Mic placement.

[King Chaos]

As always, all apologies. Im sure this has been discussed many times... but...

Before now I've always plugged my guitar straight into the line-in on my computer to record guitar parts. This method has sufficed for my not so serious solo projects, but now I'm doing a demo for my real band And I'd like to capture a more real sound.

My main questions:

Am I going to be able to capture the epic tones using SM57s?

How close or far from the cone does the mic have to be?

How do you/would you go about micing up a cab that's say, 4x10?

What general/universal EQ settings would you reccommend for recording clear cutting distortion on rhythm sections involving biggish chords which with the wrong tone can sound potentially messy as fuck?

Thanks in advance.

 

[BEEN HAD]

You should be able to pick up a good guitar tone with an SM-57. It will capture pretty much whatever tone you are getting.

As far as EQin. I've always recorded with the EQ pretty much flat. You can re-EQ it (is that a word?) during mastering.

You should mic the cabinet with the mic about 1/4 inch away from the grill and about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way from the center of the speaker towards the edge of the speaker. The tone will be less harsh because you're not getting sound straight out of the center. Let the cone do the work.

I'm assuming the 4x10 is a bass cabinet. I use a Shure Beta 52A on mine. It's actually my drummers old kick drum mic. Placement is the same as above.

Hope this helps you out.

 

[Erik]

As far as EQin. I've always recorded with the EQ pretty much flat. You can re-EQ it (is that a word?) during mastering.

man this is not very good advice. post processing with eq is very much not the same thing as using the eq in the amp. also, you mean "mixing" and not "mastering". rule of thumb: always try to get the sound as close as possible to what you want with the EQ on the amp. the last 10% of eq adjustments that are needed you can do at the mix stage (mainly small things like a highpass filter, etc. though hi-gain metal sounds can be very drastically modified as well for cool effects)

 

[BEEN HAD]

I wasn't talking about the EQ on the amp. You are absolutely right. Get your sound exactly how you want it before you record. I was talking about the EQ on the recording device. I apologize if I was not clear.

 

[sajien]

All eqing is done with mic placement. An SM57 will work great...you can also dual mic it by micing the 57 at the best speaker out of the 4 and by using a bass drum mic (shure beta 91) and putting it in front of the cab on the floor. As far as mic placement on cone for eqing..a little reference:

Middle of cone is more bright sounding...treble..as you work your way to the outside it is more bass...the most frequencey is in the middle. So a good way is to point the mic straight on the cone at a good spot..then angle the mic to eq. but as said before..most important to get your sound from the micing. also make sure you record the samples with the mic placement you have and play them back...what you hear standing up is a different sound then what the mic is picking up. Hope this helps and good luck brother.

 

[King Chaos]

Cheers guys. Your words have helped no end. We tried alot of this, and I think it's the initial tone which we couldn't quite capture. I'm using a laney HCM120 2x10 with an MT2 for distortion... And like has been said, standing up it sounds pretty metal, but infront of the cone it's just too grainy and harsh. Might try working with something with softer gain, like the marshal amps.

 

[poundingmetal74]

Go into the Andy Sneap forums - I'm sure one of them can better answer your questions there.