Orange 4x12 miking?

O

Oklep

New Metal Member
Apr 8, 2014
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Hello everyone

I own orange 4x12 for many years now. I totally love how it sounds in room, but I cant stand how it sounds on mic. No matter what amp, no matter what mic position, it always sounds so dry and harsh in the mids. I tried sm57, sm58 and even apex 205 ribbon mic. If I can remember, I probably never actually heard any good mic sound from this cab on the internet.

Have anyone in here tried micing these cabs? How good were your results?
Any samples, or thoughts what Im doing wrong?
:wave:
 
I've had one for years and I absolutely love it and have got some great tones out of it. Start with a 57, test each speaker and move the mic whilst listening to white noise to help you place it. Also move the mic back a little further than you might in other cabs.
 
greyskull, have you some sample of your sound from mic, so I can compare?

I'm after modern thick darker sound a la Evergrey or Killswitch Engage.

This is probably the best I could do https://soundcloud.com/oklep/sm58
It is sm58 without pop filter, and position which I found with pink noise. This is probably the best I can do :-(
It is just so dry for my ears and I would rather have organic guitar sound where I can only filter some frequencies than do some huge EQing.

I heard many samples of mesa cabs, and they were so meaty in palm mutes and overall with huge thick body without any spikes, but I am not sure if orange is capable of the similar results.
 
Thank you. It is way better than mine, but it is still pretty dry for my ear, without chunkiness which I can hear from other cabs. It looks like it is "feature" of orange, which I dont like sadly
 
Orange cabs are amazing. They are a little duller in the high-end because the grill is really dense. They also have some a reasonably active low-end (although it's obviously less than an oversized Mesa cabs, which I honestly find rather boomy or muddy). There are a few things that are certainly worth considering that I don't see being brought up in this thread yet:

1. You're expecting something from your guitar sound that actually comes from your bass. Most metal guitar tones are pretty empty in the sub region and may not have nearly the level of movement / thump that you may think they do. A solid bass tone gives you the power you seem to be looking for.
2. Your head / heads could be the issue. What head are you using? You could just be using amps that are rather thin and dry.
3. Speakers in the cabinet are not broken in yet or are defective. How long have you owned the cabinet, and did you buy it new? Speakers often have a rather stiff response when they're brand new, and take some to really loosen up a bit. Also, on the flip side, the speakers could sound rather nasty and unpleasant if they are old and damaged, and produce extremely undesirable sounds.
4. Placement errors. Not to sound condescending or anything, but user error is always a possibility when recording anything. Learning to mic a cab and get a pro sound takes years, and it's entirely possible you just need to experiment a little more. Also, proper cab placement in a large enough room to produce the frequencies you want is vital. The room needs to be large and open enough to allow proper reproduction of sub frequencies - big low end only comes from big rooms, period. Also, due to the reflections present in your room, there are places that are better for your cabinet than others. Corners in particular can help increase low-end content in a pinch.

These are just some of the many factors to consider. Hopefully some of this will help with your issues.
 
Had an Orange PPC412 and could get nothing but hollow fizz from it.
Gone now and I don't miss it.
 
I mic'd an Orange 4x12 in a garage and it sounded awful. So then I built a sort of sound barrier around it, and it still sounded awful. Could've been the garage, but I think alot of it was that damn Orange.
 
I know orange changed from English celestion v30's to chinese ones in somewhere 2008, check that first. Chinese ones are more harsh and has less low end and tend to irritate much more. Even though the earlier versions are better equipped (personal opinion) i think it was still a bit like "cab in a closet" had way more better results with other cabs. Everybody also hated me on gigs if they had to carry it, heavy as hell, and can take a nuclear bomb without breaking apart :D
 
I've heard nothing but good things about Orange cabs, personally. But I've never played through one aside from a little 1x12 with Blackstar amp.

Sucks you're having trouble.
 
I've recorded a Orange 2x12 and although it sounded good it was way to bass heavy. I like mesa cabinets the best. And I've tried and owned most of the popular cabs out there!
 
Oklep said:
This is probably the best I could do
It is sm58 without pop filter, and position which I found with pink noise. This is probably the best I can do :-(
It is just so dry for my ears and I would rather have organic guitar sound where I can only filter some frequencies than do some huge EQing.
Click to expand...


Quick update after a long time, lol.
I tried everything, but I couldn't get great sound out of my orange ppc412 with sm57 or sm58. I thought orange is just not great for micing, and I wanted (needed) to sell it because of that (although I love this cab). But before selling it, I wanted to try one last thing - I bought different mic - Heil pr20.
And voila, there it is. The raw sound I think I can work with.

 
great, that indeed sounds much better in the mids. A bit dark though (which can be desired or not), and very boomy. Too close?

btw: my bandmate also had an Orange 212 before, and I didn´t like the mic´d sound at all. Boxy with a very fierce upper mid spike. "Hollow fizz" like mentioned earlier. However, it sounded decent in the room, with a slight tendency to fizz, but far better in the under-1kHz range
 
Thank you for the reply
Yes, I am after dark sound, yet I need to test it in the mix if its not too much. My strings were dead on my guitar, so thats also the case :D
Mic was placed pretty much on the grill, so pretty close. I will try to back it a bit, thanks for thought.
Yes, it did sound very hollow and fizzy with every mic I tried (well, I tried only three before), but it looks like this Heil is jackpot for this cab.
I am not sure how this mic could sound with other cabs, maybe a bit sterile in comparison with bitty sm57.
 
peavey 6505+, orange 2x12 jim root, sm57 in center. amp eq - 12 o'clock, resonance 7, presence 8.5, gain 4. raw signal from sm57
 
Hi first post.
I could be wrong but I think the Jim root has different speakers than v30's. But your clip sounds great.

To the original poster. Here is a fun little mic comparison I did last night of a few different mics on the a orange 212 cab with v-30's. same position. Just off the center of the dust cap. Half inch off the grill. I was surprised how much I liked the beyer 201 compared to my usual favorite 57. And also how dry the ksm32 sounded. But with all these mics I think you could get a totally usable sound by changing positions to suit the character of mic.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f5nkf1yvu7q9pcj/AAD0HI_OwiOCLjwmavAMQY2Va?dl=0

B
 
Beauburchell said:
Hi first post.
I could be wrong but I think the Jim root has different speakers than v30's. But your clip sounds great.

To the original poster. Here is a fun little mic comparison I did last night of a few different mics on the a orange 212 cab with v-30's. same position. Just off the center of the dust cap. Half inch off the grill. I was surprised how much I liked the beyer 201 compared to my usual favorite 57. And also how dry the ksm32 sounded. But with all these mics I think you could get a totally usable sound by changing positions to suit the character of mic.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f5nkf1yvu7q9pcj/AAD0HI_OwiOCLjwmavAMQY2Va?dl=0

B
Click to expand...

welcome here man, love your work!
 
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