show us your foolproof mic position(s)

  • placing a mic is a mixture of science and art and crucial to the guitar's tone.
    I know some of you use tricky multiple mic setup, but even with one lowly dynamic mic very good sounds are possible.


    this thread attempts to collect these setups.
    let's keep it simple ;)


    here's my foolproof way to mic a cab (if I don't know the cab/speaker well, I usually start with this one):


    cab stands on a chair, case or table.
    dynamic mic off-center, on-axis, about an inch away from the grille, about three quarters of the way between the cap edge and the cone edge.
    this gives me quickly a good, balanced tone with plenty to work with in all registers. move towards the cap for more high end, move towards the speakers edge for more body.


    [Blocked Image: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e229/donelectro/P1130740_zpse486e2d4.jpg]

  • An SM57 placed where the dustcap meets the cone on a V30, about an inch off the grill, has always worked great for me.


    *edit*: on axis, every time. I do the same with Greenback speakers. Absolutely hate anything Eminence and G12T75s have always sounded particularly awful, especially when micd up.

  • As Don does, only slightly off-axis towards the center.
    Alternatively, particularly in a problematic room, dynamic mic halfway between the center and edge of the cap, slightly off-axis towards the cone.
    So either this:
    [Blocked Image: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-4bf_pJM7rss/UbYkzrK1mrI/AAAAAAAAB_M/Cqt7uycxUig/s273/mic1.jpg]
    Or this:
    [Blocked Image: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-YPhlaA1-pOU/UbYkztc8RCI/AAAAAAAAB_I/LynBMTEICw0/s273/mic2.jpg]



    With that said, every Eminence i've come across has proven my methods wrong. They record so much better than Celestions, IMO, that simple is better. On cap and slightly to the side, on axis and you're done.

    "But dignity is difficult to maintain
    stamina requires constant upkeep
    repetition is boring
    and you pay for grace."

  • +1 for what Quitty said. If all you have is a classic dynamic mic, the cone has the highs, the surround has the oumph. The off axis grabs both. There are some very good clips on you tube demonstrating the differences. Very noticeable, even striking, even when listening on an iPad.


    In Quitty's top picture, the dust cap appears to protrude from the speaker, but in reality it is hidden deeper. The mic in the top picture would actually be pointing at the edge of the dust cap while getting a proximity effect off of the surround. That's a good set up imho.

    Edited once, last by Djuhntt ().

  • Whatever I try I always end up with this here:


    [Blocked Image: http://www.audiosemantics.de/FORUMS/Mic_Position.jpg]



    To me it is not about highs at the dome and bass at the edge. To me it is more that this way the high frequency part of distortion is much more silky and consistent, coherent with the tonal part of the signal. It is more like one. At the center I always hear the tone plus the fuzz - more separated from another.


    I EQ down the bass a bit and than I have my favourite crunch sound with low power amps.

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.


  • cool diagram, fretboardminer.
    do you use the AT4050 with the bass roll off enabled or disabled?


    thanks

  • do you use the AT4050 with the bass roll off enabled or disabled?

    No roll off on the mic. Earlier I EQed it in the Kemp and later I had a mixer with an EQ during profiling - which is cooler, because I like profiles that sound good without stomps or effects.

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

  • Here's a great trick for multimic setups that a guy called Jack Ruston wrote for Sound on Sound. It's helped me hugely!


    Link


    Basically, you use the first mic to get the best sound that you can (using any of the methods mentioned in the other replies, for example) ie closest to the sound that you hear in the room coming from the cab. Then you phase invert the preamp of the second mic and position it so that you get most cancellation. Typically, you'll need someone else's help for this or a reamper as Jack suggests, although you can get around it by putting a long, clean delay (more than a couple of seconds) between the guitar and amp and using a set of closed headphones in the live room. That way you can strum a bit and then position the mic once the signal hits the amp. Depending on the types of mic used, you'll find the best result will be when the sum of the first mic and the phase-inverted mic sounds thinnest and wimpiest. All that's left to do is to re-invert the second preamp and hey presto! Instant thick, gratifying tone (as long as the original tone from the amp is thick and gratifying, haha!).


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • another pretty foolproof setup:


    MXL R144
    dead center as close as you can get to the grille.
    then, angle the mic slightly downwards, so the ribbon element isn't parallel to the speaker plane.
    this together with a 1x12" balanced speaker like the Cannabis Rex gives nice results.

  • I'm a real retro mic-placer (only studio recordings/profiling use): Always on axis to the center of the speaker or nearby and as close as possible (SM57, SM58, 421, big and small condensers, MK 4).
    Any alterations I do only during mixdown (EQ [lin phase], distance etc.).

  • cool ideas! my only concern is the fact that I don't want to set mics any further back. The fabric grille on the mesa recto cab is already far enough from the speaker... and the element in the md421 is even further back in than the sm57. Is there some delay plug-in that can actively delay the audio on a track terms of nano-seconds? or any increment smaller than pro tools ticks or micro-seconds? pro tools track offsets cannot home in on matching the wave forms of the mics as precisely as I would like.

  • im also going to need a mic stand or mount that is strong enough to push into the fabric to get closer in. Does anyone know if the "cab grabber" can be set very stiff?

  • cool ideas! my only concern is the fact that I don't want to set mics any further back. The fabric grille on the mesa recto cab is already far enough from the speaker... and the element in the md421 is even further back in than the sm57. Is there some delay plug-in that can actively delay the audio on a track terms of nano-seconds? or any increment smaller than pro tools ticks or micro-seconds? pro tools track offsets cannot home in on matching the wave forms of the mics as precisely as I would like.


    You don't want to move the mics because you like the two proximity effects from individually listening to the mics at their current posiition? Do they sound out of phase to you ? If they sound right, they are positioned right :)


    Before digital recording, no one could match phase on a waveform basis. The songs you hear on the radio don't have the guitar tracks phase matched on a waveform basis. Time is money in a commercial studio, and they sound great without that attention to detail.


    If you can find a realtime delay plugin that offers fractions of a microsecond to phase align the two channels, you could do it that way. Record your two tracks, align them, and then profile the Kemper using the delay setting you have determined to be the correct one.

  • You don't want to move the mics because you like the two proximity effects from individually listening to the mics at their current posiition? Do they sound out of phase to you ? If they sound right, they are positioned right :)


    I'm not sure I understand ArsenalGuitars' statement either.
    Why don't you want to move the mics further back?


    The standard way of aligning to mics is to listen to the mics while the phase of one mic is flipped. Adjust mics to where the most cancellation is happening (thinnest sound), then flip the phase of the one mic back to normal.