, single close mic off axis(because it takes up less space in the tiny room!) and that is about it. I would probably get better sounds if i recorded direct, honestly.

I wonder if i just expended too much thought energy on drum recording that my brain doesn't have much patience left for guitars.

It may also be that guitars are so easy to re-track compared to drums, that on a subconscious level, i might not really feel that it is absolutely imperative to actually get them right the first time around?

It isn't so much that i don't know how to do them right. But rather, i just seem not to be inclined to bother. At some point (soon) i am going to need to break that habit, for sure.

funny, I've not properly recorded my guitar amp'd to a mic in a long ass time. I've been recorded in studios etc, recently but not had to do it myself. I really need to rectify this. I don't think you guys have heard any of my current amps unless you've seen some Facebook vids from one of my bands promo vids.

These have never popped up on my news feed before, yo! *Goes to look*

I think it's because as far as your amps go... you don't really have anything worth trying to get mindblowing sounds out of. Isn't your main amp a Crate practice amp? I'd probably not give a fuck either. I'd probably take my main dirt pedal and run it straight into impulses.

I'll bet a Crate practice amp could record huge.

It's all about the bass tone, man.

I haven't tried my condenser on my amp yet, Problem I have is that the only time I have to record while no one else is at home is at the BELT awe-full hours of mid afternoon... Who the fuck has creative juices going before 11:00pm?

BTW, Tor, you are a sexy beast