IN YOUR FACE MASSIVE GUITAR TONE: Cab mic'ing tip!

[Clark Kent]

Okay I made you a clip that should make the first mic placement a bit more clear: http://www.mediafire.com/?jqwa7atwkmbq3zj and here's the same clip with a low cut so the sizzle is way more obvious. http://www.mediafire.com/?piu3zs6svp3ziuy Hell... why not use a low cut while finding the placement. I guess it makes things easier.

This is made with Redwirez IR's. It also shows Redwirez weakness. There are 4 different close mic placements (which is way too little since you can't really find a sweetspot on your own. you'll have to trust redwirez). The placements are CAP, CAP EDGE, CONE, CONE EDGE. You can see what they mean in this pic:

Anyways... you can def. hear the different sizzles in the CAP and CONE EDGE positions which are the first and last positions. Now the point is to find a place where the sizzles can be heard equally well so in a way they already cancel each other out. So the sweetspot in this clip would be somewhere between the CAP EDGE and CONE position. In this case I'd probably go with the CONE if I'm using two mics. If I only had to use one mic I'd choose CAP EDGE since CONE is a bit dark on it's own.

 

[onemorelie]

I don't understand why we may struggle with 2 mics. I believe one sm 57 (or one mic which is fine @ 5 khz) is enough. (as Michael Jackson's producer said.)
I know Ola kicks sum ass in every video, with one sm57.

and thanks to "Clark Kent" for his information sharing.

 

[Clark Kent]

I don't understand why we may struggle with 2 mics. I believe one sm 57 (or one mic which is fine @ 5 khz) is enough. (as Michael Jackson's producer said.)
I know Ola kicks sum ass in every video, with one sm57.

and thanks to "Clark Kent" for his information sharing.

Sure you can get far with just one SM57 and that's the industry standard. I guess what I'm trying to say in this thread is you should try it if it works for you. But Ola's impulses had two mics in them... ?

I've also struggled with two mics before but this technique really makes it "not a struggle". It's actually even easier to find a good mic position for the second mic than the first mic.

I feel like this mic'ing technique gives me a FAT tone that's located all over the middle region. So my guitar tracks have balls even though I'll add drastic low cut to them. Still I don't have to low cut them at all. Somehow they sit in a mix in a whole different way.

Not trying to hype this. Again... might be possible that you dislike this. (which will ofcourse mean that you're doing it wrong J/K)

 

[Uros]

That's a problem there, he believes.
Don't believe anything (don't be a Christian ), try it out for yourself
Two mics can yield results which can't be replicated with single mic, even if you eq/multiband compress it to hell and back.

 

[Clark Kent]

"I'll believe it when I see/hear it" is my philosophy. I believe in duct tape. Haven't heard or seen god though...

 

[RedDog]

^sigging this.

 

[Clark Kent]

^sigging this.

Hahahaha. Just saying....

 

[miche]

Thanks for those samples, Clark. You can indeed hear hiss changes, now I understand what you were talking about. I still wonder how you can find a nice sounding spot just with those in front of a real cab, but as you said, this is probably a matter of being used to it.

Thanks for sharing your tip!

 

[Clark Kent]

Just have you mic in your hand when finding the spot. Move the mic between the cap and cone edge until you can hear the fizzes clearly. The closer the mic is to the cap, the more high end you'll be getting. So I suggest you start pulling the mic towards the cone slowly until you can hear both fizzy sounds at the same time.

1cm makes a world of difference hear so adjusting the mic and going back to the control room is not going to be the best way to do this. Closed headphones on is the way to do it.